The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-07-01 00:00:00

.31R. CO RB E TT.

FROM CORLETT'S POLITTCAL REGISTER.

" Let high Birth triumph. Whit ran be more greet ?
11thilig but Nierit in a lur• e,tate."

Yorxa.

LIP I.VDE^C.VDENT PEOPLE of 11.1.VPSIIIRE.

THE COURT MARTIAL.
[Concluded from oar Paper of Yesterday.]

!loch is the erne history of this affair, which, had the'pub-
-1 .. robbers given it as it stood, unmniilated, Dot a word
should I ever have puhli-hrd by way ot- defence, or explana-
tion. At the time when I was writing against Pitt nod 'Mel-
ville, the robbers then tailed of e.rposirig me with the account
of this transaction, which I never M ished, nor had any reason
to %kb, to keep a secret, and whin I then called upon them
to make known to Cie world. "There i,," I, "nothing
that I should like lactic', that, your pull! shing Vie whole of
the documents relating to that at dr. You have not only my
free leave to do it, but my request to do it."—They knew
better. They knew, that, with whomsoever should read ell
those documents, I could not fail to rise iu esteem; berate
tLey proved me to have been, hi all titles of lire, an (me-
aty to public rubbers, whether on a great or a small scale.
mark what these robbers have now door. The intelligent
realer will And out, who the rribbers are; awl 1 beg him to
mark how they have acted in this Instance.—Of WENTY
SEVEN Letters, written by me, these miscreants have pub-
lished FIVE, and those of the least imponance. My peti-
tion, in the form of a letter, to the King ; my letter to Mr.
Pitt, as long ns floe half of all the ten ; my last totter to the
Judge Advocate: all my letters to the Secretary at War; all
the Chnrges, occupying the space of several pages : all these
are suppressed, and with them, all the grounds and motivesof
my coming forward; all the transmittances that 1 made
against the discoatrogrinent I met o ith ; all the conditiens.
upon which I pledged myself to prove guilt ; and, finally, all
the reasons which I gave for not appearing, when those con-
dition; bad been s itilated.—This is the way, is it, that these
public robbers make use of documents, which arc committed
to their hand, This is their honourable" conduct, is it ?
And these :are the publications, are they, that the Clergy at
Winchester circulate gratis I—When 1 first saw Ct• affair of
the Couit-isartial advertised, I was at the hors-e of a friend,
and upon bis Owning, me the advertisement, I said, "now, if
the rascals do bat publish el my letters, what honour they
will do 113 t• t" They took care not to do that. They dare not
do that; the facts and the sentiments therein contained would
be found to cut too dose : and, besides, those lett r-, if all
published complete, would da me so much honour, the reader
of them would, at every seuterce, exclaim: " here are
Cie ante iniod and the same: principles, that we End in him
at the preseut day."—There arc not, I am fully persuaded, in !
any country, such maen and 41117 wretches as our public rub- !
ben. Bonaparte has nothing in his dominions that is not
manly and dignified, compared to our gong. Ile may have
peuthe, who would kad a man a sly blow in the dark, if
they fm d Liar too hard for them wit' his pen; but I do not
think that Cte:c is in all Europe, not even among the Sicilians
or Portuguese, a set of creatures so mean and despicable in
their spite's oar public robbers ; a set of " tame cheaters ;"
the poison of a•ps is under their lips, but they want the cou-
rage of a worm. One would wonder where they would find
the assurance to free me, or to face the public, after having
suppressed thew twenty-Iw., letters. Why, the truth is, they
dare not fare me, or any body else. Then dare look no part
of the public in the fact. They skulk from the light. Sot a
Dian of them dares put his newt to the puhlicatine, upon
which I have been remarking. They are consciuus of their
villaiooas deeds : theyktl, even now, the dread of that pu•
nislunent which their manifold robberies us richly merit :
they feel OM they are Met safe while my pen is in action.
This inspires thole with deadly haired ; and that hatred
urges theta onto that mixture of malignity and folly visible
la this their late predation.
The object of the pamphlet, which the public robbers
have so iodustriousir circulated, is to cause it to be believed
that I brought aisles accusation against the parties, that I
knew it to be false, and that, when the hour of trial came. I
skulked away. But, what sense %mild there have been In
such a proceeding t What motive could I have had for doing
a thing so very silly / Can it be believed that I would have
pat myself to the expenen of a two or three months living 10
London, when my etreurestaams so loudly called me away,
and that I would have taken the pains to write twenty-seven
letters, and to &Intl: atteadaaee as many times at the Horse-
fivards?—Can It be believed, that I, who was capable of
se riling these letter', and who was so well acquainted with
the law as aril s the facts of the case—can it be believed,
that i should have pot myself to nll this trouble and evpence
merely fur the purpose oT bringing a parcel of officers and
soldiers to London and making fouls of them? Besides. if
this had been the ease, how clines it, that I have remained
in England now, for nine years, aati have never been called
upon by any of the accused partics to uosay what I said of
them in 179'2. True, it is NOW so long as seventeen years since
the changes nere preferred; but, it was only eight years,
wheal returned to Eoglaod. if, therefore, either the parties
or the government had had any reason to complain of me,
why did they not do it Immediately upon my return? They
knew very well where I was. They could not help knowing
tt Nay they knew where I was and all about me while I
arm to Americo, where I published an account of my haring
been the Serieaut-Major of the 54th regiment, and of my
having left hunch a year. The pamphlet, in which this was
stated, was published io England, in 1796, fwaY fear Year'
after the Court-Martial was held; it was publubed, too, at
the express desire of Mr. Canning, who was theta as Uadev-
Secretary of State in loin's Miaistry. This being the aloes
would mot the pante% if they bad really felt themselves
wronged by me; if they had really wished to he confronted
with me, would not they, even while I was in Amerita,
have foutid the mesas of °barging tee with hay* male a
accusation against thus? Would they, under sueb cir-
cumstances. have suffered me to rest in quiet. And, the go-
vernment too, who, is the ease drawn up Iler the opinion
of the Attorney and Solicitor-General, said I had deceived the
Crown ; the government, who appeared to be so angry at use
for having made a " mockery of justice I" how came the go-
vernment not to call upon me, when, runs years ago, I re-
tiros d to England 1 They all talked very big when they
und me safe pent; bin, none of them tinniest proper to
cis illenge met.) the proof when I chase hark. The Meaty
r:: the transaction, drawn up to be laid before the thaw M-
torney aid Solicitor General, muftis. It kept oetedsight
tae circumstance of thers-fearthe of my Merges Hering 'Mum
• uppressed, and the still more important eimunetanee try the
;i:,tetal books end papers not having beanfeast-ed. ateord-
i..: to my desire, so often and so earnestly expressed. If these
tarts had bees related to Sir J. Seett and hie J. Waned; if
they bad had all my 27 letters before Om., their opinion
wimil have twin very different train what it was. They
n•iuld, indeed, have POOL that it MU those who had thrown
okstacles in my way, who had been guilty of "deceiving the
4 r.iwo and making a markers; of invoice. But, at any rate,
if tor panic- had really thought they had ground, of *Ohms
• ate, how came .key not to Ziriig these aliens, when I
r• t..rued to Logland, nine wean ago; especially as it would Lave