There is in some of the n...
The Times, 1824-11-01T00:00:00

There is in -ome of the newspapers the report of two coirts-irirn-a] hdd at Malta on the Ist andl 24th of IMarch, l .L andl lerwaras re-as-semblcd for a revision of the sen. tence. Two offlcices of artillery were the parties prosecut. ed, and they were (ismissed the service,-we do not say unjustly, conisidering wlhat sort of thing an army is, and vwhat an absolute surrender of all his faculties must be re- quired of every man who once consents to make himself a portion of that powerful but passive instrumenit. The par- ticular crime, howv'vcr, of these gentlemen was one which we wvill venture to say was lnever yet recorded or anticipat- ed in any catalegiue of offenecs against law or gospel. It was nothing less, on the piart of' Lieutenant DAWSON, thaU refusing to fire certain rounds of artillery in honoar of a tutelar Saint, whlose nanie is not givei tfor our edification, but who seems to hait. been an important personage in the eyes of our Maltese fellowv-subjects. The commandant of artillery had issued orders that theSuintshould be saluted- the lieuten-anit renmonstrated ; theni declined' the office ; and) as we gather frorn the learn sd Adjutant-General, pleaded some religious notion fot his disobedien(ee of orders and lisregard of the Saint. A Captain ATCit1lOV, it seems, did not euforce the comn- mands of hits superiors upon Lieutenant DAWSON, and was also tried, and cashiered for this negative transgres- sion. His MAJESTY, in approving both sentences, takes occasion to lay it downi as a military postulate, that if " re- " ligious principles were allowed to be urged by individual " officers as a plea for disobedience of orders, the dliscipline " of thearmy would sustain ant injury which might he dangerous to the welfare of the State." What, then, it mnay be asked, are officers to despise all scruples of con- science, and fly in the face of wlhat they conceive to be a religious duty? Undoubtedly not ; and the alternative is in their owvn hands. A person whose military duty has the misfortune to offen(uI his conscience ought to quit the service; he has no business there: his conscience ought to tell him how little right lhe has to appropriate the public taxes, and to wear fine clothes at other people's expenise, antd to exercise great privileges whliclh inen ofpeaceab]eprofessions are debarred from, unless lie is satisfie(d to give the State an equivalent for its mnoney, bv shooting away whenever he may be ordered, let the purpose be to send living men to Heaven, or to compliment the dead on their supposed recep- tion there. Now, it is more than probable, that Messrs. AtiCtHtsoN andl DAWSON, who felt so much religious deli- cacy abourt firing blankc cartnidge in a Catholic country, to indlglae the fbolish reverence of the inhabitants for their Saint, had never betrayed the least hesitation, or asked so much as a single questiou (and for that, as soldiers, they deserve no blanme), when, in the course of their professional lives, they received orters to fire in earnest, and with ball- cartridge, ant thus to help as many living creatures as they could to the lioaour of canoniration. So much for miis- placedl scrupulosity. At the same time, the Adjutant-Ge- tieral, andl the whole belligerent bench at tbe Horse-Guards, may, we sbould think, be tolerably easy as to any extensive injury arising to the service fromn the religious whims of officers.