The Sun. — 1849-09-08 (London, England)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1849.  Courts martial both naval and military—are doomed. Whatever the authorities may dream of in regard to the perpetuation of a system already decayed to very rottenness—whatever may be the sanguine views entertained upon this subject, either at the Horse Guards or at the Admiralty—the assertion is not the less emphatically true that both naval and military courts-martial are doomed. We know well enough the supercilious feelings with which an assurance of this character will be regarded by a class so long invested with &most irresponsible authority. We know how 0,12 rn: rr pronunciamento of a man of the pen is consiilertai by the man of the sword—generally, or, at least, apparently. Yet, in spite of this we reiterate with implicit cGnfidence our warning to the h'gh and mighty personages at the Horse Guards and the Admiralty. We speak thus as journalists, as an organ of public opinion, and we speak without the shadow of a reservation, from our knowledge of the unconquerable and irresistible force of that same public opinion of which we are the exponents. Presidents of naval and military tribunals may shrug their shoul lers with an expression of scornful incredulity, but such is the doom of their unnatural and abused supremacy—LieutenantColonels, Deputy Judge-Advocates, Post-Captains, an' Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue to the contrary nevertheless notwithstanding. After such examples of glaring and gigantic injustice as those afforded by the court-martial, at Guernsey, on Captain DOUGLAS, and by the court-martial, at Plymouth, on Lieutenant GRAHAM, the destruction of those absurd hut cruel tribunals has become a matter not only of neces'ity, but of absolute certainty. England will no longer consent to witness the degradation of her national character through the medium of a system rather suited to the feudal ages than to the middle of this century of enlightenment. England will no longer submit to the continuance of this blot on her escutcheon. Everything, indeed, of late has served to indicate that the people of this great country revolt at the least vestige of those obsolete formulas, the remnants of which are still adhering to our institutions. Whereas formerly soldiers were not unaccustomed to receive so many hundred lashes at the triangle—when the thongs were again brought into play, not very many months back at Hounslow, the whole land shook with execrations. Again, it is yet warm within our recollection how the fanaticism of a clergyman, as evinced towards a poor wretch under sentence of execution excited the loathing and indignation of the whole community—although our anceators regarded an auto.da fe with less inconvenience to their nervous system than was caused to ourselves and our contemporaries the other day, by hearing of the blister raised on the palm of an unfortunate murderess's hand by the flame of a tallow candle. The truth is, civilization has done its benign work with the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. The English people abhor the semblance of injustice, and are exquisitely intolerant of cruelty. They will permit the existence of neither the one nor the other in any one of the classes of the population ; much less will they submit to its continuance in the administration of our two glorious and noble services. For although civilians, the people of Great Britain are sensitive to a degree as to the honour of those illustrious professions. Nor will they behold the degeneration of the British army or the British navy in this manner with indifference, even though the sticklers for the retention of the old system of brutality be led on by his Grace the Duke of