The Sun. — 1849-09-29 (London, England)

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1849.  One or two circumstances not already referred to by ourselves in reference to the recent courtmartial on Mr. PITMAN are eminently deserving of consideration- Scarcely any one, it must have been observed- has dared to exonerate that person from the blame under which he has been professionally excommunicated ; hardly a single individual has ler an instant presumed to question the justice of the authority to which he has become amenable. Nevertheless the haughty spirit of the service, or rather of the superior officers in the service, has become occasionally manife,ted in indignant allusions to the manner in which the late Commander of the Childers was tried—through the evidence, it is superciliously remarked, of witnesses whose characters were already tainted. Now, we should be gratified to learn in what way the reptPations of either Mr. ELLIOTT or of Lieut. GRAIiAM have been exposed to the oblequy of the world. IVhose assertion, whose sole assertion is it which has been accepted in testimony of the badness of the character of these unfortunate young officers and gentlemen ? Is not the solitary evidence adduced against them, the evidence of a man who has been convicted of cruelty, for inasmuch as he drove subordinate officials to desertion, to suicide, and to the madhouse—of purloining, for inasmuch as he appropriated the ship's stores to his own use—and of falsehood, for inasmuch as he deliberately made a false entry in the log-book ? Why, if nothing else were requisite to reveal the rottenness of the cause  of thi3 llr. J. C. PITMAN, it would be sufficient to  point in proof of it to the disgraceful document ridiculously called his " defence." Defence, forsooth! Why throughout the whole of that miserable production there was not one word in extenuation of his conduCt as Commander of the Childers, there was not one intimation of the fallacy of the facts alleged against him, there was not one syllable in vindication of a name hell up by the cnarges preferred against it to profound and universal abhorrence. The whole of this so•called defence was composed of—what? Of abase of the prwecutors— mere abuse couched in the language of vituperation. Supposing there were no other indication of the nature of Mr. PITMAN'S temperament beyond that furnished by this wretched document, it would have been immeasurably more than enough to damnify him in the estimation of the community. And yet we are told that Messrs. GRAHAM and ELLIOTT are persons of damaged reputation, when their sole accuser is this very reputable ex-Commander. Seriously speaking, condemnation from such lips ought to be regarded rather in the light of panegyric, and so we are satisfied it is regarded at this moment by the mass of the population. A very few days have elapsed since the publication in our columns of a letter addressed to ourselves by the esteemed father of Lieutenant GRAHAM, the unfortunate young officer now being punished as a convicted felon in the county gaol of Exeter. 144 that interesting communication each of the accusations levelled against his son by Mr. J. C. PITMAN in his " defence" was considered categorically by the Rev. Mr. GRAHAM, and to all intents and purposes was, to our thinking, most clearly disproved. The robbery said to have been committed by Lieutenant GitAffiat on the mess funds of another vessel of war was shown, for example, to be a gross and heinous calumny 1 The charge of intoxication turned out to be equally, if not more egregiously, slanderous! And the imputation as to his having fabricated lying stories was proved, on the authority of a shipmate, to have been literally nothing more nor less than the perversion of some incoherent ex• pressions uttered by Lieutenant GRAHAM when almost distracted to a state of madness by the brutal  treatment received from his Commander. We have really no words at our command sufficiently emphatic to express our feelings of indignation and disgust at a course such as this, a course in which tyranny and false dealing are followed up by the slanders of vindictiveness. Less, however, could scarcely have been anticipated from amen who has not sense enough of common decency to prevent him from giving waylo a burst of passion on the quarter-deck, so as actually to call the Lieutenant "a liar" before the whole ship's company.  In our impression of last evening will doubtless have been observed a suggestion thrown out by one of our correspondents, which, if correct n its premises, would at once procure the libe ration of the unfortunate gentlemen now prisoners in the Exeter County Gaol. While we are  sanguine that this hint may lead to the release of  Mr. ELLIOTT and of Lieutenant GnAusx from their  present cruel and unjust incarceration, we are far ndeed from regarding even this as sufficient compensation for all they have undergone through the domineering insolence and vindictive machinations of  Mr. J. C. L'insew. Expelled from the service in consequence of this man's, unparalleled harshness, they would still continue the victims of his cruelty and malevolence. Something more would yet remain requisite before in their instance the holy cause of justice could be vindicated. We submit this reflection to the public as one eminently deser:•ing the consideration of tha people of the United kingdoms.  It arrears somewhat exti lAnarr that a country so especially remarkable fort, 4 t ap.,4.1 variety of its manufactures as is Great 144,, a- c*o'.." try whose vat Stealth at home and whes-e:-Wide-82reactinfluence abroa I is !mit:ly the result of her unparalleled commerce, and who3e commerce, again, is the result of her manufacturing skill—it is extraordinary that Great Britain should h3ve hitherto given so little oncouragement to the development of the ingenious and industrious arts. Other countries have had their exhibitions and their nompqitions, but in England hitherto, although we count manufacturers among our statesmen and manufacturers' sons among our Ministers, manufacturers themselves have never re.,  ceived any public encouragement. This unjust and anomalous line of conduct is henceforth happily at an end. A great public exhibition of arts and maufactures is intended to be held in London two years hence, in 1851, at which the successful competitors will be rewarded with prizes of a magnificence fully adequate to the importance of the occasion. The first prize will be the sum of 5,000/., and there are to be five other prizes of 1,0001. each, which prizes, and the gold medals accompanying them, her MAJESTY purposes bestowing with her own hand. For this ceremony, so national in its characteristics and calculated to produce such beneficial effects, we are chiefly indebted to the spirit and discrimination of the President of the Society of Arts and Manufactures, his Royal Highness Prince