Glasgow Courier. — 1850-09-17 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE LATE LIEUTENANT-COLONEL KING.  To the Editor of Me Times.  Sir—Sir Charles Napier's observations upon the courtmartial which, it is said, caused the melancholy death of Colonel King, of the 14th Dragoons, need neither apology nor illustration; but the shameless efforts of writers, evidently tools of more powerful persons, to abuse the public mind as to his speech, made six months before, when inspecting that regiment, shall be exposed in all their malignant relief. "The 14th Dragoons would go anywhere if properly led." These are the words put into Sir C. Napier's mouth—but they never came out of it; and, if they had, would not of necessity imply more than that some officer had failed in judgment, unless something known or surmised had given them force and point. However, Sir C. Napier never uttered them; they are the invention of calumniators, who, in their eagerness to lower him in public estimation, do not hesitate thus to forge insults against the unhappy officer they pretend to defend and bewail. Some of those writers have spoken also of a last letter to the Commander-in-Chief, predicting that it will be suppressed. It is as follows:— Sir—You asked me the weight of men mounted on the 16th of December, 1849. 1 answered 17st. Sib. You said—" That is three stone lighter than at home," which I accounted for by saying the men were young, and tall men were not sent out from England to India. When you asked about the swords, I said we could not keep them so sharp as the natives, who use leather scabbards. Was it judicious in you to repeat my words before the men, perverting their meaning? You bore testimony to the discipline of the regiment that nay under my command. Your remarks before the regiment sowed the seeds of discontent, which have ripened into mutiny. You are the cause of the stripes and punishment which that mutiny has led to, and distraction and death to one who once had friends, sow disgrace and misery to those friends. I have not been an accountable being for the last. month. S. W. Knee. This letter, the result of insanity, as I shall presently show, would have been thus replied to, if the writer had been living when it was received:— When a General-in-Chief publicly is told by a commanding officer, in the hearing of his men, against whom a cry is gone for misbehaviour in action, that they were very small men and not strong—that their swords would not take so sharp an edge as their enemies' swords, and were so heavy the men could not use them—for these were the real expressions used—when such language was employed at such a time, it was not only judicious but necessary that Sir Charles Napier should address the regiment as follows: "Soldiers, the Colonel says you are small men, and your swords are too heavy for you, and not so sharp as the Sikhs' swords. I beg the Colonel's pardon. I see before me men with big hearts, and broad shoulders, and strong arms, and if we have another war I would give them an opportunity to show what they are made of." That Colonel King's letter was the result of insanity is but too easily shown. He says, remarks made six mouths before caused mutiny and drove him, to suicide—but there was no mutiny, nor an idea of mutiny, in the 14th Dragoons; and the following letter to the Commander-in-Chief's Secretary., written immediately eftec. the inspection, proves that the writer, Colonel King, was pleased and gratified with Sir C. Napier's address and tho assertions in his last letter are the hallucinations Of a distempered mind "We were not a little gratified by the expression of the approbation this morning of the most discerning, as well as deservingly great captain in India; but I beg of you to believe that it was no friendly veil which the dust threw around us, concealing good as well as evil." No more need be said. W. lisPrsa, Major. General.  •