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daty imposed upon him to reprimand Lieutenant-Colonel Munro in general orders; and he is hereby reprimanded accordingly. (Signed) T. BOLES, D. A. G." Accurate and Authentic Narrative, pp. 68, 69.

We

proceedings, and considers it a solemn for transgressing a well-known and important rule of the service. have great doubts if he was not quite right in giving this reprimand. But at all events, if he were wrong-it Colonel Munro were not guilty of the offence imputed, still the erroneous punishment which the General had inflicted, merited no such severe retribution as that resorted to by Sir George Barlow.

Sir George Barlow, in consequence of this paper, immediately deprived General Macdowall of his situation of commander-in-chief, which he had not yet resigned, though he had There are no reflections in quitted the settlement; and as the the paper on the conduct of the Goverofficial signature of the deputy adju- nor or the Government. The reprimand tant-general appeared at the paper, is grounded entirely upon the breach that officer also was suspended from of that military discipline which it was his situation. Colonel Capper, the undoubtedly the business of General adjutant-general, in the most honour- Macdowall to maintain in the most able manner informed Sir George Bar-perfect purity and vigour. Nor has low, that he was the culpable and the paper any one expression in it responsible person; and that the name foreign to this purpose. We were inof his deputy only appeared to the deed, not a little astonished at reading paper in consequence of his positive it. We had imagined that a paper, order, and because he himself happened which drew after it such a long train to be absent on shipboard with General of dismissals and suspensions, must Macdowall. This generous conduct have contained a declaration of war on the part of Colonel Capper involved against the Madras Government-an himself in punishment without extri-exhortation to the troops to throw off cating the innocent person whom he their allegiance, or an advice to the intended to protect. The Madras natives to drive their intrusive masters Government, always swift to condemn, away, and become as free as their foredomed him to the same punishment fathers had left them. Instead of this, as Major Boles; and he was suspended we find nothing more than a common from his office. reprimand from a Commander-in-chief to a subordinate officer, for transgressing the bounds of his duty. If Sir George Barlow had governed kingdoms six months longer, we cannot help thinking he would have been a little more moderate.

This paper we have read over with great attention; and we really cannot see wherein its criminality consists, or on what account it could have drawn down upon General Macdowall so severe a punishment as the privation of the high and dignified office which But whatever difference of opinion be held. The censure upon Colonel there may be respecting the punishment Munro was for a violation of the regular of General Macdowall, we can scarcely Etiquette of the army, in appealing to the think there can be any with regard to Governor otherwise than through the the conduct observed towards the adjuchannel of the Commander-in-chief. tant-general and his deputy. They This was an entirely new offence on the were the subordinates of the Compart of Colonel Munro. Sir George Bar-mander-in-chief, and were peremptorily low had given no opinion upon it; it bound to publish any general orders had not been discussed between him and which he might command them to the Commander-in-chief; and the Com-publish. They would have been liable to mander-in-chief was clearly at liberty very severe punishment if they had to act in this point as he pleased. He not; and it appears to us the most does not reprimand Colonel Munro for obeying Sir George Barlow's orders, for Sir George had given no orders upon the subject; but he blames him

flagrant outrage against all justice, to convert their obedience into a fault. It is true, no subordinate officer is bound to obey any order which is plainly, and

to any common apprehension, illegal; | for the ordinary transmission of an order

but then the illegality must be quite manifest the order must imply such a contradiction to common sense, and such a violation of duties superior to the duty of military obedience, that there can be scarcely two opinions on the subject. Wherever any fair doubt can be raised, the obedience of the inferior officer is to be considered as proper and meritorious. Upon any other principle, his situation is the most cruel imaginable: he is liable to the severest punishment, even to instant death, if he refuses to obey; and if he does obey, he is exposed to the animadversion of the civil power, which teaches him that he ought to have canvassed the order, - to have remonstrated against it, and, in case this opposition proved ineffectual, to have disobeyed it. We have no hesitation in pronouncing the imprisonment of Colonel Capper and Major Boles to have been an act of great severity and great indiscretion, and such as might very fairly give great offence to an army, who saw themselves exposed to the same punishments, for the same adherence to their duties.

to the army, was universally condemned as
do infinite mischief, but could not accom-
an act of inapplicable severity, which might
plish any good or beneficial purpose. It
was to court unpopularity, and adding fuel
to the flame, which was ready to burst forth
in every division of the army; that to vin-
dicate the measure on the assumed ille-
gality of the order, is to resort to a prin-
ciple of a most dangerous tendency, capabie
of being extended in its application to pur-
poses subversive of the foundations of all
authority, civil as well as military. If sub-
ordinate officers are encouraged to judge of
the legality of the orders of their superiors,
we introduce a precedent of incalculable
mischief, neither justified by the spirit or
practice of the laws. Is it not better to
have the responsibility on the head of the

authority which issues the order, except in cases so plain, that the most common capacity can judge of their being direct violations of the established and acknowledged laws? Is the intemperance of the expressions, the indiscretion of the opinions, the inflammatory tendency of the order, so eminently dangerous, so evidently calcu lated to excite to mutiny and disobedience, so strongly marked with features of criminality, as not to be mistaken? Was the order, I beg leave to ask, of this description, of such a nature as to justify the adjutantgeneral and his deputy in their refusal to "The measure of removing Lieutenant-publish it, to disobey the order of the ComColonel Capper and Major Boles," says Mr. mander-in-chief, to revolt from his authoPetrie, "was universally condemned by the rity, and to complain of him to the Governmost respectable officers in the army, and ment? Such were the views I took of that not more so by the officers in the Company's unhappy transaction: and, as I foresaw service, than by those of his Majesty's regi- serious mischief from the measure, not only ments. It was felt by all as the introduction to the discipline of the army, but even to of a most dangerous principle, and setting the security of the civil Government, it was a pernicious example of disobedience and my duty to state my opinion to Sir G. Barinsubordination to all the gradations of low, and to use every argument which my military rank and authority; teaching in- reason suggested, to prevent the publication ferior officers to question the legality of the of the order. In this I completely failed: orders of their superiors, and bringing into the suspension took effect; and the match discussion questions which may endanger was laid that has communicated the flame the very existence of Government. Our to almost every military mind in India. I proceedings at this time operated like an recorded no dissent; for, as a formal oppc. electric shock, and gave rise to combina-sition could only tend to exonerate myself tions, associations, and discussions, preg- from a certain degree of responsibility, nant with danger to every constituted without effecting any good public purpose, authority in India. It was observed that and might probably be misconstrued or the removal of General Macdowall (admit- misconceived by those to whom our proceed. ting the expediency of that measure) suffi-ings were made known, it was a more honciently vindicated the authority of Govern-ourable discharge of my duty to relinquish ment, and exhibited to the army a memorable proof that the supreme power is vested in the civil authority.

"The offence came from the General, and he was punished for it; but to suspend from the service the mere instruments of office,

this advantage, than to comply with the
mere letter of the order respecting dissents.
I explained this motive of my conduct to
Sir G. Barlow."-Statement of Facts, pp.
20-23.

After these proceedings on the part

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is at all times an unpopular species of inquisition; and at a period when men were hesitating whether they should obey or not, was certainly a very dangerous and rash measure. It could be no security; for men who would otherwise rebel against their Government, certainly would not be restrained by any verbal barriers of this kind; and, at the same time that it promised no effectual security, it appeared to increase the danger of irritated combination. This very rash measure immediately produced the strongest representations and remonstrances from king's officers of the most unquestionable loyalty.

"Lieutenant-Colonel Vesey, commanding at Palamcotah, apprehends the most fatal southern provinces, if Colonel Wilkinson consequences to the tranquillity of the makes any hostile movements from Trichinopoly. In different letters he states, that such a step must inevitably throw the Company's troops into open revolt. He has ventured to write in the strongest terms to Colonel Wilkinson, entreating him not to pointing out the ruinous consequences march against the southern troops, and which may be expected from such a measure.

of the Madras Government, the dis- | natural and probable effect of uniting affection of the troops rapidly increased; them all in opposition to Government. absurd and violent manifestoes were To impose a test, or trial of opinions, published by the general officers; Government was insulted; and the army soon broke out into open mutiny. When the mutiny was fairly begun, the conduct of the Madras Government in quelling it, seems nearly as objectionable as that by which it had been excited. The Governor, in attempting to be dignified, perpetually fell into the most puerile irritability; and, wishing to be firm, was guilty of injustice and violence. Invitations to dinner were made an affair of state. Long negotiations appear, respecting whole corps of officers who refused to dine with Sir George Barlow; and the first persons in the settlement were employed to persuade them to eat the repast which his Excellency had prepared for them. A whole school of military lads were sent away, for some trifling display of partiality to the cause of the army; and every unfortunate measure recurred to, which a weak understanding and a raptions temper could employ to bring a Government into contempt. Officers were dismissed; but dismissed without trial, and even without accusation. The object seemed to be to punish somebody; whether it was the right or "Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart in Travanthe wrong person was less material. core, and Colonel Forbes in Malabar, have Sometimes the subordinate was selected, written, that they are under no apprewhere the principal was guilty; some- vinces, or for the fidelity of the Company's hension for the tranquillity of those protimes the superior was sacrificed for troops, if Government does not insist on the ungovernable conduct of those who enforcing the orders for the signature of were under his charge. The blows the test; but that, if this is attempted, the were strong enough; but they came security of the country will be imminently from a man who shut his eyes, and endangered. These orders are to be enstruck at random ;-conscious that he forced; and I tremble for the consemaast do something to repel the danger, quences."-Statement of Facts, pp. 53, 54. -but so agitated by its proximity that he could not look at it, or take a proper nourable Colonel Stuart, commanding The following letter from the HoAmong other absurd measures re-ceived by Sir George Barlow:a king's regiment, was soon after reserted to by this new Eastern Emperor, was the notable expedient of imposing a test upon the officers of the army, expressive of their loyalty and attachment to the Government; and as this was done at a time when some officers were in open rebellion, others fluctuating, and many almost resolved to adhere to their duty, it had the very

"The late measures of Government, as Trichinopoly, have created a most violent carried into effect at the Presidency and

places where the European force was so far ferment among the corps here. At those superior in number to the native, the measure probably was executed without difficulty; but here, where there are seven battalions of sepoys, and a company and a

half of artillery, to our one regiment, I found it totally impossible to carry the business to the same length, particularly as any tumult among our own corps would certainly bring the people of Travancore

upon us.

"It is in vain, therefore, for me, with the small force I can depend upon, to attempt to stem the torrent here by any acts of violence.

"Most sincerely and anxiously do I wish that the present tumult may subside, without fatal consequences; which, if the present violent measures are continued, I much fear will not be the case. If blood is once spilt in the cause, there is no knowing where it may end; and the probable consequence will be, that India will be lost for ever. So many officers of the army have gone to such lengths, that unless a general amnesty is granted, tranquillity can never be restored.

"The Honourable the Governor in council will not, I trust, impute to me any other motives for having thus given my opinion. I am actuated solely by anxiety for the public good and the benefit of my country; and I think it my duty, holding the respon sible situation I now do, to express my sentiments at so awful a period.

"Where there are any prospects of success, it might be right to persevere; but, where every day's experience proves, that the more coercive the measures adopted the more violent are the consequences, a different and more conciliatory line of conduct ought to be adopted. I have the honour, &c."-Statement of Facts, pp. 55,

56.

"A letter from Colonel Forbes, commanding in Malabar, states, that to prevent a revolt in the province, and the probable march of the Company's troops towards Seringapatam, he had accepted of a modification in the test, to be signed by the officers on their parole, to make no hostile movements until the pleasure of the Government was known.-Disapproved by Government,

and ordered to enforce the former orders." -Statement of Facts, p. 61.

It can scarcely be credited, that in spite of these repeated remonstrances from officers, whose loyalty and whose knowledge of the subject could not be suspected, this test was ordered to be enforced, and the severest rebukes inflicted upon those who had presumed to doubt of its propriety, or suspend its operation. Nor let any man say that the opinionative person who persevered in this measure saw more clearly and

deeply into the consequence of his own measures than those who were about him; for unless Mr. Petrie has been guilty, and repeatedly guilty, of a most downright and wilful falsehood, Sir George Barlow had not the most distant conception, during all these measures, that the army would ever venture upon revolt.

66

Government, or rather the head of the Government, was never correctly informed of the actual state of the army, or I think he would have acted otherwise; he was told, and he was willing to believe, that the discontents were confined to a small part of the troops; that a great majority disapproved of their proceedings, and were firmly and unalterably attached to Government."-Statement of Facts, pp. 23, 24.

In a conversation which Mr. Petrie had with Sir George Barlow upon the subject of the army-and in the course of which he recommends to that gentleman more lenient measures, and warns him of the increasing disaffection of the troops-he gives us the following account of Sir George Barlow's notions of the then state of the army

'Sir G. Barlow assured me I was greatly misinformed; that he could rely upon his intelligence; and would produce to council the most satisfactory and unequivocal proofs of the fidelity of nine-tenths of the army; that the discontents were confined almost exclusively to the southern division of the army; that the troops composing the subsidiary force, those in the ceded dis tricts, in the centre, and a part of the northern division, were all untainted by those principles which had misled the rest of the army."― Statement of Facts, pp. 27,

28.

All those violent measures, then, the spirit and wisdom of which have been so much extolled, were not measures of the consequences of which their author had the most distant suspicion. They were not the acts of a man who knew that he must unavoidably, in the discharge of his duty, irritate, but that he could ultimately overcome that irritation. They appear, on the contrary, to have proceeded from a most gross and scandalous ignorance of the opinions of the army. He expected passive submission, and met with universal revolt. So far, then, his want of intel

ligence and sagacity are unquestionably | A little increase of attention and emoluproved. He did not proceed with useful ment to the head of that army, under measures, and run the risk of a revolt, the management of a man of rank and for which he was fully prepared; but he carried these measures into execution, firmly convinced that they would occasion no revolt at all.*

talents, dissipated appearances which the sceptred pomp of a merchant's clerk would have blown up into a rebellion in three weeks; and yet the Bengal army is at this moment in as good a state of discipline, as the English fleet to which Lord Howe made such abject concessions-and in a state to be much more permanently depended

The fatal nature of this mistake is best exemplified by the means recurred to for its correction. The grand expedient relied upon was to instigate the natives, men and officers, to disobey their European commanders; an ex-upon than the army which has been so pedient by which present safety was effectually ruined by the inconveniently scared at the expense of every principle great soul of the present Governor of pon which the permanence of our In- Madras. dian empire rests. There never was Sir George Barlow's agent, though in the world a more singular spectacle faithful to his employment of calumthan to see a few thousand Europeans niating those who were in any degree governing so despotically fifty or sixty opposed to his principal, seldom loses millions of people, of different climate, sight of sound discretion, and confines religion, and habits-forming them his invectives to whole bodies of men mo large and well-disciplined armies-except where the dead are concerned. and leading them out to the further Against Colonel Capper, General Macsubjugation of the native powers of In- dowall, and Mr. Roebuck, who are now dia But can any words be strong no longer alive to answer for themenough to paint the rashness of provok-selves, he is intrepidly severe; in all ing a mutiny, which could only be got under by teaching these armies to act against their European commanders, and to use their actual strength in overpowering their officers?-or, is any man entitled to the praise of firmDess and sagacity, who gets rid of a present danger by encouraging a prin epe which renders that danger more frequent and more violent. We will venture to assert, that a more unwise, or a more unstatesmanlike action was never committed by any man in any country; and we are grievously mistaken, if any length of time elapse before the evil consequences of it are felt and deplored by every man who deems the welfare of our Indian colonies of any importance to the prosperity of the mather-country. We cannot help contrasting the management of the discontents of the Madras army, with the manner in which the same difficulty was got over with the army of Bengal. We should have been alarmed to have Been Sir G. Barlow, junior, churchwarden of St. George's Hanover Square, an office so nobly filled by Giblet and Leslie: it was a haze affliction to see so incapable a man at the head of the Indian Empire.

these instances he gives a full loose to his sense of duty, and inflicts upon them. the severest chastisement. In his attack upon the civilians, he is particularly careful to keep to generals; and so rigidly does he adhere to this principle, that he does not support his assertion, that the civil service was disaffected as well as the military, by one single name, one single fact, or by any other means whatever, than his own affirmation of the fact. The truth (as might be supposed to be the case from such sort of evidence) is diametrically opposite. Nothing could be more exemplary, during the whole of the rebellion, than the conduct of the civil servants; and though the courts of justice were interfered with-though the most respectable servants of the Company were punished for the verdicts they had given as jurymen — though many were dismissed for the slightest opposition to the pleasure of Government, even in the discharge of official duties, where remonstrance was absolutely necessary though the greatest provocation was given, and the greatest opportunity afforded, to

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