Poole, that his longer continuance in the mess would be unplea "TO THE OFFICER OF THE WEEK OF THE JUNIOR 66 CLASS OF THE MILITARY INSTITUTION. SIR, I have the honour to transmit to you the copy of a letter I have just received from lieutenant-colonel Munro, quar-. ter-master-general, and I request that you will be pleased to send me a list of the officers composing the junior class of the military institution, at the same time making the distinction therein mentioned. "Feb. 17th, 1809. C. KINSEY, 66 LIEUTENANT KINSEY. SIR, You will be pleased to forward to me, without delay, a list of the names of the officers composing the junior class of the military institution, distinguishing those who subscribed to the sentiments stated in the letter from the officer of the day, which you forwarded to me. You will be pleased to direct the latter officers to hold themselves in readiness to join their corps. 66 SIR, Agreeable to your request I have the honour to subscribe the names of the officers composing the junior class of the military institution, whose sentiments were expressed in the letter forwarded to you for the information of lieutenantcolonel Munro. Lieutenant Stopford Spicer Heath 一. Low Ensigns Williams These are the names of all the officers of the institution, at that time present, with the exception of cornet Raymond Williams. "R. MACLEOD, "Ensign and officer of the Week.' 66 TO LIEUTENANT KINSEY, ASSISTANT INSTRUCTOR. SIR, I have the honour of expressing the desire of the commander in chief, that the officers attached to the junior class of the military institution, whose names are stated in the accompanying list, may be directed to join their corps forthwith. The places of these officers will be supplied at the institution without delay. 66 J, MUNRO, Quarter Master General." "Q. M. General's office, 20th February 1809.” [Here follows a list of the officers mentioned in the preceding letter.] [ I. ] INTENDED MEMORIAL. "The respectful Memorial of the Madras Army humbly sheweth, That your memorialists, deeply impressed with the sense of the duty which they owe to their country, earnestly implore your gracious interference for the purpose of cancelling a system which has occasioned the most serious alarm, lest the rules and ordinances which define their place in the community may be completely subverted. Your memorialists are uninfluenced by extravagant notions of freedom, or any idea of independence, inconsistent with the rigid subordination which characterizes the profession, as essential to its existence; they do not expect, nor do they ask, for the relaxation of any tie, or the dissolution of any bond, by which the stupendous fabric of an extensive army is maintained in a state of due subserviency to the supreme power of the constitution, of which it forms a part, being justly sensible that inconsiderate indulgence of immunity, engender habits of licentiousness, necessarily tend to destroy the principles of discipline, and to make that body, which was formed for the protection of the state, subversive of its tranquility. "Your memorialists, the free children of that country, which, while the rest of Europe is enslaved, boasts a constitution the basis of which is civil liberty, your humble memorialists, not the abject slaves of a country enthralled by despotism, respectfully assert a claim to certain rights and priviledges, the enjoyment of which may be allowed them without impairing or encroaching upon the dignity of government, or in any way interfering with the other departments of the state. 66 Your memorialists have to lament generally, that although their body is now extremely numerous, and the question regarding their claims, their duties, and their priveledges are so multifarious as to require the assistance of practical experience in discussing the merits of them, yet they have not a representative in the conncil of government, where alone the discussion can be agitated; to this cause, probably, may be ascribed the recent measures which have made it necessary for your memorialists to implore your gracious interposition, as they are directly subversive of those principles of honour and discipline which harmonize and cement the constitution of a military body, and are, at the same time, grossly insulting to the general character of the military profession. 66 A succinct notice of those measures will amply develope the principles by which your memorialists estimate the injuries they have already received; and, by the further abuse of authorities, which they have reason to apprehend, unless the system, so manifestly hostile to the honourable feelings of a military society, be seasonably checked. 66 It may be already known to your lordship that lieutenantcolonel Munro, a member of the body to which your memorialists belong, having incurred the suspicion of having acted in a manner that was most generally considered to be criminal, was openly and publicly impeached by a considerable number of respectable officers, who preferred charges against him. This measure was adopted in the hope that a cordial examination before the honourable tribunal of a court-martial might confirm the supposed guilt, and lead to adequate punishment, or, if guilt did not actually exist, that, purified by that ordeal, he might again return to take his place, in a society, in which, as must be well known to your lordships, supicion is considered as equivalent to infamy. 66 In consequence of those charges, and by virtue of the warrant which gave to the commander in chief, and to him only, the judicature of the Madras army, and vested in him alone the jurisdiction, for the time being, lieutenant-general Macdowall placed lieutenant-colonel Munro under arrest; he has since reluctantly released that officer, in consequence of the interference of the civil government, who have thus disunited the chain, upon the integrity of which the principles of military subordination depend; for, if the source from whence authority and subordination flow to all members of the military body be violated, the subordinate branches, which derive their existence from thence, must lose their virtue. 66 Viewing the interference of the civil government to check the prescribed laws of military dependence, as a dangerous violation and infringement of the solemn laws of the army, your memorialists perceive in it the seeds of unlicensed anarchy and confusion; no desultory exercise of arbitrary power, however severe, can be expected to restrain the passions or feelings of enlightened men, although it may mortify or distress individuals; the doubt regarding the legality and precarious principle by which it must ever be regulated, deprive it of that authority and respect which attaches to an established system of jurisprudence, sanctioned by the legislature, by prescription, by habits, and by the feelings of those educated under its influence. "In order to vindicate the character of his profession, and to maintain the integrity of the military authority over those under his command, lieutenant-general Macdowall directed the publication of a general order, conveying a reprimand to lieutenantcolonel Munro, for disrespect to his commander in chief in not abiding by the regular course of enquiry, laid down in similar cases. 66 As the former acts of the government had proclaimed to the army that lieutenant-colonel Munro was not amenable to military law, on this occasion that officer was declared to be superior to the controul of the commander in chief, by the publication of an order, in which general Macdowall is stigmatized with the reproach of having acted in a manner derogatory to the character of government, and subversive of military discipline, and the foundation of public authority, although the order of gen. Macdowall refers purely to the disrespect, the disobedience of orders, and the contempt of military authority, manifested by an officer, who was not only under his general contioul, as belonging to the army which he commanded, but who, attached to his immediate staff, owed him particular respect and obedience Your memorialists, accustomed to judge of the acts of military men as referable to the standard of right and wrong, which has been established by the legislature for the controul of their body, cannot discover any relation between the orders of government, and the rules of discipline and subordination, equally subversive of the foundation of authority, as that resolution of government, by which the adjutant-general and his deputy are ignominiously suspended from the service, for having obeyed the orders of their commander in chief, which obedience is stated to be a direct violation of the duty of those officers towards the government. 66 It must be painful to your lordship, as it is to your memorialists, to contemplate the possible consequences of a procedure equally unprecedented as it is unaccountable, by any other rules than those of blind prejudice, or deluded infatuation. 66 Your memorialists perceive a commander in chief, who had lived among them, who was personally beloved by many, and who was known by all, to have manifested great forbearance, under circumstances extremely mortifying, from the conduct which government observed towards him, they perceive the character of such a man grossly calumniated, while their regret for his departure was yet fresh; they perceive two officers of high rank, character, and respectability publicly degraded, deprived of their rank, and suspended from the service, for having obeyed their commander in chief, in signing and publishing an order written by himself, for the purpose of vindicating the dignity of his military authority, which had been flagrantly violated by one of his own staff, who openly defied and disregarded the supreme military commission; they perceive this officer, who had been publicly impeached, under charges of a serious nature, and who had insulted his commander in chief, sheltered from the natural effect of such misconduct, by the interference of government. Your memorialists cannot avoid declaring, that they see, in this evasion of the fundamental laws of discipline, a most dangerous infringement of the military code; that bulwark which protects the state from the licentiousness of an armed rabble, a power subject to no controul, except the caprice or prejudice of an individual; and your memorialists feel a just alarm, lest the repetition of acts, which are not guided by any rule, may tend to wean their affections, and dispose them to consider as enemies those whose situations should make them their friends. 66 Your memorialists have learned, with indignant regret, that their enemies, and the enemies of their country, have represented a public disaffection the discontent produced by local and partial injuries, arising from the present rupture, but they con T |