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impolitic to drive into self-preserving unanimity, by affording just cause for complaint and discontent among them; and the Military, seeing that the determined system of the Government, while it annulled the laws of their profession, also deprived their fellow subjects of their civil rights, could no longer hesitate to become unanimous in execrating the injudicious policy from whence it arose.

The measures which excited alarm and discontent among the persons, who compose the general class of society, do not appear to have any immediate reference to the subject of these remarks, limited as they are to the Military question. But the merits of this cause rests not solely on matters of fact; they are chiefly to be deduced from opinion; it therefore becomes material to notice the extrinsic circumstances which gave an impulse to the imagination of Military men. Had the prevailing system given satisfaction to the other orders of society, it is probable the agitation among the Military would never have become so general, or so violent as it did at this time. The impression produced by the arbitrary exercise of power, however sensibly it might at first be felt,

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might have subsided, and perhaps be forgotten; if, in the intercourse of society, any advocates had existed who could approve, or who even could palliate or defend, the measures adopted in any of the various branches of the administration. But, unhappily, this was not the case; an universal clamour prevailed; many were injured, all discontented, and the only class of men, not violent against the principles of the Government, were those who from poorness of spirit, or motives of self-interest, either suppressed their sentiments altogether, or used peculiar caution in communicating them. From such men have the principal offices been recently filled. Among many instances of this sort, one is particularly striking, and deserves to be remarked, from the example which it affords of the advantage to be derived from a perfect lubricity of principles. A person, now holding one of the highest situations under the Government, and who professes to be one of the warmest admirers of the present system, did, on the 26th Jan. last, then being at a distant station, give his sentiments, as they then stood, in the following words speaking of some of the measures of Government, he says "the authors

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"of this plan of degradation, and useless expenditure of public money, have not "done the state a service ;" and again "The

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system is to degrade Military authority, "and to raise the emblem of a force, that "can bow to civil dictators. The troops "are now instruments of civil law; and the

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Military rank goes no further, than the "Etat Major of a Council of Elders, or in "other words, old women." These being the words of a person, who was relatively an advocate for Government, and having been used on the 26th of January last, any attempt to prove that discontent was then partial, or confined only to a few at the Presidency, must appear equally futile and absurd. The whole service, Civil or Military, knew that it was universal; and that an apprehension of mutual danger, arising from the supposed determination of Government to crush all who would not acknowledge the supremacy of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, had produced an unanimity of sentiment throughout the Army, and a confederacy for the purpose of mutual preservation.

On the 6th of Feb. the Government of Madras issued a general order, professing to contain a statement of the circumstances

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connected with the arrest and release of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, and there can be no doubt, that a candid exposition of circumstances, even at this late period, might have been of use, by tending to do away the foundation of the odium that existed against Lieutenant Colonel Munro. order in question could not however have that effect. For, instead of adverting to the real cause of complaint, it affects to misunderstand the particular passage in the report which had given offence, and states, that any enquiry regarding the offensive passage must have involved a discussion of the measures of the principal Civil and Military authorities. in this country.

Such an inference is not deducible from any of the premises in the present case. It had already been explicitly declared, that the officers complaining were particularly desirous to avoid any allusion to the general question, regarding Camp-equipage. That any comparison between the former and the present systems of Camp Equipage was unnecessary and entirely irrelevant, in discussing the charges which were laid against Lieutenant Colonel Munro-The discussion of those charges could not, if the president of

the Court Martial knew his duty, extend to any matter that was not requisite in order to substantiate or refute one, or other of the following problems.

First. Whether the insinuation against the officers commanding Native Corps, as quoted in the former letter, was warranted by their conduct during the period they held the contract.

If the affirmative of this question was proved, the discussion would be at an end, and the charges against Colonel Munro must be thrown out.

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Second. If the insinuation should appear totally groundless and false; whether the insertion of it in the Quarter Master General's paper was necessary, in order to place the subject in a clear point of view, or to produce the conclusion, which Lieutenant Colonel Munro might have been directed to draw forth.

If the affirmative of the second problem were proved, the court martial, or the Commander in Chief, might, with a view to the exculpation of Lieutenant Colonel Munro, deliberate whether he was not justifiable, or at least excusable, in uttering the falsehood, having for its object a compliance with the

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