Defence af Lieutenant- 
 Colonel John Bell of the 
 First Battalion of Madras 
 Artillery, on his Trial at 
 
 John Bell
 
 
 
 
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 AUTHENTIC COP Y. 
 
 THE 
 
 DEFENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 Of the First Battalion of 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel John Bell, 
 
 Battalion of 
 
 grttllerp, 
 
 o* 
 
 FITS TRIAL AT BANGALORE, 
 
 BEFonr, 
 
 A GENERAL COURT-MARTIAL, 
 AS IT WAS READ IN COURT BY HIS COUNSEL, 
 
 CHARLES MARSH, ESQ. 
 
 Eoi'rister of the Supreme Court <>/' Judicature, and the Kin^'t Advocate in 
 the Vice -Admiralty Cvurt ut Madras. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PHJVTKD AND S'JtD T! Y 
 
 BLA C K, P A R R Y, <% A I A' G SB TRY, 
 7, 
 
 LKADi; \ HA I.T.-STRE T.T. 
 1810,
 
 C H A RUE. 
 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOUN HELL, O f 
 
 tlie Madras Artillery, and lute commanding the Fort 
 and Garrison of Seringapatam, charged by the Officer 
 commanding the .Army icith /taring, in sutrccrsion of all 
 good Older and military Discipline, and in violation of 
 the Rides and Articles of liar for the belter government 
 
 ' J O 
 
 of the Company's Forces, joined in and headed a most 
 dangerous and alarming Mutiny and Sedition., tchicli 
 took place in the said Garrison betrci.it the ,'30/A Day 
 of Juh/ laxt and the ( 2"d Day of August fof/ozcing, 
 during rchich period the Garrison Jired on the Troops 
 of his Majesty, and those of the Company, and their 
 Ally the Rajah of Mysore, and seized on the Public 
 Treasury; ami he, LlEUTENANT-CoLONEL JOHN 
 BELL, declared his resolution not to deliver up l/ie fort 
 and Garrison to the proper Authority. 
 
 By Order of Major-General Goicdie, Commanding 
 
 iff i, 
 
 the Army. 
 (Signed) 7'. //. .S'. CO\1\A\. 
 
 FORT ST. GKORC.J., 
 Oct. t>, 1809.
 
 SENTENCE. 
 
 " GENERAL ORDERS. 
 
 " Head-Qua; !ers, Choultry Plain, March 8, 1 
 " THE following parts of the confirmed proceeding 
 a General Court-Martial, assembled at Bangalore bv o 
 of Major- General GOAVDIE, commanding the arm\ 
 chief, on the 1st day of November, 1809, and of \vl 
 Major-General WARDE is President, are published to 
 army. 
 
 Sentence as passed on the Qth of December, 180 ( J. 
 
 " Tiie Court are of opinion, that the Prisoner, Lieutenant-Co 
 JOHN BELL, is guilty of the Charge preferred against him, w 
 being ill violation of the Articles of War, and subversive, of good 
 and military discipline, they do sentence the taid Lieutenaut-Cc 
 JOHN BELL to be cashiered, and do further declare him uinvovt 
 ever serving the Hon. Company in any militavy capacity wliatsoevt 
 (Signed) " I1EMIY WARDE, Majjr-GeneraL and Presi 
 
 (Signed) " \\ . ORA1SBY, Deputy Judge Advocate." 
 
 Revised Sentence, as passed the '27th of Febrwnj, IBiO. 
 
 " The Court, having re-considered the evidence brought before t 
 adhere to their former opinion. 
 
 (Signed) IIEX'RY WARDE, Major-Clew ,-al and Prtsi. 
 
 (Signed) " \V. OKMSBY, Deputy Judge Adrorate." 
 
 t; I perfectly agree with the Court, that the iViso 
 Lieutenant-Colonel JOHN BELL, of the corps nf A 
 lery, is guilty of the crimes charged against him, ai 
 do therefore confirm the sentence. 
 
 (Signed) i'. (iO\\'DIE, Maim'-Ceiier 
 
 " Commanding the Anv\ isi Chief." 
 
 " Although the Officer commanding the army has ( 
 firmed the sentence of the General Court-Martini, wl 
 has adjudged ' Lieutenant-Colonel JOHN OKLL to 
 * cashiered, and declared unworthy of ever serving 
 ' Honourable Company m any miiitr.iy capacity w 
 ' soever,' he feels it a sacrr-d duty IK <iwes to his K 
 his Country, and the service to which he has i 
 zealously devoted forty-three years of his hie, to exp 
 his pointed disapprobation 01' the punishment awar 
 the Prisoner, whicii, in his opinion, bears no propor 
 to the atrocity of tiie crimes so clearly proved in 
 deuce on the face of the proceedings. The Ofricrr c 
 inanding in Mysore will be pleased to order Mr. ,lc 
 HELL to proceed to the Presidency immediately, Tor
 
 i'HE 
 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN BELL, 
 
 Major -GeneralJVarde, and Gentlemen of this 
 Court-Martial, 
 
 1 HAVE looked forward with some impatience, 
 to the opportunity which is now afforded me, of 
 making my defence. I pretend not to that 
 philosophy which sometimes renders a man, 
 who is conscious of innocence, unmoved under 
 accusation, I have much at stake upon the 
 event of this enquiry. My life, my honour, 
 and all that is dear to a man, who has hitherto 
 lived without blame or reproach, are involved in 
 its issue.
 
 Bur there is one circumstance in this pro- 
 ceeding, which is a matter of public congratu- 
 lation. I im an the revival of Courts-Martial, 
 to determine on military accusations ; tor they 
 afford to the honour and reputation of an officer, 
 -i better security than those secret enquiries, or 
 rather that arbitrary discretion, acting without 
 any enquiry at all, to which the most innocent 
 and meritorious individual was not long- since 
 exposed, without the means of confronting his 
 accuser, or even of knowing his accusation. 
 
 The present proceeding brings with it this 
 al<o of consolation and joy. that whatever soli- 
 citudes 1 may feel, or whatever difficulties I 
 mav encounter. 1 am tried bv men on whom the 
 laws of honour, and the obligations of consci- 
 ence impose a duty as binding, and guarded by 
 sanctions equally as sacred, as the solemn oath 
 which they have taken. A\ hen 1 look around 
 me, and see who thev are that constitute this 
 tribunal, 1 know that 1 am safe from that pro- 
 scription, which, a few months back, overhung 
 the army, and diffused a gloom over public and 
 privat*- life; and winch, subverting all the rules
 
 3 
 
 or reason and justice, inspired innocence itself 
 with the terrors of guilt. Before such a court, 
 therefore, I can feel nothing beyond those anx- 
 ieties to which every man must be subject, who 
 has to deliver himself from a charge affecting his 
 dearest and most important interests. 
 
 Referring to that charge, you will perceive, 
 gentlemen, that it imputes to me the highest 
 of military offences. Nor will you think me 
 unreasonable in demanding the ordinary privi- 
 lege of every accused mail' that, in proportion 
 to the magnitude of the crime with which he is 
 
 O 
 
 charged, or of the penalties to which it is sub- 
 ject, the evidence against him should be clear, 
 precise, and uncontradictory : that it should 
 leave no doubt concerning that which is the 
 essence of every crime ; the guilty intention, as 
 well as the overt acts by which that intention is 
 to be inferred. 
 
 The common-place, but humane maxim, that 
 every man is presumed to be innocent till the 
 contrary is proved, is not more founded in truth 
 and in equity, than that which flows from it as 
 a consequence and a corollary ; that the prohn-
 
 bilities of innocence are encreased in proportion 
 to the atrocity of the offence. In my own in- 
 stance, this maxim will be allowed perhaps an 
 additional authority, when you throw into the 
 scale of these rational and humane pnsmnp- 
 tions, mv long, laborious, and faithful service ; 
 a character to this moment unimpeached ; a 
 rank in the armv ten high ; and an experience 
 of military duty too deeply impressed, and too 
 gradually acquired, to render it easy of belief 
 that at, this late period of my life, I should have 
 placed mvself at the head of a dangerous and 
 alarming mutiny against the (lovernment, I had 
 so long served with fidelity and honour. 
 
 It is not, however, upon presumptions that I 
 will lean. I rest my defence on the evidence, 
 and the conclusions which that evidence will 
 force on your enlightened minds; challenging 
 only the privilege which every upright judi- 
 cature permits to the accused, of bringing the 
 evidence adduced against him to the test of a 
 legitimate, but strict and severe inquisition. 
 
 And while you are guided by these rules 
 towards that inference, on which my i'ate depends.
 
 you will, I am sure, consider the intention with 
 which the acts imputed to me were committed, 
 as a question of paramount importance. The 
 inverse of this proposition would lead to conse- 
 quences as abhorrent from justice as common 
 sense. Mutiny without a mutinous intention 
 is an absurdity in language, as it is in law. To 
 separate the qualities of the act from the inten- 
 tions of the agent ; to select for crimination naked 
 and insulated facts, abstracted from the des'gns 
 of the heart, or the contemplations of the mind : 
 torn from their context, and stripped of their 
 relations, would confound the eternal and im- 
 mutable distinctions between right and wrong. 
 But 1 will not insult your understandings by 
 topics so clear and indisputable. Acquainted 
 with the world and its affairs, and knowing how 
 often it happens, that human nature is thrown 
 into a conflict of duties, and beset by motives 
 of almost equal, though contradictory impulse, 
 I need not apprehend, that you will adopt that 
 narrow and illiberal rule of judgment, which, in 
 pronouncing upon human actions, excludes all 
 consideration of the 1 dilh'culties bv which thev
 
 6 
 
 were prompted, or the exigencies out of which 
 they arose. 
 
 In this respect, 1 might justly complain ot 
 the manner in which the /acts stated in the 
 charge have been ur^ed against me. Not that ( 
 throw any blame on the 1 gentleman to whom the 
 tin pleasing oilier of public accuser is devolved. 
 [ can feel lor the difficulties of an arduous 
 task ; and 1 would not augment them by com- 
 plaint or reproach. But he is not answerable 
 for the infirmities of his cause. His cause re- 
 quired the suppression of all which preceded 
 and produced the dreadful exigency under which 
 f acted. In this charge, and in the opening 
 address he read to you. the- overt acts stand 
 alone, as if they were unaccompanied by any 
 circumstances to explain, to palliate, or excuse 
 them; or, what is of more eonscquence, bv 
 anv necessities to urge and to authorise them. 
 
 i shall hereafter submit to you a few com- 
 ments on the evidence which IMS been adduced 
 ^uainst me. I shall extract, from that evidence, 
 fairly, and without sophistrv. the proofs and 
 presumptions of mv innocence. I shall state.
 
 7 
 
 also, the testimony I have to produce in my 
 defence. But, in order that the whole of my 
 conduct, connected with the late unhappy 
 events, may stand before you, I shall, in mere 
 justice to myself, take it up from a somewhat 
 earlier stage ; that from the whole series of my 
 acts, the whole series of my intentions may be 
 reflected as in a mirror before you. I shall do 
 this with simplicity, but with truth. If it is 
 necessary to shew, that measures in which I had 
 no concern, tended to produce the unfortunate 
 emergency in which I was placed, I shall advert 
 to them as far as my defence requires it. I shall 
 abstain from all further animadversions on them. 
 I shall not question their wisdom, or their ex- 
 pedienc}'; but I shall trace them, as constituting 
 in part the causes which produced the agitation, 
 errors, and calamities of the late troubled period ; 
 as having led to a most unexampled crisis in the 
 affairs of British India, and generating with new 
 circumstances, new rules of conduct for those 
 who had the peace and discipline of the arm\ 
 at heart, and were anxious to prevent the effu- 
 sion of blood in civil and domestic warfare.
 
 8 
 
 And here, it is not foreign from the strict 
 law and condition of my defence, to observe 
 that acts of mutiny against the state, commit- 
 ted by a man of my standing in the service, 
 would, in common probability, have been the 
 offspring of that spirit of combination and sys- 
 tematic resistance to the Government, \vhich 
 the Judge-Advocate stated to have, been preva- 
 lent in the army antecedently to the dates speci- 
 fied in the charge. A mutinous insurrection 
 against the legal authorities would more proba- 
 bly have been meditated by those, who having 
 taken an early part in this commotion, had been 
 tinctured with its passions, than by one who 
 studiously kept aloof from it : bv one who, on 
 everv occasion, urged the dutv of submission 
 to the local Government, wherever his example 
 or remonstrance could influence, and who was 
 wholly disconnected with those who resented 
 what they deemed the wrongs of the army. It 
 is out of the ordinary course of belief, that such 
 a man should, on a sudden, belie the whole 
 tenor of his conduct, and forerun the authors of 
 this disturbance, 1 , by placing himself at the head
 
 9 
 
 of a mutiny, when, in the heats and agitations 
 which produced it, he never in the slightest 
 degree sympathized or participated. It is fit- 
 ting-, therefore, that you should know what was 
 my deportment, prior to the date of these 
 charges, that you may the better see the dispo- 
 sitions and character of the man, who is now 
 dragged as a Mutineer before you. 
 
 i arrived from England late in February last. v 
 What have generally been considered as the pre- 
 disposing causes of this dissention, the quarrel 
 of General Macdowall with Sir G. Barlow, and 
 the removal of the Adjutant-General and his 
 deputy, for issuing the orders of their superior 
 officer, had already taken place. 1 found a 
 most unhappy altercation had already begun 
 between Sir G. Barlow and the Company's army. 
 Of these feelings J did not partake. 1 found 
 
 O * 
 
 them, indeed, too sfenerallv diffused, and too 
 
 O J 
 
 deeply impressed, to be within the reach of my 
 remonstrance. But on every occasion, when 
 remonstrance could influence, 1 uniformly re- 
 commended the patient reference of the real, or 
 imaginary grievance, to the superintending au-
 
 10 
 
 thority at home. I was told that if I was seen 
 at Sir G. Barlow's table, I should be disgraced 
 in the eyes of the army, and cut off from all in- 
 tercourse with my brother officers. I dined with 
 Sir G. Barlow notwithstanding this denuncia- 
 tion. I was told that if 1 carried on the com- 
 mon offices of politeness with Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel Munro, the Quarter-Master-General, I 
 should be subject to the same penalties. I 
 openly renewed my acquaintance with Lieute- 
 nant-Colonel Munro. These dissentions i con- 
 sidered wholly foreign to me. If my mature 
 standing in the army, or habits of antient friend- 
 ship, and mutual respect, gave any authority to 
 my opinions, or weight to my admonitions, 
 they were not suppressed, or languidly urged, 
 in recommending obedience, peace, and disci- 
 pline. I signed no address ; no memorial. Such 
 were the intentions which I cherished. It is 
 not easy to bring them in regular proof before 
 you. They are seen only by those eyes, to 
 which alone the workings of the human heart 
 are visible. Hut, professing no other purpose 
 
 x 
 
 but th;it of inculcating by advice, and enforcing
 
 11 
 
 by example, the necessity of submission and of 
 discipline, it is your province to see, whether 
 in any subsequent passages of my conduct, and 
 even in those which stand recorded as matters 
 of crimination against me, 1 have voluntarily 
 turned aside from the path on which I set out ; 
 and whether even the worst of those acts, which, 
 abstracted from my motives, would give some 
 colour to the accusation, may not be reconciled 
 upon genuine and legitimate principles of judg- 
 ment, to the moderation and forbearance, by 
 which I proposed to govern my conduct, as 
 soon as I perceived the agitations of the army. 
 
 1 dwell the more anxiously on this topic, 
 because a letter has been put in evidence against 
 me, which 1 wrote on the 6th of August to 
 Colonel Davis, in which 1 insisted on the uni- 
 form moderation of my conduct, and adverted 
 to the order of the 1st of May as one of the 
 causes which led to the disorders then prevailing 
 in the garrison. 1 do not meddle with the ex- 
 pediency or justice of that order. But it is a 
 necessary part of my defence, to remind you, 
 that not only in the garrison of Seringapatam,
 
 12 
 
 but through the \vhole army, it had generated, 
 if not revolt, a sullen disobedience, which gra- 
 dually ripened into a spirit of resistance ; and 
 that resistance was carried on l>v means of an 
 extensive and gigantic combination, animated 
 with all the. energies of despair. The army 
 saw their most revered and beloved officers, en- 
 deared to them bv the participation of common 
 service, and common peril, sent by the stroke 
 of a pen into exile and degradation, without trial 
 or enquiry. At the mercy of informers, whom 
 they could not confront, they were delivered over 
 to the often doubtful chance of vindicating their 
 characters before the Court of Directors, against 
 the weight, authority, and influence of the 
 local Government. To many this was a sen- 
 tence of death : because that is a sentence oi 
 death, which strips lite of its consolations and 
 supports. Innocence itself trembled. From the 
 penitent it cut off' the possibility of return. It 
 enflamed the. guilty with the violence of despair. 
 It was considered as a virtual deprivation to tin; 
 army of their right to trial by Court-Martial ; 
 a right given to them by an Act oi Parliament.
 
 13 
 
 which is yet unrepealed, and of which they 
 could not be divested without a gross vio- 
 lation of law. It was considered, with what 
 justice is hereafter to be determined, that the 
 sending officers to England, who had not been 
 judicially cashiered, was a power which was not 
 sanctioned by any of the acts for the regulation 
 of our governments in India, and which was 
 contrary to the spirit of all of them. They saw. 
 in the fate of others, their own fortunes and re- 
 putations laid prostrate at the feet ol' spies and 
 informers, who are always the meanest, the 
 basest, and most abandoned of (iod's creatures. 
 If the opposition to the local Government had 
 been confined to the walls of Seringapatam. and 
 had manifested itself in no other part of the 
 army, I should not, perhaps, be entitled to any 
 benefit from this topic; but if no portion of this 
 immense establishment was unint'ected, the dif- 
 ficulties I had to contend with, and the embar- 
 rassment into which i was thrown, ought not, 
 and, I trust, will not, be excluded from your 
 consideration. Let me observe, that the key of 
 my conduct in every part of this transaction.
 
 14 
 
 was the great peril before my eyes, which I was 
 anxious to avert. I steered myself by this 
 course. I endeavoured to discharge my duty to 
 my Sovereign and my honourable employers, by 
 averting from this part of the empire the, most 
 portentous evils, by which it was ever threat- 
 ened. 
 
 Whatever discontent was produced by this 
 order, as i insisted in the letter now in proof, it 
 received from me, neither an helping hand nor 
 an encouraging voice. Then, and to the very 
 . last, 1 felt no anxiety but for the peace and dis- 
 cipline of the army, it were an endless task to 
 enumerate the various irritations and discontents 
 which, diverging, as it were, from different 
 points, at length terminated in the results which 
 form the subject of these proceedings. The 
 memorable business at Masulipatam, which has 
 been slightly alluded to in the course of the 
 evidence, is a matter of perfect notoriety. 
 Whether the measures were wholesome, or 
 otherwise. I must repeat, is a (juestion with 
 which I do not interfere. It is sufficient that 
 they were causes adequate to the production of
 
 15 
 
 those unhappy effects, which every wise man 
 foresaw, and every good man must regret. I am 
 almost tired of wading in these waters of bitter- 
 ness. I cannot, however, forbear to touch on 
 the measure of the 2(>th of July at the Mount; , 
 because, by turning to the evidence of Major 
 Macdowal, you will observe that it connects 
 itself with the subject of this enquiry. It is 
 proved that that measure, which was neither 
 more nor less than that of seizing the officers of 
 the native corps by surprize, and separating 
 them from their corps, on their refusal to sign a 
 test, had contributed to the agitation of the 
 garrison ; an agitation, as he has distinctly 
 proved, not confined to the Europeans, but 
 shared by the native corps of the garrison. I 
 advert to that measure at present, only as a link 
 in the chain of causes, which impelled those 
 dreadful necessities ; for having encountered 
 which, according to the best of my judgment, 1 
 stand now charged as a Mutineer before you. 
 
 I have thus deemed it a justice which 1 owed 
 myself on this awful occasion, to impress on 
 your minds, that, amidst the encreasing agita-
 
 ti ons of the army, I kept uniformly aloof from 
 all league or combination against the Govern- 
 ment. By example, by authority, by entreaties, 
 I endeavoured to appease the minds of those 
 over whom I had the slightest influence. Not a 
 single document or fart has been brought for- 
 ward to shew, that, prior to the dates of these 
 charges, I shared in the discontents of the army, 
 or took any part in the expression of them, by 
 signing any of the various Addresses or Memo- 
 rials, in which the sentiments of th" army were 
 circulated. 
 
 1 mention these circumstances, to shew the 
 improbability of that sudden transition of con- 
 duct, which must be imputed to me, if the alle- 
 gations of this charge are believed. It is irre- 
 concilable to the ordinary motives of human 
 action, that a man. who. down to so late a 
 period, had abstained from all active participa- 
 tion in the proceedings of the public hodv to 
 whi''h he belonged, and \\lio does not appear, 
 bv anv art or expression, to have caught the 
 eonta^ion of their passions, should suddenly 
 larc himself at the head of the mutinv which
 
 17 
 
 you are mow investigating. A mutiny against 
 the Government would have advanced gradu- 
 ally, according to the ordinary workings of 
 human passions, and not have jumped suddenly 
 from the most passive obedience to open re- 
 sistance. 
 
 Having made these preliminary observations, 
 the length of which will find its apology in the 
 serious character of these charges, and the ne- 
 cessity of calling in every topic of rightful vindi- 
 cation, connected with the subject, I shall 
 now proceed to shew, that the evidence for the 
 prosecution, has not only left the charge of 
 Mutiny unsubstantiated, but that it completely 
 negatives and contradicts it ; claiming: only that 
 enlarged and liberal interpretation, which every 
 candid mind must be disposed to put upon acts, 
 considered in reference to the necessities by 
 which they were impelled, and the spirit and 
 intention from which they proceeded. 1 shall 
 endeavour to do this, according to the course 
 the prosecutor has taken, and under the distinct 
 heads into which the charge is divisible, at 
 the same time urging those reasonings, and 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 those statements, which are material to my 
 defence. 
 
 You will observe, that 1 am charged with 
 having headed a most dangerous and alarming 
 mutiny and sedition, which took place within 
 a specified period. And, during that period, 
 three specific overt acts are charged to have been 
 committed, as illustrative of the mutiny which 
 L had headed and joined: the seizing of the 
 public treasure ; the firing on the troops ; and 
 the refusal to deliver up the garrison to the proper 
 authorities. You will perceive, that, to sub- 
 stantiate this charge against me, my active par- 
 ticipation and concurrence in the alleged mutiny 
 must be established. I am not charged here 1 tor 
 not having taken prudent measures to quell a 
 sedition carried on by others, or for not having 
 prevented acts, in which I did not myself con- 
 cur. But it is of the essence of the crime im- 
 puted to me. that my heart and soul were en- 
 gaged in the mutiny, and in the mutinous acts, 
 bv which it i^ manifested. In proving, there- 
 tore, such a charge, the grand and presiding 
 principle of all criminal jurisprudence, and which
 
 19 
 
 1 am sure is present to your minds, will secure 
 me from the elTect of evidence which is appli- 
 cable only to others. I have studiously abstained 
 from interposing objections, when this sort of 
 testimony was adduced; tori was well aware, 
 that whilst the Court evinced an honourable and 
 laudable solicitude to omit no enquiry, how re- 
 mote soever in its application, that tended to 
 elucidate these transactions, it would have looked 
 as if I had been willing, by objections, to sup- 
 press or shut out important and relevant testi- 
 mony. The Court will, however, do me the 
 justice to acknowledge, that 1 have given no 
 interruption to the enquiry, even where the 
 proof has not exactly corresponded with the 
 rules of evidence. 1 have thought it beneath me 
 to rest my defence on mere detect of proof. I 
 have neither knowingly withheld, nor hesitated 
 to admit any document that was necessary to 
 elucidate the subject ; looking for my refuge, 
 not in the weakness of the prosecutor's proofs, 
 but in the strength of my own innocence. 
 
 It is at the same time; obvious, that I am 
 called on not to defend others, but myself. {
 
 20 
 
 am uns\v<Tal>le onlv tor inv own acts, or tor those 
 of others in \vliirh 1 participated, lint, in order 
 to connect me- with this commotion, as its head 
 and its origin, a great deal of evidence is gone 
 into, of which the object was to shew my con- 
 currence and privity in what was transacted; 
 but the result of which has been only that of 
 implicating others ; and, 1 am sorrv to say, of 
 recording on the proceedings, matters, which 
 may, in some sort, affect your judgments with 
 regard to those, over whom similar charges are 
 depending. But it is with triumph that 1 beg 
 you to review the evidence, which applies to 
 that part of the subject ; and first, to that which 
 has been given by Captain Webster and Lieu- 
 tenant Beaumont. The prosecutor seemed de- 
 sirous of extracting from these gentlemen a 
 variety of circumstances, but, in particular, all 
 or sonic of the following facts, which were 
 sought for, I presume, as indications of a mu- 
 tinous or seditious mind, at that early stage of 
 tiie transaction : that in not attending at Colonel 
 Davis's with the other officers, on the ,'JOth, I 
 disobeyed the orders of that officer; that I or-
 
 21 
 
 dered, or was privy to, or concurred in the 
 forcible restraint laid on his person ; and that I 
 was a member of a committee, who, it seems, 
 till the oth of August, exercised the military 
 power over the garrison, or, at least, checked 
 and controlled it. See whether any of these 
 facts have been proved, or rather see whether 
 they are not absolutely negatived. 
 
 With respect to Colonel Davis's orders, con- 
 tained in Captain Webster's letter of the JOth, 
 the Court will see that I carried them into ex- 
 ecution without hesitation. The object of as- 
 sembling them has been already explained by 
 what has been stated to have taken place at the 
 interview itself. It was to admonish the officers 
 to return to their duty, and not to believe the 
 report which had agitated the garrison, as to a 
 meditated seizure of their persons by the aid of 
 the Mvsore troops. 
 
 And hen 1 it is to bo observed, that the osten- 
 sible and avowed purpose of calling such a 
 meeting, from the verv nature of it, rendered 
 my presence unnecessary. Had I attended 
 there, 1 should have virtually admitted, what i
 
 22 
 
 hero solemnly deny, that L myself, with thr 
 ntlier oiiicer.s of the garrison, was an object of 
 admonition to a return of duty, which, I think, 
 it would not he expected th:;t any officer of rank 
 or character, under such circumstances, would 
 have willin^lv admitted. It is sufficient for me, 
 that I carried the order into eil'ect with the 
 utmost alacrity, and that, in so doing, I \vill- 
 inglv and a.'tiveiy contiibuted with Colonel 
 Davis to the restoration of tranquillity in the 
 garrison ; although 1 considered, and trust 1 
 shall he pardoned for considering, that, having 
 transgressed no duty. I needed no admonition 
 to return to it. Uut it' you attend to the evi- 
 dence, you will perceive from Captain \\eb- 
 ster's statement, that, in absenting mvself on 
 that occasion, I disobeyed no onier whatever; 
 for no order, or message, that could he inter- 
 preted into a military order, was L'lven me. It 
 seems that in consequence of the ojlirial letter 
 above alluded to. 1 carried ( <>lonel Davis's re- 
 quisition into immediate effect, hy summoning 
 the ojh'cers as speedilv as the dispersed distances 
 at which they lived would permit. Colonel
 
 23 
 
 Davis apprehending, lest some agitation might 
 have been created in their minds concerning the 
 
 o 
 
 purpose of their being convened, said that he 
 would dispense with their attendance. 1 re- 
 plied, that the officers were scattered over the 
 Fort, and that many of them lived out of it, 
 as accounting for the delay. Colonel Davis was 
 satisfied with that reply. lie had the same ap- 
 prehension a second time, and again dispensed 
 with their attendance. I strongly urged, how- 
 ever, the propriety of their waiting on Colonel 
 Davis, as they had all been assembled, and 
 were ready to go. Upon that, Captain Web- 
 ster observed, that he believed Colonel Davis 
 expected me to wait upon him with the other 
 officers. 1 replied, " I saw no occasion for it." 
 Now, it is impossible to infer from this intima- 
 tion, that Colonel Davis had positively ordered 
 my attendance. We had both the same object 
 in view; the restoration of confidence and tran- 
 quillity in the garrison. I gave my fullest aid 
 to Colonel Davis in the effecting of that object 
 by calling them together; and as it appeared to 
 me that it would have been counteracted bv the
 
 24 
 
 alarm and perplexity of mind, which the sudden 
 revocation of the order \\ould have created, 1 
 was solicitous that they should wait on Colonel 
 Davis: and being aware that the meeting was 
 for the purpose or' (juieimu' their alarms, and 
 admonishing them to their dutv, mv answer 
 was the natural observation <n a man who did 
 not feel the alarm, and had no need of lectures 
 upon duty, ' : 1 see no occasion tor it. 1 ' 
 
 But, gentlemen, \\hat will you think of this 
 as a matter of crimination against me. when 1 
 observe 1 to you. tint it \\ as from mv own 
 most anxious communications with Colonel 
 Davis on that subject, that he became informed 
 of the alarm and uneasiness of the garrison, and 
 deemed the adoption of some measure requisite 
 lo restore its traiHjiulhtv. Hut more particu- 
 larlv. a letter i wrote on the 'Jith of Julv men- 
 tioned the agitated state of ihe Damson. I hat 
 letter, and Colonel Davis's acquiescence in 
 what I proposed. <\\;\\\ be j)roduced to you. if 
 n.'cess;arv. in evid< nee. lo that nie;mure I uavr 
 all the effect I could. I disobeyed no order. 
 \s tar as vou Imve hillirrttj uone aloni; with inc.
 
 25 
 
 >.n the transactions of the :30th, I trust 1 am not 
 evincing an indecent confidence, when I ask 
 you what mutinous or seditious disposition is 
 to be inferred from my acts ? 1 cannot but feel 
 that 1 begin my defence with no inauspicious 
 omen, when a circumstance evidently imputed 
 to me as a disobedience of orders, turns out to 
 be the most exact and literal execution of them. 
 Proceed further with me, and enquire whe- 
 ther there is any particle of evidence by which 
 you can fairly conclude that i authorized, or 
 knew of, or concurred in the supposed restraint 
 of Colonel Davis. You will pardon the impor- 
 tunity with which I remind you, that J am, in 
 justice, only responsible for acts, purely and 
 emphatically my own. Admitting, for the sake of 
 the argument, that Colonel Davis was actually 
 under restraint, what testimony fixes it upon 
 me? Is it that of Captain Webster? 'rum to 
 his deposition. It amounts only to this: That 
 he had written an official letter to me, stating 
 that it had come to Colonel Davis's knowledge, 
 that orders had been given at the crates that no 
 person could pass without authority from me.
 
 26 
 
 To this, it seems, 1 gave no answer. Hut. 
 in order to make it my act, the Town-Major 
 informed Captain Webster that an answer was 
 preparing-, and till that was received, Colonel 
 Davis could not he permitted to leave the Fort ; 
 that the Town-Major was going to repeat those 
 orders; that Captain Cadell further said to the 
 witness, that Colonel Hell requested him not to 
 leave the Compound. The most transient refe- 
 rence to such testimony sufficiently shews it to 
 he of that species, which is, of all others, the 
 most fallacious and douhtful. It is, in strict- 
 ness, nothing more than that which Captain 
 Webster heard from the Town-Major. Hut \ 
 do not wish it to be rejected on that narrow 
 exception. Let me recal your attention to the 
 state of the garrison ; to the alarm that had gone 
 forth ; to the assumption of authority by a 
 Committee, of the existence of which I was ig- 
 norant; and to the total absorption of my influ- 
 ence and authoritv. l T nder such circumstances, 
 you will find little difficulty in absolving me 
 from all share or participation in the act. You 
 will consider it not only improbable, that, to
 
 27 
 
 stamp with authenticity their own resolutions, 
 the officers who had erected themselves into the 
 over-ruling power of the garrison, would use 
 my name, as a mere matter of course, in fur- 
 therance of their own designs. It would, there- 
 fore, be highly dangerous to depart from the 
 course of legitimate evidence. But, in the 
 words attributed to the Town-Major, there is 
 something that seems wholly repugnant to the 
 supposition, either that I had received the let- 
 ter, or sent any answer to it, or that I had given 
 any orders upon the subject of it. Captain 
 Cadell says, that "an order was preparing." 
 Is not this more reconcilable to the hypothesis, 
 that a Committee were taking the letter into 
 consideration, and were preparing an answer ? 
 For, if Captain Cadell came with any authority 
 from me, it is natural to suppose that I should 
 have delivered him the order at once, either 
 verbally or in writing, instead of taking any time 
 to prepare an answer ; a circumstance which 
 strongly implies that it was undergoing some 
 consideration from persons who were deliberately 
 consulting upon it. All question, however.
 
 28 
 
 as to the fact, is silenced by Major Mac.dowall's 
 deposition, from which it may be easily seen, 
 that I had then no influence over this procedure 
 whatever. In truth, it should seem the restraint 
 was rather imaginary than real ; tor Colonel Davis 
 himself, yielding' to the urgent importunity of the 
 officers, had acquiesced in their proposal to stay 
 at Seringapatam ibr a moderate, length of time. 
 
 Waving, however, that topic, Major Mae- 
 dowall expressly shews, that the restraint of 
 Colonel Davis did not proceed from my order. 
 He says, that he called on Colonel Davis 
 on the evening of the :30th, in consequence 
 of having heard he was under some appre- 
 hension of being under restraint ; " knowing, 
 at the same time, it was not intended by the 
 officers of the garrison that he should consider 
 himself under the smallest." Does (his consist 
 with the probability of my having ordered Colo- 
 nel Davis into restraint ? On the contrary, does 
 it not render that fact almost impossible ? For 
 it would be grossly absurd to suppose, that if I 
 had ffiven such an order, or even been aware of 
 the circumstance, Major Macdovvall would not
 
 29 
 
 have gone directly from me with an order either 
 to release Colonel Davis, or to quiet his appre- 
 hension of being in arrest. The words " officers 
 of the garrison," clearly designate by whose 
 authority the arrest (if there was any arrest at 
 nil) was sanctioned. 
 
 The same observations will appl\ with equal 
 force to that passage of Captain Webster's evi- 
 dence, in which he states, that Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel Munro came, as if with an order from me, 
 stating- that Colonel .Davis need not give himself 
 the trouble of going out of his house', or getting 
 into his palanquin. The course which common 
 sense and reason prescribe as necessary to trace 
 my agency or participation in this act, is that of 
 shewing, in the first place, that ! actually issued 
 the order. The default of that preliminary fact 
 cannot be aided by the mere declaration of others, 
 that they acted by my authority. If such evi- 
 dence, on the most superficial view, did not strike 
 vou as dangerous in respect of precedent, and 
 inconclusive 1 in point of fact, I might, in vain, by 
 my own solemn declaration, which I make in all 
 sincerity and truth, wholly disavow all privity
 
 30 
 
 or concurrence in the restraint of Colonel 
 Davis. 
 
 It may In- said, however, that I \vas a mem- 
 ber of that Committee of Officers, and there- 
 fore answerable tor its acts; and that the fact is 
 implied from Lieutenant Beaumont's statement 
 of that which Colonel Munro said to him, 
 namely, that Colonel Bell and the Committee 
 of Officers had not yet determined whether 
 Colonel Davis had permission to go to Mysore. 
 I must ac;'ain deprecate this loose and imperfect 
 testimony. And yet. that it may not leave the 
 slightest impression on your minds, refer to the 
 minutes of this proceeding, and vou will find 
 abundant proofs that I never was a member of 
 that Committee, and that in no respect 1 adopted 
 their acts bv my acquiescence or concurrence. 
 
 It is to be collected from Mr. BoswelTs 
 statement, that I had complained to him of the 
 extinction of my authority in the garrison. If 
 by a hai^h and severe rule of reasoning, any man 
 infers a species of acfpiiescenee in that assump- 
 tion of authority, from my apparent silence on 
 the subject, he has formed but an imperfect eon-
 
 31 
 
 ception of the difficulties with which I had to 
 struggle. To subdue the agitation bv menace, 
 
 i> 
 
 to repress it by power, to read lectures on obe- 
 dience and submission, might have been effica- 
 cious in a less fevered and morbid state of mind 
 than that which I had to deal with. It wa 
 impossible to escape. The slightest indication 
 which I might give of such an intention, would 
 have been the total annihilation of that little in- 
 fluence which remained to me. By securing 
 the confidence of the officers, I hoped to exer- 
 cise that influence (as you will see when you 
 advert to the sentiments breathed in my letters 
 about this period) in dissuading them from vio- 
 lent and intemperate opposition. Even my faint 
 shadow of authority contributed to the preserva- 
 tion of quiet. Had I leaped from the walls, or 
 escaped by stratagem, I should have been liable 
 to animadversion lor an act of doubtful expedi- 
 ency, whatever might have been the result. [ 
 believe the very attempt would have failed. 
 But, had it succeeded, I am sure that conse- 
 quences would have ensued, which would have- 
 thrown into comparative insignificance the sen-
 
 ous mischief which \v c all deplore. 1 have dis- 
 closed t<> you the principle^ of uiv conduct, If 
 my judgment has erred, the indulgence xvhich 
 is extended by enlightened minds to human 
 frailty, in new seasons and new difficulties, \vill 
 not, perhaps, he withheld from mine. 
 
 That 1 was not a member of that Committee, 
 will appear from that part; of Mr. Casamaijor's 
 evidence, in which he tells you that -Mr. Mack- 
 intosh had told him that Colonel Hell had re- 
 signed the command to a Committee of Officers, 
 and that he was not even privileged to receive a 
 letter, lie understood, also, that I was not 
 even privileged to receive a letter without the 
 sanction of a ( oimnittee of Officers, and that he 
 must address them, if he \\ished to communi- 
 cate xvith the authority of *., garrison. This, 
 perhaps, presents an adequate idea of mv au- 
 thority at this moment, and of my disconnec- 
 tion xvith what was then traiisu'-tin^. '1 he im- 
 plied resignation of mv command to the Com- 
 mittee, is not. indeed, accurate-, for resignation 
 implies volition . 1 had no volition. 1 yielded 
 to necessities xvith honest and sincere intentions.
 
 33 
 
 I advert to this part of Mr. Casamaijor's evidence, 
 because it illustrates a fact which has been ad- 
 duced against me : 1 mean, my returning- the 
 letter enclosing the test, on the . c jlst of July, 
 with a private intimation to Colonel Davis, that 
 it was ut the peril of my freedom to receive any 
 public communication. As for the tearing the 
 envelope, and the subtraction of any paper it 
 contained, 1 here seriously disclaim it. Captain 
 Bishop, Major Macdowall, Major .Freeze, nega- 
 tive, I think, distinctly, my participation in the 
 procedures of the Committee. The former, 
 Captain 13ishop, tells you, that he received or- 
 ders till about the 4th, signed "Committee." 
 ft is impossible not to make this observation. 
 Had 1 been concerned in it, or even privy to its 
 procedures, in any other manner than by con- 
 jecture, would not my name, in common pro- 
 bability, have been signed to their orders, to 
 give them the shew and semblance of authenti- 
 city ? For you see that, in other instances, my 
 name was pretty freely made use of, where it 
 answered the purpose of the moment. Major 
 Freeze also states, that the reply to the letter 
 
 F
 
 34 
 
 addressed to me by Lieutenant-Colonel Davis 
 and Mr. Cole, was signed by Colonel Munro, 
 and Major Kenney, and himself. 1 allude to 
 the letter in which those gentlemen, Colonel 
 Davis and Mr. Cole, with regret and horror, 
 conclude that u the officers intended to oppose 
 Government at all events." It seems, also, 
 that he understood my reason for not signing it 
 was, that 1 had already signed the test. 
 
 I must beseech you to attend most minutely 
 to this circumstance. This letter from Mr. Cole 
 and Colonel Davis of the ;3d of August, is pro- 
 duced by the prosecutor, obviously for the pur- 
 pose of affecting me with notice of its contents, 
 and of shewing that I carried on a resistance to 
 
 O 
 
 the authority of Government, after I had received 
 the warnings and denunciations contained in it. 
 But my knowledge of the letter or its contents, 
 is a matter to be proved, not to be conjectured. 
 There is not a syllable of evidence, by which it can 
 be traced to my hands. The answer to it was 
 written by the officers ; which, of itself, furnished 
 a strong ground of conjecture that I had not even 
 seen it. I had signed the test. 1 had complied
 
 with the only orders of Government or of Colonel 
 Davis I ever received. The letter, therefore, 
 did not apply to me. And when Colonel Davis, 
 in his answer to my letter accompanying- the 
 test, with my signature to it, observed to me, 
 on the evening of that day, that " his house and 
 heart, and those of Mr. Cole, were open to me," 
 it is obvious that he did not consider me as one 
 of the persons whom that letter was written to 
 admonish or to threaten. He would not have 
 opened his heart and house to a mutineer. He 
 must have considered me nearly in a state of 
 coercion. The reiterated intimations I had given 
 him of the extinction of my authority, and the 
 agitation of the place, must have impelled him 
 to this conclusion. It is evident, therefore, that 
 down to the 3d of August, he considered that 1 
 had headed or committed no mutiny. He would 
 otherwise have disdained to accept my signa- 
 ture to a pledge of fidelity, which my conduct, 
 must have so loudly belied. 
 
 If it is asked, why, on the receipt of the in- 
 structions of Government, did you not call the 
 officers together, and, by your example and re-
 
 36 
 
 monstrances, urge them to sign the test? Consi- 
 de;. I bi -seech vou, what Major Macdowall has 
 said on that head, lie tells you, that had 1 or- 
 dered the officers to sis^n the test. I should not 
 have been obeyed. ]{e. mi^ht, in tnith, have 
 gone further, lie might have tdd you, as I shall 
 prove hereafter, that, had 1 given such an order, 
 I should have been in immediate restraint. If \ 
 am asked, why did you not, on receiving from 
 Colonel Davis his assurance that his house and 
 heart were open to you. instantly leave the gar- 
 rison, and flv thither for an asvlum r My an- 
 swer to the question, i! it is gravels put to me, 
 is this: had 't meditated such an escape, i could 
 not have efiected it. '1 here is, however, ano- 
 ther aspect in which it might be viewed as a 
 questioi. of duty. To quit my station without an 
 order, at such a St. ason, might have been con- 
 duct reconcilable rather to personal prurience 
 than public dutv. If, however, in this part of 
 my defence, I had to combat with a captious and 
 cavilling tribunal, it miu'lit be said, " J rue. you 
 had no order to .jiiit your station ; but how can 
 vvc believe vour own statements of vour uood
 
 3? 
 
 intentions, or assent to y<>ur o\vn reasonings, 
 without proof to support them ?" To such an 
 objection, what would be said, when I refer you 
 to one of my letters, written on that very ;}<! of 
 August, to Colonel Davis, and now in evidence 
 against me, in the postscript of which I tell that 
 officer, that ;i 1 am sorry to say what 1 foretold, 
 as to the officers, has taken place. I shall re- 
 main here as long as i can do any good, and 
 till I receive your orders to the contrary." 
 
 This, therefore, is the light by which my 
 conduct, if it has anv thing dubious or proble- 
 matic in it. ought to be' illustrated. Mv object, 
 from first to last, was to avert the effusion of 
 blood; to soften, if J coidd, not heat the irrita- 
 tion ; and, by acts of a salutary compromise and 
 moderation, to mitigate the evils that threatened 
 us. Yet, whilst this was the hope that ani- 
 mated, and the impulse that urged me, 1 would 
 instantly, and at anv peril, have obeyed, or 
 made an effort to obev, any military order to 
 quit the garrison. The truth is, I received no 
 order whatsoever. 
 
 Try me, however, by my acts, I ^igned thr>
 
 58 
 
 . I have already shewn that the attempt to 
 persuade others to have done it would have been 
 hopeless. On the ;)d of August, the man who 
 stands before you lor having, between the 3()th 
 of. Inly and the i>;jd of August, headed a mutiny 
 against the Government, gave a solemn pledge 
 of obedience to that (o\ eminent, against which 
 he is pretended to have rebelled. 
 
 There may, however, bean insinuation lurking 
 in this very fact, of which it is impossible 1 1 should 
 be unmindful. It may be whispered, that 1 
 signed the test as a disguise, and in subservience 
 to my real intentions. I wear not, gentlemen, any 
 more than the rest of you. a suit of armour to 
 repel insinuation. I can only appeal, in confu- 
 tation of il, to the whole, of my lite, and the 
 general complexion of my character. 1'ossibly 
 tin-re are amongst you who may not be ignorant 
 of either. They can best tell, whether among 
 mv habits and dispositions are to be numbered 
 those of hypocrisy, or deceit, or low cunning, 
 or any of that family of vices. l ; or myself, 1 
 can soiemnlv appeal to Him, from whom all 
 truth emanates, that 1 signed that pledge in
 
 39 
 
 the genuine spirit of obedience. And you, gen- 
 tlemen, have one criterion by which you can 
 estimate the sincerity of this protestation ; for, 
 antecedently to this third day of August, there 
 is no act that can be alleged against me, which 
 does not dery all blame or crimination. If cri- 
 minal intentions are essential to crime, and if 
 acts are the interpreters of intentions when 
 those acts are criminal, it would be a perversion 
 of justice to deny, that they equally indicate 
 intentions when they are innocent. 
 
 A species of proof has been resorted to in this 
 case, which the lawyers call accumulative, that 
 is, the accumulation of little facts and petty cir- 
 cumstances. A century and a half has glided 
 away since that doctrine died a natural death. 1 
 do not, however, complain of its revival on the 
 present occasion, because there must be a penury 
 of material proof against me, when so much idle 
 industry is expended in dragging up forgotten 
 conversations and straggling expressions, to bear 
 testimony against me. Of this kind is the very 
 insignificant fact sworn to by Lieutenant Caden- 
 
 o */ 
 
 ski, that he heard a noise of guns moved about.
 
 40 
 
 in a garrison in which the <(iins wore ordinarily 
 moved cvcrv day ! My expression of" Mysorean 
 rascals." and the singular and whimsical order, 
 it seems, that 1 c^ave that officer who was on 
 uuard at the Bangalore ^ate, to fire not only on 
 an enemv who mi^ht be passing the Bangalore 
 bridge, hut on all armed men on the Mysore 
 road, which is. at least, hah' a mile distant! 
 lie was asked hy the Court whether any per- 
 sons were present at this conversation ? None. 
 This is a kind oi' totimonv which he against 
 whom it is intended is nccessarilv unable to con- 
 tradict. 'I here is. however, providentially, a 
 mixture of absurdity in this statement, that the 
 mention and refutation of it must be one and 
 ihe same thiiiLT. 1 impute nothing of discredit 
 to tne witness. In >.easoiis ot agitation and 
 alarm the memor. ;.s clouded. 
 
 1 must have wearied the attention ot'the Court 
 !v (K'taiuiiiL;- them so lon^ in what may he deem- 
 ed onlv the preliminary part of the subject. 
 ( )bser\ in.;, however, that the prosecutor's object 
 ui overloading the cause with an accumulation 
 >f iactv. \\ as that of shewing me to have been
 
 41 
 
 the first mover of the commotion from its ear- 
 liest stages, you will excuse the minuteness with 
 which 1 have remarked on them. There remains 
 but one further circumstance that requires a 
 comment, before I proceed to answer the seve- 
 ral allegations of these charges. 1 mean the 
 order which I gave Lieutenant Adamson to re- 
 move the detachment of the 80th. 
 
 If you have done me the honour to follow me 
 in the progressive exposition of my conduct 
 from the JOth of July to the ;3d of August, you 
 must do me the justice of admitting it to be 
 reconcilable to a most earnest anxiety for the 
 peace and tranquillity of the garrison. You 
 must also have framed a pretty correct estimate 
 of the state of things in which, with a crippled 
 and imperfect authority, 1 had to exercise what 
 little influence remained to me in averting the 
 worst of evils. The alarm and consternation in 
 the garrison had received a dreadful augmentation 
 from the transactions of Trichinopoly on the 
 JOth, where Colonel Wilkinson having proposed 
 a test to the officers of that station, \\hich, from 
 the manner in which it was proposed, and from 
 
 c
 
 other circumstances, they considered as a signal 
 to cut tht 1 tliroats of their brother-officers, placed 
 them, on tlu'ir refusal to si^n it, in charge of a 
 ii a rd of Europeans \\ith fixed bayonets, with 
 absolute orders to fire upon them if a rescue 
 was attempted. Amidst terror, suspicion, dark 
 and mutual distrust, many obscure and indefi- 
 nite reports \vere wandering about, as Major 
 Macdowall tells you. that so far back as the 
 90th of July, the detachment of Ilis Majesty's 
 SOth had been employed three or lour succes- 
 sive nights in making up cartridges, as hostile 
 preparations auainst the garrison. \\ hether this 
 \vas the tact 1 do not enquire. It is sufficient 
 for me, that in that distempered state of the gar- 
 rison it \va< universally believed. I nder such 
 cn'cumstancc-s, I thought, as everv rational man 
 would have thought, that a mere handful of 
 men were no longer safe \vithi.i the walls. 
 
 M\ motives are elucidated in \\\\ letter to 
 < 'olonel l),i\ ; s ot' that das. intiiuatiii'j' th< 
 dan'jerous impression which the conduct oj that 
 detachment i; i,l made on the artiller\ . and th.il 1 
 <:uuld no loil'a'er be ail^\\ er;ii|e i'or t he s;i|et\' of sc^
 
 43 
 
 small a number of kind's troops, who were con- 
 sidered as occupied in hostile, designs on the rest 
 of the garrison. And here it is impossible not 
 to admire the .singular fatality which has made a 
 meritorious act, suggested by an anxiety tor the 
 rest of this detachment, an act, of which the 
 avowed must have been the real object, into a 
 matter of accusation against me. No ingenuity 
 can torture this plain and simple procedure into 
 anv other than its obvious purpose. Will it be 
 said, that, being at that cime the leader of a 
 mutiny against the Government, 1 was desirous 
 to remove the king's soldiers into a place of 
 safety ; that with such designs, and when in 
 furtherance of those designs, ;; petty detachment 
 of an hundred and twenty men miii'ht, in ten 
 minutes, have been disarmed, and rendered in- 
 efficient to counteract the mutinous proceedings 
 which I am said to have bended. 1 requested 
 them to go out. with all their arms, as a pre- 
 caution strictlv necessary for their security ? 
 
 ! shall now proceed to the alleged overt act of 
 seizing the public treasure. I ani spared the 
 necessity of a minute or elaborate answer to this
 
 partof the charge, because I have already shewn 
 my entire disconnection with the proceedings of 
 the officers, who had taken upon themselves 
 the military authority, at the time when the 
 treasures of -Mr. Casamaijor and Mr. Paymaster 
 Smith are said to have been sei/ed. 
 
 In so '.>Tave '<m accusation, it will not be more 
 the prerogative of an accused man, than the pre- 
 siding principle of the judicature he tore which 
 he stands, to require the acts charged against him 
 to be fr.llv and legitimately proved, and to adhere 
 
 O * 
 
 to known and recognized rules, lest frail and 
 fallible presumptions, or loose and unfavourable 
 conjectures, may take place of that strict and 
 precise rule of investigation, which leads to ju- 
 dicial irutli by the most direct and shortest pro- 
 cess. Turn, therefore, to Mr. Casamaijor's evi- 
 dence, and examine whether any proof is to 
 be collected from it, of my having sei/ed the 
 treasure committed to his charge. Captain 
 Turner said IK? acted bv Colonel Bell's orders. 
 If what Captain Turner said to the witness was 
 adopted as conelusive cvidenee of my having 
 i:iven the order, of course, the act would be
 
 45 
 
 mine, with all its responsibility. But, waving 
 all exception to the proof, admitting- it, if un- 
 contradicted by any other fact, to be a fair infe- 
 rence of my having- given the order, the very 
 next sentence of Mr. Casamaijor's deposition 
 brings iorward a circumstance, which plainly 
 shews that it was not by my order that. Captain 
 Turner was acting. For, upon Mr. Casamaijor's 
 beo-inninof the draft of an official letter to Go- 
 vernment, stating- that it was by my order the 
 treasure was detained, Captain Turner imme- 
 diately objects to the mention of my name, re- 
 marking, that though he had Colonel Bell's 
 sanction, he had not his permission to say so. 
 I think this incident must have induced the 
 Court to draw the conclusion, that my name 
 was used for the purpose of the moment. 
 Had 1 given the order, Mr. Casamaijor, as a 
 matter of course, would Slave stated that i'aet 
 to the Government, without the slightest ob- 
 jection on the part of Captain Turner. Subject 
 to the same observation is that which Captain 
 Cadell told Mr. Casamaijor, concerning the me- 
 morandum he said I was making of the reasons
 
 tor securing the treasure. hi a subsequent pas- 
 sage. Mr. Casamaijor clearly shews the improba- 
 bditvot ni\ ordering, or even conniving in that 
 transaction, i ie tills you. that lie loimd I hud 
 no command ; that I was unauthorized even to 
 receive a letter without the sanction ot' the Com- 
 mittee, to v\ 1 1 01 n ail communications with the au- 
 thority of the garrison must have lieen addressed. 
 ! lere, then, is a complete solution of all doubt on 
 Hie subject. '! he occupation ot the treasure bv 
 me. or mv older, remains not. oidv not proved b\ 
 regular and le^ai evidence, but then' is regular 
 and leLjal evidence which disproves it. 
 
 This brings me to the treasure ot Mr. I'av- 
 
 t 
 master Smith. It seems t'nat C'aplain l)e llavi- 
 
 l:ml and Captain Cadeii told Mr. Smith, that 
 ihi'\ wen 1 commissioned by a board ot officers, 
 to require a staleineiit of the C'lin 111 his ch.iru'c. 
 "l'o ^vhat exienl tins i.ici is io operate au'amsl 
 me. i have vet to learn. That Mr. Smith un- 
 derstood from Captain Cadell that the <_;-uard was 
 i)|-,if d over his treasurv b\ me. amount^ to no 
 more. Nor does Captain CadelTs li-tt'-r of tin 
 list ?o Mr. Smith, in whicli m\ name i. ;i!si.
 
 4? 
 
 mentioned, carry it at all further. It does not 
 even approximate to evidence, i confess, gen- 
 tlemen, I am astonished at the slender, vague, 
 and uncertain proofs, on \vhich the* prosecutor- 
 has attempted to charge me with the seizing of 
 the public treasure. It is true, Knngapah talks 
 of the conversation [ had with him, in the course 
 of which i said 1 would !>e the pavmaster. Hut 
 this was on or about the (ith. The treasure, if 
 it can be called a seizure, had been seized before 
 by persons who, as Mr. Smith himself informs 
 you. had received their commission from the. 
 Committee of Officers. And A: r. Smith also 
 
 savs, he received no other answers to the letters 
 
 i 
 
 he wrote to me, but that a verbal message wa> 
 brought to him, stating that they would be 
 taken in consideration ; a circumstance clcarlv 
 indicating that a deliberation was to be held 
 upon it by the Committee. With tin- sei/usv I 
 had nothing to do; and when vou advert to that 
 tact, which almost everv witness conspires to 
 prove, that on the ;jlst the whole military 
 power was in the hands of those officers, it wdi 
 be placed beyond the roach of contradiction
 
 48 
 
 The allegation o!' the charge is tlic sei/ure of 
 the public treasure. It' it appears, therefore, that I 
 did not sei/e it on the ;K)th of July, 1 am surely 
 not culpable for taking chartiv of it on the Oth of 
 August. 1 \vas influenced to that measure by 
 every motive of dutv and necessity, it \vas to 
 secure it from depredation during tiie absence of 
 the j)orson to whom the custedv of it had he-en 
 committed : to take care, on my own iaith and 
 responsibility, that it should he disbursed and 
 applied to the purposes for which it \\as intend- 
 ed. True. I said to Kungapah. your master has 
 run away. This is the cause of all this confu- 
 sion. 1 will he paymaster." 1 am sure, that 
 when you consider th;s act of seizure as the act 
 of others, (for it has n,>t been shewn to bo 
 mine.) you \\;!i not \is;t me with much harsh- 
 ness ' >i 'animadversion tor takinj; care of it ait'-r 
 it had i>een sei/ed, and appropriating 1 it to the 
 ordinary exigences ol tin 1 service. ^ on see that 
 the treasure \vas administered, in ever\ respect, 
 !> it had been done before ; the keys kept by 
 rhe ^ame servants ; the monies disbursed lor the 
 Kind's : ; nd ( oinoany's ust^. a^ bclorc-. Not the
 
 49 
 
 smallest subtraction or misappropriation. I justify 
 this act as an act of strict duty and inevitable 
 necessity. The treasure \vas to be taken care 
 of. or to be lost. The person to whose custody 
 it had been entrusted, had abdicated his office. 
 I cannot clearly see what other procedure my 
 duty to my employers could, under such cir- 
 cumstances, have suggested. Fay could not have 
 been prudently withheld from the garrison. Per- 
 haps it would have been impossible to have put 
 the fidelity of the sepoys to a more perilous test. 
 And had I refused to sanction the necessary 
 payments, after the paymaster had abandoned 
 his functions, 1 might probably have stood be- 
 fore you under different charges, accused of 
 having betrayed the duty of an officer, and the 
 interests of the Honourable Company, by mea- 
 sures resulting in the mutiny and insurrection of 
 their native troops. 
 
 If these reasonings are just, 1 can feel but lit- 
 tle apprehension from the other fact, brought 
 forward as a seizure of treasure. It was reported. 
 that treasure, destined to Seringapatam, had 
 been stopped on its way. By what authority ; 
 
 u
 
 .50 
 
 Hv persons, who without anv written document 
 
 whatsoever, irave verbal orders to lake the trea- 
 sure, l>v a circuitous route to Mysore. Now, 
 tliere is DO evidence to shew that I ordered the 
 detachment out on that occasion ; and you will 
 not supply tin 1 absence of proof so material, by 
 conjecture. ^ et, were L to admit that 1 had 
 ^iven the order, I \vou!d rest its vindication on 
 the strict propnet\ and necessity of securing a 
 treasure, which had been intercepted without 
 any authority whatsoever. It would, at anv 
 time, be a matter of strict dutv to have taken 
 the necessary steps tor its protection, as soon as 
 the liamildaar made the report of its bavin;/ 
 been stopped. 
 
 Alter all, \\hat docs this sci/ui'e of treasure 
 amount to. in whatever aspect it is consider d ? 
 Mr. (_ asainai jor's remained secure ;md untouch- 
 ed. Mr. Smith's \\as reuul.Jv disbursed for 
 the exigences of the service, without which the 
 Honourable Company's troops \\ould ha\e heen 
 reduced to famine. I he money iron; the ceded 
 districts was secured from depredation, (lor the 
 stoppage of it without authorit\ is nothing less,)
 
 51 
 
 and safely lodged in the place to which it was 
 destined. Not the slightest misappropriation of 
 this treasure, which L am charged with having 
 seized. If, however, the protection and secu- 
 rity of the treasure he deemed a criminal seizure 
 in vour eves, turn to the evidence, and you will 
 find, that from all share and participation in it 
 1 arn completely absolved. 
 
 You have now travelled with me to an im- 
 portant date in the .series of these, transactions. 
 On the (Jth of August it seems that 1 was re- 
 quested bv the officers to command the garri- 
 son; a iact which unanswerably shews, that 
 before that time I had no command whatever. 
 You will, of course, deem it probable, that 
 whatever agitations and disorders prevailed be- 
 fore, ! am not responsible for these ; for mv 
 interposition would have been useless and im- 
 potent. 1 have shewn, not by my own uncor- 
 roborated statements, but bv the evidence actu- 
 ally recorded against me, that i disobeyed no 
 orders on the JOth ; that 1 carried the orders I 
 did receive into speedy and diligent execution ; 
 that in the real or imaginary restraint of Colonel
 
 Davis I h;t(l no share ; that I had no concern in 
 the proceedings of {lie Committee ; that I had 
 no control over others. Ail that my imp< nc-cl. 
 authority could ciVec! toward:-, ihe restoration ol 
 tranquillity, you, will perceivr tha!; 1 eUeeted. 
 'That fearful oi' th.e safety of a small detachment 
 :>f one <;' 1 i i- Majcsu ' regiments. 1 urued their 
 removal a* a mere matter of precaution ; that i 
 diii ,,!! that the Government required ol' me : 
 that 1 cheerfully nave the proffered pledge 
 oi ouedienrc : th (l t when ! returned that 
 pledge, \\ii\\ \\\\- smnature. to C.'oloncl Davis. 
 1 intimated to him. that, although dtsirous of 
 <t;.viiiU' in the garrison as |(.-n^ as I could do anv 
 l;ood, I \\ould ohev any orders he would tj'ivr 
 me ; th;it. in truth, I recc'i\'cd no order at ail, 
 or oven a suL^'e^tion suHieient to impose upon 
 me a clear and definite rule ot' conduct. ^. our 
 o\vn conceptions will supply much of what must 
 he left imperi't-ct in this picture, "i on mav con- 
 cei\e (some of vou may. m part. ha\'c experi- 
 enced^ the emharrassmeiits v,i?!i v, hich I \vas 
 l:-'s: 't. tin' jealoit^x \\ith \\hieh 1 \\-;;s watclied, 
 tne eonllict of fet line's into wh'cli ! \\';}^ throxyn.
 
 by the very solicitude 1 felt to discharge 111 
 diitv. You may imagine a state of tilings. 
 wnere the lines that divide duty from disobedi- 
 ence are so faint and shadowy, that from human 
 candour will be demanded its most benignant 
 allowance to human error. If, in such a season, 
 the feet iaiter, or break and snap asunder some 
 of the nice and minute threads and filaments 
 which entangle them, who is there that will 
 pronounce a severe condemnation : It is then 
 you will look to the intention, a^ the index and 
 criterion of the action. It is then, also, that, 
 weighing the difficulties and the perils to be en- 
 countered, you will not, when you discern the 
 honour and the rectitude of the heart, withhold 
 rhat enlarged and liberal discretion, \\hich con- 
 sists in the prudent choice of evils; in bending, 
 as it were, beneath the storm ; in the teii p;>rary 
 submission to necessities: in the adaptation of 
 conduct to times and circumstances. 
 
 1 shall now consider the only remaining heads 
 of accusation the ; ring on the troops, and the 
 refusal to deliver up the 1'Vrt to the proper au- 
 thorities . See whether the intentions which
 
 54 
 
 have hitherto animated me, will he found, in 
 this maturer state of the transaction, to have 
 departed from me ? Another question will per- 
 haps present itself. Whether, in the ne\v and 
 extraordinary combination of eireiimstanees 
 \vhieli had arisen, a sound discretion was not 
 conferred upon me, of a-vcniiiL; a bloody con- 
 flict between fellow-soldiers and follow -citizens, 
 by everv means in mv power? 
 
 I '"rom what you have already collected con- 
 cerning the fevered state of the garrison, the 
 feeling's which prevailed, and the passions by 
 which the officers were animated, you will be 
 enabled to form a faint idea of the difficulties 
 with which 1 had to stru^le. Could 1 escape? 
 That was impossible. Had it been possible, 
 could 1 have deserted my post ? It was my 
 maxim of duty, that 1 was bound to stay so long 
 as 1 could be ot anv use, so lon-^ as 1 could pre- 
 serve (jiiiet by mv remonstrances, uiv intreaties. 
 and v\ hat little of authority remained to me. 
 Had 1 received anv order to (put the garrison? 
 None. I lad I received anv 1 would have mark 1 
 the attempt, though it must have been iinnie-
 
 diately defeated. 1 had given an intimation to 
 Colonel Davis, in the letter above alluded to, 
 that 1 would stay as long 1 as I could do any 
 good, or till I had his orders. Uis silence im- 
 plied an acquiescence, lie -ave no orders to 
 the contrary. The letter in which lie observes 
 " the garrison were determined, at all events, to 
 oppose the Government," was neither received, 
 nor replied to by me. Could my influence in- 
 duce the officers to deliver up the Fort? in 
 the first place, no orders to that effect were ever 
 given. In the second, the very attempt would 
 have been ridiculous. Under such circum- 
 stances, 1 resolved, by every expedient within 
 my power, to restore discipline and obedience, 
 and to quiet the exasperations, which might 
 otherwise break out into the most fatal and per- 
 nicious measures, it is for this that I have been 
 dragged hither as a criminal. 
 
 With these views I reassumed the command. 
 1 thought that in the hands of a man anxiously 
 bent on peace, and order, and subordination, 
 the control would b<j exercised with b.-ttn 
 chance for the public inten sts th;ui in the. hands
 
 of seventy or eighty. Am ! a criminal tor having 
 thus thought and thus acted : i lad I declined 
 
 it, I should have remained \\itliin tin- \valls of 
 Serinuapatam a mere prisoner, stripped of all 
 influence to eontrol, to check, or admonish. 
 F.verv thinking man must tremble, when he 
 conjectures what might have resulted from such 
 an anarchy. 
 
 That these motives animated me, is not. my 
 own unsupported assertion. They are to he 
 traced in the uniform language, and sentiments 
 of m\ letters to Colonel Davis, \\hen the mili- 
 tarv power was exercised hv the Committee. 
 Those letters have; been produced, no doubt, 
 to shew th.it my intentions were criminal. Re- 
 view them, and \ou wili iind that thev warrant 
 no such conclusion. Hut. amongst those letters. 
 I was not a little astonished tluri. one to Colonel 
 Davis, so late as the .)th or' August, did not 
 make its appearance. It would have been an 
 important document ; because it would have 
 clrarlv demonstrated what intentions I cherished. 
 and with what motives I was influenced on that 
 dav. It was written the dav before the revival
 
 57 
 
 ot my authority. All communications between 
 Colonel Davis and the garrison had ceased on 
 the third. Large bodies of Mysore troops had 
 appeared in movement. They had cut off the 
 supplies of the garrison, and had committed 
 other acts of irregularity, bv seizing and detain- 
 
 O *-'*, O 
 
 ing persons on their way from or to the Fort, 
 In the total cessation of all intercourse between 
 the garrison and Mysore, and the suppression of 
 all intelligence from every quarter whatsoever, 
 this circumstance had excited sensations the 
 more vehement, as it was mysterious and ob- 
 scure. No man could believe that it had entered 
 into the head or heart of any British subject, to 
 let loose the troops of a native power upon an 
 English garrison, to teach a dangerous theory, 
 which might hereafter be practised to the de- 
 struction of our empire. It never was imagined 
 that such a procedure was authorized by the 
 Government. In the midst of the agitation oc- 
 casioned by this most mysterious circumstance, 
 I rejoiced that the officers who had then the 
 control of the garrison had determined upon the 
 most pacific conduct. Under that impression. 1
 
 \\rote the following letter to Colonel Davis, 
 which the Judge-Advocate has not yet pro- 
 duced. 
 
 ic Seringapatam. .ith August. 1S()>. 
 kt SIR. 
 
 ' It has been communicated to me, 
 that the officers of the garrison have come to a 
 determination not to he the first to commence 
 hostilities. 1 have, then-fore, to hope, that 
 thev will come round in a few (lavs, and follow 
 the steps of their brother-officers, rather than 
 risk the loss of British India." 
 
 ^ J. JJK1J., Lt. Col. Sen. Officer." 
 " To Col. Davis. " 
 
 Such, on the .'>th of August, were the ex- 
 pressions of the man who, from the JOtli ol'.Jnlv, 
 is said to have been at the head of a dangerous 
 and alarming mutiny. > i on \\ ill therefore per- 
 eeive, if this letter speaks an unambiguous lan- 
 guage, that, so late as the >;th. 1 indulged the 
 hope that thr officers would follow the steps of 
 their brother-officers, bv signing the test, and 
 that, instead of meditating revolt and coiispi-
 
 59 
 
 racy, my heart was occupied with the .solici- 
 tudes of a man loyal to his king and his country. 
 
 With this hope, I rejoiced that my authority 
 returned to me. How could 1 predict that, di- 
 recting iiiV efforts to these ends, and feeling 
 these solicitudes, I could have been considered 
 as heading a mutiny ? And here I cannot but 
 lament that Lieutenant-Colonel Davis should 
 have disdained all consultation with me on the 
 measures to be adopted. 'To the best of my 
 humble talents, and with a loyalty as sincere 
 and unaffected as his own, I would have ren- 
 dered him rny assistance towards the restoration 
 of peace and discipline. But other counsels 
 prevailed. I will boldly assert, that the want of 
 confidence, which was warranted by nothing 
 either in my character or conduct, lias been the 
 source of the unfortunate train of events which 
 you are now investigating. 
 
 There was still, however, another powerful 
 inducement to soothe and conciliate 1 the agita- 
 tions of the garrison, which was actively alive 
 in my mind. 1 mean, the expected arrival of 
 Lord Minto. This, combined with other cir-
 
 60 
 
 cumstances, will explain many of my letters 
 The British empire was endangered by the con- 
 flict boi \veen the army and Sir (looi^e Barlow. 
 The open opposition of the Hvdrabad force, 
 (who. being the leaders and agitators of these 
 tumults, have been the first objects of amnesty,) 
 made the danger, in my eves, almost gigantic. 
 Cut oft' from all communication and intelligence, 
 probably it loomed, as it were, larger than it 
 was. irom the darkness in which it was kept. 
 It was a time when a man. bent on the restora- 
 tion of discipline, iniuiit be pardoned much 
 wider deviations irom dutv than can be linked 
 airaii.st me. The magnitude of the stake might 
 well excuse some errors in the i;ame. ( ontem- 
 platinu- the extent and sixe of the 1 }enl ; the 
 m or(.' than dubious policy of employing against 
 British troops, a native allv. naturally jealous 
 of our dominion, and disposer! to avail himselt 
 ofeverv discord amongst ourselves, which might 
 weaken or undermine our authority : the con- 
 viction that such a measure would receive no 
 countenance from any ( iovernment which was 
 watchful over the interests of our Indian
 
 61 
 
 the assurance that such a measure, if adopted 
 by the local Government, would draw down 
 from their country the most tremendous respon- 
 sibility for the awful fusts thev had <) ; > si-d ; 
 but above all, the certainty that whatever were 
 mv sentiments, the garrison would be defended 
 to the last drop of blood within its w;,l!s. a^rvst 
 the assaults of the Mysoreans ; all these consi- 
 derations rendered me solicitous, by a temporis- 
 ing policy, to avert the conflict ; to prevent ' e 
 shedding 1 of civil blood ; and to evade a sin:;,i;ie 
 with a native power, in a cause in which vic- 
 tory would have been the worst of (U t'rats. and 
 success the most fatal of calamities. For this 
 reason, as I told Colonel Davis, I considered 
 the Fort confided to my charge ; and referred to 
 the supreme authority the decision oi' a question 
 so wholly new and unprecedented. 
 
 lint you will not be at a loss to discover the 
 reasons and the motives by w! ich [ was influ- 
 enced. A mere delay was all that I sol. cited. 
 I knew the en flamed spirit with v, hieh an at- 
 tempt to take the garrison would be repelled. I 
 knew that any order I might be inclined to give
 
 62 
 
 for its surrender would be unavailing. I had. 
 tin retore, before my eyes, the dreadful horrors 
 of' a civil war: of' which, it' the sword was once 
 drawn. ( foresaw that my authority could not 
 assuage or restrain the lurv. As a man, I felt 
 torthe sufferings of man in such a contest. As 
 a British officer. I felt for mv fellow-soldiers and 
 countryman, whose Mood would have been 
 poured out in an ignominious quarrel, l>v a na- 
 tive soldiery. I was desirous, therefore, that 
 the sword miulit remain in its scabbard, not, as 
 I considered, for an indefinite period, hut for a 
 slight and inconsiderable interval, till the arrival 
 of Lord Minto, who was then hourly expected. 
 1*111 yourselves into my situation, and ask 
 \vhe4her. acting under the influence of such 
 feeling. I am to he condemned as a Mutineer? 
 [fuman conduct is to he tried, not hv its dead 
 letter, hut by its living and active spirit. ll 
 was to span- the inevitable effusion of blood, 
 that I wrote the letter of the 'ith of' \umist to 
 Colonel Davis, to incline him to forego the at- 
 tempt to direct the Mysore force against the 
 place, (an attempt of which the success and the
 
 63 
 
 failure were equally to be deprecated,) to leave 
 us, as it were, in a harmless tranquillity for a 
 few days, till the determination of Lord Alinto 
 was pronounced. From the style of my letters 
 it will be seen, that the arrival of the (lovernor- 
 deneral was hourly expected. Cut off from all 
 public intelligence. I knew nothing of the un- 
 fortunate delay that had retarded it. 1 requested 
 Colonel Davis to forward my letter to his lord- 
 ship, expecting that it would find him at Ma- 
 dras. Is this a mutinous refusal to deliver up 
 the Fort to the proper authority r 
 
 Under the assurance that scarcely a day 
 could intervene before Lord Aiinto's arrival, and 
 almost convinced that he was then at the Presi- 
 dency, I considered, ii'l could ward off the evil 
 for a few hours, or, at most, a few davs, 1 
 should act according to the strictest obligations 
 of policy and duty. The proclamation 01 Lord 
 Min to, dated the 20th of .Inly, had announced 
 his determination of coining to the coast ; and 
 no other construction could be put on his resolu- 
 tion, but that he was coming to present the 
 consequences of civil warfare, to mediate, to 
 heal, to hear, to conciliate, to redress, Jh\
 
 proclamation inspired these hopes ; and every 
 eonntenaiice on which gloom and despondence 
 had so long sat, beamed with expectation. 
 These expectations received strength and confi- 
 dence from the known character and disposition 
 of his lordship. The eyes of all were turned to 
 a man, who had not learnt the art of government 
 at his office, or surveyed mankind from his desk, 
 but to a man whose knowledge of human affairs 
 had been enlarged by a British education, and 
 whose mind had been liberalized by British 
 habits of thinking and feeling. 
 
 From such a man, it was not to be supposed 
 that, coming professedly for the purpose of en- 
 <|iiirv and redress, he would sutler himself to be 
 misled bv those, whose interest it was to de- 
 ceive bun. or surrender himself into their hands, 
 the instrument of their passions and resent- 
 ments. Adverting to the avowed object for 
 which the Governor-General announced his in- 
 tention of repairing hither, I considered that by 
 delaying a conflict, which every good man must 
 have deprecated, I should be acting in literal 
 subservience to his \ie\\s and inclinations. 
 
 But you will observe, that to my letter to
 
 65 
 
 Colonel Davis I received no answer. I had no 
 order to deliver up the garrison. And surely, 
 gentlemen, when the intentions with which 1 
 acted in an emergency totally new, are taken 
 into consideration, some doubts might remain 
 whether an order, an attempt to execute which 
 would infallibly have led to the sanguinary con- 
 flict i hoped to avert, would not have furnished 
 that new modification of military duty,* which 
 has been applied by high authority to cases of 
 infinitely less moment than that in which I was 
 obliged to act. If there is a time in which a 
 military man may pause and deliberate concern- 
 ing the execution of an order ; if he is ever ab- 
 solved from the ordinary obligations of obedience. 
 it is when in the total absence of a rational 
 utility, or an over-ruling necessity, he is called 
 on to deliver up his fellow-creatures to slaughter 
 and destruction. Mad I been convinced that 
 no other purpose was in the contemplation of 
 those who urged the garrison to extremities, but 
 that of obtainin for themselves a sort of excuse 
 
 * Lord Minto's Letter to Sir G. Barlow. May -27, 
 K
 
 in the violent and irregular conduct of the arm}'. 
 even liic-n the duty I owed. i>oth to tind and 
 man. would have well excust d a reluctance to 
 become tin- instrnincnt of so detestable a policy. 
 l!a||)ilv. however. 1 do not require the aid 
 of such reasoning. I '.lave no refusal to deliver 
 up the Fort to the proper authorities. 1 received 
 no order to do so, lint it is heside the purpose 
 to talk of refusal, when I knew that the officers 
 of the garrison were determined to defend the 
 Fort against the expected assault ot' the Mv- 
 soreans. to the la>t drop o! blood, and that mv 
 authoritv would have been whollv incompetent 
 to restrain the conflict, had it once commenced. 
 \\hat then was to he done? I endeavoured, 
 hv inv letter to Colonel l)a\:s and to I'ooniah, 
 in the true spirit of a man anxious to avoid a 
 most dreadful evil, to dissuade them from the 
 attempt of taking the ^arri^o '. \\inch \\onld 
 iii"\ltahl\ ha\e he-'ll opposen! \\ith the HK^St 
 detenuiiied spirit, and have' terminated \\itli 
 mutual loss and bloodshed. This will be the 
 true commentarv of mv iettcTs to ( olone! !)a\is 
 -uid i'oomali. as \v.'ll as o) those, to J .ord Mmto,
 
 67 
 
 from which it will ho plainly perceived, that, 
 conceiving there was already a suspension of 
 the local Government by his lordship's arrival. 
 I referred myself to the supreme Government 
 for the line of conduct 1 was to pursue, and 
 stated the measures into which I had been com- 
 pelled hv the preparations to assault the place, 
 which had excited a determined spirit of resist- 
 ance in the officers under my command. This 
 is my offence. A reference, not a resistance, 
 f.o the proper authority. Whatever may be my 
 fate, I' shall turn to this passage of my lite, and 
 review the motives which influenced it with a 
 satisfaction which no external circumstances can 
 impair or diminish. 
 
 I had vainly hoped that thus temporizing with 
 a most portentous evil, I should have warded 
 off the evil I dreaded. SOUK.' allowances are 
 due to my situation. From the first to the last 
 I was ready to obey legal orders, as [ professed 
 in my letter to Lord Aliuto. Colonel Davis 
 treated my communications with the most sullen 
 disdain. I received no order. Had any orders been 
 given me, 1 should have done what little was in
 
 68 
 
 im power. I shoukl have made tin- effort to 
 obey them. In the mean rune, entrusted \vitli 
 th' satety of a British garrison. I was anxious 
 onlv to preserve it from the horrors which 
 threatened it. This was all that I could do. 
 Mv authority was circumscribed within these 
 hounds. I have beiore said tiial it \\ as wholly 
 incompetent to oiler a surrender 01' the garrison. 
 Mv hopis. however, \\ere frustrated, l>v the 
 events of the llth of August. Of the nature 
 of niv authority, in sueh a state ot things, \ou 
 mav easiiv form an estimate: and how far I am 
 criminally responsible for having done that 
 which would inevitably ha\e been done by 
 others. it' it be said, why did vou retain the 
 shadow ot' an authority which you could not 
 ellectu'iliv exerciser Mv answer is. that I 
 retained it from the conviction that the estima- 
 tion in which 1 was belli lr, ilic army in ucneral 
 (ai: f.-itimaticn \\liieh it is mv pride to have 
 obiniu.-t! and merited) woi'id give some \\cjght 
 to my ojjinion and remonstrances, and that, it 
 1 could not whoilv subdue the exasperation, J 
 miuht, at least, soften and militate it. I will
 
 69 
 
 now proceed concisely to state the event of the 
 llth. ami. in the simplest statement, I trust 
 you will find my fullest vindication. 
 
 You will have already o' /served, that, anxious 
 only for delay, till my reference to the supreme 
 Government was answered, and intent on the 
 prevention of bloodshed, some preparations were 
 made against the threatened attack of the Myso- 
 reans. When it was found that European troops 
 were in siu'ht, my solicitude to avoid a conflict 
 was redoubled. 1 could conceive, in imagination, 
 the dreadful carnage v. hid; must have ensued, if, 
 by a surprize on the garrison, or an attempt to 
 pass the bridge, hostilities had once commenced. 
 I knew that the attempt \vonld have been ob- 
 stinatelv resisted. I war, anxious, therefore, to 
 evade the evil. 
 
 fn the mean time, a camp was formed in a 
 position which not a little perplexed me. [f the 
 movement of the European force was hostile, it 
 was difficult to reconcile it to any vulgar notion 
 of military operations, that it should have been 
 planted within range <>f the ^uns. On the other 
 hand, it is equally difficult to conjecture, that a
 
 70 
 
 garrison in a state ot' hostile insurrection against 
 the civil and military authorities, should have 
 suffered thf encampment to remain v, ithout mo- 
 lestation, under the verv month of their artillery. 
 
 In the morning of the. llth. two officers were 
 sent to the camp to enquire concerning the in- 
 tentions with which the force had been marched, 
 to intimate the references that had been made 
 to Lord Minto. the imprudent situation in 
 which tliev were; encamped, ami to assure 1 them 
 that the garrison was in the utmost tranquillity, 
 and had determined most religiously to abstain 
 from any act which mi-^ht result in bloodshed. 
 till an answer was received to their application 
 to the supreme Government. This deputation, 
 after making an ineffectual attempt to be heard, 
 returned to the garrison. Mad tliis fieputatiou 
 been received, the fatal events of that (lav would 
 have been averted. 
 
 It was about ten o'clock that a considerable 
 bodv of sepovs were discovered to the north- 
 ward, advancing towards the l-ort. \\liat bat- 
 talions thev were I did not know. As tlie\ 
 were approaching the l\rt. \\ e perceived that
 
 71 
 
 they were harassed, and pressed upon, in all 
 directions, by the .Mysore horse. The safety 
 of so large a body of the Honourable Company's 
 native troops could not but be a matter of con- 
 siderable anxiety. By what orders they marched, 
 or whether they marched without any. I was 
 wholly ignorant. We observed, however, shortly 
 afterwards, that a detachment of Kind's troops 
 had left the camp, and were advancing, with 
 impetuosity, towards the sepoys. A scene of 
 massacre followed, which it is painful to call 
 to remembrance. The dragoons and Pooniah's 
 horse began to cut up the almost-defenceless 
 battalions, who seemed straggling in disorder. 
 and apparently exhausted with the fatigues of 
 their march. 'I' hey had still a considerable 
 distance to traverse before they could reach the 
 I'ort. In the mean time, there seemed every 
 probability that the whole would have been cut 
 up before they could come within its protection. 
 The massacre of so numerous a body of troops, 
 every suggestion of humanity, reason, and 
 policy called on me to prevent. No other 
 motive- was present to niy mind. l\>r this pur-
 
 72 
 
 posr, and animated solely by this impulse, a 
 very lew shots were fired from the garrison, 
 which, although from the distance to which they 
 were sent they could have effected no mischief, 
 by their direction, might induce the d. unions 
 and tin 1 .Mysore troops to desist from the pur- 
 suit and slaughter of the Company's battalions. 
 Happily, this effect was produced. Two bat- 
 talions of sepoys were almost entirely saved from 
 destruction by a firing, of which the object was 
 merely to intimidate those who were pursuing 
 them with carnage. 
 
 I cannot see with what plausibility this can 
 be linked as a matter of crimination. 1 cannot 
 imagine that any man in cold blood would have 
 issued from the seat of Government, one of 
 whose high and most sacred trusts is the pater- 
 nal protection of the native subjects of India, 
 an order to extirpate so many of God's crea- 
 tures, before it could have been known whether 
 their movement towards the garrison was crimi- 
 nal or innocent. But I am relieved from all 
 doubt on this head. By the public declaration 
 >t'. Sir George Barlow himself, in a general order
 
 73 
 
 of the JOth of August, these very battalions are 
 exempted from blame, and their innocence 
 publicly proclaimed. What then is the infer- 
 ence ? If my statement is true, and is proved 
 in evidence, he, who is charged with having 
 fired on the troops of his Majesty and the Rajah, 
 in furtherance of a dangerous and alarming 
 mutiny, discharged a few harmless shots, which 
 had the effect of saving from destruction two 
 innocent battalions of the Company's army. 
 This is a fact, which will appeal, with resistless 
 force, to the consciences of all who know the 
 nature of our Eastern dominion. Such persons 
 need not be told, that it is an empire, not of 
 physical force, but of moral ascendancy ; and 
 that among the mysterious chains by which it is 
 preserved, the strongest and most binding is, 
 that which is grappled round the heart and the 
 affections of those whom we govern. 
 
 Hut if proof is required to attest how remote 
 the intention of rescuing those battalions was, 
 from that of hostile ae-o-ression on the Mysore or 
 
 o o * 
 
 the King's troops, it is worth while to observe. 
 that the part of the garrison who went out to 
 
 L
 
 74 
 
 cover the retreat of the sepoys, were repeatedly 
 fired on l>v the troops remaining in the camp; 
 that they did not fire a single shot, although the 
 camp was under the guns of the Fort, and might, 
 without any difficulty, haye been destroyed. 
 
 I proceed, however, in the melancholy nar- 
 rative of the llth of August. The sepoys, \\h<> 
 proved to he part of the 1st battalion of the Sth 
 regiment, and the 1st battalion of the loth 
 regiment, of Light Infantry, for nearly the whole 
 of that day, continued to come into the Fort 
 stripped, plundered, and bleeding. It was 
 found that about 171 were dreadfully wounded : 
 that about .30 lives had been lost; and, amongst 
 these, many of the unhappy followers. 1 would 
 deseribe the wretched spectacles who present- 
 ed themselves in the Fort one after another 
 during the whole of that day ; but I find myself 
 unable to convey to you the faintest picture of 
 its horrors. I duel! upon it only as it consti- 
 tuted the necessity on which it was deemed 
 requisite, for the safety of the garrison, by firing 
 on the encampment on that niirht, to remove it 
 from a position which augmented the commo-
 
 75 
 
 tion occasioned by the cutting up of the 
 sepoys. 
 
 On this occasion, as it became me, I did all 
 that I could to restore the confidence of the 
 native troops in the garrison. The feelings, 
 excited by the events of the day, had been 
 rouzed by the dreadful spectacles before their 
 eyes, into a most alarming insubordination. 
 The sepoys of the battalions who had suffered, 
 cried out that they had been betrayed by their 
 officers, who had given them strict orders not. 
 ro fire a musket. 
 
 But the agitation was not confined to these 
 battalions. It had extended itself through the 
 whole native force of the garrison. The cry was 
 for revenge. They called out, in a phrenzy of 
 indignation, to be led out against the camp. In 
 the mean time, reports were circulated that 
 basket-boats were constructing to pass the river, 
 and scaling ladders to mount the walls. Such an 
 attempt, from the dispositions of the officers, 
 and the inflamed temper of the troops, would 
 have ended in a dreadful slaughter. I knew 
 that, mv authority could not restrain the furv
 
 76 
 
 of feelings, which so many unhappy events had 
 conspired to produce. With the same motives, 
 which, in every stage ot' these transactions, 
 continued to influence me, anxious to avert so 
 melancholy a contest, and doubly anxious, from 
 the occurrences of the day, to preserve the lives 
 of the garrison, and of those who were acting 
 against it. 1 deemed it expedient to remove the 
 encampment from the singular position it had 
 taken. A lew small shells were therefore thrown 
 at night, so directed as to fall on the skirts of 
 the camp, and warn them of their danger. 
 That there was no other object in firing, is 
 evident, from the simple fact itself, that, had 
 other feelings influenced me, the whole camp 
 might, with little difficulty, have been destroyed. 
 This firing, therefore, like the former, was to 
 intimidate, not to destroy; to avert the horrors 
 of a general rising of the sepoys in the garrison, 
 and to save the lives of those who, it seems, 
 were acting against it. If the question he here 
 ^c:ain interposed, why did you, by remaining 
 as the nominal and ostensible head of the gar- 
 nson. incur the responsibility nf these transac-
 
 tions ? My answer is, again, I could not escape. 
 By remaining there, 1 was enabled to ward off, 
 by delay, the most fatal of conflicts. I vindi- 
 cate this act with confidence, f have saved the 
 effusion of innocent blood. I stopped an insur- 
 rection in the garrison, the probable conse- 
 
 O 7 1 
 
 fj nonces of which can be best conjectured by 
 those who remember the. fatal incidents at 
 Vellore. The natives of Hindostan are meek 
 and submissive beyond any other example in 
 national character. But they are not dead to 
 the ordinary impulses of humanity. " If you 
 prick them, they will bleed:" if you insult 
 them, they will revenge. They hold their 
 existence by that charter on which nature has 
 written her unalterable and eternal laws. 
 
 The witnesses will best speak to the pertur- 
 bations of the garrison at this alarming period. 
 Women and children did not escape the undis- 
 tinguishing attack. All that could awaken the 
 feelings of men. and stir them to retaliation, 
 every minute presented to their eyes. Some 
 faint conception may be formed of the agitations 
 occasioned on the very spot, where the poor
 
 78 
 
 miserable and mariirled victims had suffered, 1>\ 
 those which were produced when the Govern- 
 ment account of thisdav was received in treneral 
 
 t 
 
 orders at Hyderabad. They had nearly proved 
 fatal to the country, and every European in it. 
 l'Y>r it is a solemn fact, capable of easy proof', 
 that when those orders were read, in which it 
 was stated, that the whole 1 of the " rebel force" 
 had been destroyed, the sepoys of that station, 
 instigated by their wives and women in the 
 camp, turned out armed to cut every Kuropean 
 throat, and. amongst the rest, those of their 
 own officers. This perturbation was quieted 
 only by the presence of mind of an officer at that 
 station, who assured them that the detail pub- 
 lished by the Government was unfounded. 
 
 It is with satisfaction that 1 leave this part of 
 the subject. \\ hatever may be the event of this 
 trial, the remembrance of that which is thus 
 imputed to me as a crime, shall never depart 
 from me but with life itself. When the recent 
 transactions of India are- reviewed by minds un- 
 tinetured bv local prejudices, and unbiassed by 
 local animosities, whatever becomes of me, the
 
 79 
 
 transaction itself will reflect no shame on my 
 memory. 
 
 1 have scarcely time to advert to the evidence 
 or' Lieutenant Grove, as to the conversation in 
 which he savs, that 1 used the violent and ab- 
 surd expressions he puts into my mouth on that 
 occasion. If the utter improbability of it be not 
 a sufficient refutation of it, there are persons 
 who were present at the time, who will give it 
 a peremptory contradiction. Little observation 
 also is required, as to what Colonel Munro is 
 stated to have said in the conference of the 14th, 
 in which it would seem that 1 had expressed a 
 determination to bury myself in the ruins of the 
 Fort, rather than surrender it. In truth, I used 
 no such expression, nor did I authorize him to 
 use it in my name. From the first to the last, 
 I was unable to surrender the garrison. 1 had 
 no choice. Compelled to stay there, I thought 
 I was bound to do all the good in my power. 
 
 I have abstained, as far as justice to myself 
 would permit, from all animadversion on the 
 late members of the local tiovernment, which 
 has terminated in these disseritions. Hut it is
 
 80 
 
 due ti> the charaeter <i' a loyal, high-spirited. 
 and honourable army. to remark, that no fan- 
 cied oj|)n 'ssion, nor trivial grievance, would 
 have driven them into resistance. 1 am IK; apo- 
 logist for revolt. 1 sympathize with their for- 
 tunes. I honour their \irlurs, hut I will not 
 vindicate their excesses. On all occasions I 
 have recommended, with an hone.st zeal tor their 
 welfare, the most submissive patience. But it 
 is. at the same time, not impossible to conceive 
 a state of things, occasioned hv the systematic 
 irritation of a public, body, \\hich may raise 
 reelings too strong to be- restrained by the laws 
 and obligations <_>f public discipline. When 
 these transactions are reviewed, as; they most 
 assuredly will be. bv ihe supreme authority of 
 the British nation, it will be a <|ue->liou worthy 
 their most awful attention, whether the disease 
 ini'4'ht not have been cured by temperance and 
 mddmss, \\ithout the loss ol one lite, and with- 
 out anv real diminution of po\\er on the part of 
 the (io\ eminent; and whether, instead ot being 
 stru tlv a contest between the army and C.io- 
 v eminent, it is not to be characterized rather as
 
 81 
 
 ;i contest with an individual, who has over- 
 stepped the legal limits of the authority with 
 which he was entrusted ? 
 
 But I shall shew, that as soon as the moment 
 arrived in which my influence could be effec- 
 tually exerted to procure a return of obedience 
 arid duty, it was not exerted in vain. I shall 
 shew, that, had it not been for my example and 
 remonstrance, the Fort would not, to this day, 
 in all probability, have been surrendered. 
 
 I have thus ^one through the whole of this 
 
 O O 
 
 long transaction. If I have wearied you by the 
 length of my defence, my excuse must be sug- 
 gested by the variety of minute facts, conver- 
 sations, and expressions, which have been hud- 
 dled together in support of this accusation. I 
 have shewn, from the first beginnings of it, with 
 what spirit I was influenced ; that in the pro- 
 ceedings of others I had no participation ; that 
 those for which I am responsible, were not only 
 urged by an imperative necessity, and dictated 
 by the most honourable intentions, but they 
 have averted the most serious calamities. 
 
 But even if errors are imputable to me in such 
 
 M
 
 a state of things, arc they to be visited on inv 
 head as Brinies ? Is no regard to he had to a 
 situation, in which the best of jus nu ( j,ht well 
 tremble to l)r placed : To the embarrassing con- 
 flict of opposing duties; to agitation, suspense, 
 hope, tear, and the whole tumult of feelings, 
 which, in such circumstances, mi^lit hurl the 
 reason ot'inan i'roiu its se.it. ami deliver his mind 
 to chaos and distraction : 1 may surely -ask 
 yon to consider the whole of my conduct, and 
 not in detached and broken passages. 1 ry me 
 hv its intentions and its spirit. That is the 
 course of divine justice; which, as far as the 
 frailty of our nature will admit, human judica- 
 tures ouirht to imitate. 
 
 In inv defence, [ shall establish, by evidence, 
 the following points. I shall shew, by those 
 who took a part in these proceedings, that till 
 the oth of August, the military authority was 
 exercised by the ollicers of the garrison, and that 
 my authority as senior officer in tact ceased during 
 that time 1 to exist; that had I been disposed, 
 or even attempted to leave the garrison, within 
 the dates ^pecilicd in the charges, it would have
 
 been wholly impracticable ; that had I attempt- 
 ed to surrender the garrison at any time within 
 those dates, the attempt would have been 
 equally unavailing-; that the firing upon the 
 11 tli was urged as a matter or' strict necessity, 
 by the conduct of the native troops on that day, 
 and the inflamed state of the garrison ; that there 
 would have been a rising among the troops in 
 the garrison, had not that measure been adopted 
 to (juiet their feelings ; that when the detach- 
 ment went out to cover the Chitteldroog bat- 
 talions, they abstained from all retaliation, in 
 pursuance of their strict instructions to avoid 
 any thing that might lead to bloodshed, though 
 they had it in their power to destrov the camp ; 
 that the Chitteldroog battalions, whom Sir 
 (icorge Barlow, in public orders, exempts from 
 all blame, were saved by the firing on the llth, 
 and brought within the protection of the Fort; 
 that on the ^.5th of August, when the Hydera- 
 bad letter arrived, \ gladly availed myself of that 
 opportunity of surrendering the garrison : and 
 that, had it not been for my example and influ- 
 ence, the Fort would not have been delivered up.
 
 I shall call no witnesses to my character. I 
 trust that I need none. I will not even refer to 
 the public recorded thanks, which 1 have 
 more than once received for my services, from 
 different Governments. The testimonies of my 
 conduct are to he found in the whole of a life 
 dedicated to the service of my country. I shall 
 not remind you of the long, and, I hope, not 
 inglorious career in the service through which I 
 have passed. I might here advert to the length 
 of my confinement, which has been embittered 
 by many needless severities. This might be 
 well considered as a punishment more than 
 equal to any error, or even any offence I have 
 committed. I forbear, however, from dwelling 
 on the subject. 
 
 If, however, as I have been day after day ig- 
 nominiously marched across this very spot, from 
 the place of my confinement to that of my 
 trial, and called on to defend myself against the 
 worst of charges, many of those recollections 
 awaken themselves in my mind, which some- 
 times embitter the present by recalling the past, 
 they will not appear unnatural ; for it cannot
 
 85 
 
 but have occurred to me, as no light visitation 
 of that Providence who humbles us with un- 
 foreseen vicissitudes, that on this very spot, in 
 which I have more than once exposed my life 
 for the preservation of the British power in India, 
 it should now be endangered by an accusation 
 of having attempted to destroy it. 
 
 But I repose with confidence on your justice. 
 You are emphatically a court of honour. I am 
 convinced, that neither the awe of power, nor 
 the blandishments of hope, nor the allurements 
 of interest, will divert you from the severest 
 rectitude of judgment, on this awful occasion. 
 I know that, disdaining those prejudices, and 
 subduing those animosities, which sometimes 
 bring a man to his trial with anticipated convic- 
 tion, you will fee], amongst the other obliga- 
 tions of your duty, that of redeeming an inno- 
 cent man from unjust accusation. With this 
 cheering reflection I shall close my defence, and 
 thank you for the patience with which you have 
 heard it. 
 
 Printed hi/ Black, Parry, and Kingshunj, 
 Leadcnhnll Street, London.
 
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