I know that I shall find, in the liberal sentiments of my judges, a willing pardon for the prepossessions natural for a person in my situation to entertain.

It is hard upon a man to be obliged to speak of his own actions, or of his own merit or character, in the service of his Sovereign.

The extreme virulence of the present attack is the sole apology I can pretend to offer for alluding to those topics.

Abundance of slander has been thrown out, not for this Court, but as a theme of general talk, and of popular calumny. When your Lordship. looks at the situation where I stand, you will not impute to presumption, my saying, in this public manner, that from those shafts, though cruelly envenomed, I have felt no pain that I had not firmness to endure, in my retired enjoyment of an unreproaching con

science.

I have no desire to enter the lists with my accuser in a competition for the prize of invective or defamation.-He has made his attack upon me, under the specious form of legal military procedure. And if I may be pardoned for the adoption of an ardent expression of conscious innocence, warranted by the evidence produced, I would venture to say, that my defence is "a strong camp, fortified "on every side by justice."

If this be no erroneous or deceitful prepossession in my own favour, I trust that this Honourable Court will feel a generous indignation in my behalf.

If an officer of the highest rank should be guilty of misconduct, the law is open for his punishment; and it is expedient and just, that it should be so.-But, a more serious evil, or one more deeply injurious to the service, cannot be imagined, than the frequency of trials by courtsmartial. And, if encouragement should be given to frivolous and calumnious prosecutions, especially when carried on by inferior officers, from private pique, resentment, or revenge, against their superiors; the consequences infallibly would be, to degrade the military character in general, to weaken and unsettle those sentiments in a military corps, which are the best guarantees of their subordination, of their discipline, and respect for rank and

authority; and finally, to plant and cherish the fatal principles of turbulence, disorder, and mutiny itself.

My Lord, I have refrained from entering into such a summation of my evidence as the rules of your procedure permit; being perfectly aware, that had I done so, I should have exposed myself, in the opinion of my intelligent judges, to the imputation of not knowing where I ought to stop. Although a stranger to the opinion which your Lordship, or any honourable member of the Court may have formed upon any of the points at issue, I well know, and cheerfully proclaim thus much, that a more patient, a more attentive, and a more candid hearing, was never granted to any prisoner.

Did I not know, from the evidence of my accuser's hand-writing, that his malignity towards me is of no common quality, I should have been at a loss to divine the object or purpose of his prosecution. For his attention to me out of doors, and the unceasing circulation of his calumnies, have been attended with consequences to me, which, I cannot help thinking, were sufficient to disarm the rage and hostility of an enemy not absolutely implacable.

The time was, when, by the favour of my Sovereign, I held the Government of Dominica, and the rank of Brigadier-General, with a regiment.

Your Lordship now sees me at your bar, stript of my honours, of my military rank and fortune.-Alas! My Lord, even this is an incomplete enumeration of my misfortunes. The active industry of concealed calumniators (I say not who these are) has not been confined within the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Reports not less groundless, and, if possible, yet more wicked than any that have come under the observation of this Court, accompanied with representations, in which unfortunately there was too much truth, of my having been deprived of my military rank, as a Major-General, and, on that account, exposed to the whole world, as an object of derision and contempt, these representations, my Lord, found their way even to the farther shores of the Atlantic-there spread among my nearest domestic relationsproduced the affliction of despair in that breast, where the

tenderest regard till then resided; and while I, absentand under arrest, could administer no antidote to the poison, dissolved for ever those ties of affection, which were most closely entwined with my heart.

It is the sentence of this Court alone, that can in any degree restore me, and re-establish that peace of mind, which is the first of human blessings.-When this Court shall restore my sword, the chosen ornament of my early years, and the companion of two-thirds of my life-when this Court shall restore me to my former place in honourable society when this Court shall restore me, tried and exalted by their seal of innocence, to the bosom of my family and my friends;-when this Court shall re-instate me in the good opinion of my king, in whose service I have bled, and for whose sake I shall ever hold my life a ready and a cheap sacrifice ;-then,-my Lord, and not till then, I shall feel, not merely an alleviation of my present misfortunes, but a measure of happiness sufficient to compensate for all my past sufferings.

From any judgment, different from what I have described, to be pronounced, in possibility, by your Lordship, and this honourable Court, I freely confess, that I desire to turn away my eyes.-The case is truly of that nature which admits of no middle course.

I resign into your hands my life, which, at present, to me is nothing, and my fame, which to me is every thing,-humbly expressing the sentiment and wish of a soldier, with which my heart, at this moment, is swelled and animated,-Aut cita mors-aut victoria læta.

At the conclusion of this address (Friday, March 22d) the Court adjourned till Monday the 25th, when Major Gordon read a voluminous, elaborate, and abusive reply.

After he concluded, Colonel Johnstone begged leave to return his grateful thanks to the Court, for the patient hearing with which they had honoured him throughout. the trial.

SENTENCE.

From the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Morgan, Bart. Judge Advocate General,

To the Hon. Colonel Cochrane Johnstone.

Sir Charles Morgan presents his compliments to Colonel Cochrane Johnstone, and knowing that he is anxious to learn the result of the general Court Martial upon his trial, the proceedings whereof Sir Charles had the honour of laying before His Majesty yesterday, takes this early opportunity of sending him a copy of the letter which signifies the King's pleasure to His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief.

Downing-Street, 12th April, 1805.

SIR,

(Copy Letter inclosed.)

Judge Advocate General's Office, 12th April, 1805.

I have had the honour of laying before the King the proceedings of a General Court Martial held at the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, on the 1st, and continued by adjournments till the 25th of March last, for the trial of the Honourable Andrew Cochrane Johnstone, Colonel of the late 8th West India regiment, the several charges against whom (preferred by Major John Gordon, late of the same regiment), together with the opinion of the Court Martial upon each charge, are as follow:

CHARGES.

[These being inserted above, need not be repeated here.] OPINION OF THE COURT MARTIAL.

"The Court Martial having weighed the whole of the "evidence adduced by the prosecutor Major Gordon, and "that brought forward by the Honourable Colonel An"drew Cochrane Johnstone in his defence, is of opinion,

"that the L.500 bill, mentioned in the First Charge, was "not clandestinely obtained by Colonel Johnstone, and "that it doth not appear, that his Majesty's service, or "the good of the regiment was in any degree injured by "that transaction; and therefore the Court doth honourably acquit him of the former part of the First "Charge.

"With regard to the second part of the First Charge; "viz. directing L. 140 to be stopped from the Paymaster, "out of the subsistence due to the regiment, the Court is "of opinion, that no blame whatever attaches to Colonel "Johnstone in this transaction, and they therefore also honourably acquit him of the same.

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"With regard to the first part of the Second Charge, "the Court is of opinion, that it hath not been proved, " and therefore acquits Colonel Johnstone of the same. And with regard to the second part of the Second "Charge; viz. the having asserted a falsehood unbecoming his rank, and the character of an officer, the Court "doth most honourably acquit him.

"With respect to the first part of the Third Charge, "it appearing that the offence set forth therein, took place (if at all) above three years prior to the date of "His Majesty's warrant for holding this Court Martial, "the Court is of opinion, it hath no power to take cogni"zance of the same.

"With regard to the second part of the Third Charge, "the Court sees no reason whatever to believe, that Co"lonel Johnstone had any intention to derive individual "benefit by the labour of the men from working in the "swamp, and they therefore acquit him of the charge; "although they cannot approve his having ordered the "work on the swamp, under all the circumstances of the 66 case.

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"With respect to the Fourth Charge, the Court is of opinion, that it is not substantiated, and therefore acquit " him accordingly."

And I am to acquaint Your Royal Highness, that His Majesty has APPROVED the decision of the Court Mar