'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎207] (226/622)

HISTORY OP THE INDIAN NAVY.
207
date the 20th of July, 1847, to be struck off the list from the
1st of August following, without court-martial, for incompe-
Navy take relative rank with the Eoyal Navy, their not being granted honorary
distinctions, &c.
"With respect to the memorials from the officers and midshipmen An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. of the
Indian Navy, we concur generally in the view taken by your President in his
Minute of the 14th of September, 1847, and we consider those documents,
not less from their offensive tone, than from the manner in which they have
been severally framed and presented, as highly objectionable and altogether
inadmissible.
" Letter from , dated the 15th of October, 1847 (No. 101). Forwarding a
memorial from Midshipman An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. Pengelley, of the same tenor as the preceding.
" Every individual in our Service is at liberty to represent his case to us if he
feel aggrieved, but his appeal ought to be couched in temperate and respectful
terms. That privilege, however, does not admit of a body of officers sending in
memorials of a similarly offensive character, both in substance and in terms, as the
memorials alluded to are. It can scarcely be known to the officers of the Indian
Navy, that among the members of a military body, such combination is, under
any circumstances, highly irregular, and punishable as tending to the subversion
of discipline; but in a case like the present, where the parties, under the pretence
of presenting a memorial for the redress of alleged grievances, presume to call in
question the acts of the constituted authorities, and to cast imputations and re
flections upon the conduct of their superior officer in the discharge of his public
duty, the combination constitutes a military crime, and the parties so associated
should be made to understand that they are guilty of a grave offence, subjecting
the individuals to serious penalties.
" With reference to the imperfect state of the law at the time, there would, we
are sensible, have been great difficulty in convening a court-martial for the trial of
the offenders; but as the tone and language assumed by them are both intem
perate and disrespectful to superior authority, and involve points of which they
could not properly take cognizance, and as an insubordinate spirit and contempt
of authority were evinced in the very presentation of the memorials, after the
memorialists had been made aware, by their superior officers, of the impropriety
of the course they were pursuing, we cannot determine otherwise than to visit
this flagrant breach of discipline and subordination with punishment.
In proceeding to notice the conduct of the memorialists, we cannot divest
ourselves of the impression that the spirit of insubordination, the discontented
temper, and the disposition to resist authority, which have been displayed by the
younger members of the Service, have been connived at and encouraged bv those
ot more mature age and of higher rank, who ought to have shown a very different
example, and to have repressed the rash proceedings of their juniors, who were
permitted to proceed, step by step, in a course alike injurious to themselves and
to the Service.
" We are disposed, however, to make every allowance for the youth and inex
perience of the junior officers and midshipmen An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. , and to attach all due regard to
your intercession in their favour; but it seems to us imperative, that for the
vindication of discipline, the upholding our authority, as well as that of your
(government, and of the Superintendent of the Indian Navy, the memorialists
^MmpuSt '' t0Un(ierStail(i t " hattlieir con(iucfc cannot be passed over altogether
(The Court then directs, by way of example, that Lieutenant Manners be sus
pended troni pay and allowances, and from the active duties of the Service for
me period of six months ; that Lieutenant Etheridge and Midshipman An experienced sailor, but not a commissioned officer. Pengelley
be suspended from pay and allowances, and from the active duties of the Service,
lor tiie penod of three months ; and that Lieutenant Hamilton be admonished.
Court) me conduct has made a very unfavourable impression upon the
"We are of opinion that the Superintendent of the Indian Navy has a right
u s . ll PPort which can be accorded to him by the local authorities :
ordpr A a • Serv !- W satisfaction that your G-overnment, under whose immediate
o ders He is acting, and who have consequently the best means of forming a judg-