Part 19

In one of his last letters, dated May 12, 1797, Burke thus refers to the mutiny at the Nore:—“The times are so deplorable that I do not know how to write about them. Indeed, I can hardly bear to think of them. In the selection of these mischiefs ... are those of the navy and those of Ireland.... As to the first, ... I trust in God that these mutineers may not, as yet, have imbrued their hands deeply in blood. If they have, we must expect the worst that can happen.”

Burke’s spirit revolted at what he thought he perceived—viz., that the mutiny at home and the French abroad were making the British Government lose courage. A short time before his decease he used these remarkable words: “Never succumb to these difficulties. It is a struggle for your existence as a nation, and if you must die, die with the sword in your hand. But I have no fears whatever for the result. There is a salient living principle of energy in the public mind of England which only requires proper direction to enable her to withstand this or any other impending danger.” Burke spoke with the foresight of a prophet; the mutiny subsided even before he breathed his last, and, not long after, naval successes restored public confidence. Justice was satisfied by the execution of Parker and a few other executions, and by some minor punishments. The British navy soon showed that it possessed its “living principle of energy.” The sailors speedily redeemed themselves, and wiped away the recent stigma with victory upon victory. The battle of Camperdown was won in the October of this same 1797. King George III., on the 30th of that October, visited the fleet, and the victor of Camperdown, Admiral Lord Duncan, at the Nore, and the royal clemency was extended generally to such mutineers as still remained under sentence. The following year the Nile was won. These triumphs were “happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme”—Trafalgar. Yet while, through the halo of these glories, we look, less angrily, back to the sad insubordination that preceded them, we may offer up a fervent prayer that, for the honour and vitality of our navy, no such outbreak may ever occur again as the mutiny at the Nore.

THE TRIAL OF GOVERNOR WALL.

Joseph Wall, the unfortunate subject of the following trial, was the scion of a very respectable Irish family, and was the eldest son of Garrett Wall, Esq., of Derryknavin. He was born in 1737, and entered the British army at an early age. He was a brave and honourable man, but of a severe and rather unaccommodating temper, and was not popular among the officers and men, though he rapidly advanced in his profession, having obtained early promotion for the gallantry he displayed at the reduction of the Havannah in 1762. It was while Lieut.-Colonel and Governor and Commandant of Goree, an island on the coast of Africa, that he committed the offence which brought him to the scaffold—viz., the murder of one Benjamin Armstrong, by ordering him to receive eight hundred lashes on the 10th July, 1782, of which he died in five days afterwards. Wall’s emoluments were, at the time, very considerable, as, besides his military appointments, he was Superintendent of Trade to the colony. His family was Roman Catholic, but, according to the exigency of the then penal laws, he had to conform to Protestantism, to enable him to hold his commission.

Some time after the account of the murder of Armstrong reached the Board of Admiralty, a reward was offered for Wall’s apprehension, who had come to England, and he was taken. He, however, contrived to escape while in custody at Reading, and fled to the Continent, and sojourned there, sometimes in France and sometimes in Italy; but mostly in France, under an assumed name, where he lived respectably and was admitted into good society. He particularly kept company with the officers of his own country who served in the French army, and was well known at the Scotch and Irish colleges in Paris. He now and then incautiously ventured into England and Scotland. While thus, at one time in Scotland, he made a high match. He wedded a scion of the great line of Kintail—viz., Frances, fifth daughter (by his wife, Lady Mary Stewart, daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway) of Kenneth MacKenzie, Lord Fortrose, M.P., and sister of Kenneth, last Earl of Seaforth. Wall came finally to England in 1797. He was frequently advised by the friend who then procured him a lodging to leave the country again, and questioned as to his motive for remaining; he never gave any satisfactory answer, but appeared, even at the time when he was so studiously concealing himself, to have a distant intention of making a surrender, in order to take his trial. It is very evident his mind was not at ease, and that he was incapable of any firm resolution either one way or the other. Even the manner in which he did at last surrender himself showed a singular want of determination, as he left it to chance whether the Minister should send for him or not; for rather than go and deliver himself up, he wrote to say “he was ready to do so”—a less becoming, but not a less dangerous mode of encountering danger. His high-born wife showed him throughout his troubles the greatest devotion: she was with him in Upper Thornhaugh Street, Bedford Square, where he lived under the name of Thompson when he was apprehended. It is most probable that, had he not written to the Secretary of State, the matter had been so long forgotten, that he would never have been molested; but once he was in the hands of the law, the Government had but one obvious course, which was to bring him to trial. This was accordingly done, and the judicial investigation took place, at the Old Bailey on the 20th January, 1802. The judges who presided were—The Right Hon. Sir Archibald MacDonald, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer; the Hon. Sir Soulden Lawrence, one of the justices of the Court of King’s Bench; and the Hon. Sir Giles Rooke, one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas.

The counsel for the Crown were the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Law (afterwards Lord Ellenborough and Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench); the Solicitor-General, the Hon. Spencer Percival (afterwards First Lord of the Treasury, and, while so, assassinated by Bellingham); Mr. Wood (afterwards Sir George Wood and a baron of the Exchequer); Mr. Plumer (afterwards Sir Thomas Plumer, and successively Vice-Chancellor of England and Master of the Rolls); Mr. William Fielding (afterwards a metropolitan police-magistrate, son of Henry Fielding, the novelist); and Mr. Abbott (afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench and Lord Tenterden).

The counsel for the defence were Mr. Knowlys (afterwards Recorder of London), Mr. Gurney (afterwards Sir John Gurney, a baron of the Exchequer), and Mr. Alley.

The indictment was opened by Mr. Abbott; and while he was stating the charge, the prisoner from the dock said to the Chief Baron, “My lord, I cannot hear in this place; I hope your lordship will permit me to sit near my counsel.” In which the Chief Baron replied, “It is perfectly impossible; there is a regular place appointed by law—I can make no invidious distinctions.”

The Attorney-General stated the case for the prosecution in a remarkably able and lucid speech, which so fully details the whole horrible affair, that I cannot do better than give the greater portion of it. After a few preliminary remarks on the nature of the crime, the Attorney-General’s address proceeded as follows:—

“Gentlemen of the jury,—The crime imputed to the prisoner I have stated to you to be murder; the prisoner is charged, upon the present indictment, with the murder of a person of the name of Benjamin Armstrong, who was a soldier and serjeant in the garrison at Goree, of which the prisoner at the bar was, at the time of Armstrong’s death, the commander and governor. The circumstances that led to the punishment which was the cause of the death of this person it will be for me presently to state to you; and it will be for me, after I have so done, to discuss in some manner that which is the probable, and which is not only the probable, but which, from circumstances antecedent, I know to be the actual, ground of defence which the prisoner will rely upon before you for his deliverance this day.

“Gentlemen, Mr. Wall was, in the year 1782, commandant of the garrison of Goree, which is an island upon the coast of Africa; he had under him in command there a Captain Lacy, who afterwards succeeded him in the command of that garrison; he had under him, likewise, a Lieutenant Fall, a Lieutenant O’Shanley, an Ensign Ford, and Ensign Deering; these, with Major Phipps, an officer of artillery, were, I believe, all the military officers then at the place—at least, it does not occur to me, at present, to mention any other military officer as then being there.

“The circumstances of the case now before us, you will recollect, arose in the year 1782; the 10th of July, 1782, is the time when that death was occasioned which is imputed to the prisoner at the bar as murder. The prisoner returned to this country in the month of August, 1782; he was apprehended for this offence in the month of March, 1784, under a warrant from the Privy Council. You will bear in mind, gentlemen, that most of the persons who, in respect to their local and official situations, were the most material witnesses to establish his innocence—if innocent he be—were living, and within the reach of process from the criminal courts of this country, and might have been then brought forward to establish his vindication, if, by such evidence, he felt that he could have been vindicated from the charge now under your consideration.

“In the year 1782, this gentleman had a garrison under his command, as I have stated, in which there were the several officers whose names and whose commissions I have already mentioned; I believe the whole military force under his command consisted of at least 140 or 150 men. The garrison had been, for some time prior to the period at which he announced, in public orders, that he was about to depart from the garrison (and which departure was so announced as immediately about to take place on the 11th of July), put under short allowance in point of provisions. That measure was, I presume, adopted from fair and proper reasons of prudence and probable necessity. The men who had been put under such short allowance, and who were thus restricted in point of supply, in the articles of usual and necessary consumption, with a view to general convenience and the eventual safety of the garrison, and in order merely that the existing stock of provisions might last out till a farther supply might arrive, were at all times very properly allowed some compensation of a pecuniary kind, on account of their reduced allowance in point of actual provisions. The gentleman at the bar had announced his departure, as I stated before, for the 11th of July; there was also about to depart, at the same time, with him for England, the ensign of the name of Deering, the paymaster of the garrison. In the hands of that person were, of course, these stoppages, and these stoppages were usually commuted with the men, and compensation made to them on account thereof, either in money or in that which was, for the purpose of supplying their immediate necessities, equivalent to money—that is to say, articles of convenient barter and truck at that place. When Ensign Deering, the paymaster, upon whom the garrison had demands for their short provisions, was so about to depart, the garrison was, of course, anxious that their account with him might be settled; and as the period of his departure drew so near, it will be given you in evidence that a considerable number of the soldiers who had demands of this kind had resorted to the house where the paymaster lived, in order to obtain the payment of them. For what reason Governor Wall mixed himself in the consideration of these short allowances—what personal reasons he might have to interpose himself between these men and the application for a settlement and adjustment of the claims made by them on this account, I am not apprised—at least, I shall not suggest any to you. The application was made, as I have stated, by those persons in considerable numbers; they resorted to the house of Mr. Deering, and were desirous of having satisfaction for their pay before he should leave the island, which was to be on the day following. After that period a vast ocean would separate them from their debtor; and, considering the precariousness of human life, and particularly in that unhealthy settlement, if they did not press their demand at that period, it is possible they might not be in a situation afterwards to urge it with any beneficial effect to themselves.

“Upon their coming in a considerable number, as you will have it in evidence, towards the house of the paymaster, and when, in doing so, they passed by the governor’s house (who lived in the way to the paymaster’s), and were going on to the paymaster’s, it appears that Governor Wall came out, and with language of some anger reprehended the men for resorting to the house of the paymaster upon this occasion, and ordered them, with some menaces of punishment, to go away; the men, as it is stated to me, and as I shall lay it before you in evidence, retired dutifully upon this admonition. About an hour and a-half afterwards, several persons came; whether they were the same who came before I know not, but one of them was the deceased Armstrong, whose death, and the causes of whose death, are alone now in question before you,—I say alone, for I would wish and desire you to lay out of your consideration any circumstances which point at the supposed death of any person. If you happened to be in court, and heard any indictments read, upon any former occasion, which were applicable to the deaths of any other persons, I request you to lay that matter wholly out of your attention; for we are to confine our attention merely to the circumstances and cause of the death of Armstrong, and no other circumstances will be gone into but such as are immediately connected, in point of fact, with the death of that person. If, indeed, subsequent transactions connecting and inseparably mixing themselves with matters which respect the deaths of other persons should necessarily, in point of fact, make a part of our proof in respect to the charge now before you, these facts are not shut out from us, in point of legal use and application, because they may conduct to, or in themselves make a part of, the proof of any other substantive crime conjointly with the present: but no substantive crime, except the one charged in the indictment, and which you are sworn to try, can come immediately and properly under your consideration for the purpose of affecting the prisoner upon this occasion.

“Gentlemen, I have stated the appearance of the soldiers upon their first application. Upon a second application to the paymaster for their pay, Armstrong (the deceased) appeared with the persons who were making that application. Governor Wall came out to them again from his house, and I do not think that, upon this occasion, he used the language of menace which he did before, but he spoke to the deceased Armstrong; and Armstrong, as it will be given you in evidence, by a person who had the best means of knowing and seeing all that passed, being the orderly serjeant immediately attendant upon the person of the governor the whole of that day, this person of the name of Armstrong, so far from behaving in any undutiful and disrespectful manner, or from manifesting any disregard to the command of his lawful superior, pulled off his hat, and bowed with all proper deference to him; and then, without entering into any contest as to the right to make the application they were about to make, having merely stated that they came there in order to settle with the paymaster, upon receiving an intimation from the governor that what they were doing ought not to be done, he respectfully retired; and from that period (if there be truth in the evidence I have to lay before you) till the period of the punishment which was afterwards on that day inflicted upon Armstrong, and which punishment is charged to have been the cause of his death, there did not exist in the place the least symptom of tumult, discontent, riot, disorder, or anything that bore the appearance of mutiny, or disobedience to the lawful commands of a military superior....

“The application for pay was made in the morning by the soldiers to the paymaster, who was about to depart; there was an interval, respecting which it will certainly be incumbent upon Governor Wall to give some account in evidence, and to show that it did not entirely pass in tranquillity and quiet. Why, if there was anything that required investigation, was it not filled up and occupied, as far as it might be, by some forms of trial? Upon this subject there is an entire silence. We hear nothing with respect to these men, or to any transaction in the island in which Governor Wall is concerned, till the evening or towards the evening of that day. Somewhere towards six o’clock, I think, it will be in evidence that the drum beat what they called ‘the long roll,’ which was for calling the soldiers upon the parade. The orderly serjeant who attended Governor Wall will state to you that this was beat by Governor Wall’s direction; the men who immediately attended were ordered to fall into their ranks as they were, unarmed; several in their jackets, as they happened to be, without waiting for that preparation in point of dress which would have fitted them for their ordinary appearance upon the parade upon any other occasion; they were then ordered to form a circle upon the parade, Captain Lacy, Lieutenant Fall, Ensign Ford, and Lieutenant O’Shanley being present. The circle being formed, the witnesses will state that some conversation passed, in their presence, between the officers, there being, I think, at the same time, brought forward upon the parade a gun-carriage, and persons attending to perform the office which was presently afterwards performed by them.

“After a short communication (a few words only having passed) between the governor and the officers assembled there, whom I have already mentioned, this man, Armstrong, was ordered by Governor Wall to be stripped. He was accordingly stripped, and was then tied to the gun-carriage; black men came forward—not the persons who usually apply military punishment, but black men came forward—and began to inflict the punishment which was ordered; they changed about, each took his turn; each, I think, inflicting twenty-five lashes, till the number of eight hundred lashes had been completely inflicted upon the body of this unfortunate person. Punishments of this sort are usually inflicted by drummers or other soldiers of the regiment. It was in this instance, you observe, inflicted by black men ordered to attend there for that purpose; and this punishment was not inflicted with the usual instrument with which military punishments are inflicted, which is a cat-o’-nine-tails, formed, as I understand, of a log line of about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, but with a rope of one inch in diameter; one of the very ropes used on the occasion, or one at least exactly resembling it, but I believe one of the ropes themselves (and from circumstances I have little reason to doubt its identity), will be exhibited to you in evidence. During the time of inflicting this punishment, I am instructed it will be proved to you that Governor Wall urged these black men to the performance of their task in language which it will be enough for you to hear once from the mouths of the witnesses; very harsh expressions are stated to have been used by him, some of which I would gladly be spared the mention of, that he several times called out “Cut him to the heart! Cut him to the liver!” that Armstrong begged for mercy, and that Governor Wall then said that the sickly season was coming on and that this punishment would do for him. That after receiving a great number of lashes Armstrong was conducted to the hospital; that he was in a situation which made it probable that his death would be the consequence of what he had suffered. Accordingly, at periods some time subsequent, you will hear that he made declaration, which, if they appear to be (and which will be a question for the judgment of their lordships) declarations made under the expectation and belief of an immediately impending dissolution, and with that solemn consciousness of duty which belongs to that awful situation, a situation which places the mind under sanctions at least tantamount in point of obligation to tell the truth, to what are impressed upon it by the solemnity of a judicial oath; you will in that case hear, as proceeding from this man, a declaration that he expected his death, and that he had been punished without any form of trial, and without having committed any offence whatever; this evidence, under the circumstances I have supposed, will be undoubtedly competent, and if it comes under those views, I shall be able to lay it before you.

“After this punishment had been inflicted upon Armstrong—I will not, however, travel into circumstances which relate to any other person; I close the business of the punishment, as far as respects Governor Wall, here. On the next day, as he had announced his intention to do, Governor Wall, together with Ensign Deering, the paymaster, an officer who is not now living, and Major Phipps, took his departure for England.

“There may be circumstances—it will be for Governor Wall to show that such circumstances existed—which may constitute a sufficient, adequate, and full defence for a military officer in the infliction of punishment without either a general or a regimental court-martial; for if there be that degree of imminent necessity which supersedes the recourse to any ordinary tribunal, if there be actually existing that flagrant mutiny which must either be suppressed by force, and by the immediate though irregular application of severe punishment, or must be left to rage uncontrolled at the utmost peril of public safety, that which I was just now pronouncing to be irregular becomes, if the more regular and appropriate course of proceeding in such cases cannot be resorted to, itself regular and capable of being justified upon every principle of public duty; for it imports the public safety that the means of resisting an enormous and over-bearing evil should be as strong, sudden, and capable of application as the evil itself is capable of immediate mischievous effect, and if this has been the case here it will carry its own justification with it.