Captain Reynolds has sent a letter to the newspapers deprecat-
ing subscriptions and addresses in his helmill lie admits that he can not fay his hand on his heart and say th.it he has not grievously offended against the laws established 14 the ;.4osernment of the Army : he cannot 'affect to eurlskler the sentence passed upon him as oiherv.lse than severe; but he i. confident in the honesty of his judges, and he trusts to the unsolicited mercy of the Queen.
A numerous meeting was held on Tuesday at the British Coffee- house, Cockspur Street, to adopt measures for expressing public sym- pathy with Captain Reynolds, and to obtain redress for the injustice he had suffered. There was some difference of opinion as to the form of the resolutions to be proposed. It was suggested, that a general reso- lution for a petition to the Queen, praying for an inquiry into the state of the Eleventh Hussars, should be adopted. Others were for more stringent resolutions, and for petitioning the Queen to reinstate Captain Reynolds and dismiss Lord Cardigan. The propriety of raising a sub- scription for Captain Reynolds, after his letter desiring that no such manifestation of public sympathy should be made, was also questioned. After much discussion, it was ultimately arranged that a committee should be formed to draw up resolutions, and that the meeting should be adjourned till Thursday-.
At the adjourned meeting, the Committee came prepared with their resolutions; which went to the extent of censuring the conduct of Lord Hill and the Court-martial, of petitioning the Queen for the removal of Lord Cardigan from all military command, and praying her Majesty to reconsider her approval of the sentence. A resolu- tion was also proposed that a general subscription be entered into "for the purpose of being applied to secure justice for Captain Rey. molds, or in any manner that may hereafter be deemed most expedient to protect the junior officers of the British Army from insult." The resolutions and petition were adopted after some discussion. 'rhe resolution for a subscription was the only one that met with op- position. Mr. Jones, a barrister, objected to it, now that Captain Rey- nolds had thrown such a project in their faces by anticipation. He condemned Captain Reynolds's letter, as " a most ignoble one ": he said it showed he had been tampered with by his seniors ; and there was not a man in his (Mr. Jones's) profession who would not chop his right hand off before writing such a letter. Captain Burt, R.N., pro- posed an amendment against a subscription, as being likely to injure Captain Reynolds with the Horse Guards. (Negatived.) It was stated that a thousand pounds had been already raised in the City.
The most pointed of the resolutions proposed, and which was carried unanhnously, is in these terms-
" That, in the opinion of this meeting, the interests of justice, and of the honour and wellbeing of the British Army, imperatively demand that a strict, rigid, and impartial inquiry should be made in the ensuing session a Parlia- ment into the conduct of Lord Cardigan, in his command of the Eleventh Hussars; that having been appointed to the command of that corps shortly after he had been denounced by a Coert-martial for conduct revolting to every proper feeling of an officer and a gentleman, common justice requires that the charges against him should be most closely scrutinized. That this meeting regards the conduct of Lord 11111, in denying this inquiry, after tae numerous
charges preferred against Lord Cardigan by his officers, his previous character, and the severe punishment inflicted on Captain Richard Anthony Reynolds, as airactical refutation of his Lordship's own doctrine that all officers holding the Royal commission are entitled to equal justice and protection from the superior military authorities."
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