THE ADMIRALTY AND COLONEL WRIGHT.
" Atisrmsri " would have been not long since the epithet applied to the tyranny which has been exercised by "My Lords" of the Admiralty, in a very recent case. Mr. Ward may go to his Le- vantine Government, and rule it in true Oriental style, with strict precedent from the department which he leaves at home. The tyranny has been committed under the name of discipline, and it has many stages. It is well known that the Marine force is the opprobrium of the naval and military service : lying between both departments, excellent deeds by sea and land have earned for it the advantages of neither—not the rate of promotion, the retirements, nor the honours of either service. Noted for its unshaken loyalty, it is treated with less distinction than those whose loyalty has proved less signally firm at all times. To be an officer of Marines, a man must be as brave and as honourable, but not as honoured as in other branches of the service. The grievance is an old one, and its maintenance is, it seems, converted by prescription into an official prerogative. Recently an officer of the division at Chat- ham endeavoured to get up a memorial on the subject among his brother officers; and in that view he sent the draft of one to the officers at Woolwich. The Colonel commanding at that station caused the document to be removed from the mess-room table. A paragraph then appeared in the Naval and Military Gazette, stating that, in spite of opposition, steps would be taken to bring the subject before the officers of the force at Woolwich, Ports- mouth, and Plymouth. This paragraph attracted the attention of "My Lords"; ; who ordered the Colonel commanding at Chat- ham, Colonel Wright, to assemble his officers, and to ask them, collectively and individually, whether they adopted the sentiments of the paragraph, and whether any of them had sent it to the jour- nal. After considering, the officers declined to make a direct re- ply. This proceeding also was reported ; and then the Colonel re- ceived a letter directing him to assemble his officers on the same day, in order to receive the Board of Admiralty. The Board was represented by Captain Berkeley, Lord John Hay, and Mr. Se- cretary Ward. On taking his station at the head of the mess-room table, Captain Berkeley said—" Gentlemen, you are assembled to hear read a minute of the Board of Admiralty ; and, mind, we have no comment in our presence." Like a tart housewife among her maids, My Lords "won't be answered." Mr. Ward then read a minute, censuring the officers for insubordination, and announ- cing that, as Captain Urquhart had twice before been under the displeasure of the Board, her Majesty had been advised to dis- pense witii his services ; wherefore Colonel Wright was orle04 it to suspend him." The Board then retired. This happened early in March.' The chain of events conveyed to Marine officers these pregnantAonclusions—that they must continue to bear the inequalities ofiktheir lot without an effort to remove them ; that to represent ose inequalities is " insubordination" ; and that when the Admiralty is judge, the accused is allowed no defence.
On Saturday last, the Board of Admiralty, represented by Sir Francis Baring the First Lord, Admiral Deans Dundee, and Cap- tain Milne, inspected Woolwich Dockyard; the inspection ter- minating before the Marines, assembled on parade, in the Mel- ville Hospital. My Lords were gracious, and wound up their inspection with a complimentary address to Colonel Wright, on the economy of the barrack-room, the soldierly bearing of the men, and their effective discipline. But the compliments were felt as a mockery after the special and formal censure; and My Lords were astounded by a reply from the veteran, in these elo- quent and measured terms-
" Sir Francis and my. Lords, I cannot receive as I could wish the high compli- ments you have just paid me ; for it is impossible for me to forget the harsh, the were, and, I would add, the undeserved and unjust public censure which the Board had read to me, and the whole of the officers under my command, by your Secretarf, Mr. Ward, not more than a month ago. I was then told, in your Lord- ships' minute, that I had countenanced insubordination, and that I had permitted disgraceful acts, highly discreditable to the division, tote carried on by the officers under my orders. My fidelity, and that of the division, was even called in question; and I was reprimanded for all this in the presence of all the officers, some of whom, and the greater number, had not been six months in the service. I was told, in fact, by your Lordships, in pretty plain terms, that I was not fit to command: und I now beg leave to tell your Lordships, that I am not ambitious, under such circumstances, of remaining in my present situation; for I feel that I cannot serve with honour or credit to myself any longer, and I therefore beg to be superseded. I had hoped, after a period of fifty-five years' service, never having been found fault with before, that I should have retired with an unsullied professional reputation. That hope has been denied me; for your Lordships' cen- sure, to which I have alluded, and which has wounded me too deeply ever to be forgotten, has cast a stain upon my military character that no subsequent compli- ments, such as those I have just received, can wipe away. That censure was as undeserved by the officers as it was unmerited by me; and I again request to be superseded in my command."
"My Lords" were dumbfoundered, and retired in silence. Routine was at fault : it had served the awful Board in the suc- cessive stages of tyranny ; it had enabled My Lords to crush Cap- tain Urquhart and the claims of his corps, and to silence the de- fence of his brother officers; but it had not suggested any artifice for endowing these proceedings with an air of justice; it had not enabled them quite to cage and muzzle human nature ; and when the pent-up feeling burst forth, routine supplied no answer to the unexpected eloquence. Routine stood rebuked before native generosity—it looked the fool before natural justice. Like the wild beast of the wilderness which broke its cage and came through the skylight upon a board of tailors, native passion scared servile routine, so that it scampered off. But routine had its re- venge—fiew to its pins and needles : Colonel Wright received an intimation that he must resign.
My Lords cannot face plain speaking, and they are determined to put down that bad habit. They will not learn the forgotten arts of being strong in justice, but must maintain their authority by quite breaking the spirit of the British officer. You might have supposed that they would have respected the sensitive ho- nour, the dignified complaint, and respectful remonstrance of the veteran : you might say that gentlemen must acknowledge the freemasonry of chivalry and yield to a higher law than official rules : but " tell that to the Marines "!
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