GOVERNOR DARLINGS TREATMENT OF CAPTAIN ROBISON. .
WE have seen a temperate but forcibly-written statement of the case of Captain ROBISON, with which the readers of the Spectator must be familiar, in a recent number of the Christian Advocate. This, we believe, is the first notice of the case which has appeared in that journal; and we frust it will have the effect of rousing the attention of those classes among whom the Christian Advocate circulates, to the gross oppression of which' Captain ROBISON complains of having been the victim. It is difficult to speak of the conduct of Governor DARLING in proper language. Never before did a General Officer in the British service skulk from meeting such charges as Captain ROBISON has preferred against this man. He is accused of peculation, jobbing in land, atro- cious tyranny in his office of Governor of New South Wales —even with murder, or something akin to it : and what steps does he take to relieve himself from these horrid imputations? Does be press for a Court-martial ? does he instruct his friends in the House of Commons to accede to Captain ROBISON'S reiterated calls for a committee of inquiry ? has be exculpated himself at the Colonial Office? Has he, in short, taken any one step, during the five or six years that his character has been blackened with charges of the foulest nature, to clear it in the eye of his fellow soldiers and the public ? He has done nothing of the kind a but - —he has preferred an indictment for a libel against Captain Rensisox I He brought no action, moved for no criminal info,- • 'nation, but selected a mode of proceedingb which will prevent the truth of the charges against him from being either substantiated on the one hand or disproved on the other. He has chosen that mode of proceeding which Lord BROUGHAM told the Libel Com- mittee is almost the same as acknowledging the truth ef a libel. The indictment remains to be tried: we fervently hope that no English jury will be found to convict a defendant brought to trial under the circumstances in which Captain ROBISON must appear.
The conduct of Lord Hiss, Lord FITZROY SOMERSET, and the other influential parties at the Horse Guards in this affair, is precisely such as would be expected from men anxious to screen a powerfully-connected delinquent from the hands of justice: it is precisely such as men anxious for the honour of the Army would sever have been prevailed upon, by any motives or interest, to adopt. Captain Ronisose it must he remembered, is a gentle- man of unimpeached character : he has served twenty-five years in the Army, and was selected by the Duke of YORK for the com- mand of a company of a supei ior description, all the privates of which had been non-commissioned officers: his father and grand- father, four brothers, and two nephews, have been in the service : several Members of Parliament, after a careful examination of his
ear.:‘, declare their belief that he has been scandalously ill-used: all that he asks for is inquiry. But inquiry is refused him at the horse Guards; and the chivalrous Governor DARLING proceeds against him by indictment for libel !
From the Horse Guards we turn with more satisfaction to the Colonial Office. We bold Mr. SPRING RICE pledged to do Captain Ronisos justice. When the case was brought before the House of Commons in July last, he thus expressed himself-
" It is perfectly open to Captain Robison to lay before me what statement lie pleases, and I promise to give it the best consideration in my power. I express no opinicn one way or the other ; I do not say that Captain Robison is an in- jut ed man, or that General Darling has acted wrongly. All 1 soy is this, that if ilj nstice has been done, it is the duty of the Colonial Secretary to remedy it. '
This was spoken like a wise Minister, feeling his responsibility, and sensible of the immense value of the interests over which he presides. The legal proceedings against Captain Ronisos afforded a fair pretext for suspending Parliamentary interference. But what- ever the result of the trial may be, the affair will be brought before the House of Commons next session.
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