A. I have already sworn that I had no application sooner than the 25th September. Q. 27. By the court.-How much money did Captain Dale advance to you for carrying on the service between the 20th August and the 19th September last? A. £231. as early as I can answer. The Prisoner now proceeds to his defence upon the 4th charge. SERJEANT GEORGE COMMON, of the Northumberland Regiment, being called upon, and duly sworn, is examined as an evidence by the Prisoner. Q. 1. Whether you paid debts on my account due from the late Serjeant Dodd, and to what amount, and when? A. On or about the 27th January last, I paid debts to the amount of £14 7s. 1d. on the late Serjeant Dodd's account, by order of Captain Dale. LIEUTENANT COLONEL COULSON, of the Northumberland Regiment, being called on, and duly sworn, is examined as an evidence by the Prisoner. Q. 1. Whether, when you were in Northumberland last year, and about what time you received a letter from me relative to an account of the late Serjeant Dodd, and produce that letter to the court? A. I do not exactly recollect the time I received it, but the letter is here produced. Dated Alnwick, 17th October, 1809, read in court, and copied in the Prisoner's address to the court. Q. 2. When was the fourth charge against me delivered to you as commanding officer of the regiment, by Major Hedley? A. Some time in the month of February, after the 10th. Q. 3. How long have I had the honor to be under your command, as a Captain in the Northumberland Regiment. A. Between three and four years. Q. 4. Whether, during the time I have had the honor to be known to you, you have witnessed any thing in my conduct that was unworthy, ungentlemanly, or unofficer-like, and what is your estimation of my character? A. During the whole of the time Captain Dale has been under my command, his conduct, as an officer and a gentleman, has always been such as to merit my intire approbation. Indeed, I do not recollect to have had occasion to find fault with him in any one instance whatever. LIEUTENANT CHARLES FOSTER CHARLTON, paymaster of the Northumberland Regiment, being called on, and duly sworn, is examined as an evidence by the Prisoner. Q. 1. Did you, soon after the death of the late Serjeant Dodd, write a letter to me informing me of that event, and produce my answer to that letter? A. I did, and here is the answer produced to the court. Dated at Alnwick, 12th August, 1809, and copied in the Prisoner's address to the court. Q. 2. Whether, during the time I have been known to you, you have witnessed any thing improper, ungentleman-like, or unofficer-like, in my conduct, and what is your general opinion of my character? A. Never; but I consider you a person of the strictest honor and integrity. COLONEL, THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD LOVAINE, of the Northumberland Regiment, being called upon, and duly sworn. Q. 1. By the Prisoner. When I had the honor to become a Captain in the Northumberland Regiment, under your Lordship's command; Did your Lordship receive any, and what, testimonials of my character? A. To the best of my recollection, I received in the year 1805, being the year previous to that Captain Dale received his commission, a letter from Colonel Guard, of the 45th regiment, who strongly recommended Captain Dale as an officer, who had always conducted himself with the greatest propriety, for a company then vacant in the regiment; but I had then recommended an officer for the vacant company. The ensuing year another company became vacant, and Captain Dale applying for it, I recommended him for that company on Colonel Guard's recommendation, to which was added that of Major General Sir James Affleck, and he was in consequence appointed. Q. 2. During the time that I have had the honor to be known to your Lordship, have you witnessed in my conduct any thing unworthy, ungentlemanly, or unofficer-like? A. Certainly never. Q. 3. What is your Lordship's estimate of my character? A. Excellent, both as an officer and as a gentleman. Letters from Major General Montgomerie, Lieutenant Colonel Nicolls, and Major Drew, of which the following are copies, were then produced by the Prisoner and read to the court.* "London, 2d Feb. 1810." 66. Sir," "According to your desire of stating my opinion of your conduct whilst under my command in the 45th regiment, I am glad to have an opportunity of saying, that during that period your conduct was, in every respect, that of an officer and a gentleman, I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, Capt. Dale, Northumberland Regiment." JAMES MONTGOMERIE, These letters were not copied in the proceedings, but the copies here inserted are from the originals. E. DALE. "My dear Sir," "Buckingham, 18th March, 1810." "Your letter followed me from Steyning to this place, which will account for this reply being delayed. "I am extremely sorry that you should ever have had occasion to feel yourself compelled to call on your old acquaintances for any testimonial in your favor, as we must all have been convinced that you would never have been reduced to any such extremity. "It gives me very great satisfaction to be able to state, (which distance prevents my doing personally,) that whilst I was present with the 45th your conduct in every shape was highly approved of and agreeable to your brother officers, being most correct as an officer, and gentlemanlike in every particular. "When I returned to the corps, I found your private circumstances had induced you to quit the 45th, in which you were justly regretted, and I am convinced that Colonel Guard, and Major Gwyn, if at home, would feel equal mortification with myself at the necessity you are under of appealing; and also that they would be as happy, as I am, to say, that I have ever thought you most worthy of the perfect confidence and esteem of those with whom you associated whilst we were in the 45th. Believe me, dear Sir, with best wishes, "Yours most faithfully, "Capt. Dale, Northumberland Militia, Ipswich, Suffolk." J. NICOLLS, Lt. Col. 14th Foot." "Dear Sir," "In answer to your application to me for my opinion of your conduct, and of the character you held in the 45th regiment while you belonged to it, I can with much truth affirm, that not only myself, but I firmly believe every officer then with the regi ment, including those in command of it, had the most satisfactory and favourable opinion of you; and I always thought you perfectly respectful and obedient to those under whose command you were. I further certify that your conduct appeared not only perfectly gentleman-like, but you shewed every disposition to prove your zeal for the regiment, and the service, in getting volunteers from the militia and the fencibles during the short peace. "I remain, dear Sir, Your obedient and humble Servant, "Nottingham, 20th April, 1810." "To Captain Dale, Northumberland Regiment of Militia, Norman Cross." The court adjourns until to-morrow morning at half past eight o'clock. May 19th, 1810. The court having assembled, and the members being all present, proceed accordingly. The Prosecutor's Reply. Mr President and Gentlemen, Having now arrived at the last stage of this long and irksome prosecution, it remains for me only to make a few observations on the evidence which I had the honor of laying before you in support of the accusations, and on the defence which you have heard from Captain Dale. One of my charges I have been obliged to wave by your decision on the evidence which was to have supported it, and, therefore, with respect to that charge I have nothing to urge, except that I was induced to undertake it, not by any feeling of ill will to Captain Dale, but by several applications; and more especially by a letter, which I received from the widow of Dodd the serjeant. It would seem very ungracious in me to recapitulate here the facts, inferences, and inconsistencies, which convinced me on the subject of this charge; facts, inferences, and inconsistencies, by no means the same with those which the defence has already attempted to obviate :-that part of the prosecution has, however, been expunged from your minutes, and I am sure I am willing that it may be expunged from your minds. Captain Dale, in his address, has adverted to a proposal which I made to him a short time ago, of referring all the charges to a private arbitration. It is not for me to pronounce whether his rejection of this proposal was prudent or not. I can only declare that it was made, from a sincere wish to consult the feelings of Captain Dale, and to convince him that I had no desire to make any accusation public against him, without his own deliberate acquiescence. Captain Dale has chosen to call the proposed settlement a compromise. The precise offer made to Captain Dale was, that the two field officers of the first Norfolk Regiment should be requested to take the trouble of examining into the merits of the question, as arbitrators, and that General Williams should be solicited to act as an umpire. In the offer of such a compromise as this there could be nothing very disgraceful or humiliating; an endeavour has been made to overturn the evidence of specific facts and figures, by general testimonials as to character. That' Captain Dale's character, before the period defined in the charges, was free from reproach, I am ready to allow in common with all the officers who have deposed in his favour; and, in common with them I can further declare, that I most extremely regret the K occurrence of the events which have made it necessary to request those testimonials; but, general opinion, though they would be very satisfactory evidence if the charge were a general one, for unofficer-like conduct, are not very decisive proofs upon a subject where particulars are definitely stated and established; more especially as the officers, who deliver their opinion, know nothing of the occurrences which this court is assembled to try. The statement which I have to submit to you relates to two topics; first, to the accusation respecting the marching allowances, and secondly, to the accusation respecting pay and bounties. In the course of the details that have taken place as to the marching allowances, Captain Dale has endeavoured to make it appear, that as he did not conceal from his officers the fact of his having drawn for that money, he, therefore, shewed no inclination to withhold it; but I submit that whether he had chosen to avoid payment by disavowing that he had drawn for the money, or by affirming that he was not authorized by government to pay it, whether, in short, it was the receipt of the money or the receipt of the authority that he untruly denied, in any case, as long as by any untrue denial he did avoid the payment, so long he was guilty of the matter assigned in the charge, one plea for retaining the money would answer the purpose as well as the other; and the plea, which he chose to employ to the officers, was, that he had received no instructions, or, as in his defence he attempts to construe it, "no communication" from the war office, such a communication he states himself to have expected, why should he, or how could he expect it? He has not even proved that he applied to the war office for any information on the subject. Did he expect that the Secretary at War of his own accord would send that information into the north? To what end should such infor mation have been sent from the war office? When the recruiting instructions of the officer have authorized him to draw at the rate of nine pence per mile, and when he has learnt from the post-master that the exact number of miles to be estimated is 341, must he wait for information from the war office to help him in calculating the amount of nine pence a mile for 341 miles? If an officer is to wait till government calculates all his expenditure in this way, item by item, he may excuse himself from making any payment whatever, by pleading that he has had no information to confirm the accuracy of his estimates, he may refuse the bounties of a score of recruits, till he knows whether the war office will allow twenty times five guineas to be £105. He may refuse any thing and every thing; but, I repeat, that Captain Dale has not even stated that he ever applied to the war office for any information at all, nor does it appear that when at last, after an interval of three months, he did pay the allowances, the payment was authorized by any communication or instruction from the war office, or from any other place, except the original instruction, |