SIR JOHN MORDAUNT TRIED BY A COURT-MARTIAL.

This report, signed by the general officers, Marlborough, Sackville, and Waldegrave, probably laid the foundation for the court-martial which sat soon after upon the conduct of the commander-in-chief of the expedition. The enemies of the minister made a handle of the miscarriage to lessen him in the esteem of the public, by laying the whole blame on his forming a project so expensive to the nation, on intelligence not only slight at the first view, but false upon further examination. But the people were still his advocates; they discerned something mysterious in the whole conduct of the commander-in-chief. They plainly perceived that caution took the place of vigour, and that the hours for action were spent in deliberations and councils of war. Had he debarked the troops, and made such an attack as would have distinguished his courage, the voice of the people would have acquitted him, however unsuccessful, though prudence perhaps might have condemned him. Even Braddock’s rashness they deemed preferable to Mor-daunt’s inactivity: the loss of so many brave lives was thought less injurious and disgraceful to the nation, than the too safe return of the present armament. The one demonstrated that the British spirit still existed; the other seemed to indicate the too powerful influence of wealth, luxury, and those manners which tend to debauch and emasculate the mind. A public trial of the commander-in-chief was expected by the people, and it was graciously granted by his majesty. It is even thought that Sir John Mordaunt himself demanded to have his conduct scrutinized, by which method alone he was sensible his character could be re-established. His majesty’s warrant for holding a court-martial was accordingly signed on the third day of December. The court was composed of nine lieutenant-generals, nine major-generals, and three colonels, who sat on the fourteenth, and continued by several adjournments to the twentieth. Lieutenant-general Sir John Mordaunt came prisoner before the court, and the following charge was exhibited against him; namely, that he being appointed, by the king, commander-in-chief of his majesty’s forces sent on an expedition to the coast of France, and having received orders and instructions relative thereto, from his majesty, under his royal sign-manual, and also by one of his principal secretaries of state, had disobeyed his majesty’s said orders and instructions. The proceedings of this court were nearly similar to those of the court of inquiry. The same evidences were examined, with the addition of sir Edward Hawke’s deposition; and a defence, differing in no essential point from the former, made by the prisoner; but the judgment given was clear and explicit. Sir John Mordaunt was unanimously found Not Guilty, and therefore acquitted, while the public opinion remained unaltered, and many persons inveighed as bitterly against the lenity of the present court-martial, as they had formerly against the severity of the sentence passed upon a late unfortunate admiral. The evidence of one gentleman in particular drew attention: he was accused of tergiversation, and of showing that partial indulgence which his own conduct required. He publicly defended his character: his performance was censured, and himself dismissed the service of his sovereign.