with disparity of forces, drove the enemy's ships into the Tagus, and preserved us on the eleventh hour-the squadron, which continual stupidity, mismanagement, and perhaps malignity, had put in jeopardy.

The enemy has not of late fired so much, and a large stock of provisions has been landed; but the price, though a little lower, is not so much as it ought to be, on account of the monopoly kept on by some of the protégés of the clique, who are said to go halves with high folks.

The patriots of Figueira still hold out, and the Pedroite apathy in not sending there even a boat to learn its extent is to me inexplicable, and more so after the gallant manner with which two of my comrades, natives of the place, offered their services to the perilous enterprise. Nevertheless, I ought not to be amazed at this, being in perfect accordance with everything else, which has been entirely left to chance.

Dom Miguel is gone to Coimbra on pretext of meeting Don Carlos and his sisters; but I suppose the real motive is to be just half way from Lisbon and the army, in order that, should we move on some point, he might easily get there quickly to rally his partisans.

A VOLUNTEER, A. M. S.

EAST INDIA COMPANY'S MILITARY SEMINARY, ADDISCOMBE. THE half-yearly public examination of the Gentlemen-Cadets took place on Tuesday, the 11th June, before a numerous deputation from the Hon. the Court of Directors of the East India Company, at which William Wigram, Esq. the Deputy Chairman, presided. The examination was attended by many distinguished gentlemen and officers, amongst whom were Lord Arthur Hill, Sir James Shaw, Major-General Sir Howard Douglas, Major-General Miller, &c.

The Deputy Chairman and deputation were received with a salute of eleven guns. The column passed in review order; formed line; performed the manual and platoon exercise, the broad-sword exercise of infantry and cavalry, and advanced to the general salute.

The first class of thirty gentlemen-cadets was brought forward for examination. Colonel Sir A. Dickson, K.C.B. and K.C.H., the inspector and public examiner, conducted the mathematical and fortification departments, and Dr. Wilkins the Eastern languages. The course of examination has been so frequently given in our Journal, that it is unnecessary to enter into the details of it on the present occasion. When concluded, Sir A. Dickson made his report of the qualifications of the class, according to which the following seven cadets were selected for the scientific ordnance corps :

James Allardyce, Frederick Pollock, Charles F. North, for the Engineers; William Hodgson, Edward Strettell, George Penrice, Robert Tudor Tucker, for the Artillery.

And twenty-three were appointed to the Infantry, viz.—

George T. Hamilton, Arthur M. Becher, William F. Eden, William R. N. Campbell, Frederick D. Atkinson, William J. Cooke, John White, Walter S. Sherwill, Clare S. Salmon, Walter F. Goodwyn, Charles J. Gibbon, Robert L. J. Ogilvie, William Y. Siddons, Henry Vincent, Robert Le Geyt, George T. Pogson, Lambart Scott, Robert R. Moore, Charles Halkett, John Goolden, Henry Nixon, Charles Hoseason Patrick Johnston.

Among the many interesting circumstances of the day, the most gratifying was the unqualified report that Col. Houstoun, C.B., the Lieut.-Governor, was enabled to make to the Hon. Court, of the steady, gentlemanlike, and manly conduct of their cadets during the whole of the past term. He was pleased to state that besides the support received from his staff-officers in maintaining high moral principle and military discipline, he attributes much to the example set by the first class, and especially to the judgment, temper, and firmness of Gentlemen-Corporals North, Hamilton, Tucker, Campbell, and Allardyce, who were respectively in charge of classes during the term,"

ABSTRACT OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS CONNECTED WITH THE ARMY AND NAVY.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 10th, 1833.

[The personal and extraordinary nature of the following discussion in the House of Commons, coupled with our desire to render its details and honourable termination correctly known to the United Service, induces us to give it precedence of Debates prior in date, and destined to appear in their proper order.]

Mr. Cobbett.-I have to present several petitions to the House; one in particular, which I believe the House will consider to be of great importance, and the prayer of which will, I apprehend, produce a very great sensation. The petition is of that nature, that it becomes me to state the circumstances under which it is brought before the House. It was put into my hands by a gentleman of whom I had no previous knowledge whatever. A petition, containing allegations against a Member of this House, and praying that he may be expelled from it, as being unworthy to hold a seat in it, is not to be treated in an ordinary manner. I did not merely satisfy myself that it embodied nothing offensive in its language; therefore, when I saw the name of a very respectable and well-known officer of the navy, Captain Owen, attached to the petition, I thought it necessary to ascertain from Captain Owen, himself, whether or not he had really signed the petition. Accordingly, I saw him, and he told me that it was his signature; and he afterwards gave me, in writing, his reasons for signing the peti tion, and also his permission to make what use I pleased of that written communica tion. In short, he acted in the most frank and open manner; and declared that he was ready to state, at the Bar of the House, his reasons for having signed this petition. Other persons have also signed it who, I believe, are electors of the borough for which the Honourable and Gallant Member to whom this petition refers-I mean Sir Thomas Troubridge-is a Member. The petition states, that Sir Thomas Troubridge, who has been returned as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Sandwich, is a person who ought not to serve in Parliament as a representative of the people, and is unworthy of a seat in the House, for the following reasons.

I shall stop, here, to inform the House, that I have been very slow in bringing forward this petition. After having ascertained who the petitioners were, and evidence of the facts alleged having been produced to me, I showed the petition to the Honourable Member himself, and told him on what day I should present it; and I also gave a similar intimation to the First Lord of the Admiralty, so that nothing has been wanting, on my part, to give due information to the parties concerned. I will now read the petition.

To the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.

The humble Petition of certain Electors of Sandwich, Deal, and Walmer, and other Persons,

Sheweth,-That Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, has been returned as a Member of Parliament for the aforesaid places.

That he is a person who ought not to serve as Member of Parliament for the following reasons:

That by the naval regulations established by the King's Order in Council in force up to the twenty-fifth day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and six, it was ordered that no person should be appointed lieutenant of the Royal Navy until he should have served six years at sea, during two of which he must have been rated as a midshipman or a mate in some of his Majesty's ships, and should have produced certificates of his service and age, and should not have been under twenty years of age, and have passed an examination at the Navy Office, or before three principal commanders authorized to examine him by the Commander-in-Chief.

That on the twenty-fifth day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and six, an Order in Council was directed to be executed, which states, "that no person shall be appointed a lieutenant until he shall have attained the full age of nineteen years, with other qualifications aforesaid; but allowing two years' study at the Naval College, and three years' service on board any of his Majesty's ships, equal to the aforesaid six years' service at sea.

"That no person shall be appointed commander until he shall have been two complete years a lieutenant.

"That no person shall be appointed a captain until he shall have been one complete year commander."

That on the fifth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and six, according to the official list of the navy published by authority of the Admiralty, he, the

said Edward Thomas Troubridge, is therein recorded commander, his name not having appeared in any previous list as a lieutenant; he must, therefore, have only been a lieutenant, if ever he was one, a part of the year one thousand eight hundred and six, as the Navy Lists are published annually.

That on the twenty-eighth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and seven, the said Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, according to the said list of the navy, appears to have been made a captain.

That according to the records of the Herald's College, Thomas Troubridge was created a baronet in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine; he married Frances Richardson, widow, at the parish church of St. Marylebone, in the county of Middlesex; and had a son named Thomas, born at Upton House, near Romsey, Hants. By the register of marriages of the said parish of St. Marylebone, in the said county of Middlesex, Thomas Troubridge, bachelor, was married to Frances Richardson, widow, on the twentieth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, who was the father of the said Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, who, upon the decease of the aforesaid Thomas Troubridge, took, and still retains, the title of baronet.

That had the said Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, been born on the day when his father and mother were married, he could not have been, on the fifth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and six, nineteen years of age when made commander, not old enough to be a lieutenant under either regulations, nor twenty years of age when made captain.

That the said Thomas and Frances Troubridge had twin daughters, Charlotte and Elizabeth, who were baptized at the parish church of Nursling, in the county of Southampton, on the twenty-seventh day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, though no register of baptism of the said Edward Thomas Troubridge is to be found in the said parish of Nursling, wherein he was born, and in which parish the aforesaid Upton House is situate. The said Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge appears to have been born after his said twin sisters, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety; he therefore was made a captain at seventeen years of age.

That in order to obtain a qualification to be made a lieutenant, it was necessary that he should produce a copy of the register of his baptism, or certificate of his age, to the Commissioners of the Navy, or to the captains who examined him, which qualification, called a passing certificate, and copy of the registry of baptism, or certificate of age, are lodged at the Admiralty Office, to authorize the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral to promote him to the rank of lieutenant, which rank he must have obtained before the said Commissioners could be authorized to promote him to any higher rank in the navy.

That the said Edward Thomas Troubridge, now Baronet, must, therefore, have produced a forged, or false, copy of the register of baptism, or certificate of his age, and have knowingly and falsely represented himself to be of an age he was not, and did thereby fraudulently, if not feloniously, obtain the commissions of lieutenant, commander, and captain, and the pay attached by law to those commissions; also the half-pay of captain, which he is now continuing fraudulently to receive, which sums of money of full and half-pay exceed the sum of six thousand pounds he so obtained from the King.

That the King was actually obliged to serve the aforesaid time, and be twenty years of age, before he was made a lieutenant; and though there was then no specified time a person should serve as lieutenant before made a commander, and serve as commander before made a captain, the King actually served years a lieutenant before he was made commander and captain.

That so well aware of the aforesaid restrictions to granting commissions in the Royal Navy were former Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral, and who appoint officers for the King to his Majesty's ships, that when the late Rear-Admiral James Bowen was master of the Queen Charlotte, in the great battle fought in June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four, between the British and French fleets, and had done great service on that occasion, and though above the age required to be a lieutenant, as he had not been rated midshipman, or mate, the requisite time, though in every other respect qualified, a specific Order in Council was passed to authorize the said Commissioners to promote him to the rank of lieutenant.

That when Captain Jeremiah Coghlan was midshipman in a gallant battle fought in one thousand eight hundred, and had done great service on that occasion, though he was above the age required to be a lieutenant, but had not the other qualification of service in the Royal Navy, a specific Order in Council was passed to authorize the said Commissioners to promote him to the rank of lieutenant; and there is no instance known of any person, however high his family, or great his services, ever having been authorized, by Order in Council, to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant before he was the aforesaid age.

That therefore any commission granted by the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral contrary to the said powers must be illegal,

That by the Act of the twenty-second of King George the Second, intituled “An Act for amending, explaining, and reducing into one Act of Parliament the Laws relating to the Government of his Majesty's Ships, Vessels, and Forces at Sea," it is enacted that a court-martial shall be composed of flag-officers, captains, or commanders.

That the aforesaid Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, during the time he illegally commanded the King's ship, must have composed a court-martial, and not having a lawful commission, must have illegally inflicted punishment; and that all persons who have been punished or flogged by him as captain of the King's ship, whether during his infancy or since his manhood, it appears have been illegally punished.

That therefore your petitioners believe that he, the said Sir Edward Thomas Troubridge, Baronet, has been guilty of, or at least defrauded the King of the pay and half-pay attached to the aforesaid commissions, and a daring violation of the law of the kingdom, by executing the office of a Judge at courts-martial, and in the ships he commanded, without a lawful commission.

That your petitioners humbly pray that these premises may be inquired into, and if found to be true, as your petitioners verily believe they will, you will expel him from Parliament as an unfit and improper person to serve therein, and order him to be prosecuted for the said offences. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

Then come the signatures; they are-Captain Owen, William Harris, Thomas Wood, and many others, some of them designated as gentlemen, and all of them electors of the borough of Sandwich. The House will be pleased to observe, that I take upon me to assert none of these facts to be true, and that I have taken every precaution not to commit myself to them; but that it involves a matter of great importance, every man must be satisfied. Every man must be satisfied that if these allegations be true, an inquiry must take place. I will now read the letter which I received from Captain Owen, in which he assigns his reasons for signing this petition :

6th April.

I am just informed by Mr. Edwards, that you have at length given notice of your intention to present the petition from Sandwich, which I have signed, on Wednesday next. It is due to you, in the task you have undertaken against, I fear, a decided feeling to resist the immediate reform of corrupt favouritism, too long cherished in practice, that I should acquaint you with my motives for signing that petition, if these should be called in question, as perhaps they will be. Naval officers being so decidedly subjected to the will or caprice of the Admiralty, the affixing their names to any document which may not be pleasing to the Admiralty is it must be acknowledged, a bold measure, and can only arise from a conviction of the propriety of the act on just principles, since it risks the favour of those to whom they are subjected. That the petition you are about to present will not be agreeable to the Government, or at least to the Admiralty, may be supposed from Sir T. Troubridge having been nominated by them as their candidate for the borough from which the petition emanates; and as mine is the only signature of a naval officer to it, my worldly interest is not likely to be benefited by it, nor my professional hopes encouraged. I must, therefore, have supported the prayer of the petition on principle. The practice complained of has, indeed, too long disgraced and degraded our naval service; and it is solely in the hope of putting a final stop to such atrocious wrong, that I have lent my name to the petition: this is my professional reason. My political motives are, that Sir T. Troubridge came forward as a Reformer; that is, as pledged to the reformation of public abuse. If, as we contend, his own history furnishes an instance of the grossest abuse of authority, or imposition on it, must he not have been imposing on his constituents? I conceive that, benefited as he had been, and still enjoying the fruits, as he was, of the most flagitious and corrupt abuse of power and patronage, he must at least have been insincere. Therefore I was but fulfilling a public duty in signing the petition as a freeman of the borough.

The great wrong done to the naval service, and to the public, by the species of wrong complained of is, that children attaining high rank by corruption, intrigue, or particular favour, in preference to men who have run the career of regular service, they not only become pensioners on the State, at the highest rate, for inany more years than could be calculated on by the nature of the profession, and laws for its administration, but the very wrong done enables them to obtain the most confidential situations, and to obtain even the government and management of the service they have abused. How can such people be expected to administer

righteously, who obtain their power and rule by manifest wrong? The whole history of our service, past and present, would furnish an ample commentary of the mischief done to the profession and the country by such malpractices as those complained of in the petition.

If I were inclined to urge the propriety of adopting this petition, and of taking proceedings upon it, I could not do so with more ability than it has here been done by this very meritorious naval officer. But, Sir, it must be evident to every man that the naval service must suffer (and that is a service to which, as Englishmen, we are all much attached) from this pernicious system of favouritism. That favouritism will exist to a certain extent, we all know-it is impossible to prevent it. But this petition contains, not merely allegations of abuses of that nature, but, in addition to the usual abuses arising from relationship, connexion, and patronage, here is a fraud alleged; and if the allegation be true, here is one instance, at least, of a gentleman receiving pay, and exercising the power which his rank gave him, who ought not to have had any pay or to have possessed any power. As a captain of the navy, he had the power to tie up any of his men to the mast, and to flog them at his pleasure, without any court-martial. I do not mean to say that a captain should not have such power; but then the greatest care ought to be taken that it be not committed to the hands of children, absolutely too young to manage themselves. Then, as to the honour and safety of the country, if I am not very much mistaken, Captain Dacres, who commenced that disgraceful war with America, and who lost his ship to a very inferior force in the course of about twenty minutes, and was carried into port by an American frigate, was not more than about seventeen or eighteen years old when he was made a captain. Sir J. Yeo, also, who lost our fleet upon the Lakes, was only fifteen years old when he was made a lieutenant. Now, I am satisfied that we suffered greally in that American war, in consequence of these practices-practices which are of the greatest possible injury to the service, and also to the country; for the country have a right to look to them-it being their money which maintains the navy; and the people, therefore, have as much claim to the honour of that navy as those who actually serve in it. The people have a right also to call for a correction of these abuses, and for an inquiry into the allegations of this petition-if they cannot be denied-for, if they can be denied, then I say that the parties who have signed this petition, deserve, not merely reprehension, but severe punishment. The Noble Lord, when speaking of the fraudulent manner in which a certificate of apprenticeship had been obtained by a person claiming to be a member of the corporation of Lyun, did so in terms of the utmost indignation at the conduct of the parties implicated in that transaction. These parties were prosecuted with the utmost severity, and were punished by being expelled the corporation. Now, if it be just to deal in such a manner with the poor, and thus heavily to punish a fraud of such a description, are we to say it is a thing to be winked at-laughed at-ay, laughed at-when a charge of fraud is brought against a Member of this House, whose very character, as a naval officer is identified with the word "honour"-the service to which he belongs being the glory and pride of his country! If there be any real foundation for such a charge, I say it is the duty of this House-and it will be a scandal upon it if it does not perform that duty-to appoint a Committee to inquire into the truth of that alle gation; and, if true, to call upon the Government to eject from that honourable service every man who has got into it by such dishonourable means. Sir, I shall now present this petition; and this reformed House will do with it just what it pleases.

Sir Thomas Troubridge.—I trust on so serious and grave a charge being brought against me, the House will allow me to occupy a few moments of their time in explanation; and I hope I shall be able to show to their satisfaction, that this petition arises solely from private disappointment in an election contest, and not from any public motive whatever. To explain this, I beg to state a few facts that occurred at the last election for the borough which I have the honour to represent. On the dissolution of the last Parliament, a person by the name of Edwards, totally unconnected with Sandwich, went down to that town, and, assisted by Captain Owen, applied to the mayor and jurats for a warrant to arrest me on a charge of having fraudulently obtained money on the high seas, his charge being, that my being promoted at an earlier age than specified by an Order in Council, all the pay I had received was fraudulently obtained, and that Sandwich, being a cinque-port, had jurisdiction over the high seas, and therefore the warrant ought to be granted. The mayor refused to attend to this till the election was over; and the day after I was elected, the mayor and jurats were summoned to hear Mr. Edwards' charge. He, however, withdrew it altogether. I should also state that he applied to the neighbouring magistrate who, though politically opposed to me, would not listen to such a measure. I ti