“The question before you is a great and momentous one,—it affects every
officer who has been, or at any time may be, in a situation of command.
Miserable, indeed, must be their condition if they are to be censured
for the fair and honest exercise of the discretion necessarily resulting
from such a situation. I have ever felt, that in my case, I have
exercised it wisely and beneficially; I still feel so, and were I again
placed in the same situation, I should act in the same manner; unless
this court, putting themselves in the situation I then was, and
considering all the circumstances that at that time presented themselves
to my consideration, and the various objects to which my attention was
necessarily directed, shall tell me I have acted erroneously. This I
trust they will not do.
“If, in the discussion of this question, I may be allowed to look to
subsequent events, they, I think, will fully justify the line of conduct
I adopted. By it I was enabled, after receiving a reinforcement, to
pursue the combined squadrons to Cadiz, and thereby perhaps to have laid
the foundation of that glorious victory (Trafalgar) which we have so
recently celebrated. Believe me, gentlemen, the circumstance of having,
by the various calumnies which have been spread, been put under the
necessity of soliciting the present enquiry, and thereby been prevented
from being a sharer in the glories of that day, has been no small
addition to the various sufferings I have undergone.
“These sufferings, I trust, will now have had their period, and the
opinion of this court will, I flatter myself, confirm me in that
estimation with the profession and the public, which I have for so many
years enjoyed, and to restore me unsullied that fair fame and reputation
which has on this occasion been so cruelly and unjustly attacked.”
In support of the defence, the Gazette and several official letters were
read, approving his conduct throughout the encounter. Nine officers, the
Hon. Captain Gardner, the Hon. Captain Legg, Captain Boyles, Captain
Lechmere, Captain Brown, Captain Cuming, Captain Griffiths, Captain
Elphinstone-Fleming, and Lieutenant Warrand, and the Rev. John Souter,
chaplain of the _Prince of Wales_ (Admiral Calder’s ship), all witnesses
of the engagement, spoke strongly in favour of the Vice Admiral, and
bore out the view that he could not renew the engagement. The evidence
of each is so nearly alike that I need here only give the statement of
one or two.