“The Court cannot dismiss Captain Carden, without expressing its admiration of the uniform testimony which has been borne to his gallantry and good conduct throughout the action; nor Lieutenant David Hope, the other officers, and ship’s company, without expressing the highest approbation of the support given by him and them to their Captain, and of their courage and steadiness during the contest with an enemy of very superior force; a circumstance, that whilst it reflects high honour on them, does no less credit to the discipline of the Macedonian. The Court also feels it a gratifying duty to express its admiration of the fidelity to their allegiance, and attachment to their King and Country, which the remaining crew appear to have manifested, in resisting the various insidious and repeated temptations which the enemy held out to seduce them from their duty, and which cannot fail to be fully appreciated.”
The President, Commodore Henry Hotham, on returning Captain Carden his sword, highly extolled the distinguished valour displayed by him, and concluded hy saying, that whenever the honor of the British flag should be entrusted to him, he felt assured it would receive additional glory.
The approbation of an enormously thronged court, on this occasion, was enthusiastic to a degree. Captain Carden was immediately charged, by the commander-in-chief, with despatches for the Admiralty, and he arrived in London the very morning previous to a discussion in the House of Commons[1] on the “despondent and heartless state of the British navy” when the gallant defence made by the Macedonian appears to have been adduced by Ministers as the criterion of British valour, as well as to confute the unjust charge preferred by Lord Cochrane, the framer of the motion; in reply to whose animadversions, Mr. Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty, expressed himself in terms to the following effect:–
- ↑ July 5, 1813.
