created by the conduct of my prosecutor, and acquit me of the slightest intention of disrespect to the principles of subordination, or the most remote wish unnecessarily to wound the feelings even of my accuser.
“Before I proceed to answer specifically the charges now exhibited against me by Captain Bligh, it is proper for me to state to this Honorable Court, that in November last, when the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty gave directions for my being released from a confinement to the ship of nearly two years, I most urgently solicited their lordships would be pleased to direct Captain Bligh to exhibit his charges against me, that my conduct might be investigated at a court-martial. This request was made on the 19th of November last, as appears from my letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, which I shall have the honour to lay before you at the close of my defence, it being transmitted to the Judge Advocate, duly authenticated. On the 4th of December only, (being fifteen days subsequent to my application) Captain Bligh applied for a court-martial, to try me on the three several charges now before this Court.
“I do not mean to state that the disposition and spirit of my prosecutor did not lead him to accuse me, but I hope it may be fairly inferred from the reluctance he has shewn to bring forward the charges since my arrival in England, that some motives and apprehensions existed in his mind, which strongly inclined him to doubt the result of this day’s investigation; and that he rather wished (had I been so inclined) that his oppression and my long sufferings should be sunk in oblivion.
“It is due to myself, to mention to the Court, that I have repeatedly made respectful application to my prosecutor (before my arrival in England,) to be informed of the nature and extent of the supposed offences for which I was a close prisoner. I strengthened my application by urging the real grounds of it; namely, a desire to furnish myself, if necessary, with evidence from New South Wales, to repel any charges that might be adduced against me. I ventured to hope, that such an appeal to the honor and justice of a British naval officer would have experienced an ingenuous and generous reply; but my request met a different fate. The treatment I received was consistent with the severity that I have in every other instance experienced from him. My respectful application was made a mockery to my sufferings, by an answer, ‘That I might refer myself to the 3d article of chapter 2d, section 12th, of the Naval Instructions.’ I need not tell this Honourable Court, that the clause alluded to merely enacts, that it is compulsory on the officer who shall preside at a court-martial, ‘to take care that a copy of the charge or complaint be delivered to the person accused, as soon as may be, after he shall have received the order to hold such court-martial, and not less than twenty-four hours before the trial.’ This, the Court is aware, is only a precaution that no surprise, accident, or collusion, may prevent the prisoner from receiving an official copy of the charges on which he is to be tried.
“In many cases, it would be utterly impossible, from the nature of the
