r:
with reference to his conduct in the command of the force engaged with
the enemy at Lime Ridge on Saturday, the 2nd of June last, are affected,
there is not the slightest foundation for the unfavorable imputations
cast upon him in the public prints, and most improperly circulated
through that channel and otherwise. On the contrary, the Court desire
to express the further opinion that Lieut.-Col. Booker having, as will
appear, fallen into an error, promptly exerted himself in person to
repair the effects of that error, in a manner which can leave no stain
upon his personal courage and conduct, subsequently to the period of
actual conflict with the force opposed, and also that the disposition of
his forces, the manner in which, before an unseen enemy whose strength
was unknown to him, he planned his attack, and the desire and anxiety
which he showed to carry out these plans to the best of his ability
at points where it was his duty to be, have in conjunction with the
statements of officers and others in evidence before the Court, led the
Court to believe that at no period of that day could want of personal
coolness be imputed to Lieut.-Col. Booker.

With reference to the circumstances connected with the late engagement
at Lime Ridge, this Court are further of opinion that the entire
force under command of Lieut.-Col. Booker, from the formation of the
expedition to the time it came out of action, was under disadvantages
with which Her Majesty's regular forces have seldom or ever, it
is submitted, had to contend--in the want, of cavalry, artillery,
commissariat arrangements, or even the requisite means of carrying
with them cooked provisions, or supplying themselves with water in the
country through which they were about to move, in a season when the
heat rendered it especially needful that this last point should receive
careful attention.

Further, that more than half of the two battalions forming the largest
proportion of the whole force which left Port Colborne for Stevensville
on the morning of the 2nd of June, was composed of youths not exceeding,
and in many instances not having reached twenty years of age; that a
large proportion of the force had been for a very short time accustomed
to bear arms; that a somewhat less proportion had not even been
exercised with blank cartridge, and that practice with ball cartridge
was by very many of the rank and file of that force to be entered upon
for the first time in their