ge, or to give notice that
the charge will be preferred, on the first seasonable opportunity,
instead of lulling the offender into security, and disarming him in his
defence, by allowing the time to run on so long as to render him
incapable of bringing forward his witnesses. I take the liberty of
calling this to your attention, and shall now proceed to answer the
charges which have been brought against me.

"I am accused of having held a conversation with an inferior officer on
the quarter-deck of his Majesty's brig _Rattlesnake_, in which my
captain was treated with contempt. That it may not be supposed that Mr
Swinburne was a new acquaintance, made upon my joining the brig, I must
observe that he was an old shipmate, with whom I had served many years,
and with whose worth I was well acquainted. He was my instructor in my
more youthful days, and has been rewarded for his merit, with the
warrant which he now holds as gunner of His Majesty's brig
_Rattlesnake_. The offensive observation, in the first place, was not
mine; and, in the second, it was couched in general terms. Here Mr
Swinburne has pointedly confessed that _he_ did refer to the captain,
although the observation was in the plural; but that does not prove the
charge against me--on the contrary, adds weight to the assertion of Mr
Swinburne, that I was guiltless of the present charge. That Captain
Hawkins has acted as a spy, his own evidence on this charge, as well as
that brought forward by other witnesses, will decidedly prove; but as
the truth of the observation does not warrant the utterance, I am glad
that no such expression escaped my lips.

"Upon the second charge I shall dwell but a short time. It is true that
there is a general order that no stoves shall be alight after a certain
hour; but I will appeal to the honourable court, whether a first
lieutenant is not considered to have a degree of licence of judgment in
all that concerns the interior discipline of the ship. The surgeon sent
to say that a stove was required for one of the sick. I was in bed at
the time, and replied immediately in the affirmative. Does Captain
Hawkins mean to assert to the honourable court, that he would have
refused the request of the surgeon? Most certainly not. The only error I
committed, if it were an error, was not going through the form of
awaking Captain Hawkins, to ask the permission, which, as first
lieutenant, I thought myself authorized to give.

"The charge again