shame of those who caused their loss, and the generation of Britons who permitted it. HAMILTON, _30th January 1850_. A LATE CASE OF COURT-MARTIAL.[1] “Surely never was so slight a fault visited by so severe a punishment!” Such is the exclamation which will fall from the lips, or pass through the mind, we believe, of every one who shall peruse Mr Warren’s _Letter to the Queen on a Late Court-Martial_. The reader of that letter will also rise from its perusal with the painful conviction, that, in the awarding of this heavy punishment, a gross violation of one of the most ordinary and fundamental laws of jurisprudence has been committed; and he will probably conclude with Mr Warren, that if this be a fair specimen of the lax manner in which justice is administered in courts-martial, some reform is necessary in their structure, or, at all events, some higher court of appeal ought to be instituted for the revision of their proceedings. We have read this admirable letter of Mr Warren’s with unusual interest. As a literary performance it well comports with, and sustains the established reputation of its author; but it reflects a high honour upon him of another and loftier description than that which springs from literary excellence. It shows him in the light of a warmhearted, zealous champion of one whom he believes, and with every appearance of reason, to be an oppressed and injured man. He had assisted Captain Douglas at his trial before the court-martial, on which he now comments, as his legal adviser; he had done his duty as counsel for the defendant, so far as such a court admits of the aid or interference of counsel; he had no interest to promote, and no obligation to fulfil, by any further advocacy of his cause. Captain Douglas had been condemned; the great authorities of the Horse Guards had sanctioned and confirmed the sentence: a cautious man, and a lover of his ease, would here have parted company. He would have shaken his mournful client by the hand, and, with some cold unmeaning words of condolence, have left him with that troop of summer friends, who have, no doubt, by this time, found him a most uncompanionable man. The world was now against him; to volunteer his defence was to oppose constituted authorities; it was to side with weakness against power—with defeat against triumph. It was to stand side by side with one in adversity—stricken, and condemned. But caution and love of ease are evidently motives that have very little influence on the mind of Mr Warren. As the counsel of Captain Douglas, he had grown warm in his defence; he could not suddenly cool when he saw him prostrate, defeated, and dishonoured. He was convinced of the innocence of his client; he felt persuaded that it was in his power to show to all mankind that that client had been cruelly dealt with—treated with a degree of harshness amounting to injustice. His position of