“That gentleman I believe to be, at this moment, one of the most deeply-injured men in your Majesty’s dominions. He has been convicted of misconduct of which he is utterly incapable; and I consider that conviction to be altogether contrary to law and justice, and to have proceeded upon an unconscious violation of cardinal and characteristic rules of British jurisprudence, essential to the safety as well as to the liberties of your Majesty’s subjects. And what has thus happened to Captain Douglas may happen to any other gentleman who is now, or may be hereafter, honoured by bearing the commission of your Majesty. I think myself able to bring forward facts which are incontrovertible, and reasonings which appear, if I may be permitted to say it, conclusive—and that not to myself alone, but to others whose judgment, were it publicly pronounced, would be deemed entitled to the utmost deference—to establish the innocence of one, upon whose brow, nevertheless, stands at this moment, and has stood for eight miserable months, the brand of ‘infamous and scandalous conduct.’” He then proceeds to say that her Majesty alone has the power to redress the wrong of which he comes forward to complain. “In the present case, the blighting sentence passed upon Captain Douglas cannot be reviewed in any court of law. It was solemnly decided, in your Majesty’s Court of Queen’s Bench, on a late occasion, that it had no power to issue a prohibition to restrain the execution of the sentence of a court-martial, after that sentence had been ratified by the king, and carried into execution. And yet, in the existing state of the law, the unfortunate accused has no means of knowing the sentence which has crushed him, until it has been so ratified, carried into execution, and thus declared _therefore_ irrevocable! And that sentence, too, pronounced by a _court of law_, bound to proceed according to the law of the land—which law it may have violated in every particular!”