Par. 3. "What actually did take place on the evening of the 7th May last, and which rendered it not only proper, but absolutely requisite for me to quit the mess-room at an early hour, I deemed it my indispensable duty next day to communicate, in a private manner, to a confidential staff officer 'from whom I received my original instructions,' in order to show the officer commanding the army in chief, and the Honourable the Governor of Fort St. George, the violent spirit of discontent, undisguised disapprobation, and determined opposition to the measures of Government, which even then existed amongst the officers of that corps, and which was previously well known at head-quarters. Par. 4. "I at the same time particularly requested that no _public notice_ might be taken of what I found it expedient to state, unless I should be compelled subsequently to bring the business reluctantly forward officially; having intimated, that I expected an apology to be tendered to me by Lieutenants D. Forbes and Maitland for their improper conduct on that evening, when the general orders of the 1st May were commented upon at the mess-room of the Madras European regiment. Par. 5. "The next morning I went to breakfast with Captain Andrews (who had dined at the mess the previous evening), and requested of him to acquaint the officers composing the mess, that I was under the necessity of declining to become a member of their society, 'as I had proposed,' owing to existing circumstances that did not accord with my ideas or sentiments of subordination, which was my imperious duty to restrain. Par. 6. "Contrary, however, to my expectation, the information I had originally given was acted upon, being considered of such a tendency that it could not be passed over, as I had requested, and which ultimately led to the publication of the orders by the officer commanding the army in chief, reprimanding the officers of the Madras European regiment, removing Lieutenant Maitland from the quarter-mastership, and ordering Lieutenant D. Forbes to command at Condapillee; as also the appointment of Lieutenant Maitland to command a detail of the corps ordered to serve as marines, and Lieutenant D. Forbes to command a detail of the corps at Prince of Wales Island. Those measures were no doubt adopted with a view of checking any future symptoms of insubordination amongst the officers of the Madras European regiment. So far, however, from being attended with the desired effect, they only tended to increase the former state of irritation, and their determination on resistance to the orders of the officer commanding the army in chief, and Government, when their fractious arrangements were fully organized, and ready to be carried into execution by the disaffected, as has since been fully confirmed by their late and daring mutiny.