No. XI.
Copy of a Letter from the Officers of the Madras
European Regiment to the Adjutant-General of
the Army.
Sir,
It was with the most extreme concern that in our regimental orders of the 22d instant we found a copy of a letter from you, by which we were informed, that it had come to the knowledge of the officer commanding the army, that conduct highly indecorous, and contrary to every principle of military subordination, had been observed at the mess of the Madras European regiment on the 7th instant. We beg leave to assure you, for the information of Major-General Gowdie, that it appears to us that the account he has received of the conduct of those officers, who were present at the mess on that evening, must have been erroneous.
We cannot help lamenting that such a stigma on the character of so numerous a body of officers as we form, should have been thus publicly thrown out, before we had been furnished with a copy of the report that has been made against us.
We have seen, with the deepest regret, two of our brother officers punished, without being specifically informed what part of their conduct at the regimental mess induced the officer commanding the army to suppose them to have been guilty of the serious crime with which they are charged; and we naturally feel considerable apprehension lest "the whole corps should," in a similar manner, "be involved in the severest penalty to which insubordinate proceedings are liable." We trust, therefore, that you will state to Major-General Gowdie our confident hope that he will have the goodness to direct us to be furnished with a copy of the information which he has received regarding the conduct observed at the mess on the night of the 7th instant. When we receive this, we have no doubt of being able to convince the officer commanding the army in chief, that the conduct of those who were present on that occasion did by no means merit the severe censure with which it has been marked.
Signed by all the Officers present
with the regiment, except one,
to whom it was not presented.
Masulipatam,
27th May, 1809.