opinion, “that no part of the sentence should be carFied into execution until the minutes of the proceedings should have been submitted to competent law authority for decision.” A copy of the sentence will be found in the Naval Chronicle, from which work we make the following extract[1]:
“The subject of reference was, the right of the court to proceed after an interruption in their meeting from day to day, as required by act of parliament; such interruption (arising from tempestuous weather) having been unavoidable. The act expressly says, that ‘the proceedings of any court-martial shall not be delayed by the absence of any of its members, when a sufficient number doth remain to compose such court.’ Now a sufficient quorum did not remain on board the Hibernia to compose a court, therefore the proceedings were unavoidably delayed. It appears that the only official decision made known on this case has been, a letter from the secretary of the Admiralty, notifying that the culprits having been pardoned, the reference to the crown lawyers became unnecessary. This, in our humble judgment, is an erroneous, not to say slovenly mode of disposing of the case: the specific law remains undefined; the same ‘glorious uncertainty’ is left to puzzle any succeeding court under similar circumstances; and the same variety of opinion is left to prevail among naval men. Perhaps the suggestion implied by this notice of the unsettled case in question may have a due and salutary effect.”
On the 5th Oct. 1813, Captain Pellew assisted at the capture of a French convoy lying in port d’Anzo, the particulars of which service are given at p. 423 et seq. of Vol. II. Part I. The Resistance was paid off at the commencement of 1814. Captain Pellew’s last appointment was, Aug. 25, 1818, to the Revolutionaire 46, fitting for the Mediterranean, from whence he returned home, June 15, 1822. He married, June 5, 1816, Eliza Harriet, daughter of the late Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart.
Agent.– P. Muspratt, Esq.
JOHN HALSTED, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1808.]
Third son of the late Captain William Anthony Halsted, R.N., by Mary, only daughter of Charles Frankland, Esq., nearly related to the ancient Yorkshire family of that name[2].
