Virginia Argus

SIR R. WILSON & Capt. HUTCHINSON.
GENERAL ORDERS.

Horse Guards, May 10, 1816.

"So long as Major-General Sir Robert Wilson and captain J. H. Hutchinson, of the 1st or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards, were under trial, the Commander in Chief abstained from making any observation on their conduct,

"The proceedings having now terminated. the Commander in Chief has received the Prince Regent's commands to declare his Royal Highness' sentiments on the transactions which have led to the trial and convictions of those officers.

"In the instance of Major-General Sir R. Wilson, the Prince Regent thinks it necessary to express his high displeasure. that an officer of his standing in his Majesty's service, holding the commission and receiving the pay of a Major-General. should have been so unmindful of what was due to his profession, as well as to the Government under whose protection he had voluntarily placed himself, as to have engaged in a measure, the declared object of which was to counteract the laws and defeat the public justice of that country. Nor does his Royal Highness consider the means by which this measure was accomplished as less reprehensible than the act itself. For His Royal Highness cannot admit that any circumstance could justify a British officer in having obtained under false pretences, passports in feigned names from the Representative of his own Sovereign, and in having made use of such passports for himself and a subject of His Most Christian Majesty, under sentence for high treason, disguised in a British uniform, not only to elude the French Government, but to carry him in such disguise through the British lines. While the Prince Regent cannot but consider it as a material aggravation of Sir R. Wilson's offence, that holding so high a rank in the army, he should have countenanced and encouraged an inferior officer to commit a decided and serious breach of military duty, his Royal Highness nevertheless thinks it equally necessary to express his high displeasure at the conduct of Captain J. H. Hutchinson, in having been himself an active instrument in a transaction of so culpable a nature, more especially in a country in amity with his majesty, where the regiment with which he was serving in the course of his military duty, formed part of an army which had been placed by the Allied Sovereigns under the command of the Duke of Wellington, under circumstances which made it peculiarly incumbent upon every officer of that army to abstain from any conduct which might obstruct the execution of the laws.

"His Royal Highness the Prince Regent being unwilling to visit these officers with the full weight of his displeasure, which the complexion of their offence might have warranted, and also taking into consideration the degree of punishment to which they have subjected themselves, by violating the laws of the country in which this transaction took place. has signified to the commander in chief these his sentiments, that they should be published to the army at large in order to record in the most public manner the strong sense which his royal Highness entertains of the flagrant misconduct of these officers, and of the danger which would accrue to the reputation and discipline of the British army. if such an offence were to pass without a decided expression of His Royal Highness' most severe reprehension.

"By order of his Royal Highness,

"The Commander in Chief."