xiv 



taken, and the defenders were conveyed as prisoners to Bombay, where, at 

 the meeting between the captive sheik and his original assailant, they agreed 

 heartily on one point, that it would have been a happy thing for both if 

 the letter, lost by the murder of the messenger, had reached its destination. 



A court-martial followed, as usually happens in cases of disaster, how- 

 ever undeserved. He was " honourably acquitted 99 of the two graver 

 charges affecting his personal conduct, and only " found guilty 99 of so 

 much of the remainder as, in the opinion of the Court, warranted a repri- 

 mand for " rashly undertaking the expedition with so small a detachment," 

 and for " having addressed an Official Report to Government, in which, 

 from erroneous conclusions, he unjustly and without foundation ascribed 

 his defeat to the misbehaviour before the enemy of the officers and men 

 under his command." The Report alluded to is in the Supplement to the 

 « London Gazette 5 of the 15th and 18th May, 1821 (copied in the 'Times' 

 of the 19th), and may be usefully compared with the finding of the Court. 



Their position no doubt was painful, as standing between the incensed 

 Bombay Government and its unsuccessful officer ; and it was difficult to 

 reconcile the logic of facts with a natural regard for the wounded feelings 

 of the Company's service. The wars of Afghanistan, Sind, the Punjab, 

 and the Mutiny had not taken place to prove the inferiority of Sepoys to 

 a hardier race ; and Indian public opinion was slow to believe anything to 

 their disadvantage. Under these circumstances, and viewed by the light 

 of subsequent experience, the result of the trial was alike honourable to 

 the Court and to the accused ; but it nearly broke his heart at the time, 

 and left traces for life on his mind and spirits. Yet it is characteristic of 

 his generous disposition that he retained no prejudice against the Sepoys 

 as a body ; and when they were punished, as he thought, with undue se- 

 verity after the mutiny, his voice and pen were vigorously exerted in their 

 behalf. 



In 1822, his regiment being ordered home, Captain Thompson returned 

 with his wife and child by the Red Sea, Cosseir, Thebes, the Nile, Cairo, 

 and Alexandria, through Italy and France. The " overland route " of 

 that day was a very different undertaking from what it is now; and the 

 voyage, performed in country vessels, was protracted by contrary winds, 

 so that more than a year was consumed in reaching England. In 1827 

 he was promoted to a Majority in the 65th Regiment, then in Ireland, and 

 in 1829 to an unattached Lieutenant- Colonelcy of Infantry. His subse- 

 quent promotions bore date, Colonel 1846, Major- General 1854, Lieu- 

 tenant-General 1860, and General 1868. 



And now, after his return to England, commenced the literary and poli- 

 tical portion of his life. To the first number of the ' Westminster Review ' 

 he furnished the article on the " Instrument of Exchange," the result of 

 eleven years' continuous study. In 1829 he became virtually the sole 

 proprietor ; and beginning with the article in support of Catholic Emanci- 

 pation, of which 40,000 copies were dispersed under the title of the 



