528 SWABEY DIARY. 
himself. It had not, however, been the practice for the reason above 
stated. To lessen his offence, as well as the commanding officer’s, I 
set forth that an officer (in this case myself) was sent with the party, 
but not being intended to remain out and it being very late, he had 
returned. Having thus composed Dyneley’s defence, he, in no small 
stew, copied it and sent it off. 
e¢th January.--Jenkinson arrived on his return from Oporto; the 
description he gave of it made me very much regret that I had not it 
in my power to make such a jaunt, but in the present state of the troop 
it is impossible. ; 
2th Janwary.—lient.-Colonel Downman, with Harding, arrived to 
inspect the troop, sick, ete. From the unavoidable backwardness in 
our equipment, and through sickness, we certainly did not cut a very 
great dash, but, after making minute enquiries into the economy of the 
troop, he sat down and wrote a letter to head-quarters highly ex- 
pressive of his satisfaction. 
29th January.—I was favoured this morning by a ¢éte-a-téte with 
the Lieut.-Colonel, from which I gathered that he intended to propose 
to Colonel Fisher! to reduce the troop to four guns. This intelligence 
did not of course give me much pleasure, knowing as I did how fairly 
we were entitled to at least a part of the remount men from Lisbon, 
in place of killed, wounded, dead, and prisoners, and besides I was 
quite aware that his differences with Colonel May, the Deputy- 
Adjutant-General, R.A. were at the bottom of his scheme, the latter 
being fully determined if possible to equip and complete us. Lieut.- 
Colonel Downman, however, looked on the arrangement as an undue 
interference with his command, and therefore, from that moment, was 
determined to keep down us unfortunates, who were the subject of 
their disputes. I shall here say nothing of the private civilities he had 
always received from us, but only condemn his conduct in a public 
light. 
30th January.—We discovered this morning that Corporal Betty, a 
member of that nest of infamy, the R.A. Driver Corps,? was concerned 
in selling at the gun-park the very ammunition out of our cartridges. 
He was fully detected and brought forward by a gunner of the Foot 
Artillery, one of the guard. 
51st January.—Sat as a member on Betty’s court-martial of which 
Jenkinson was president ; the rascal’s villainy was clearly proved, and 
the evidence brought forward made me certain that some of the Foot 
Artillery were hkewise concerned. I was glad to find none of the old 
troop implicated. The purchasing of ammunition is an evil of such a 
vital nature to the service that, had my advice been followed, the buyer, 
a Portuguese, would certainly have been given over to the laws as an 
example. 
I always was an advocate for vigorous justice. I conceive its strict 
1 Then Commanding the Royal Artillery in the Peninsula. 
2 The Driver Corps was formed in 1794, it was an additional corps to the Royal Artillery, but 
its officers were, until after Waterloo, drawn from a different source, and its men were neyer 
Axtillerymen. It.was abolished in 1822. Duncan’s History, R.A., Vol. II., p. 30. 
