he alleged, to controvert the insinuations
thrown out against him by Lord Cochrane.

The history of this court-martial, its antecedents and its
consequences, furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals
of official injustice. As a preparation for it, Lord Gambier, in
obedience to orders from the Admiralty, supplemented his first account
of the victory by another of entirely different tenour. In the first,
written on the spot, he had avowed that he could not speak highly
enough of Lord Cochrane's vigour and gallantry in approaching the
enemy,--conduct, he said, "which could not be exceeded by any feat of
valour hitherto achieved by the British Navy." In the record, written
four weeks later and in London, he altogether ignored Lord Cochrane's
services, and transferred the entire merit to himself.

The whole conduct of the court-martial was in keeping with that
prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord
Cochrane's side, and in adducing false testimony against him. Logbooks
and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for
annihilating the whole French fleet, Lord Cochrane produced in court
a chart showing the relative position of the various points in Aix
Roads, and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French
ships. This chart, left lying upon the table, was tacitly accepted by
the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document, and
duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court
refused to receive it in evidence, and adopted instead two falsified
charts, in which, by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the
narrowing of the channel to Aix Roads from two miles to one, the
success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross
deception was more than suspected, both then and afterwards, by Lord
Cochrane, his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to
inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than
fifty years after the period of the court-martial that he was able to
prove the scandalous fraud.[A]

[Footnote A: Readers of "The Autobiography of a Seaman" need not be
reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he
was treated by this court-martial that was adduced by Lord Dundonald
in that work.]

The result of the court-martial was, of course, such as from the first
had been intended. Lord Grambier was acquitted, and unlimited blame
was, by inference, thrown upon