MR. OWEN STANLEYsaid, that the public had been given to understand that a most disgraceful circumstance had recently occurred between two officers of the Enniskillens at Canterbury. Many disgraceful tricks had been played, and at last one challenged the other to fight a duel. The two officers went out for the purpose of fighting a duel, when Sergeant Brodie interfered, and was immediately put in arrest by the adjutant of the regiment. He was confined under arrest for a week, and in the meantime an inquiry took place in private in Canterbury. The result of that inquiry was sent up to the Horse Guards, and it was understood that a reprimand was subsequently sent down to Sergeant Brodie, directing him to be released from the confinement to which he had been subjected during the week, assuring him that he had transgressed his duties in the course he had taken, and stating that a repetition of such an infraction of duty would militate against him in his future career. He (Mr. Stanley) now begged to 30 ask the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for War, with no feelings of hostility towards any person, but with a view of obtaining correct information as to the transaction, if it was true that Sergeant Brodie, of the Enniskillens, was placed under arrest for preventing a duel being fought between two officers of his regiment—Cornets Baumgarten and Evans; if Sergeant Brodie was reprimanded for his interference by orders of the Commander in Chief; and if there was any objection to place before the House copies of the charge preferred against Sergeant Brodie, and the terms of the reprimand sent from the Horse Guards?
§ MR. FREDERICK PEEL, in reply, said, he had been informed that it was not the case that Sergeant Brodie had been placed under arrest for preventing a duel, but that ho had been placed under arrest for behaving disrespectfully to one of the officers of his regiment. As, however, he was engaged at the time in trying to prevent a duel, that circumstance was considered a palliation of his offence, and he was released without any further notice being taken of his disrespectful conduct. So far as he (Mr. Peel) was informed, no charge had been made against Sergeant Brodie, and no reprimand had been sent down from the Horse Guards.