o_199m9vaui14ib1cnu10di10pocoj4h.pdf

248 THE NAVAL MUTINIES OF 1797
dear Sir, The conviction of this villain Parker must have
been so very dear to you at the Admiralty that the place
and time of his execution might have been previously
settled. It would have been on such an occasion perhaps
more exemplary, had the court assumed the power lodged
in their own breast by the articles of war, and executed
him the hour of conviction, but their wish was to refer
time and place to their Lordships, in whose power is that
of His Majesty. We all wish it may be to order him to
be hung in chains in some conspicuous place as an
example." *
Thus neither the officers nor the authorities in town
disguised their vindictiveness, and Parker had no reason
to look for mercy from his rulers. Seeing that it had
been made a capital offence even to hold communications
with the mutineers, it wras not to be expected that the
leader of the mutiny would escape death when once he
had fallen into the power of the law.
Parker's trial aroused a great amount of public interest,
and several varying reports of the proceedings were issued
in the form of pamphlets. 2 But in this account of the
mutiny there is no need for a long description of the
event. The court met on Thursday, 22 June, on board
the Neptune in Long Reach. The trial was continued on
the following day, and ended with the conviction and
sentence of the prisoner on Monday, 26th. The Board
of Admiralty did not support Pasley's petition— partly, it
may be, as a matter of policy, because a display of undue
ferocity might lead to a fresh rising in the fleet. Parker
was hung at the yard-arm of the Standard on the morning
of 30 June. There was no sign of disorder in the
fleet during the execution or afterwards. Parker's own
conduct in his last hour was " decent and sober."
3
1. C 444, 27 June.
2. E.g., An Impartial and Authentic Account; Trial, Life and Anecdotes;
and The Whole Trial and Defence, all published in 1797.
3. Skeffington Lutwidge (Provost Marshal) to Nepean (A.S.I. 728,
C 463, 30 June). No boat was allowed to leave the fleet during the
day, and all officers remained on their ships. Schomberg (vol. iii, p. 35)
gives a detailed account of the execution.
If