Mr. Disraeli replied on Thursday night, to a question of
Major Jervis's, that " when an officer in Her Majesty's service, obeying the commands of his superior officer, performs acts which are afterwards legally impugned, it will, of course, be the duty of the Government to defend him," and this of course covers the case of Colonel Nelson and Lieutenant Brand. The answer was received with loud and general cheering. The Government are clearly right. It is their duty to defend men who have (if they have) committed crimes out of loyalty to the service. It is obviously right for the Government to cause to be said all that can be said for their acts under such circumstances, but it is also quite right in certain extreme cases that other people should try to prove, if they can prove, that there are acts which no loyalty to the service will legally justify soldiers in oommitting.
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