The court came to the following decision:--

"The court having duly and maturely weighed and considered the
whole of the evidence adduced on the prosecution, as well as what
has been offered in defence, are of opinion that
Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston is guilty of the act of mutiny as
described in the charge, and do therefore sentence him to be
cashiered";

and approval of the sentence is thus recorded:--

"His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on the
behalf of His Majesty, was pleased, under all the circumstances of
the case, to acquiesce in the sentence of the court. The court, in
passing a sentence so inadequate to the enormity of the crime of
which the prisoner has been found guilty, have apparently been
actuated by a consideration of the novel and extraordinary
circumstances which, by the evidence on the face of the
proceedings, may have appeared to them to have existed during the
administration of Governor Bligh, both as affecting the
tranquillity of the colony and calling for some immediate
decision. But although the Prince Regent admits the principle
under which the court have allowed the consideration to act in
mitigation of the punishment which the crime of [Sidenote: 1811]
mutiny would otherwise have suggested, yet no circumstances
whatever can be received by His Royal Highness in full extenuation
of an assumption of power so subversive of every principle of good
order and discipline as that under which Lieutenant-Colonel
Johnston has been convicted."