The National Register. — London, England, 1809-02-26 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. HOUSE OF COMMONS, alonday, Feb. 20. A new Writ was ordered to be issued for the Borough of St. Mawes, in the room of Lord Vi6count . Ebrington, who, since his electiou, had accepted a commission in his Mtijesty's Forces. Mr. Sturges Bourne brought up the Report of the Donegal Election Committee, that Sir Henry Cunningham Montgomery, Bart. was duly elected, and that the Petition waa not frivolous and vexations. General Tarleton pretented a Petition from Liverpool against the Cam Distillery Prohibition' Bill. DUItE OF YoRX. Dr. Medealf being nose' culled to the 7 fler, informed the Com mittee that Mrs. Clarke 'could not attend the summons tif the House from indisposition. Mr. WICARTON.—How long do you imagine that this indis position may so far continue as to iticapacitate her from attend ing this] Committee? 1)r. Medcalf- 7 --Two days. (Dr. Medcalf was here ordered to withdraw.] Mr. Johnson examined by the CHAffeELLOR of the Ex en EQUER.--Q. In what situation are you, Sir? A. An Inspec tor of Franks in the Yost-office, it is my duty to make ex aminations.---A). Look at the small paper, and look at the let ters, and then answer, whether they are all of the same hand writing? A. The hand-writing in the small note so exactly re sembles that in the letters, that 1 really think they are written by the same person. Mr. Serie ealled.-r-Q. What is your situation, Sir? A. A De puty Inspector of franks—Q. 1S teat is your opinion as to the point, whether all the letters are in the hand-writimr of the one person? A. 1 have examined them all very carefully, and my opinion is, that the note and the letters are written by the came person. _ _ Mr: Nesbit called.—Q. What are you, Sir? A. I am in the Letter of Attorney Office in the Hank—l have to examine from . forty to one hundred lett e r s d a il y , I h ave l oo k e d very atten tively at all the papers, and more particularly as to the note, and.afteeltaving examined them all very particularly,. and the note almost letter by letter, my opinion is. that they were not written by the same person.—Q. What are the grounds of that opinion ? A.. The note is in a murk neater band ; every letter m ,reover, seems mere laboriously formed and stiffer. The ge neral character of the note is, that it is a smaller, in a neater, and in a more formed hand than the letters from Sandgate and Weymouth. Ido not hesitate to say that I do not believe the note to be in the hitad-writing of the same person who wrote the letters. Mr. Bateman examined by the Arro RN ry-fiEN ER A L.-Q. In what business are you ? A. lam employed in the Bank of Af.ngl:ind to examine powers of attorney, first as to the regula rity of them, and then as to the signatures.—Q. Have you exa mimed those two letters and the note, for the purpose of ascer twining' whether they have been written by the same person or Dot ?A. I have.—Q. in your judgment, were they written by the same person ? A. There is a very corresponding similarity between them. The next witness called in, was Mr. Bliss, Inspector of Forg ed Bank Notes in the Bank of England. Q. Have - you examined the notearmi the two letters now put in to your hands, for the purpose of discovering whether tliq-vvere written by the same person or not ? A. I have.—Q. Accord ing to the best judgment you can form, are they or not written by the same person ? A. I should suppose they were. General Ciavering was, at his own desire, called into cor rect part of the evidence he had before given, he stated, tbat he bad never any personal communications with Mrs. Clarke, on the subject of army promotions, and that he was convinced Mrs; Clarke had no influence over the Duke of York. The witness then underwent a very long examination by Mr. Ward, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Wynn, Sir Thomas Torton i and Aber Members, in which he acknowledged the letters to be his, which were produced by Mrs. Clarke. He denied that he ever made more than two •applications to Mrs. Clarke, and both of *bleb be made under . a c4liviction that she had n o t influence to other was not ;MK to her if ;imeut: and the which he could relative to the was placed upon. l Niko w ing rAir FEB. 26. he was appointed Brigadier-General, but shortly after to his surprise, he Was reduced to the rank of Brigade-Colonel. This circumstance appeared to him so extraordinary, that he wrote to Mrs. Clarke for law motion, as a person more likely to communicate speedy intelligence than through the medium of the war-office. Mrs. Clarke only informed him, that the oc currence arose from a mistake, but she could explain no further.. The witness was then interrogated very closely by Mr. Whit bread as to the motive which had induced him to apply to Mrs. Clarke, when he wag so confident she had not sufficient influence with the Duke of York ti 4 obtain his objects. Mr. Greenwood and Colonel Gordon were again examined, as was Mr. Adam, who corroborated his former statement respect ing the note supposed to be destroyed by Sandon. Benjamin Town, who taught Mrs. Clarke to paint on velvet was again examined, and stated she had declared she was in the habit of • forging the Duke of York's hand-writing. Mr. Par ker, the pawn-broker, was questioned as to goods pawn ed by Mm. Clarke, and bills discounted, which he admitted, and said the hills were ultimately paid by a draft of the Duke of York, antedated three months. —Adjourned. Tuesday, Feb. el. C A D ETS H Mr. Bankes reported from the Select Committee, appointed to enquire into the corrupt practices in disposing of writerships and cadetships in the East Indies, that .101 in Annesley Shee had been guilty of gross prevarication before the Committee, and that he he, fur the said offence, committed to the custody of the Ser. jeant at Arms, which motion was agreed to. CONVENTION OF EIINTRA. Lord 11. PETTY rose to call the attention of the House to the conduct of Ministers in the expedition to Portugal. The Enquiry he must contend to be ; the tribunal before which it took place was incompetent, and inconsistent with all the known forms of law and equity on military subjects. The Court of En. , • quiry had decided, that no farther military proceedings were vie. cesSary, but it became this House to enquire how an expedition, the commencement of which had been conducted with valour and skill, had ultimately terminated in mortification and disappoint 'neut. Sir A. Wellesley was appointed to the command of the army destined for the support of the Spaniards; and certainly this was a selection that formed no part of his complaint, but, on the contrary, must have met the universal apprcrhation of the country. But if the mere possession of Lisbon aml•Portagal was the object, it was certainly one of doubtful policy ; for till the French were expelled from Spain, such possession must always remain insecure ; and of all the calamities that could nillict a country, that of merely reconquering it, while we cannot retain it, was one of the greatest. Still, however, there were other le gitimate objects which called our attention to Portugal; there was a French army shut up without The immediate hope of re lief; there was a Russian fleet cooped up in the pert of Lisbon ? The FrenCh army was cut off from external assistance, and sur rounded by a hostile people. Ministers had selected a • Comman. der in Chief of tried abilities; they had entrusted' him with full• discretionary power ; was it not hence rational to conclude that he would have been continued in the chief command till the ob ject wasaccomplished? • But no sock thing—Sir Arthur Wel lesley had not left Cork three days, when Sir H. Burrard•was sent ono supersede him in the command, and uo fewer thausia • Generals, all superior in rank to the gallant Officer who 'nos originally entruSted to • the command, were sent to the same des tination. • Sir Harry Iltirrard was to succeed Sir 'A. Wellesley :and the former was as speedily replaced by Sir H. Dalrympie.; Was t not in the recollectiou of the II ouse, that in Aina. MT the Noble Lord had boasted that he had transports for4ooo cavalry; -and yet, when perpetual demands of cavalry were made in Po rtu. gal,t herecould only be found transports for 710. The •artillery horses were also in the worst possible state : we qad froin Co). Robe's report, that they were mostly either sick, ! lame, blind s or cast olf (a &ugh). It bad even been said. that there was uo occasiOn for good horses in Portugal. Wilh re,gard to pro ' visions for the army, the Noble Lord trusted to supplies from Portugal. •a country where, as Sir A. Welles)) , had said ? •no supply of bread could be had, and which ralsed•cdrn for only seven 'months of its own consumption. One General was appointed to commence, a second to conduct, and a third to cotiplete the expedition. The Noble Lord then. proceeded to consider the Articles of tile Armistice, and Convention of Gintra. From the procee4iiip sari the Luqoiry, it seetnq to be the (vi z . nion of the General: , that ttttse arttats were defensible; from the obtain them. The one he dicliot,;ict;i;;;Tth,' within her inil alypl c TkiN. eiewas an offer of 1 she could 01 ,- - _"111 . • 1 , L ....." 1 ; i lea new rrgi secoldnp., ',. 1 7 5y ,: 7 7 64 ; 11 ' ~.., ' o e ..k- 13 , . ormation %I slat toll in , -be a s : 1 31 10tr.k....-41110-r1,4.1..4,-e. •• • ,,80.1, h e wi ; %.4 .., .01 ; • od iu the ~, s b. . fie.. V 4, .to‹. — 3. -. . ''•Of ` •I'• "ip -> 'O l • r ' W --, '""r(f'..,'‹ ' • ->, 1. - .1441 - XLC •.7 '' *- 4 I 2 i