The National Register. — London, England, 1809-03-19 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.' i ;tat grounds was it so refused ? Why, he states, that although a bood had been promised, yet no bond had heen given! There is the honour of a Prince' for you !!! I think the evidence ad duced may she clearly that the Honour of a Prince is not at all to be relied upon. His Royal Highness's desire to procure money by any means, or from any quarter, was also emi nently conspicuous. The Gentlemen opposite would make the House believe " Paradise was regained, that the golden age of truth was revived, that all were actuated by the most pure amid disinterested motives." 13ut there was something that these Gentlemen had quire overlooked. With them corruption and money seem to have no distinction. It is true, that when any of the Members of that House had the honour of dining *Hit the Speaker, they did not find mohey under their plates. — They eirs,a,h: and bribe now in another way —they give some athee, or the like. W nea those Gents: then are talking about corruption, and that the Duke is no way guitty, they mean that money was not actually put into his hands. But the way they were to know whether there was - corruption or not, was for them to look at the motive—at the manner in which the influence was exercised. He would nest turn the attention or the Ilouse to the circumstance of his Royal Highness's eadeavouring to ne gociate a loan with a man who had lately been a bankrupt, through the medium of Mrs. Clarke's Soliciu , r ; and for which bankrupt he applied to Mr. Pitt for a place. lie, applying for a loan, who was so much better provided for than either of his Roval Brothers? He, for whom the country had done so much ! Ile, whom his Majesty had not forgotten ! But the circumstance of the Duke's applytt)e to raise money through the medium Of Mrs. Clarke's Solicitor. shews his dhsire ii' mahiog stall appli cations by her influence. The striking feature throughout the whole business was the grasping at air thing for momentary as sistance. He could not this inc what inei'ziblc something it could be that directed the Learned Sieialeman to bring forward mere nothings to rebut such an ocean of evidence, to bring forward Trifles, light as air, Are to the jealous confirmations St rong As proofs of holy writ."— Let the Learned Gentleman look—there has not been any business so important to the country—uothiog that has so epsaged its attention, since the Exclusion Bill engaged that house's de liberations; and he most sincerely hoped that the' remembrance of those who did their duty on that occasico, would induce them not to do injustice in this. However high the rank of the ac cused 14, it is bat a small consideration on illy Mind, for the case is the justice of Eng:and.— (Hear ! ) The Commander in Chief has offered the honour of a Prince : hut I be leave to State, that the honour of the King, the honour of the Crown, the fountain of justice, is at stake, and these are not to he turned aside Dy that which is now offered to your notice. Unfortu nately, upon this hubjeci of honour, there is alwa:".s a contrast. I would wish you to put in opposition to it the hollour of that witness, who has been painted in such infamous colours at your bar, every etiort to discredit whom has always redouaded to the coni • usina of those who brought it forward. Mr. Few, a wit ness, tins proved to you, that having sued Mrs. Clarke for a deb;. w bidi site bucceeded in resisting. this woman, who has keen st. mud so is - .estaeful, nevertheless, thought proper most hothiur abl...to pay him. In short his Royal Highness's honour rises out d.seoss.oo like Baoquo'sghost, " With twenty mortal gashes on his head, " To posh us * front our stools." It is hnpovsible, Sir, that, under all the circumstances of this Case, the Duke .if York ian retain the sit nation he now holds at the head of the arm , —( ileor ! hear ! ) for I have nothiug to:do is what may be the cohsequence of this q:iestiun being so de cidi.d. a t. is only to be deteriniaed by the evidence before yon. h.o. come :u surh a vote, let the cotiseqaence he what it may, with no oi her considetation but that of ,justice. The Peo ple of England had at vb •.,s been rerairked it, history for their extr...me to, of .11,,tire. They looked for that, they desired that. If the Housh w ishc.l c impletely to convince the people of their deterinioat too to do just ce, he knew one way of doing so; and if all the ";eottenten who sat on the Treasury Bench, all who have any emolualeots under the Crown, were to walk out of the House at the tio:e whet, the livision took place, and leave it to the vet-. w a teve: that decisisn might be, he was convinced the people would bn -roi•fiedi The lion. Baronet concluded an anima:en speech, th.•ble ;LA he appeared to he, ( for he went into the :warted bs crutches) of ino hours length, by ex pr.sn In his opprohation of the origioal Motion. The M Asl en. of the Ro this eninmenced, by prat iroz the niinciutable Baronet's ingenious speech, though he could net MAACII agree with him in some of his conclusions. Here seemed to him to be two questions for their COllA;demtion. Whether dr.). should come to any definite opinion as to t he personal guilt of the Duke; and if they did, what that opinion should be, and how worded. He then observed upon a variety of modes Or forms by which they might deride. The House had not called for the test of evidence which all ages had adopted—the test of oath. in examinations, there was generally something left to surmise; hut Mrs. Clarke's evidence came home to the Duke; there was nothing to suggest. She told the House that his Royal Highness authorised anti approved of all she had done ; that he encouraged her; and that in fact he made her the mere instrument of his extortions. Anti he could not but express his surprise to find the Addresl so worded, as not to rely on the evidence of Mrs. Clarice—" It is presumed." There was no necessity for them to know that her evidence was untrue; it was if they had reasonable doubts. They ought not have a witness tinder the influence of malice; and as to Mr , . yarke's evidence, on the w hole, many gentlemen were of opi.• mon that it ought to be set aside; but he thought the: re were gome parts that seemed to have some truth. It had been proved toat she had had some influence over the mind of the Duke. As to Mi:.s Taylor's evidence, it went to confirm the corruption of the Duke. There certain! v was nothing - to impeach her CA idence, but it had struck him as rather extraordinary, that her memory siiould be so correct as to wl:at had passed four or live years since, and that it should -o fail her as to what had occurred a few days before her examination. It was in proof that three or four cbtained from the Duke of York the object of o. (etch they were in search. Ilut v. as that ten argonient that she had hat undoubted influence nn his 110 al Ilightleo- 1 The numbers of instances of that effort being . so few, the presumption certainly was weak, that she had any influence over the Duke at ;111. The Honourable aml Learned Gentleman then pro ceeded to point out in what respect the evidence of Mrs. Clarke was such that it did not deserve credence.. 'I he first observation AV Well occurred to him on her evidence was, OW she did not commence this traffic until her distress began. In this assertion she was directly contradicted by the ease of Colonel French's levy, the negotiation of which it appeared on the minutes, had conuoenced so early as the month of March ISO 4, being six months antecedent to the period Mrs. Clarke stated herself to have comiaenced this kind of traffic. With regard to the cir cumstance of her having stated that the Duke was in great dis tress, and that it was a matter of great difficulty that she obtain ed from him lOW. he was at a loss to reconcile such statement with truth. It was clear that Mrs. Clarke had met with absolute delays and obstructions. Even in the earqe where she calculated with most certainty on success, namely that of Alajor Ton ..'s. how long was she kept out of the desired re ward for her suppioed influence? It was not denied that the 1)0,e allowed Mrs. Clarke to speak and write to him on the suOject of army promotions. He certainly did to a degree con descend to hold with her communichtions of that sort, but he contended that his Royal Ilighness was not. convicted, by any evidence before the Howe, of having permitted that degree of interference in many promotions which constituted the alleged ground of blame agains t him. Sir S. 'MCI. H.051114.1' felt it a duty, painful as it was, to consider this ease in a very different point of view front eery other Member vs ho was of that profession to w hick he had the honour to belong. In the first place it was impossihle for him to assent to the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, " That there was no ground to charge his It oyal llighness either with corruption or with connivance." Ibis great objection to the amendments offered to the original proposhions before the ilouse was, that they did not call upon the House to pronotmee any judgment on the guilt or innocence of the DuLe. 'Flint letter which had been addressed by his Royal II igloo r, to this !louse, so far was it from ratting upon them to decide, that his Royal Highness not only deprecated a decision It the House, but told them very candidly to acquit him, but that, if he vs not acquitted by the House of Commons they should refer the matter to some other tribunal (!Hear ! Hear ! ) 'l'lr.t letter he thought the very worst of councils that could he given to his Royal Highness. Ile had only to observe, that he would to God it was in his power to expunge the setter altogether from the proceedings, or that he could etface the recollection of it from the memory of the House. ( Hear ! braze ! helle !), Such, how ever, as it was, he should submit, that it at present remained for the House to decide, oo:y is ho t her there was any ground to impeach his It al Highness's ei,fl - ? In the first place he could net say that he disbelieved the evidence of Mrs. Ciatke ; he knew there. were many straol 182 V 0