The National Register.
London, England, 1809-08-06 00:00:00

494

title of public spirit? Is the payment of necessary ex-
pellees to a witness coining to, and during the time
gives evidence to be pleaded as a precedent for suhor. 1..
witnesses, and maintaining them in a state of affluence for
months previous to the investigation ? Was it necessary o
take Miss TAYLOR as well as Mrs. CLA RK E upon your par-
ties of pleasure ? Was it necessary to relax her inoralitl
with Frencli wines before she would commit herself? and
after all this, was you sot, Sir, obl,ged to cajole and
threaten her with what she had said in her unguarded
moments before she would appear in the House of Com-
mons ?

You, Sir, deny having bribed Mrs. CLARICe but your
defender, Mr. WAITIIIIAN, admits the fact, but can see no
harm in it 11 It would appear, that although there is
nothing too hazardous for you to assert, there may be
something too infamous for your advocates to defend.
But how are we to reconcile the contradiction. I thank
sod, that there is not in nature a villain so confident as
publicly to defend a falshood. Even if you bad cohabited
with her, he could see no reason why that should alter the
faestien.—What ! after you have taken credit for pure
patriotism, and honest Upright motives t Nay, he asserts,
that you were right to pay Mrs. CLARKE, at Government
pay spies and Warmers. What would this moralist say,
if Government under false promises had obtained the in-
formation, and thee swindled the informer out of his re-
ward ? What would be say, if after acting upon the in-
formation, and being persuaded of its truth,' Goverament
had, instead of remuneration, proseeuted this spy -for
perjury—Metal° itemise de to pinata uarratur. •
But Mr.Warrnisae says your whole conduct to Mr.
CI ARK V. was most honourable. Geod God are we to be
bald, en,tt every thing which militates against law, sense,
reason, or justice, is honourable. t defy the Orator to
point out a more selfish, mean, tricking, contemptible tissue
*1 co.aduct, than that which you have adopted respecting
that woman. But, Sir, the value of flattery can only be
known by the degree of estimation in which the person is
held who administers it, and if the Orator will descend
from his stilts, and try his own character by the rules of
common sense, he will find that his testimony, no mo:e
than that of Sir RICBARD PHILLIPS, can add to your '
respectability. Believe me, Sir, with all the fashionable
laxity of morals and character which attaches to the pre-
sent age, there is a generosity peculiar to the English na-
tion, which revolts at what is mean, dishonourable, or
dishonest. Mr. Waienrewe has not taken this into his cal-
culation; he has ventured to measure your character by
Isis own, and has declared it—honourable. Sir, it is rea!ly
impossible to keep one's muscles under any tolerable de-
gree of restraint, at reading such absurdities. But, after
all, what is the triumph your partizans have obtained. A
forth part of the Corporation have voted not to rescind
the resolutions in your favour. If Mr. Dixow had at-
tended, the majority of fire would have been reduced to
Asir; and this even, though your friends chose the time,
and forced the occasion, contrary to all the rules •f de-
cency and propriety, is the amount of your majority t!
When Mr. Dixois has waited to give you an opportunity
of redeeming your pledge, and you have failed, we shall
then see what the Corporation will do.
rut, Sir, has nothing transpired, since the prorogation
of Parliament, to alter the question ?—Has it not. appeared,
*at je:i suborned Mrs. CLAR4II4 I wy, Pat bribed kV'