The National Register.
London, England, 1809-08-13 00:00:00

s!gnation of the DUKE of 'Yoits) and were disappointed of
the other, (the appointment of the De EE of KENT ,to he
Commander in Chief, and yourself that of Secretary at
War,) how did you act ? Why, Sir, I will tell you and the
public how like a you did act. In the first place, Mr.
TRO:NAS HAGUE was employed to write Mrs. CLARKE to dun
her for the money,- (not as a Lawyer indeed, but as a
Friend) she accordingly referred him to the gallant Captain,
and the still more gallant Colonel,• who meanly, shabbily,
and contrary to every thing that ought to be held honour.
able by Men and Gentlemen, shuffled off the payment; but
that was not all, Mr. liAuus returned to• Mrs. CLARIER
with certain insinuations that it would be adviseable for
her to pay the bill on account of the incorrectness of the
acceptance, for Mr. THOMAS HAGUE was himself too polite
to use the word Forgery.
You, Sir, who know Mrs. CLARKE'S mind, will easily
conceive what the feelings of such a woman were at so vile
and unprincipled an insinuation. Mrs. CLARKE told Mr.
HAGUE that she • considered the debt as a debt of honour,
and that it should ultimately be paid.• She now repeats
that declaration in the fullest manner, and would scorn to
retain the money an instant, if it were not.for the consi-
derations which instantly determined her not to pay it
when Mr. HAGUE insinuated the incorrectness of the accep-
tance. -Sir, you knew her mother's hand-writing, and you
and Doan both know it was at certainly her hand-writing •
as the vile incendiary Letter, published. in this Paper, is the
hand-writing of an Olicer in Sloane-street. But, Sir, Mrs.
CLARKE will not pay it till a sufficient time has elapsed to
put it beyond a doubt that you dare not bring the matter
into a Court of Justice; that you dare not put the miser-
able. insinuations of your -profligate and prostituted gang
into a tangible shape rand that you dare not eaueavour to
prove what you all know to be false.
She dares and defies
,vuu, Sir, your illustrious employer,
and the Sloane-street Officer, to put this calumny in a shape
that can be grappled with, in a shape that will enable her
to appeal to the Laws of her Country. That her conduct
has been imprudent in a moral point of view ; that her
connection with the DUKE of YORK was wrong, no man
will be hardy enough to deny or detimid ; but, Sir, if there is
any circumstance of her life which more than another
lowers her in the estimation of the public, it is her alliance
with a man, who possessed neither veracity, honour, prin-
ciple, or any one of those characteristics by which gentle.
men are usually distinguished. You, Sir, can scarcely avoid
recognizing the portrait, but it may assist you to add that
it is the portrait of a man whose name the people of Eng-
land universally repeat with contempt, bordering upon pits-.
Think, Sir, for there are moments when recollection will
haunt you ; think, Sir, what such a man might have been,
and look at what he is. Your bitterest enemy, in the
plenitude of malice or resentment, could not go beyond
the wish that you were such a man.
What shall we say then to a cause which is supported by
such means? In common life; what do we say of the man
who will descend to the baseness of writing anonymous