The Sun.
London, England, 1809-04-26 00:00:00

nislied hid) to h ive f.pringed ell? of his own
lea s. He could nut avoid noticing one ,point,
which Might appear to pl-Am• liiinkrn an invidious si.
tuationo In the Report on the table, `although the
Iholetif the evideacesas detailed, yet there,seeined'
inclination on the part of the Committee to point.
out to the House the delinquency ofthe Noble Lord.
He felt that this was an argument against, him Self ;
bat entertaining, --as he did, the -higtiarralFitrflir
that Committee, be oontended, that it 'tvaiinot the
indispensable obligation of every individual Member
of the House to acquiesce wholly in auy report that
might he made by'any Committee,however reipea-
ble. What could possibly occasion the deficiency to
whiet! lie alluded, -in the report of the Committee,
was at a loss to discover. He was equally igtio-
,rant on, what grounds the. Noble Lord's condu§t
rcould be justified
.or. extenuated: If he should hear
general corruption, or the prevalence of sittiilar
pra4ices, pleaded hy. theftiends of the Noble Lord,
.1)9 should have a sufficient answer in the observa,
tion,, that had former transactions, of a similaj flat-
-
ture met with the. censure of the House, it would
havo been doubtful whether the present trzinsaction.
mould ever have occurred for their investigfttiop.. He
then reeapitttlated. the various points of his speech,
anticoncludediby Moving, if such a proposition were
regular, that the evidence of Lord 'CiiAlercagh .and
Lord Clancarty,` taken betbre theCornmittee on 016
Disposal of East, India Patronage, be entered as
read.
The SITAICER abSerVed, that the- course pUrsued
by, the. Noble Lord was. such as. had ; been nano-

tinned by the practic,t .of a hundred years. When-

ever a charge was grounded on documents upon the
table, it was the usual course to move that those do-
contents be read.

Lord CASTLEREAGH then rose. He declared
that before 4e,entgred on the immediate fiLlbjla ;of
disctission, he could not refrain from expressing his
regret, that bx. any aet or supposed act of his -the
tune' and attention of the House should he thus oc-
cupied. No one felt more deeply than he dil/41 for
the privileges of Parliament, and no one was.more
solicitous tip uphold them. He. was. perfealy pre-
pared to admit with the, Noble Lord, that with
reference to the complaint made against him, he
,
was subjea lo a peculiar and. mere than ordinary
responsibility. He trusted that if he committed
any 'error. Mille discharge of his official duty, he
should be able to• prove that .than error had not
arisen frcm 'any unworthy motive ; and he assured
the . House; . that in the explanation which his.
duty' to himself and to then bound him to give,'
he 'should be careful mit 'to satiCtion any prin-
ciple which might be permanently injurious to
the' country. He walieglad• of the course that had
been Pursued; he was glad that the Nobje 'Lerd
had htated
.his general view,-.of, the transaction be-
fore he had been called upon to give' his explana-
tion. The highest criminality which iheirnagatation
of the Noble Lord imputed to htirly was foundedbn
that which proceeded from lirs Own lips; it vris the
result of his own adtnissiou, and was not grounded on
the evidence of others. He trusted, however, that he,
should ,be able to prove that it was indeed but' intlgi-;
nal ion/and 'that it bad no reid existence and solidity:
Considerable Aggravations of the case had gone forth..
In the first place, he had to contend, that the crans-
right , or
,wrong; did .nut proceed from any
deiiherate or intentional purpose on his part, to ac-
Hquire by any means an undue influence in that
ouse: In the whole of the evidence taken before,
the Committee,- at . it related to the occurrences of
several years,- there was no 'single instance acidneed.
of 'any attempt on: his part to exercise hitt:patron-
age tor the purpose of obtaining political influence in
the House of CoMmons. • No suet'? purpeseeVer eti
tared his mind. It ,had never occurred to, him, So, to
uses the patronage of his office; although ltad such
been his disposition, the Hops° might readily con;
Ceive that there were moments in which that patron-
age might have been rendered available to such pur-
poses with considerable erred. He. fairly avowed
that he contemplated with peculiar regret the cir-
curnstances which lied brought him into contad with
such an individual as Reding, At that time he had
no notion that such a charaCter existed in society as
a trafficking broker; He, begged that the Noble
Lord %vauld at least wait until the conclusion of
what he had to offer, and that he would not so soon
'abandon his deliberative capacity. He repeated, that
upon his honour, ~at the time he had an interview
with Mr. Rediug, he had no .conception that such
a charader existed as a trafficking broker. He was
not aware that any objetiion existed to the exertions
of an individual, for the purpose of facilitating the
return of another individual to Parliament, uttleei
that exertion were coupleti with undue . influence- of
another nature. He had conceived that•l‘lr. Reding
u Gentleman who bad a commtinieatioo of snob it
eaturealone to make. As such beliad met him, and
as such he had answeredliim; He' had seen him for
the purpose of ascertaining whether his.power was
confined to himself, or Whether he chose to. exercise it
in favour of any other individual. 'Having stated this,
he supposed that no one would, impute to him Inter.
ester! motives. With.respeEt to his wish, that Lord
Claucarty,should have a seat in that House, it was
promptedby a view of the pubic advantage; for he
conceived that the abilities of that Noble-Lord were
such that' lie would beentineetly serviceable in Par-
lilment. It appeared most'distinaly, froth the evi.:
dence bclore the Committee, that the only circurn-

stance of turpitude in the transa6tion was an acci-

dental feature of it. That lice had a share in any. pe,
cuniary transaelion connected with it, there was no.-
,t lung whatever_ to prove. The th;tig itself was phy-
vitally impossible; there was a security against it in
tho.parties concerned, for it must have been a sale
either between a father and a son, or between an
uncle,
and 'nephew. He, declared most solemnly,
that from the time of his conversation with Reding
he had never, any communication with Lord Clan-
early on the subjed. It pertealy appeared that
Lord Clancarty was ignorant of the oiled in view;
tor on Reding's refusing to declare by whom he was
employca,'the negociation' was broken ofd • The
Nobte. Lord seemed to ground much importance on
the evidence at a Mr. Davis. The fad was, that
he never saw. Davis in his life, and could assure the
House that he. neyer had any communication with
him. Altogether
_distinct from the question now. be-
fore them, and at
_another time, he did receive
let ter from that-person respealing a W ritership, which
lie stated to be offered by'the Board of Controul ;
but all the notice he (Lord Castlereagh) took of this
abominable proposal was to (fired Davis to go be,-