Star.
London, England, 1805-04-26 00:00:00

blsg:degree, to mifreprefent..but the (tatetnent
.- • k his mind, that way. pat at altivents, if
Mr. Wilfon was scarfed of airobertieoclo he had nut
'Win charged with any imputatitit of suitt. Aa to
%kat had been thrown
.out bLaq Hoo. Gentleman
hopofite, that his Right Hon. Fr‘nd;had, in. with.
ldiag information from the Counnialoners, braved.
the Lestflature, he Ibould cohteiiibrinfar will flying,
' thatiE bad iia-offendeda.gainit the Atof Pithamez
—irielaltbo' he might traveziQted Nish wpfnpriett,-
agalna the contest:in law, iticlitralidt the opinion of a
-nurribilidnentleMtn, he cylis ray lii(doilt p.rithing
whicr emild be ennftrued Inns in ill of braving, the
Legiflaturc. His Rtgtit Ho'nourabfe Frigid svou—ra, no
doubt, have offended, had he been continced.thiftlar.
Wilton bad participated in the profits arifing from
the ate of the public money ; but fo far .from any
. •
thingbeing proved oh !hat fobjeft, the epntjary- ap-
peared, in the courfe of the enquiry, from the clang
cation of,Mr. Wiif.n. • . ,
Sir CHARLES POLE fubenitted it to the Hoare
whether the Commiffion wiluld not ,have atteMptea,
iii vain, to accomplifhthe the. for which,thev were
inaitnted, 'while. the percon avtoi was at the head of
the Office into the abuts of which they were enquir-
ing,, refuted to them the means of Information they
'Called for-. With refroPft to the Treafurer of thp Navy,
he had onlysto remark. that he had not Ripened his
mouth in _the Houle agaiolt the -dttrlat of that-
Gentleman.
Mr. Serjeant BEST thought the conduit} of the
Treaftirer of the Navy, in not difeharging Wilfon,
highly reprthetffi ble. It had beeh argued that Wilfon
merely rifled according to the inttroitions of Trotter,
as if this were any excufe for his -conclaft. It he had
soled roped), he ought to have difclofed the nefari-
ous proceedings which were going forward, And by
futb a difclofure much of the evil which was now
brought to light wouldnever have been accomplithcd.
It was alfo contended that Wilfon, itt t.vailing liimielf
of the Claufe in the Aft, not to anfwer queilions to
criminate himfelf, did only what naturally was to be
eipefted. This, however, bad nothing to do with
the queftion, Once nobody doubted his right to avail
himfelf of the Claufe, if he thought his conduct re-
quired it. What was complained of, however, and
with joilice, was, that the Treafurer of the Navy re-
-tained in his Office a perfon who had refufed to mistier
Come quellions which-an innocent man could have
anfwered with the greateft fafety. If a perfon had a
fervent, or a fleward, and wished to afk Come quer-
tions refpefting the line of his affair*, and could •
obtain no tati•fallory anfwer, what would be his con-
dull ? He might think it very right for the fervent
not to anfwer quettions to criminate himfelf, but he
would alfo. think it highly neceffary to difinifs one
from his employment who had fuch extraordinary
fecrets, The Learned Serjeant alfo condemned fe-
verely the conduit of the Treafurer of the Navy for
the difficulties which be had thrown in the way of the
inquiries of the Commialoners. It was as far back as
the tenth of IA July that the Commiaioners iffued a
precept to the Treafater of the Navy, calling on him
to produce certain papEts, and it was not a little tin-
gnlar that two months elapfed before any anfwer was
Returned. What, in the mean time, was the conduit
of the Treafurer of the Navy ? Why truly, he could '
make no return to theCommiffioner s till he had taken
the advice of his Majetly's Attorney and Solicitor ,
General. This the Learned Gentleman maintained,
was to the Commiflioners as aging under the exprefs
fAndiott of Parliament, extremely indecent and dif•
refpettful. The Treafurer of the Navy, if he Labour-
ed under any difficulty how to aft, ought to have
applied to the Commiffioners for advice and infiruc-
I tion. It was not unknown to the Houfe, that one of
the Commiaiontrs was a Member of the Prot-awl to
which he had. the honour to belong, and certainly,
with all due deference to the Attorney and Solicitor
General, his opinion was as greatly to be refpeacd on
all conftitutional points as theirs poffibly could be.--
The Treafurer of the Navy was culpable then for not
applying to thole whom Parliament had invetted
with earl powers for the corrati,•n of enoTmous abuies.
He put the cafe of a Court of Jolliet where .certala
important documents were to be procured. Here it
would finely be Orange if on an application for their
production, a 'reference &mkt be had, not to the Court
Weir but to the Crown Lawyers. Not lefs extraordi-
nary was the condo& of the Treafurer of the Navy.
From July till Oflober had elapled to give time for
the Right lion. Gentleman to confult the Attorney
and Solicitor General, and in the mean time no pains
appeared to have been taken to procure the Commif-
(loners the information they required. Indeed, it
appeared from the examination of Fennel, that
though he was nominally employed to prepare the
accounts, he was pofitively engaged in making out the
accounts of Lord Bayning, who had been out of office
for twenty years. He was decidedly for the Motion.
Mr. WARD denied that the Treafurer ur the'
Navy had been backwarcho furnilh infurntation.,--
He had, on the contrary,-given every poffible faci-
lity to the enquiries of the Commiffioncrs. (A loud ,
lavgb). He went over the fame grounds which had'
been traced by thole who (poke on the fame fide of
the quellion. He waked particularly to know whe-1
ther the Honourable Admiral was ferious in his nf-
fertion that the Commillioners took theme to them-
&lees for not putting Wilfon in in ifon in confequence
of his evidence ? if they were feriuus in this O'er-
don, they were fit only to be Inquifitors, and nut le•
gal temperate Commiflioners. (Here there evere loud
' ami violent marl: si difapprotativa.) Returning to the
quellion before the Houfe, he conjured Gentlemen '
to look at the Tiding) with moderation and temper.
With this view, he thought the delay of a..day would
be highly expedient, and in the mean time he was de-
ar-nos that the whole paragraph fhauld be read by
the Clerk at thl Table. This was the more steed.
fary, ai the paragraph as read by the Hoorn: able
Mover did notiorm a whole. The whole was read
accordingly, and the. following.makes up the wl.olc
paragraph complained if : . ,
If thole who were fo very Impatient to deprive Mr. Pitt of fo
aide a Coadjutor, were equally zealous in their e, dr .li,llr i to Et. •
Itore to the Public the ONACCOist4 FRO MILLIONS OE Whicthat
Public has been fo diferacclully robbed, there would perhaps be
hams excule (be all that affeeisiou of public virtue which has
lately diflinguinted certain bawling Patriots of the day. ! urn
MELVILLE SIAS NOE DIPAIVAD i LIE PJILIC or A SING 5 Alt
I/NINO. His mutt implacable tnemtes have not dared t . ~..arge
him wittilitch an ad - Can as much be 614 of the Fathers of
home alien ? If the Public acre paid its tscUNtsitY c1.41:45, long
lime indifpntably proved, chtsiii furious Patrio:s, iiillcad of It.. it.i;
in fplendour, would he put on the Pahl% In the futti-e Refslu-
duns of the Houle of Commons, in the lu um Refollitimvi of all
P.A.,. Mertbiaa, weber that an immediate intent to r:ie
aoraismnesmars sIILL isci to the YU ILK by cLISTAIIN mph
Niaiiiilva,is will be arisaigly aconissocezca. . .