Star.
London, England, 1809-01-28 00:00:00

GENERAL STEWART.

General GROSVENOR adverting to the signal
instance of bravery evinced by a gallant relation of
the Noble Lord opposite to him at Benevente, where,
at the head of some picquets of British cavalry, he
attacked and defeated a body of the enemy's horse,
wished to know if so signal an exploit was not de-
serving of particular mention in the Thanks of the
House?
Lord CASTLE RE4GH said, that however bril-
liant the conduct of his pliant relation had been upon
the affair to which the Honourable General alluded,
it would be departing frcim the uniform usage of Par-
liament to thank individual Officers for actions with
detachments.

THE CONUANTJEE lar einsF.

Mr. WARDLE now rose to' submit to the House
his promised motion, respecting certain abuses which
had obtained in the disposal of Commissions in the
British army. In doing this, he said, he should make
no assertion in which he was not supported by posi-
tive facts. The power of disposing of Commissions
in the military service of this empire had been placed
in the hands of a person of high birth, power, and
influence; and he was sorry to observe, that this power
had been exercised to the worst of purposes. Bat
notwithstanding the high authority and powerful in-
fluence which the Commander in Chief of this country
possessed, no respect to either should induce him to
swerve from his duty as a Member of that House, or
operate with him as a motive to screen his Royal
Highness, in any misuse of his power or authority,
from that public justice which was • called for by the
v,ice of the people. No other motive impelled bim
this day than a sense of his public duty ; for if cor-
' ruption were not attacked in a quarter where it was
so formidable, the army and the country must fall
the victims of its influence. It was necessary, in the
first instance, to put the House in possession of the
true purposes for which the disposal of Commissions
in the Array was placed in the hands of the Comman-
der in Chief. It was for the purpose of defraying
the charges of the Half-pay List for the support of
veteran Officers, and increasing- the Compassionate
Fund, for the aid of officers' widows and orphans ;
and, therefore, anv Commissions which fell by deaths
or promotions, the Commander in Chief had no right
to sell or dispcse of for his own private emolument,
nor to appropriate for the like purpose any difference
arising from the change' or reduction of Officers from
full to half-pit:. He had thus explained, he be-
lieved, the nature of the power vested in the hands
of the Commander in Chief; but he could bring po-
sitive proofs that such Commissions had been sold,
and the money applied to very different purposes from
the legitimate ones required by the military usages
and establishments of the country. If he could prove
that those purposes were, in a variety of instances,
abandoned by the Commander in Chief ; that Offi-
cers had been reduced to the half-pay list Without
receiving the usual difference in such cases • and if
he could substantiate such a violation of the rights
of Military Officers, it was a duty he owed to his
constituents and his country so to do. In the year
MS, his Royal Highness set up a very handsome
establishment, in a fashionable quarter of the town,
consisting of a superb house and elegant carriages
of various descriptions, for a favourite lady of the
name of Mrs. Clarke. Of the lady's name he should
have (occasion to make frequent mention in the
course of his speech, in connection with a number of
names and facts, to chew the House that he had not