Star.
London, England, 1809-03-28 00:00:00

SALE AND BROKERAGE OF OFFICES.

Mr PERCEVAL rose, pursuant to notice, to
move for leave to bring in a Bill to prevent the Sale
and Brokerage of Offices. He stated that the only
laws on this subject at present were the Act of 12th
Rijiard the Second, la hich went to prevent the Offi-
cers of Justice appointing improper persons; and the
Act of the sth or 6th of Edward the Sixth, which
prohibited the sale of these Offices. The practices
lately disclosed consisted not in the sale of offices by
thc,te who had the power to give them away, but in
tl:e arts of those who pretended to have influence
o.fer such persons, and issued public advertisements,
oecce ion to the notion that these abuses pre-
vailed to a much greater extent than they actually
di,!. Tills was the description of abuse AN-hid' his
proposed law had in contemplation. lie had already
711_ ent:oned, that the persons in a certain office, who
`.ad rarricd on this trade, were under prosecution,
(Ky:.csic and Co.l As there were several persons in
th;tt c-.l!cern, they were prosecuted for a conspiracy,
:f there had been only one indivld,!;ll, he did not
''o.o; the law, as it at present stood, could have
d Lim, thout;h, perhaps Ile might be indicted
'.a.:ing.,money under false pretences. The
'.:e•14.:l point then would be to niaLe it highly penal
t..

. • . -
money for prc curing offices, or ch:culate any
'c•crt.^r.-.,.-lit with that view. This circumstance
Ao farther than any other to check this abuse.
• 2 ".as not to trench on the exceptions to the
fiiccs that were now expressly admitted of.—
u:,.cl.aled by moving for leave to bring in the Bill.
I.(-I,KSTONE would not object to the mu-
-I.'lt he could not help obserying, that the time
by the Right Honourable Gentleman for pro-
i'H.g this law was very improper. That abuses
ra !•‘,i to a very great extent had been proved before
House, and he was astonished when the Right
krinyll able Gentleman said that, when the matter
t.yamined, it would appear that abuses had not
l'(::•'.!1-d to any great extent. If he imagined that
to i c the rase, wh v did he resort to a new legislative
('as'ire ? Ile ( Lord Folkstone) thought that abuses
( 11'd exist to a very gt eat extent ; but he at the same
me thought thAt this was an improper time for in-

troducitag the Bill • for at present the House must be
legislating in the dark. It did not exactly know how
far the evil had gone, nor by what means it had at-
tamed
such a magnitude. This could only be ascer-
tained by examination of facts. It had been the ,
fashion of late years to multiply laws beyond the tie-
cessity of the case. This was a great evil, and the
Right Honourable Gentleman was falling into it on
the present occasion. Another reason why the Bill
should not have been introduced at present wAs, that
there was an order at present on the list for an exaz
mination into these abuses, with a view to which he
had moved, that the Report of the evidence lately
taken at the bar should be farther considered. The
Right Honourable Gentleman ought to have waited
for the result of this examination, when his mea-
sure might be brought forward in the most efficient
shape. His Lordship then adverted to the prose-
cution of Kylock and Coleman, and expressed his •
disapprobation of the means taken to entrap these
persons. It was an improper mode of disposing
of the public money, and in a moral point of view
it was extremely objectionable, as it was co-ope-
rating with them in that very crime for which they
were to be punished. The Right Honourable
Gentleman had said, that this prosecution had corn-
menced before the late inquiry. If that were the case, •
he might have waited a little, to see whether the law,
as it at present stood, might not afford a sufficient
check upon these abuses. His Lordship also observed,
disclaiming, however, any thing offensive to the Chan- .
cellor of the Exchequer, that there was something .
very suspicious in this prosecution, and in the man-
ner in which it had been announced to the House, for
if it had been found necessary to call these persons to
the bar in the course of the late inquiry, they might
have refused to answer, on the ground of not being
obliged to say any thing that might criminate them-
selves. But his main objection was, that the House
was legislating in the dark, that it did not clearly
see its way—and that an inquiry ought previously
to take place. It appeared-to him besides, that this
bill would not go to the case of such a person as Mrs.
Clarke, who might receive a compliment for her in-
fluence, which would not amount to such a sale as
would bring the ,matter within the Act. His Lord-
ship then thought it proper to state precisely the ob-
ject he had in view, in moving for the further consi-
deration of the minutes of evidence, as several Gen-
tlemen had erroneouly conceived that he meant to
prefer soree farther charges against the Duke of York.
He had no such intention. His object was that as a
vast' scene of abuse had been disclosed, the House
ought not to dirt its eyes, but that it ought to go on
to probe the matter to the bottom—to search into the
abuses of the departments—and then apply a radical 1
and effectual remedy for the evil, with respect to
which it was now legislating in the dark.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
stated, that he had not said that abuses did not exist to
a great extent. He had only said that they did not ex-
ist to so great an extent as had been imagined ; and
this he believed to be the case. With respect to the
time of bringing forward the bill, the House would
recollect that he had given notice of his intention
long before the Noble Lord had proposed the fur-
ther consideration of the report of the evidence. The
House, he observed, was already in possession of the
mode in which those abuses were carried on ; and
the remedy would apply whether the extent was small
or great. With regard to the prosecution to which
the Noble Lord had alluded, he said that these per-
sons would have had an equal right to have refused to
answer questions that might criminate themselves be-
fore as after the prosecution—and besides, it was sa-
tisfactory to know, now that they had not been wan.
ted en the late inquiry, and therefore no inconvenience
had in fact arisen. As to the co-operation in the
offence of these men, he agreed that it would have
been most imnroper to have tempted them to com-
mit a crime which they would not have committed had
it not been for the temptation. But they had been
before going on with these offences ; and as to the
application of the. public money in this way, he saw
nothing iniproper' in it. As to the remedy not ap-
plying to a a case like that of Mrs. Clarke, it was ex-
actly the sort of case to which it would apply most
particularly.
Mr. PARNELL said, that the allegation of his
Noble Friend was, that, on exam ination,different plans
for carrying on these abuses might be discovered to
which the bill would not apply, and therefore he had
thought this an improper time for proposing the law.
After a a few words from the ATTORNEY GE-
NE RAL. the bill was ordered to be brought in.

THE EVENING STAR.

LONDON.

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