Star.
London, England, 1809-04-26 00:00:00

Ir

PARLIAMENIWRr PROCEEDINGS.

HOUSE OF LORDS, APRIL 25.

The Local Nlilitia Act Amendment Bill and Navy Cornpas-
Ormate Bill were received from the Common., and read a
first time.

Lord AUCKLAND gave notice that he should bring forward
his rrlrosition relative to Divorces on Tuesday next ; for which
fay the House was ordered to be sunimobed.
Lord SELKIRK gave rotice of 3 motion for to-morrow, for
certain papers which, he said, had been laid before the House of
Cotiumms, but were not yet on their Lordships' table.
Lord BUCKINGHAMSHIRE gave notice that he should, on
'Friday next, submit a nice ion relative to the Appointment of the
Regency in Portugal.—Adjourned.

upon the subject was—a party wanted a sum of
money, but the other party were to give a seat, and
this money was to go in that sort of negociation.—Q.
Was the sum.of money to go to procure any ap-
pointment under the East India Company ? A. Yes,
in one shape, but thereat -was to be given to those who
could get that appointment made.—Q. Was a wri-
tership to be procured by the sum of money to be so
given ? A. Not without getting a seat as a remunera-
tion for the Writership, which did not take place, and

•
on it, he thought it would be impossible tor the House the -Company, and one-third to the informer ; rd
not to agree to it ; for were it otherwise, he did not such Director is rendered incapable of holding any
see how any delinquency could hereafter receive cen- place whatever under the Company. 1 Now,' said
sure, if this were passed over. The evidence of Lord Lord A. Hamilton, ~ I contend, that the above re= 1
Clancarty, he said, was equally important and forci- gulations are as much in force against the patronage
ble with that of the Noble Lord opposite to him, and df the Noble Lord, as President of the Board of Con-
went exactly to the same point. He would now, troul. which, I insist, he had no right to dispose of,
therefore, request the attention of the House to such as they could possibly be in regard to the patronage.
other parts of the evidence as appeared to him to bear of Directors."—What then would the House think of
most strongly on the case. The evidence of Mr.. this attack on its purity, and disregard of its Consti-
Reding was very long, and he did not think it neces- tutiow and of its rules, when they saw that the high
sary to go into it further than would be requisite to and important office which the Noble Lord had held
lead to two or three observations and comments so long, had been made an instrument for the worst
which he deemed to be due to it. Reding was asked of purposes ; and that, directly in the teeth of an Act
what conversation he had with Mr. Davies upon the of Parliament, as well as of a Bye Law of the East
subject ? A. The conversation I had with Mr. Davies India Company ?—He confessed he should be sorry

to mention the name of any other person who had
been concerned in this transaction further than was
absolutely necessary, in order to shew it in its true
point of view. He woad ask, therefore, if it could
be supposed possible that Lord Clancarty could have
deceived the Noble Lord on the opposite side of the
House. He ( LordA. Hamilton) believed he could not
have done so—but if he had so deceived the Noble
Lord, he must have still connived at the transaction.
" I am hapr " said Lord A. Hamilton, "to see the

}IYY,
Noble Lord indignant at this mention of the transac-
tion, but he would have done well to have shewn it
before the evidence had been .produced." But when
it was recollected that he was President of the Board
of Controul for so many years—that Lord Clancarty
was a Member of the same Board—and that Reding,
a party to the transaction, had never excited that in-
dignation till his refusal to discover the parties, he
thought those-feelings of indignation had been very
tardy in shewing themselves. He did not wish to be
hard upon the Noble Lord opposite him, but he really
thought that merely reading the evidence must obtain

Ire den;ect then that this cliate, whetter ri it.
wrong, proved or falsified, could by any art eloi
ever be considered as connected with or sin-
from, his official situation. Whether he had I)ee,''
'erroneous or not, still his error did not spring from a
;desire to exert his patronage as a Minister, f •er ote pee
pose of exercising his influence in the House of C„ It..
mons. He had fairly and frankly laid before the
lect Committee a full and general view of his E.1.,;_
India Patronage ; and in no other instance thee the
present could even the shadow of an attempt
part be inferred to exert that influence for a priliCeil
purpose. Another aggravation, as stated by o,c
Noble Lord, he wished to combat, and which I,ee,
his feelings much. This was, that he had iteei
his office a general disposition towards trafficking_
Now, no such thing as this could potsibly infoled
from the evidence ; and on a consideration of that. 't
would. plainly appear, that neitlitr he nor Lord C;,
warty ever had an idea of exerting official
for the purpose of facilitating the acquisition ci,
seat in that House. If he wished, indeed, re .
mote his parliamentary views by elicial paeer,:ee
it was possible that some opportunity might
Which he might use it to advantage, but he nevce;;el
No ; and in the present instince, all lie undereee,
was, that an individual wished to return either hie.
self (Lord Castlereagh) or his friend, and the. a
Noble Marquis wished for an Indian appointmet
for some of his acquaintances. Ile felt fully opri
to all the comments which the Noble Lord had chieel
to make upon the transaction ; andcrud
personcrudregret more deeply any connection with sucia
man as Mr. Reding had proved to be, than l'
did. Indeed, until this transaction, he did not kae.,7
that there existed in cocie:y such a character as a lief-
ficking broker (a lairdi, and an expression indirnatin
from Lord Milton). 4.He eertaiiily did not, and Ce:e
tlemen might impute it to want of penetralien 015
his part, if they chose ; but such was the fict.
could not help, however, remarking the cool delis:-
rative temper in which the Noble Lord seemed ei
have come to the discussion. (Thee, hear ! from lif—
nistrrs.) He wished to faciliate the election ( f hi:
ftiend (Lord Claticartl) to a seat in Parlianant, are!
Mr. Reding came to him ti' mike a conimiec:eiet
on the subject. He understood him to come )-reeeif
as a gentleman, and made a mere simple answer )
his questions. The only occasion on which Mr. R.
ding and he had any interview, was when lie eitei
to be informed who the member was \vim
retire. He before that had never seen Reding.
did he know what there could appear in his politieil
conduct to induce such a person to make an approach
to him on such a design. One thing he war per: tin
of, and that was, that it never occurred either t.) hine

self or to Lord 'Clancarty to make use of otli6alsoa. V
tronage to forward their wishes. For his own nart,
he could not be suspected of having any advantage
to seek for himself individually on the occasion. AU
he wanted was, to get his p:ivato. friend Lord Clan-
carty into Parliament, and this he particularly wished,
kaosving, as he- did, the useful talents for business
which his Lordship possessed. He could not heir
expressing his surprise that the Noble Lord would
for a moment imagine, that with this transae:ion
any pecuniary concern was blended. There was no-
thing surely, either in his character, or that of
friend, which could countenance such a suppostion.
The only occasion on which such a turpitude was ac-
cidentally manifested, it was treated with prop
disdain. But had the evidence been carefully pe-
rused, such an idea would have appeared ridiculous,
for he reserved to himself the right of withholdinv,
the writership from first to last, until he saw that s
pure and properly-recommended person was fixed on
to be promoted to it. He was as ready as any man
possibly could be to admit the baseness of Reding, het
then he had not even any conversation withhini, except
tlrat which he had before stated, from the beginning,
until, on the termination of the transaction, Lord
Clancarty had signified to him to fill up the vacant
writership, as he had originally intended. Lord
Clancarty withdrew his interference, when he found
'that Reding wished to withhold from him the name
of the,Member who desired to retire from his seat in
Parliament, and thus the connection terminated.—
No idea was ever entertained of making a writer-
ship a general exchange for a seat in that House.--
' The Noble Lord had introduced another person, Mr.
' Davies, on whom he dwelt as a person of great im-
portance. All he could say was, that he never saw
Mr. Davies in .his life, although Mr. Davies had cho-
sen to say he called on him at his office in Downing-
street. if Mr. Davies had given his name to the
',porter, he certainly might very' innocently have
desired him to walk in ; imagining. perhaps that it
was a Mr. Davies of that House, with whom he v.-as
on terms of intimacy. He had received a letter from
`this Mr. Davies, which letter he immediately com-
municated to the Chairman of the Select Committee,
and which letter, it ought to be observed, did rot
refer to the writership now in question, but to an
ther belonging to the Board of Controul. He. did
this in order that Mr. Davies might be called for cs
amination before the Committee, and this was all Le
knew about him. Indeed he was as ignorant what
sort of man he was as he was of Mr. Reding. To,'
writership,'however, neither of them, or any one eh!
could obtain unduly, as he ( Lord Castlereagh) new:
let itigoout of his reach, And was determined to keei.,
it within his reach, until he was thoroughly acquaii.-
ted with the character of the person who might
i.
proposed to fill it. The Noble Lord, howeve.r, se,;:7:•
ed to think that he was to be particularly blamed 1:
cause he happened to be President of the Board •
Controul. This was founded on the notion, perhai-
that particular patronage was attadied to that sia:a
tion ; but he could not see what the policy could
of excluding all the Executive Government from sec.:
patronage. Cases indeed did exist, in which the law,
wisely broke down the mass of patronage, by extend-
ing it chiefly to the Directors ; yet, in his opinion.
the small patronage given to the Board of Controul,
or to the President of that Board, could riot be icten-
ded with anyvery bad constitutional effects. The Prcsi-
dent was, undoubtedly, responsible for. the exeriica
of his patronage, but he thought it. would be a littie
hard to press him down with greater responsibiiiti
because he happened to be Pr..sident. He delivered
those opinions freely, and he had delivered his opi-.
nions freely before the Select Committee, heedless of
consequences. He had not come before that Com-
mittee bound to official secrecy, and sooner th."
makelhat excuse, he hat chosen to incur the pcio'
nalsesponsibiLity to which the evidence m