Star.
London, England, 1809-04-21 00:00:00

the Exchequer), and that it seemed to be admitted
that the practice of trafficking for seats in Parha-
p ment was a thing which ought not to be tolerated.—
He supposed that when the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) called upon
an Honourable Friend of his (Mr. Creevey), to bring
one set of cases before the House, he was also ready
to practise that impartiality which he recommended,
and bring forward those cases which were within his
knowledge. (Hear, hear !) It was nonsense to pre-
tend to be ignorant of those abuses. What Mem-
ber of Parliament was there that did not• know
_that
such things were done ? Did not he know—did
not the Right Honourable Gentleman know—did
not every body in the House know, that there were
many Members who sat there, that were representa-
tives of nothing but their own money ? (Loud cries
of Hear, Hear! from the Ofrposition benches.) And it was
also known that many who had paid their money for
their seats still felt themselves dependent on other men,
and if they differed from them, felt those qualms of
; conscience or of honour which made them vacate both
the seat and the money they had paid for it. It was
not certainly any charge against the present Adminis-
tration to state those things, for the charge applied
I as well to him and to every other Member of the
House, who had long known that those things were
done, and yet never brought it forward to Parliament
in a proper shape. As to the case of the Hampshire
Election, the Right Hon. Gentleman (the Chancellor
of the Exchequer) happened about that time, for a
very short portion of his life, to be in a Minority. He
(Mr. Whitbread) had been for nineteen years gene-
rally in a Minority, and therefore he was very apt
to think Minorities right. But the Right Honourable
Gentleman who had been so seldom in a minority
' in that House, should rather be inclined so suspect that
he was wrong when he acted so contrary to his usual
practice. Without, however, meaning, to arraign any
particular Secretary of the rreasury, he would state
generally, that under the present system all Secretaries
of the Treasury find themselves under the necessity of,
acting in this manner, and that there is always an open'
market at the Treasury for bargains of this nature.
If, however, the House was disposed to make it a
misdemeanour to traffic for East India Writerships
and Cadetships, they should certainly take some no-
tice of a trailie which was equally as notorious, but
more scandalous and unconstitutional. If.the Right
Hon. Gentleman would appeal to his Noble neigh-
bour (Lord Castlereagh), that Noble Lord would in-
form him, that in Ireland, about a million and a half
had been paid for the purchase of boroughs, which
was a decisive proof that those things were considered
as money's worth, as a marketable commodity. It
was impossible for him not to know that the practice
which had prevailed to such an extent in a neighbour.
ing kingdom, also prevailed in this country. If this
practice was not destroyed, it would in The end de-
stroy us. As to the sale of judicial situations, he did
not pretend to say that it affected the purity of the
Administration, hut he would still say that it was an
anomaly, which should be removed. It would be
easy to place the fees of their offices in a general fund
for increasing the salaries of the Judges. He agreed
perfectly with his Hon. Friend (Mr. Creevey) that a
Dissolution of Parliament was not an appeal to the
people, but to the Treasury. On the last Dissolution
Ministers endeavoured to set the people mad, and
then talked of appealing to their sense. The sense
of the people had certainly some slight influence at a
General Election ; but the great preppnaerating in-
fluence was the influence of t.I e Treasury.
Mr.WYNNE approved the principle of abolishing
the sale of judicial offices in the manner stated by his
Honourable Friend (Mr. Whitbread). He could
not, however, approve the conduct of the East India
Company in dismissing pers ,ris who had served them,
long and well, if it should he, discovered that any thing
of money considerations had passed at their original
appointment, although entirely without their know-
ledge or privity.
Mr. H. THORNTON said, that the Committee
of Finance had first suggested the abolition of the sale
of judicial places, precisely in the manner mentioned
by the Honourable Member (Mr. Whitbread). In
their Report, they had recommended the applying
the fees of these offices to a fund to remunerate the
Judges for any loss they might sustain.
The Bill was then read a second time, and ordered
to be committed on Tuesday se'nnight.—Adjourned.

TII F. EVENING SIAR.