The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-08-02 00:00:00

appear to be most admirably calculated to lay
p; castrate before the good tense of the nation— I
the honour—the dignity, and the consistency of
the Corporation of tha' City of London.-741141 1
du maintain, that to effect such a purpose, no melt.
sure could have bast' more perfectly adapted, or
more ingeniously oontrived.,--Of the motives of
the gentleman with whom the motion o/igietieed,
I do not feel myself' at liberty to eater up* au
inquiry-,.and %hates., may be my opesslie on
this point, shat opinion 1i will sot express.--
for in this, as in all other questions, every
man has a right to exercise his owd judgmeet, and
to make such motions in this Court as in his own
discretion he may think proper ; but I will say,
without hesitatiop, that I think it would have ad-
ded consistency, at leas., to the character of the
Gentleman who has tea gravely announced his de.
termination to tike no share in the proceedings of
the Court this day, if he had boldly and manfully
attended in person the discussion of that question,
which he, and he alone, originally provoked. It
does certainly appear to have been particularly
incumbent on that Gentleman to have attended in
his place this day, in confore ity to the summons
of your Lordship, and to have stated publicly the
reasons by which he was induced to give a notice
so extraordinary, of a motion so unprecedented.
With respect to the sespeesien of any further
proceedings on the notice that was given, until
the presumed, or indeed merely alleged, impro.
priety of conduct in Colonel Wardle should
have been decided, it appears to me that such de.
lay %%ere not less cruel than unjust, improper,
and inconsistent with the impartiality and dignity
of this Court ; and I the more regret the absence
of the worthy Gentleman, from my utter iams.
petency to conjecture by what arguments a men.
sure, so irreconcilable with common sense and
equal justice, could be attempted to be justified.
To Col. Wardle, who alone had the courage to
institute the Investigation, and the perseverance
to bring it to that successful issue, fur which
he has received rho Thanks of a great seniority qf I
the People of the United Kingdom, the entire
merit of the result of that Inquiry is unquestion.
ably due—and for his great and meritorious ewer.
titeis in that ardeoes undertaking, it is now in.
cootestibly known, that he has received no consi-
deration or reward whatever—but that which his
exalted and disinterested mind is folly capable of
correctly appreciating—the sincere demonstration
of the eIIA,ITI/DI Or nit 0001MTMIN.
Mel Wardle had no secret purpose to answer, no
private ends to gratify, and that he bad no pees.
Ware orsoti..cs, it is not possible even for the most
"gaseous defouder uf corruption to deny—for the
very tendency of the accusations with which he
Pin been assailed, is to skew that he has eacryked
pot only his awe but his fortune, by these pa.
triotic and unexampled exertions which have ren-
dered him not Ica the object of regard to the
people—than of terror to those by whom they
have so lung been plundered. But, my Lord, I
do hope and trust that we know how to estimate
correctly the conduct of the man who has made
these important sacrifices (if such indeed he has
nsade)—who, influenced solely by motives of the
purest patriotism, has been induced ooluntarily
to place himself in a public situation, most aide.
ous, and of difficulty beyond all example ; and
as no circumstances have occurred since the
Thanks of this Court were voted to Cul. War.
die, which can in the slightest degree lower him
in the estimation or opinion of any fair and can.
did man, I think it is a duty that wo owe to
justice, to the country, and to ourselves, to give
him our support, and thus manifest to the people
of the United Kingdoms, that we are not to be
blindly, or tensely led away by the clamour and
fury of an exasperated faction. In delivering
these sentiments, I beg it to be understood, that I
do not mean to impeach the character, theinile.
peadenos, or the importance of the Gentleman
with wisom this motion originated. The charac-
ter of that Gentleman Is perfectly known to
the Members of this Court; but what would
be our opinion of a person less known than
he is, were such a proposition introduced as that
of which he is the author!? By the adoption of
that motion, we should be forging for ourselves
&aim and fetters, and finally must throw our-
selves into the very midst of that vortex of cor-
ruption, which it is our professed and only object
to annihilate. Aod to pass over in silence, and
without decision, the extraordinary motion tug.
Bested by the nigh:o of the worthy Gentleman,
would be preduetive of evil almost equal to that of
the adoption of the proposition which it urges ;
for, supposing that it were to be no further agi.
tided, all further inquiry into the existence of
corruption would be instantaneously checked,
and the important, nay incalculable, advan-
tages that must arise to the country from such
aeceeserry Inrestiotion would be 'ascended, ad
in/Whims. by this notice of a Motion uf Censure
banging up, in terrorens, over the head of a man
whose extraordinary exertions have brought to
light transactions so extraordinary, so disgrace.
ful, and so incredible as they did appear, until
actually and incontrovertibl proved. Of the
transcendent merit of Col. Wardle, and of the
gratitude due to him from the People of England,
such, my Lord, is my opinion, that I have no
hesitation in avowing, that no reward could have
appeared to me too great to have been offered by
a grateful People to a friend so true, so firm,
and so devoted to the interest of his country.
I am perfectly ready to admit that we have
all political prejudices. At the same time it
mast be admitted that in the degree of force and
bigotry with which they operate on the humus
mind, the difference (in different men) is most
important-..and I cannot avoid remarking, that
the worthy gentleman witossee the notice of this
.tastes, has voted for very assay measures that
have had an undisguised tendency to bolster nil
this transactions of the administrations of the day ;
...whether the ground has been substantial or
ettherwise...to him it seemed to matter not—be
bee certainly never hesitated to put the country
Ito any eepence, however great, which had for its
abject the support or gratification of the men to
*kw, for the tease being, he deemed it prudent
M gin that support—bat every I am to say,