Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-01-31
MR.. RANDoLpH's MISSION.
Eroan The Phikaoleiphia National Gazette.

briefly the case Oh MT Sd"h"S e"O"
Lisbon, which was investigated Doth IN q OUT VI
Parliament, with so much r'gor. 1t VIII snew
how far the British Cabinet were from being able
to do with IMMUNITY, what appears 10 US mach
less reprehensible than Tie mission OF Mr.. Ian
dolph. ,o,,
We scarcely need say how justly eminent ad-
mred Nj. aiming then was, &the extent IN which
he afterwards demonstrated his right to the high
est favors and exatation which his government
and country could bestow. He had rendered the
most important services as a member OF Parlla-
ment, and the head of the department OF foreign
affairs; he was truly a scholar, an orator. and
statesman; in social life. in all his domestic re-
lations, which included those ofhusband and Ia
ther.-In private department, in his personal
qualities and manners he enjoyed universal es-
teen by universal acknowledgment. Ii any man
could be thought or proclaimed perfectly qua!itl-
ed to represent the monarchy at any foreign court
with dignity, eclat, grace. steadiastness and
efficiency, it was he, the profound, experienced,
eloquent politician, and the consistent, liberal,
accomplished gentleman.
The eldest son of Mr.. Canning, whom he most
tendery loved, and who fully deserved his affec-
ton and care, was dangerously i'll. II was be.
lieved by the faculty that the climate of lisbon
might save the sons life. To Lisbon then, the
father resolved to 90, in his private capacity,
with his patient; and he had made bis prepara-
tons for a residence of some months in that CT
ty, when the ministry. with whomhe had coalesced
few months before, believing or affecting to be-
lieve, that the Prince Regent of Portugal meant
to return without delay from Brazil to Portugal,
and that the latter country would then be the the
atre of important negotiations, offered him the
Portuguese embassy. which he accepted. He
chose the lowest scale of salary; he received
10000 per annum less than his immediate pre-
decessOr, Sir Charles Stuart had enjoyed. lie
proceeded Immediately to his post; established
himself there, on footing suitable to his per-
sonal and official character; he expended much
more than the official allowance, large as it was,
in the employment Of secretaries, in elegant hos
pitality, and all the modes by which such repre-
senta,ion becomes credtabe, and otherwise oPe-
rative The moment he learned that the Prince
Regent of Portugal had postponed the period OF
his return. he sent his resignation to London,
out continued to live at Lisbon in nearly the
same style of expense, chiefly for the benefit OF
his countrvmen. AS long as he performed no
official duty he refused to receive any public pay.
The Ministry re-invested him with the Office,
and the accention Of war in 1915 gave him quite
enough of the most important diplomatic business.
Nevertheless, great clamor raised at
at home, on the grounds that " the real purpose
of the mission was to procure place for the
right hon. gentleman''-that the ministry meant
the more effectually to secure him as an auxili-
airy, to reward him as partisan, or avert him as
possible adversary;-That they had invented a
new species of sinec,re; that he had pOcketed
the salary without having earned it by real
service; in short, that the affair was ga gross,
scandalous, outrageous job" In the House of
Commons, it was particularly so described and
reprobated by Mr.. Whitbread snd Mr.. Herres.
Mr.. Lambton, now Lord Durham,-a member
Of the present ministry Lord Privy Seal, Jon
the 9th May. 1917, brought forward series of
very strong resolutions against the ministry,
which he prefaced with most severe and cogent
speech, beginning with the statement that sit
was not the conduct of the individual (Mr. Can
ning) which he arrai gned, but the charge which
he had to prefer was against his Majesty's minis
tiers, of delinquency, by which, in his opinion,
they had subjected themselves to an impeach-
ment, for a criminal misapplicatlon of the public
money for the most corrupt private purposes.-a
waste of the public treasure ascribable to the
lowest species of political barter and intrigue"
Mr.. Canning made very ingenious and brilliant
defence, yet there we're ninety-sir uotes for Mr..
Lambton's motion, and the country was not sat
isfied.
Now, if such were the proceedings and feel
ings, in Great Britain, on the occasion which we
have thus merely sketched, ought any surprise to
be felt at Washington, or elsewhere, that some
thing similar has followed Mr. RandoIph's mis-
sion, which is so much less excusable in any
point of view? 1t is, in fact, the invention Of
ne,D species of sinecure in our political system:
the executive government admit that the in
capacity of the envoy to act or remain at his On
ly proper post was anticipated secession from
that post was stipulated and allowed; his proxy
was known to be a mere youth; his return
to Russia, at any time, coutd not but be deemed
extremely problematical Mr.. Lambton made
it one of the grounds of his accusation of the
British ministry and Mr. Canning, that when
this statesman was tired of his place, "the i'm
portant business of the Lisbon mission was left
under the sole guidance of Charge d. a6aires;"
but that Charge was a trained diplomatist, and
man of considerable talents.
Every one knows that an individual more like
ly to desert his Grand, or commit strange freaks
abroad, than Mr.. Randolph, could not have been
found in the whole array OF our public men. The