178 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 280. 



deputies, my brother M — re, and G an, but 500^. per 



suaum each." 



Respecting this bribery, Lewis, in a rage at 

 Harley's dismissal, thus wrote to Swift — "but the 

 damned thing is, we are to do all the dirty work — 

 we are to turn out Monckton." The meaning of 

 which Hawkesworth thus explains : 



" Robert Monckton, one of the Commissioners for Trade 

 and Plantations, who had given information against Ar- 

 thur Moore, one of his brother commissioners, for ac- 

 cepting a bribe from the Spanish court, to get the treaty 

 of commerce continued." 



Next day Parliament was prorogued. At this 

 moment the quarrel was at its height between 

 Harley and Bolingbroke, and Moore is often 

 spoken of as the " creature " of Bolingbroke. 

 Lewis, in a previous letter to Swift, had said : 



"The dragon [Harley] is accused of having betrayed 

 his friends yesterday upon the matter of the three explan- 

 atory articles of the Spanish Treaty of Commerce, which 

 he allowed not to be beneficial, and that the Queen might 

 better press for their being changed, if it was the sense 

 of the House that they ought to be so." 



Others of Swift's correspondents refer to this 

 examination. Thus wrote Ford : 



"Yesterday put an end to the Session, and to your 

 pain. We gained a glorious victory at the House of 

 Lords the day before : the attack was made immediately 

 against Arthur Moor, who appeared at the bar with other 

 commissioners of trade. The South Sea Company had 

 prepared the way for a censure, by voting him guilty of 

 a breach of trust, and incapable of serving them in any 

 office for the future. This passed without hearing what 

 he had to say in his defence, and had the usual fate of 

 such unreasonable reflections. Those who proposed the 

 resolutions were blamed for their violence ; and the per- 

 son accused, appearing to be less guilty than they made 

 him, was thought to be more innocent than I doubt he is. 

 The Whigs proposed two questions in the House of Lords 

 against him, and lost both, one by twelve, and the other, 

 I think, by eighteen votes." 



This may be considered as a friendly version of 

 the story. The South Sea proprietors had always 

 been dissatisfied that a fourth share of the profits 

 had been reserved for the Queen, and were not 

 likely to be in better humour when they found, or 

 suspected, that one of their own directors was 

 bound by a share in the spoil to resist what they 

 considered their just demands for relief. Moore, 

 however, was ejected for a direct breach of trust, 

 as set forth many years after (1735) by Temple- 

 man, who had been clerk in the secretary's office. 

 By the Contract, the limited trading of the com- 

 pany with the Spanish colonies was to be carried 

 on for the benefit of the company, the Queen, and 

 the King of Spain, and all private trading was 

 expressly forbidden. Yet, according to Temple- 

 man, — 



"About the year 1714, the ship 'Bedford,' Captain 

 Robert Johnson commander (afterwards Sir Robert), 

 when going with a rich cargo of the company's to Car- 

 tagena, Mr. Arthur Moore, then a director, tampered with 

 the captain to take into the said ship when he should be 



in the Downs, about twenty or thirty tons of linen, which 

 should come from Holland, and to go for account to the 

 said director Moore, and one of the Da Costas ; but being 

 overpressed by Mr. Moore's solicitations, he acquainted 

 some of the directors, who presentlj' calling a general 

 court at Merchant Taylors' Hall, they spewed Mr. Moore 

 out of the direction, and came to a resolution he should 

 never come amongst them again ; and the Court very 

 honourably gave the captain their thanks." 



That Harley was well disposed to " betray his 

 friends," if Bolingbroke and Arthur Moore are to 

 be included amongst them, is manifest from his 

 letter to the Queen. It contains more than on& 

 reference to Moore ; but one, with its significant 

 insinuations, will be sufficient. 



"The 4th June, 1711, three days after the Treasurer 

 [Harley himself] was sworn, he was surprised with a 

 demand of 28,036/. 5s. for arms and merchandize said to 

 be sent to Canada. When the Treasurer scrupled this,. 

 Mr. Secretary St. John and Mr. Moore came to him with 

 much passion upon this affair ; and about a fortnight 

 after, the Secretary of State signified the Queen's positive 



pleasure to have that money paid Since the return 



from that expedition the secret is discovered, and the 

 Treasurer's suspicion justified t for the public was cheated 

 of above 20,000Z." 



So far as I know, the last act of the public 

 life of Arthur Moore was affixing his name with 

 lords spiritual and temporal, gentlemen of quality, 

 citizens, Whigs and Tories, to the proclamation* 

 of Aug. 1, 1714, — the declaration, as it was called, 

 of those who, " with one full voice and consent of 

 tongue and heart," announced the accession of 

 King George ! This, however, was not his last 

 public appearance ; for in the " Act of Grace and 

 Pardon" which closed the Session in July, 1717, 

 we read amongst the excepted the names of Ox- 

 ford, Harcourt, Prior, Thomas Harley, Arthur 

 Moore, &c., with that comprehensive addition, 

 " All and every person of the name and clan of 

 Macgregor." This, no doubt, is the Act of which 

 your correspondent has a vague recollection. It 

 is not probable, under the circumstances, that 

 Moore was elected a Director of the South Sea. 

 Company after 1714; and certainly his name did 

 not appear when the bubble burst, in 1720 ; and 

 he was dead before the Charitable Corporation 

 fraud was exposed. 



With a few particulars of what may be con- 

 sidered the private and subsequent history of the 

 Moores, I shall next week conclude. 



The Writer of, etc. 



THE ENGLISH, IRISH, ANP SCOTCH KNIGHTS OF THE 

 ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 



(Continued from Vol. x., p. 200.) 



By the continued kind assistance of your Malta 

 correspondent, J. J. W., to whom I have previously 

 referred, and gleanings taken from the Record 



