HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



123 



were to be found there ; so that 

 all transactions respecting promo- 

 tions might be completely traced. 

 The mode in which the produce 

 of the half pay fund came into the 

 office, as well as that in which it 

 was issued, was also recorded. 

 With respect to the removal of the 

 barrack-master of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, such removals in fo- 

 reign establishments were circum- 

 stances of common occurrence in 

 the ordinary course of the service. 

 Circumstances had been stated, in 

 order to show that his royal high- 

 ness, with a view to put a little 

 money in his own pocket, had en- 

 croached upon the half-pay fund. 

 But the house would recollect that 

 this very fund was established by 

 his royal highness, and the money 

 furnished from the produce of 

 commissions, which he might have 

 given away without any sale at 

 all : by which an immense sum 

 was saved to the public. There 

 was yet one topic on which he 

 would be to blame if he did not 

 say a few words. Never was there 

 an army in a better state, as far 

 as depended on the commander-in- 

 chief, than that under his com- 

 mand last summer ; and, if the 

 army had not performed the ser- 

 vice for which it was destined, the 

 blame would have rested with 

 him, not with the commander-in- 

 chief. Whatever enthusiasm they 

 felt, was the result of the discipline 

 and example afforded by the illus- 

 trious person at the head of the 

 army. 



Mr. Yorlce said that he had 

 never listened to a charge more se- 

 rious, and that he had heard it 

 with the greatest possible con- 

 cern, both on account of the com- 

 mander-in-chief, and the honour- 

 able gentleman who had brought 



it forward, thus taking upon him- 

 self so heavy a responsibility. But 

 he was glad that the house could 

 at last reach in a tangible shape 

 some of those libels against the 

 Duke of York, which had for 

 some time past been more assidu- 

 ously and pertinaciously circulated 

 than ever libels had been at any 

 former period in this country, so 

 prolific in libels. He hoped the 

 house would do its duty to itself, 

 to the country, and to the royal 

 house of Brunswick, and that if 

 there was no ground for these ac- 

 cusations, justice might be done 

 to the commander-in-chief. Mr. 

 Yorke, for his own part, believed 

 that a conspiracy of the most atro- 

 cious and diabolical kind existed 

 against his royal highness, founded 

 on the Jacobinical spirit which ap- 

 peared at the commencement of the 

 French revolution, though it did 

 not show itself now in exactly the 

 same form. It appeared to be 

 the design of the conspirators, by 

 means of the press, the liberty d 

 which was so valuable, and the 

 licentiousness so pernicious, to 

 write down the military system 

 through the commander-in-chief; 

 the army through its generals ; and 

 other establishments through the 

 persons most conspicuous in each. 

 Let blame fall where it ought. 

 But the house ought to consider 

 the illustrious person against whom 

 the charge was directed. They 

 ought to consider his high 

 station in the country, and the 

 eminent service he had rendered 

 to the country, in the state to 

 which he had brought the army. 

 What was the state of the army 

 when he became commander-in- 

 chief? It scarcely deserved the 

 name of an ami}' ; and it was now 

 found by experience to be, in 



proportion 



