HISTORY OF EUROPE: 



127 



cult to establish the charge of li- 

 bel. There was another way in 

 which libellers escaped justice. 

 They shrunk from the laws and 

 quitted the country. For instance, 

 Major O'Hogan, even before his 

 libel against the Duke of York 

 issued from the press, had secured 

 his passage to America. — Lord 

 Castlereagh was not for leaving 

 the inquiry that had been agreed 

 to to any select committee, nor 

 even to the twelve judges, nor to 

 any thing short of that full and 

 open investigation which might 

 be had at the bar of that house.— 

 After a few observations by Mr. 

 Wardle, it was resolved that the 

 inquiry should be made in a com- 

 mittee of the whole house, and 

 that they should enter upon it 

 on Wednesday next, the 1st of 

 February. 



To give a narrative of all the 

 proceedings on this important 

 question that were extended from 

 the 26th of January to the 20th 

 of March, with both the concomi- 

 tant and concluding debates, even 

 in the most abridged form, would 

 carry us to a length so monstrously 

 disproportionate to a general view 

 of the History of Europe, that we 

 must refer our readers to the trials 

 of the Duke of York that have al- 

 ready been published in a great 

 variety of forms, whether in tlie 

 minutes of the evidence before the 

 House of Commons, or in huge 

 volumes of Parliamentary Debates, 



or newspapers and magazines, or 

 finally, in separate volumes. The 

 whole of the inquiry may be di- 

 vided into two heads: 1st, The 

 connections of Mrs. Clarke with 

 the persons who paid or promised 

 to pay her sums of money for pro- 

 motions or other appointments. 

 2dly, The acquaintance of the 

 commander-in-chief with the se- 

 cret transactions of Mrs. Clarke 

 with those persons, and his par- 

 ticipation with her in the gain 

 arising from that financial system. 

 The first of these points was 

 proved beyond a possibility of 

 doubt, by an immense mass of 

 evidence. As to the Duke's 

 knowledge of Mrs. Clarke's ma- 

 nceuvres, and his sharing in the re- 

 turns, this is a fact, the proof of 

 which depended solely on the evi- 

 dence of Mrs. Clarke. Forthis kind 

 of commerce must, from its na- 

 ture, have been confined to the 

 two parties concerned. No third 

 person could interfere in it. The 

 testimony of Mrs. Clarke, aban- 

 doned to licentiousness from her 

 youth, and become almost a pros- 

 titute by profession, is scarcely to 

 be accounted of any weight at all, 

 especially as she acted under the 

 influence of revenge against his 

 royal highness, and a strong desire 

 to please Mr. Wardle, who, asafter- 

 wards appeared, had promised to 

 compensate in a very liberal way 

 anyservice she might be of to him in 

 substantiating his charges* against 



the 



• Colonel Wardle had promised, or clearly given it to be understood by Mrs. 

 Clarke, that he would furnish a house for her at Westboiu-ne-place, in part payment 

 for her services in the prosecution of the Duke of York. Colonel Wardle denying 

 that he had come under any such an obligation, was sued by an upholsterer, who had 

 furnished the house, at law, and, on the evidence of Mrs. Clarke and the upholsterer's 

 brother, obhged to pay about 2,000/. with costs. The day after judgment was 

 given in this cause, Colonel Wardle published, in several newspapers, a note ad- 

 dressed to the people of the three kingdoms, declaiing before God, and his country. 



