HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



133 



fsne could commit much mistake in 

 the proportion between his income 

 and expenditure ; yet surely ex- 

 amples of such mistakes were 

 not wanting, nor failed to occur 

 daily, even in the lower walks of 

 life. Much more might they be 

 expected in persons placed from 

 their infancy above the want of 

 money, and whose minds had been 

 directed to any thing rather than 

 to the management of their own 

 affairs. And who knew that the 

 Duke of York ever thought upon 

 the subject? He had not only his 

 habits of idleness, but his habits of 

 diligence to contend with ; and if 

 any one would form to himself an 

 idea of the business which a com- 

 mander-in-chief had to go through 

 every day of his life, he would 

 neither wonder at, nor be much 

 disposed to blame any instance of 

 ignorance or inattention that might 

 occur in the management of his 

 private affairs. Much of Mrs. 

 Clarke's expences too never came 

 within the cognizance of her pro- 

 tector, and many of them possibly 

 were never intended to do so ; her 

 great dinners were all necessarily 

 given when he was not present. — 

 But to return to Mr. Burton. Be- 

 sides that inattention to manage- 

 ment and economy in private 

 affairs, which was far from being 

 unnatural, however much it was 

 to be blamed in the Duke of York, 

 it was to be recollected that un- 

 doubtedly very large sums were 

 supplied by his royal highness : 

 upwards of 5,000/. in notes, and 

 in payments to tradesmen for wine, 

 furniture, and a variety of articles, 

 to the amount, in the whole, of 

 between 16 and 17,000/., and all 

 within the space of little more 

 ihan two years. The extent of 



Mrs. Clarke's debts was likewise 

 to be considered. The existence 

 of the conspiracy, and that the 

 duke was a party to it being once 

 supposed, how was it probable that 

 there should have been any dis- 

 tress for money, when there was a 

 mill for making it continually at 

 work? There were then in the 

 army as many as 10 or 11,000 

 officers ; numerous changes were 

 going on every day in the year ; 

 and such was always the eagerness 

 for promotion, that there never 

 could exist a deficiency of persons 

 ready to give ample premiums 

 above the regulated price. Where 

 then would have been the diffi- 

 culty, through the management of 

 such a woman as Mrs. Clarke, 

 with her subordinate agents, to 

 relieve her from the pressure of 

 her pecuniary difficulties, and to 

 gratify her vanity and extrava- 

 gance to the utmost ? This argu- 

 ment of Mr. Burton seems to us 

 to amount almost to a demonstra- 

 tion that, however much the Duke 

 of York might be to blame for 

 suffering Mrs. Clarke to interfere 

 at all in matters of military promo- 

 tions or appointments, it never 

 was any plan, on the part of his 

 royal highness, to provide for the 

 maintenance of his mistress by a 

 deliberate system of bribery and 

 corruption. 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer, after speaking for many 

 hours in defence of the Duke o£ 

 York, proposed a resolution, ex- 

 pressive of the conviction of the 

 house of his royal highncss's in- 

 nocence ; and that, after the in- 

 sertion of this resolution in an 

 address to his majesty, the address 

 should proceed as follows : " And 

 his majesty's faithful Commons 



think 



