HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



139 



iiighness said, •' you may now 

 discover, from the communication 

 I have made to you several days 

 before it can be known to the pub- 

 lic, how I may have been abused in 

 similar cases, and by what means 

 communications which might drop 

 in conversation with motives per- 

 fectly pure on my part, might 

 be turned to purposes the most 

 criminal and corrupt. If I had 

 mentioned such a matter as colonel 

 Graham's intended promotion in 

 the parlour of Gloucester place, 

 I have now reason to see that a 

 communication, innocent on my 

 part, would immediately have been 

 made the subject of a base and 

 scandalous trafiSc, from which I 

 could not have been secured by 

 the honour of the man who was 

 the object of promotion." 



House of Commons, March 13. 

 The Secretary at War rose to 

 oppose the address proposed by 

 Mr. Bankes, who had declared 

 that though no charge of cor- 

 ruption had been established 

 against the duke of York, he must 

 have entertained a suspicion that 

 abuses existed, and that therefore 

 it was the duty of the house to 

 agree to a proposition, the ten- 

 dency of which was, to deprive 

 him of the command of the army — 

 He was followed on the same side 

 of the question by the master of 

 the rolls, and the solicitor-general. 

 On the other side appeared sir 

 Francis Burdett, sir S. Romilly, 

 and Mr. H. Smith. Sir Francis 

 at the conclusion of a long, yet 

 lively speech, said by way of per- 

 oration that, *' whether he con- 

 sidered the circumstances, the do- 

 cuments, the proofs, the defence, 

 «r the character, all with one ac- 



cord compelled him to declare 

 that in his opinion the charges 

 were completely substantiated 

 against the Duke of York." Sir 

 S. Romilly said, " let us recollect 

 that it was we who created the 

 public agitation ; that it was we 

 who granted to the accused, that 

 publicity which his defenders in 

 this house so strenuously demand- 

 ed ; that it was we who sent by 

 every day's post our proceedings 

 on that subject, to be canvassed 

 in every corner of the kingdom. 

 With this recollection, and with 

 the knowledge of what the effect 

 has been, is this house now to be 

 desired to turn a deaf ear to the 

 opinions of the public?'' 



If once the opinion should pre- 

 vail, that the House of Commons 

 had heard of the existence of 

 corruption in the state, and heard 

 of it with indifference ; if ever 

 such an impression should go 

 forth, they would lose the con- 

 fidence of the people, and the 

 minds of the public would be 

 alienated from parliament. If ever 

 that fatal time should arrive, no 

 man could tell the consequences. 

 The Master of the Rolls was of 

 opinion that, from all the evidence 

 that had come before them, and 

 all the different lights in which 

 he could view this inquiry, and 

 the result it had led to, all 

 that could be said was, that the 

 Duke of York had not been suf- 

 ficiently cautious, that he had 

 allowed Mrs. Clarke to believe 

 that she had some influence over 

 him, though it appeared af the 

 same time that he had never acted 

 upon this principle. The house 

 adjourned at half past three o'clock 

 on Tuesday morning. 



House 



