HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



143 



Duke of Portland, Mr. Makby is 

 the Duke of Portland. He is my 

 Duke of Portland. I mean en- 

 tirely to clear myself of holding 

 out any insinuation against the 

 Duke's character. Mr. Wardle 

 accused me once of going into 

 the Duke of Portland's, and said 

 that he had watched me in. I 

 told him I was not in the habit of 

 going in there, and laughed at 

 him, and said, that most likely it 

 was Mrs. Gibbs." Mr. Wardle was 

 not the only person who believed, 

 at one time, that Mrs. Clarke had 

 influence with the Duke of Port- 

 land. The marquis of Tichfield, 

 (the Duke of Portland's son) a 

 member of the House of Com- 

 mons, being called upon to state 

 every thing he was acquainted 

 with, as to an application from 

 the reverend Mr. Basely to the 

 Duke of Portland, stated that Mr. 

 Basely called upon the Duke on 

 the third of January, in the pre- 

 sent year, and not being able to 

 see him, left the following letter 

 for him. — 



" Norfolk Street, Grotvenor Square. 



" My Lord Duke ; 

 " I wished particularly to see 

 your grace on the most private 

 business. I cannot be fully open 

 by letter. The object is, to solicit 

 your grace's recommendation to 

 the deanery of Salisbury cr some 

 other deanery, for the most ample 

 pecuniary remuneration for which 

 I will instantly give a draft to 

 your grace. For Salisbury three 

 thousand pounds. I hope your 

 grace will pardon this, and in- 

 stantly commit these lines to the 



flames. I am now writing, for 

 the benefit of administration, a 

 most interesting pamphlet. Ex- 

 cuse this openness, and 

 I remain. 

 Your grace's 

 Most obedient and 

 Obliged servant, 



J. Basely. 



This note the Duke of Portland 

 transmitted to the bishop of Lon- 

 don, in whose diocese he under- 

 stood that Mr. Basely possessed 

 one or two chapels.* The bishop, 

 in a letter in answer to the Duke, 

 dated Fulham house, January 5, 

 1809, said, " It is too true that 

 this wretched creature Basely 

 has one if not two chapels in my 

 diocese. I have long known him 

 to be a very weak man, but, till 

 this insufferable insult upon your 

 grace, I did not know he was so 

 completely wicked, and so totally 

 void of all principle. And, as 

 your grace is in possession of the 

 most incontestible proofs of his 

 guilt, you will, I trust, inflict upon 

 him the disgrace and punishment 

 he so richly deserves." 



Mrs. Clarke in her evidence of 

 the 9th of February, stated that a 

 Dr. O'Meara applied to her in 

 1805 to get him made a bishop. 

 He made an offer of pecuniary 

 remuneration, the exact amount 

 of which she did not, at the mo- 

 ment, recollect. And he brought 

 a testimonial in his favour, under 

 the hand of the archbishop of 

 Tuam, stating that the writer had 

 received the most satisfactory as- 

 surances that the doctor was " a 

 gentleman of most uncxcejjtion- 



able 



Mr. Basely was in fact one ot the bishop of LondoH's chaplains. 



