HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



147 



of legislative wisdom. The Duke 

 had certainly been guilty of great 

 indiscretion, arising from facility 

 of temper, or, it may perhaps be 

 said, weakness ; but a weakness 

 often found in conjunction with 

 great talents and many virtues. 

 The motion of Lord Althorpe, by 

 which, if it had been agreed to, 

 his royal highness would have been 

 precluded from being ever re- 

 stored to the office of commander- 

 in-chief, was too severe. Most 

 men attend only to what is present 

 or recent.* The character and 

 general tenor of human conduct is 

 to be judged of, not by anj- parti- 

 cular act, but the whole of the 

 drama of life. No man is free from 

 imperfections and faults : 



Nemo sine vitiis nascitur, optimus ille 

 Qui minimis urgetur. Horat. 



One reflection tending to the total 

 exculpation of the Duke from all 

 participation and even knowledge 

 and connivance of the corrupt 

 practices of Mrs. Ciarfce, cannot 

 but recur to the mind of the intel- 

 ligent and candid observer again 

 and again. She was extremely 

 anxious on every occasion, as ap- 

 peared from the testimony of every 

 witness who was called on, or had 

 occasion to speak on that point, 

 and as she herself acknowledged, 

 to admonish and enjoin, in the 

 most earnest manner, the most 

 perfect secrecy of all negotiations 

 between herself and the applicants 

 for her influence from the Duke 

 of York. This admission she soon 

 perceived, on her examination, 

 would lead to the conclusion that 

 she was afraid lest the truth 

 should come out, that she either 



had no influence at all with his 

 royal highness in affairs of military 

 appointments or promotions, or at 

 least, not so much as she pre- 

 tended. In order to obviate this 

 inference, she said that she was 

 afraid lest the Duke should say she 

 Lad committed great imprudence. 

 Imprudence with regard to whom ? 

 with regard to persons as well ac- 

 quainted with those transactions as 

 either she or the Duke was ? If it 

 was to be concealed from the 

 Duke, that the favours obtained at 

 his hands, were obtained by means 

 of those negotiations, how could 

 the Duke imagine (as it was al- 

 leged he did) that she could 

 have any claim for any pecuniary 

 remuneration for any promotions or 

 appointments so obtained? If the 

 Duke had once granted any thing 

 from corrupt motives, at the soli- 

 citation of Mrs, Clarke, he would 

 not have turned a deaf ear to their 

 farther applications, or been dis- 

 posed to incur the hazard of their 

 blabbing about what had already 

 passed. But on the contrary, the 

 Duke repelled with indignation all 

 the menaces of MrF. Clarke, major 

 O'Hogan, and major Turner, and 

 all the demands of colonel French, 

 from the moment that it appeared 

 that they were both inconsistent 

 with justice to the public, and 

 contrary to the rules of the service. 

 When the Duke of York had re- 

 signed his office, general Sir David 

 Dundas was appointed commander- 

 in-chief in his stead. 



After the examination of wit- 

 nesses was over, the manly and disin- 

 terested conduct of colonel Wardle, 

 and that of those too who had been 

 hisprincipalsupportersjwaspublicly 

 acknowledged 



l2 

 Sed plerique mortales postrema meminSre. Jul. Cses . apud Bell. Catalin. Sail 



