HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



149 



CHAP. VIII. 



Inquiries arising out of that into the Conduct of the Duke of York. — A 

 Bill to prevent the Sale and Brokerage of Offices. — Abuses of the Pa- 

 tronage of the East India Company.— Charges of the Abuse ofministe' 

 rial Influence and Power against Lord Castlereagh, 



THE inquiry into the conduct 

 of the Duke of York by the 

 House of Commons, gave rise to 

 many other inquiries. On the 

 27th of March, the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, pursuant to no- 

 tice, rose to move for leave to 

 bring in a bill to prevent the sale 

 and brokerage of offices. The 

 practices, he observed, lately dis- 

 closed, consisted not in the sale of 

 offices by those who had the power 

 to give them away, but in the arts 

 of those who pretended to have 

 influence over such persons, and 

 issued public advertisements, giv- 

 ing occasion to the notion that 

 these abuses prevailed to a much 

 greater extent than they actually 

 did. Some persons in a certain 

 office, Kylock and Co. who had 

 carried on this trade, were under 

 prosecution. As there were seve- 

 ral persons in that concern, they 

 were prosecuted for a conspiracy. 

 But if there had been only one 

 individual, he did not see how the 

 law as it at present stood, could 

 have reached him, though perhaps 

 he might have been indicted for 

 obtaining money under false pre- 

 tences. The material point then 

 would be, to make it highly penal 

 to solicit money for procuring 

 offices, or to circulate any adver- 

 tisement with that view. 



Lord Folkstone did not object 

 to the motion, but he thought it 

 at present premature. As a vast 

 scene of abuse had been disclosed, 

 the house ought not to shut its 

 eyes, but to go on to probe the 

 matter to the bottom, to search 

 into the abuses of all departments, 

 and then to apply a radical and 

 effectual remedy for the evil, with 

 respect to which it was now legis- 

 lating in the dark. Different plans 

 for carrying on abuses to which 

 the bill now proposed would not 

 apply. — After a few words from 

 the Attorney General, leave was 

 given, the bill was brought in, and 

 passed through the usual stages 

 into a law. 



In the course of the investiga- 

 tion of the conduct of the Duke 

 of York, it was ascertained be- 

 yond all doubt, that there was a 

 regular, systematic, and almost 

 an avowed traffic in East India ap- 

 pointments, as well as in subordi- 

 nate places under government ; 

 wherefore a select committee was 

 appointed by the House of Com- 

 mons, to " inquire into the exist- 

 ence of any corrupt practices,* in 

 regard to the appointment and no- 

 mination of writers or cadets in 

 the service of the East India Com- 



pany 

 tion, 



: or any agreement, negotia- 

 or bargain, direct or indi- 

 rect, 



• It appeared from the report of this committee, that when the charter of tlie 

 East India Company was renewed in 1793, it was made a bye law, that each 

 director, within tea days after his election, should take an oath, that he would not 



