HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



151 



has recently had under its cogni- 

 zance, sufficiently demonstrate that 

 thepatronage of various descriptions 

 has, in several instances, become 

 an article of traffic ; that an opi- 

 nion of the generality of such 

 practices has been prevalent to a 

 still greater extent, and that frau- 

 dulent agents have availed them- 

 selves of this belief to the injury 

 of the credulous and unwary, and 

 the discredit of those in whose hands 

 the disposition of offices is lodged. 

 It will depend on the steps which 

 may be taken in consequence of 

 theseinquiries, whethersuch abuses 

 shall receive a permanent check, 

 or a virtual encouragement." 



The whole of the writerships in 

 the disposal of which abuses were 

 detected, were found to have been 

 given by one man, Mr. Thelhison. 

 And so strong and general was the 

 persuasion that he was culpable, 

 at least in not inquiring how the 

 person, at whose disposal he 

 placed the nomination of the 

 offices to which he was entitled to 

 nominate, had bestowed them, on 

 what account, and for what pur- 

 pose of personal interest he was 

 60 anxious to procure them ; that 

 on offering himself to be re-chosen 

 a director, he was rejected by a 

 great majority. It was determined 

 by the court of directors, after 

 long debates, that those young 

 men who had been named by the 

 committee of the House of Com- 

 mons as having obtained their ap- 

 pointments by means of corrupt 

 Eractices, should be recalled. The 

 ardshi p of this measure towards 

 the you ng men who were the ob- 



{'ects of it, was felt and acknow- 

 edged. But it seemed indispen- 

 sably necessary; unless the court 

 of dit ectors had been willing, by 



their own act, to render a solemn 

 law of the East India Company a 

 dead letter. No law, without the 

 enforcement of this regulation, 

 could ever be carried into regular 

 and impartial execution. 



In the course of the examina- 

 tion of witnesses by the committee 

 appointed to inquire into the 

 abuse of India patronage, it was 

 discovered, that lord Castlereagh 

 had endeavoured to procure a seat 

 in parliament for his friend lord 

 Clancarty, in exchange for a 

 writership, which had been given 

 to him when president of the 

 board of control, by some of the 

 directors. Of the board of con- 

 trol lord Clancarty also was a 

 member. This negotiation, doubly 

 illegal, as it had for its object 

 both the disposal of East India 

 patronage, and the purchase of a 

 seat in the House of Commons, 

 was brought under the cognizance 

 of that house on the 25th of April, 

 by lord Archibald Hamilton. His 

 lordship, after reminding the 

 house that he had ever been in 

 the habit of standing as forward 

 as any other member in pursuing 

 practices of corruption, observed, 

 that not long since they had sent 

 two individuals to prison. If they 

 wished this judgment to have the in- 

 fluence of example, they must take 

 care of their individual and collec- 

 tive respectability. And what, he 

 asked, could be more conducive to 

 this end, than the enforcement of 

 those laws and regulations which 

 they had so repeatedly enacted for 

 guarding against any improper in- 

 terference in the election of their 

 members. Against the noble lord, 

 to whom his motion referred, he 

 did not mean to assert one word, 

 beyond what the evidence before 



the 



