ther to say, until a future opportunity. But before he sat down, he asked leave to submit to the House shortly his view of the case, in the shape of the resolutions he meant to propose, in place of those offered in the motion, and which were in substance, as follow:

"That certain charges having been brought forward, imputing to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, acts of criminal misconduct and corrupt connivance at abuses, in his capacity as Commander-in-chief, the House felt it a duty to refer such charges to the inquiry of a Commit tee of the whole House, to examine evidence thereon, and report the same.

"That it was the opinion of the House, upon the fullest consideration of all the evidence reported to them by the said' Committee, that there was no just ground to charge his Royal Highness with personal corruption or criminal connivance at such abuses, in his capacity of Commanderin-chief."

If the House should agree with him in these resolutions, he should then propose an address to his majesty, including these resolutions, instead of the address requesting his majesty to remove his Royal Highness from his office as Commander-in-chief, for his eminent services to his country, and the important regulations and high state of discipline attained by the army under the auspices of his Royal Highness; for he believed in his conscience, that if his Royal Highness were removed from his command, there would not be found in the country a man of adequate abilities to discharge its important duties. The address he proposed should state to his majesty, that in consequence of such charges being made against the Duke of York, his faithful Commons had felt it their duty to inquire, in the most solemn manner, into the truth or falsehood thereof, and that after the fullest inquiry, his faithful Commons had come to those resolutions, which they, beg leave to lay at the foot of the throne, to relieve his majesty's mind from the anxiety and solicitude unavoid ably excited for the honour and character of a son so dear to his majesty in the high capacity of Commanders in-chief of his majesty's armies. His faithful Commons, sensible of the many and important regulations instituted. under the auspices of his Royal Highness, to prevent abuses in the army, could not but extremely regret that a Connexion should ever have existed under which such

transactions should have taken place, as to expose his Royal Highness's name to be coupled with acts so highly dishonourable and criminal; and professing their hope that after the strong regret already expressed by his Royal Highness, his conduct would, in future, be guided by the bright example of those eminent virtues which have uníformly distinguished his majesty's life, and has justly endeared his majesty to all his subjects.-Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,
THURSDAY, MARCH 9.

THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.“

The order of the day was read for resuming the adjourned debate upon the conduct of the Commander-inchief.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer apologized to the House for the length at which he found it necessary to trespass on their attention. Having in the former part of his speech, dismissed the cases of Knight and Brooke, Sandon and Tonyn, he recollected nothing more which he felt it necessary to add on those heads; and the next to which he should proceed was that of Colonel French and his levy. That gentleman was now filling a situation in the West Indies, to which he was appointed three years subsequent to the cessation of the levy; but this appointment did not appertain to any thing connected with it;" and as to his appointment to the inspecting colonelship of a district after the levy was at an end, it was only placing Colonel French in a similar situation to that which he held previously to his being employed on the recruiting service; and therefore the manner in which his Royal Highness had made an end of that levy, was of self-strong evidence of the falsehood of those insinuations of corrupt concurrence, so maliciously urged against him on that head. If those imputations had the least foundation in trath, would not his Royal Highness have been anxious to make Colonel French some amends for the sudden discontinuance of a service so lucrative to him, though so enormously expensive to the public, by giving him some other situation equally profitable? This, however, was by no means the case. It appeared that an inquiry had taken place, in consequence of a complaint from General Taylor,

that the recruiting service for the levy was not produc tive in any proportion to its expence. This complaint originated in Colonel French himself; who states that his success is interrupted by other recruiting officers for dif ferent regiments. Ireland is then proposed as a field where success was more probable. The original aid agreed on in the letters of service, was forty-five recruiting serjeants, and ten commissioned officers. Colonel French proposes an increase of these to sixty-three serjeants, which he is allowed, on condition that within a given time it shall appear that their progress in recruiting was more rapid. This trial, however, also failed; for, on the 24 February 1805, a letter was addressed, by order of his Royal Highness, from General Whitelocke to Colonel French, complaining of the very little progress made in recruiting for the levy, and adding, that unless the increase was very considerable by the ensuing 1st of April, his Royal Highness would. feel the necessity of recommending to his majesty the discontinuance of the levy as unproductive. On the 14th of April following, another letter from General Whitelocke is addressed to Colonel French, complaining again, not only of the unproductiveness of the recruiting service: for the levy as compared with its expence, but of the dis graceful conduct of the non-commissioned officers employed therein, as represented by the inspecting field-officer of the London district; and stating, that he had submitted to his Royal Highness the propriety of discontinuing a levy so burthensome and unproductive; and accordingly it appears by a letter from the Commander-in-chief to the Secretary at War, that an end is put to the levy altogether, for the reasons previously stated: but the honourable gentleman, in that part of his speech last night which refers to this subject, glances slightly over the fact, but omits to state the strong motives on which it was founded. Indeed from the whole tenor of his Royal High-s ness's conduct respecting this levy, from its origin to its dissolution, was there a single title of evidence to prove any concurrence upon his part with any thing of a clandestine and sinister nature that might have been going on between Mrs. Clarke and Colonel French or Captain San don.

The next point to which he would advert was, the case of Colonel Shaw, to which he conceived it extremely, material that the House should attend; as in that case

would appear as much falsehood, as in any other part of the imputations brought forward. He begged leave to refer gentlemen to the evidence of Mrs. Clarke, as to Colonel Shaw, in which it would appear from her answers, that the Colonel had applied to her to procure for him an appointment, through the medium of his Royal Highness the Duke of York; namely, that of a lieutenant-colonel; for which, though she could not immediately recollect the sum be promised her for the reward of her success, she yet believed it to be 10007. That, in consequence, she acquainted the Commander-in-chief with the offer, and applied for the appointment. That Colonel Shaw wished to be colonel of the Manx corps in the Isle of Man, where his father had been deputy governor. That she applied for this, but did not succeed, because there were stronger claims in another quarter. That she afterwards applied, on his behalf, for the situation he now holds, barrackmaster-general at the Cape of Good Hope, for which she received 5007. of which she recollected to have had 3007. from Colonel Shaw, and 2007. more brought by some man whom she understood to be a clerk of Coutts's, but had a great mind to send it back, thinking it would be made public. But that, not being satisfied with this 500l. she made a complaint to the Commander-in-chief, in consequence, of which his Royal Highness said he had told her all along she had a very bad man to deal with; that she ought to have been more careful; and that he would put him on half-pay. She was asked if she knew he was put on half-pay in consequence; and her answer was, that he sent her several letters complaining, but she did not trouble herself much with reading them. One of the letters she gave in that night, she believed; but she thought him already too well off for his conduct to her.

Now it appears from the document to which she refers, and which was a letter not sealed, not in envelope, and only addressed to Mrs. Clarke, at the bottom of the sheet, that he promises her, instead of the 5007. an annuity of three hundred pounds a year out of the profits of his place. Was it to be supposed, then, that Mrs. Clarke when offered an annuity of 300l. per annum, had any cause to complain of Colonel Shaw, who, according to her own statement, was in arrear to her only to the amount of 5001. ? It was obvious from all the circumstances of the case, that, Mrs, Clarke had no power to accomplish the object of

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Colonel Shaw, which was inconsistent with the practice of the army, she effected only to make light of an offer which must have been an object to one in her situation. Now would any person believe a word of the testimony of this woman, as to her obtaining, through her influence upon the Commander-in-chief, the office of barrack master at the Cape for Colonel Shaw, on her having pre viously applied for his promotion, or communicated to his Royal Highness the offers made to her on that account, if he would but advert to the correspondence of Colonel Shaw himself, in which he acknowledges with the most heartfelt gratitude the attainment of his appointment through Sir Harry Burrard, from an old friendship to his father; and the letter of Sir Harry Burrard immediately previous, where he expressly refers to a letter of Major Shaw himself, most thankfully accepting the appointment of barrack master at the Cape, upon the express condition of being put on half-pay.

The next case to which he would advert was that of Dowler, the whole circumstances of which stood on the single evidence of Mrs. Clarke. Several sums were said to have been paid by this man to Mrs. Clarke but it was apparent, in the course of evidence, that he and she had been in the habit of passing notes and raising money for each other, and therefore that those sums were not paid to her for any appointment obtained for him. Besides, the House had the evidence of one of its own members (Alder, man Combe), that the appointment was obtained through the interest of Sir Brook Watson, and not through the interest of Mrs. Clarke, who, it was evident, must have in. vented the story for the purpose of establishing guilt against his Royal Highness. While he thus vindicated. the character of the Commander-in-chief against the im putation of a wilful and corrupt connivance at such transactions, he hoped the House would never join in the con demnation of his Royal Highness's conduct, upon the evidence of a woman so frequently, so palpably, and so respectably contradicted. He was aware of the endea vours, every where insidiously exerted to poison the public mind against his Royal Highness, and to excite against him public prejudice and public odium. Even the publication of the examinations which took place in that House, ex parte, and from day to day, in diurnal and other peirodical publications and pamphlets, accompanied