this nation 23 millions of pounds sterling a year; and who, under the King’s sole control, has the absolute power of promoting, or of cashiering, any one, or any number, of about twelve, or fifteen thousand commissioned and staff officers, connected by ties, more or less close, with almost all the families of any note in the kingdom. Merely as a son of the King, and a person receiving such large such large sums out of the public purse, we should have an interest, and a deep interest too, in the moral example of the Duke of York; what, then must be our interest in his wisdom and integrity, when we see committed to his hands a far greater degree of power than as, in this country, ever before been committed to the hands of any individual?
In my last [at page 20], I was obliged to break off the insertion of the first debate upon this all-important subject. The remainder of that debate I shall now first insert, and, when that is done, I shall come to the first Examination of witnesses, of which Examination I shall be careful to omit no essential part, and especially of what has a tendency in favour of the Duke of York; because, on every account, my wish is, that no conclusion against him should be drawn from doubtful premises.
Debate of the 27th January, continued from page 20.
—and of this plan the present was only a particular instance, (hear! hear!).— Ref. 006 Let blame fall where it ought; but the House ought to consider the illustrious object against whom the charge was directed; they ought to consider his high station in the country, and the eminent services which he had performed for the country, in the state to which he had brought the army—(hear!) What was the state of the army when he became Commander-in-Chief? It scarcely deserved the name of an army, and it was now found by experience to be, in proportion to its numbers, the best army that ever existed. The best mode to do justice to the sovereign—to do justice to the high character now impeached—and to do justice to the country, would, perhaps, be to appoint a Parliamentary Commission with power to examine each party on oath—(loud cries of hear! hear! from both sides of the House.) The gentleman might have circumstances in view to support these charges, which he believed to be founded in truth. He only spoke of this Commission with reference to his own argument. He had said that he believed a CONSPIRACY to exist, and if the House could go along him, and suppose that this was actually the case, he threw out for their consideration whether a Parliamentary Commission with power to examine on oath was not preferable to a Committee. He could not think he had done his duty if he had not thrown out this idea for consideration. The importance of the subject well deserved such a mode of proceeding. But at all events, he was happy that the matter would now be properly investigated.
Sir Francis Burdett considered the subject most important, and demanding the deepest and most accurate inquiry. He coincided with the right hon. gent. opposite (Mr. Yorke), that the House should maturely deliberate on the mode of proceeding best calculated to render effectual justice.
Mr. Adam stated, that for nearly the period of 20 years he had been, from professional avocations, very intimately connected not alone with the pecuniary concerns of the illustrious personage affected by the motion of the hon. gent. (Mr. Wardle), but even with his embarrassments. In the attention which he had directed to those concerns, he was assisted by the most frank and candid communications from his royal highness. Every difficulty, and every particular was disclosed to him by his royal highness with a recollection the most retentive, an accuracy the most correct, and a fidelity the most unquestionable. If, therefore, any such irregularities or transactions took place, as the motion of that night went to convey, it was almost impossible but that in the course of his inquiries some feature of such a system would have appeared, whereas the direct contrary was the result of a long and minute application to the pecuniary transactions of his royal highness. Ref. 007 Having felt it his duty to make this statement, he had next to impress upon the House that both in justice to its own privileges, and to the dignified character of the illustrious personage, it ought not to surrender its inquisitorial powers, nor delegate to any Select or Secret Committee that inquiry, which, to be efficient, ought to be public, and for the publicity of which there was no person in the country more anxious than his royal highness the Duke of York—(Hear! hear!).
Mr. Wilberforce expressed his sense of the importance of the subject which was submitted to the consideration of the House. He was confident that the hon. mover was impressed with the great responsibility which attached to a charge brought, as it was, against such an elevated character in the country. He did by no means wish to convey that the extent of such responsibility ought at all to deter a member of that House from bringing before it an accusation, for which he had convincing testimony, although directed against one of the most considerable persons in the empire, both in rank and influence; but he did conceive that when high character was implicated, the most efficient and most satisfactory mode of investigation ought to be adopted. To enable the House to arrive at that desirable end, he fully agreed with his right hon. friend (Mr. Yorke) near him, that the investigation of the charges that night preferred ought to be committed to a Parliamentary Commission, specially delegated for that specific purpose. Such inquiry was not to be considered private or secret. It would afford the best species of communication, namely, publicity at the end, but not in the progress. Whoever had attended to the consequences of public examination at the bar of the House, could not be blind to the numerous and fatal inconveniences of such a mode of proceeding. The very object for which it was proposed was too often defeated by the means. By acquiescing to the appointment of a commission the witnesses would be examined upon oath, all party bias and personal altercation would be prevented, and, of course, a weight and confidence would be attached to the decision of those delegated, which it was impossible to expect from any public discussion or examination at the bar. It was for the House to bear strongly in its recollection, that in the present unexampled and critical state of the civilized world, all Europe looked with a vigilant and anxious attention to the deliberations of the British House of Commons. That House was now put on its trial before the scrutinizing tribunal of public opinion. It had to render justice, both to the illustrious personage, whose character he expected would come clear and unsullied from the ordeal, and to the country, who was equally interested in the result. The claims of the public demanded that the representatives of the people should look to substantial justice, however high the rank, eminent the services, or splendid the connections of the dignified personage against whom such charges were preferred.—That justice, he conceived, could be most satisfactorily obtained by an inquiry, private in its progress, but to be public in the result, particularly when he reflected on the description of persons likely to be examined and the importance of the interests affected by the accusation.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer coincided in the unanimous feelings of the House, that to the most solemn and serious accusation brought forward that night, the most solemn and serious inquiry ought to be afforded. The only difference that seemed to exist in the mind of gentlemen was, as to the manner of conducting that investigation, whether the ends, to which all looked with equal eagerness, were more likely to be acquired by a private and delegated examination, or by a full, prompt, and public discussion, arising from the testimony, which the hon. gent. who submitted those charges to parliamentary considerations may be enabled to produce at the bar of that House. When he contemplated the important interests which the country had, whether in acquitting the exalted personage, if, as he was convinced, the event would prove, such charges could not be substantiated, or in rendering justice to the dignity of the character of parliament, he was compelled by all and every consideration, to call upon that House not to abandon its legitimate judicial province, and by its first step to deprive itself of that freedom of conduct and action, that might eventually preclude it from adopting the course which it might be convinced was ultimately serviceable. There was no course that could prove satisfactory to the country but a public one—and whatever inconveniences may follow from its adoption, they were dissipated by the superior and paramount advantages. Independent of its general recommendation, some consideration ought to be extended to the wishes of his royal highness. That wish he could positively state was, that the investigation should be most complete and public. (Hear, hear, hear.) There was nothing that his royal highness so particularly deprecated as any secret or close discussion of those charges. Standing as that illustrious personage did on the fairness of his character, and the fulness of the evidence which he
