she says, that Mr. Adam guaranteed the payment of this annuity. She complains, that for more than a year and a half it has not been paid; and, upon this non-payment we see that she grounds all her disclosures against the Duke of York. She states, besides, that she was left, upwards of two thousand pounds in debt to divers tradespeople; and that, having since sent a remonstrance to the Duke upon the subject, the Duke insisted that she should plead her marriage to avoid her debts, or that she might, if she liked, go to prison. She further states, that having sent the Duke a letter, not long since, by one Taylor, a shoemaker in Bond-street, requesting a few hundred pounds, he sent for answer, by the mouth of this same Taylor, that if she dared speak against him, or write against him, he would put her in the pillory or the Bastile. The reader will bear in mind, that this fact rests solely upon Mrs. Clarke’s evidence; but he will also bear in mind, that, if-false, it might have been easily disproved by Taylor, the bearer of the message, and that Taylor was not called to disprove it; and he will further bear in mind, that this threat, if he should conclude that it actually was made, was made against that very person, to whom the Duke had written the two letters above inserted.
But now, as to whether the annuity was actually promised, or, if upon conditions, whether the breach of those conditions justified the non-performance of the promise.
Mr. Adam’s words, as to the promise, are these: “I told her, that the Duke of York thought it his duty, if her conduct was correct, to give her an annuity of 400l. a year, to be paid quarterly; that he would enter into no obligation in writing, by bond or otherwise; that it must rest entirely upon his word, to be performed, or not, according to her behaviour.”
Her statement is, that 500l. arrears of the annuity were due in June last.—There seems to be no doubt of the promise having been made, and that, after a little while at first, it has not been fulfilled. It, therefore, remains for us to inquire, what were the conditions, if any, and whether these conditions have been observed by Mrs. Clarke.
The only condition stated by Mr. Adam to have been made by him, in the name of the Duke, was, that “her conduct should be correct.” This, if it can be called a condition, was, especially as coming from the lips of a lawyer, very vaguely expressed. The word correct, as applied to the conduct of a person, can hardly be said to have a meaning, and, when applied to the general conduct of a person, has absolutely no meaning at all. In short, as used in this case, it is one of those convenient terms, that admit of any construction; that may be made to mean whatever the person using it chooses it should mean; that may be twisted and turned to any purpose for which it may be wanted.
The reader, therefore, leaving Mr. Adam’s connection with the Duke out of the question, and leaving out of the question also Mr. Adam’s general character, will ask himself, whether the internal evidence of the case would lead him to think that a person like Mrs. Clarke would, even for a moment, have been satisfied with any promise, to which such a condition was attached?
But, next, in what way has Mrs. Clarke broken the contract? This has nowhere been shown. Indeed, no attempt has been made to prove that she has violated the contract. We have no occasion to ask what was meant by the word correct, because no proof has been produced, that there was any justifiable cause for the non-fulfilment of the promise. Mr. Adam says, in explanation of the meaning of this term, that, what he meant by it was, that she should not any longer contract debts by making use of the Duke’s name; and, no evidence has been produced, that she has done so.
That Mrs. Clarke understood, that she was to be paid 400l. a year quarterly, is evident enough; her complaints, made in letters to Mr. Adam himself, are strong presumptive proof of this; and, it is here to be observed, that Mr. Adam made no answer to these letters; that he did not repel the accusation against the Duke of having broken his promise; and that, in stating that he showed these letters to the Duke, he does not say, that any observation was made by the Duke as to the truth or falsehood of the contents of the letters. He merely says, that the Duke expressed no apprehension at the threats; but, does not say, that he expressed any indignation at the falsehood of the charge of having broken his promise; which, however, if the charge had been false, it was very natural for him to do, and particularly to Mr. Adam, who had been his agent in this negotiation with his concubine, and through whose lips the promise of the annuity had been made.
Upon the whole of this case, then, it is clear, that the promise was made, and that it has not been fulfilled; and, the question for the reader to settle in his mind is this: whether the non-fulfilment arose from a conscientious conviction, in the mind of the Duke of York, that Mrs. Clarke had violated her part of the compact; or, from a persuasion, in his mind, that his well-known power, joined to his positive threats of the pillory or the Bastile, would enable him, with impunity, to withhold the means of living from a female, on whose breast he had, for years, rioted in bliss, and to whom, but a few months before, he had vowed everlasting affection.
If the former, the decision must be, that, in this respect, the Duke is not intentionally to blame; if the latter, that he is the most unfeeling as well as the most mean of mankind.
Establishment in Gloucester-place.—The expenses of this establishment form a very prominent and a very important branch of the inquiries, upon the sum of which, we are now endeavouring to arrive at a correct opinion; because, from a view of these expenses as compared with the pecuniary allowance, immediately out of the pocket of the Duke, an inference must be drawn as to the Duke’s knowing whether, or not, money must have been raised by Mrs. Clarke from sources other than his private purse.
The establishment, from the evidence of several servants, who formed part of it, appears to have consisted of a housekeeper and from three to four other females; of a butler, and, at the lowest, six other men-servants; of eight horses and of two carriages. It appears, from the same concurrent testimony, that a continual round of company was kept in Gloucester-place; that a great deal of wine was drunk; and that there were frequently employed two, and sometimes three, men-cooks. It appears, that concerts were frequent, or, at least, musical parties; that music-masters, singing-boys, drawing-masters, were frequently there, and that, in short, every thing was carried on in a style the most expensive that can be imagined.
Mrs. Clarke herself states, that the servants’ bare wages and their liveries cost her, at least, 1,000l. a-year. She says, that the Duke paid for some of her horses, but that, in one year, she laid out 900l. in horses only.
The allowance, made to her by the Duke, for the support of this establishment, she states at 1,000l. a-year, which sum, she says, she soon convinced the Duke, was hardly sufficient to defray the expenses of servants’ wages, and of their liveries. Upon further examination, she says, that the 1,000l. a-year was always very irregularly paid; that, sometimes, when she has been hard pressed by the tradespeople, she has got a hundred or two pounds from the Duke; but after much examination and cross-examination, she has, to the last, persisted in averring, that the whole which she got from the Duke, did not exceed in amount from 1,200l. to 1,500l. a-year. She says, that she got divers presents, in trinkets and jewels, from the Duke; but that these were frequently in pawn, to the knowledge of the Duke, whose draft the pawnbroker refused to take as a surety on a proposition for their emancipation. She allows that the Duke furnished the house in Gloucester-place, generally, at the outset; but that she herself paid for the glasses, which cost her 500l. She was allowed a house at Weybridge by the Duke; and she says, that, out of her own purse, she paid from 3 to 400l. for the repair and enlargement of the house and its buildings. She allows that the Duke paid her 500l. at the outset, exclusive of the 1,000l. a-year. She allows, that the Duke sent a large quantity of Port wine to Gloucester-place; but says, that she bought and paid for the Madeira and Claret, a great deal of which was drunk in the house. She states, and the fact appears not to have been questioned, that, when the Duke left her, she was, at least, 2,000l. in debt, debts contracted by her, while she was in his keeping, and that this sum was exclusive of the amount of the lease of the house (4,400l.) which the Duke gave her, and which she transferred to her lawyer in part payment of debts due to him. She says, that she has heard that the Duke should say, that she might
