who did not fail to observe, that the like offence called for the like punishment, whatever might be the rank of the offender, could not sit easy upon General Clavering, after the production of those letters which the Hampstead baker had saved from the fire, to rise in judgement against him. Clearly, however, as he was convicted, by his own hand-writing, of having given false testimony, his evil genius would not suffer him to profit by that forbearance which the House of Commons seemed willing to have shewn towards him; and he addressed a letter to the chairman of the committee, requesting that he might be called again before the House, in order to explain a seeming inconsistency in his evidence. Upon this Mr Williams Wynn observed, that if General Clavering chose to be examined again, he must remember it was at his peril. The general however appeared, and was asked what part of his evidence he wished to explain. "It was intimated to me yesterday," he said, "that an idea had gone forth that part of the evidence I had given on a former evening was not correct. I certainly started at the idea, having been tho roughly satisfied in my own mind, that it was my intention to state every thing to the very best of my knowledge. Yesterday, however, I referred to the minutes, which I had not seen before, and it did certainly appear to me that the answers I had given to the questions were not perfectly such as I should have given, had I clearly comprehended those questions; and however extraordinary this may appear to the committee, I pledge my sacred honour and word, the mistake was perfectly involuntary on my part; and it was my entire in

tention, as well as my wish, to give every information in my power; and I should feel myself particularly honoured and flattered by as many questions as the committee shall think it proper to put to me on this occasion." He then declared, that when he was asked whether he had ever any communication with Mrs Clarke on the subject of army promotions, he understood that conversation was meant, not communication by letter; and that when he had been asked if he knew whether Mrs Clarke had used her influence in favour of any person whatever in the army with the commander-in-chief, he thought that question related to other persons, and did not include himself.

The letters which had been found at the baker's were then produced, and acknowledged by General Clavering to be his writing. Mr Whitbread closely examined him; and he declared that he had himself offered Mrs Clarke 1000l., if she could obtain him permission to raise a regiment. She wrote to him in reply, that his royal highness would not hear of it; and from that answer it was his decided opinion that she did not possess any influence over the duke, in the distribution of military promotions. After a long examination, he was directed to withdraw, and Mr Williams Wynn rose, to discharge a painful duty, he said; but painful as it might be, it was a duty, and he would not shrink from the performance of it. The committee must be aware of the nature of the testimony given by the witness who had just withdrawn, and as he had been warned that he was to give his evidence at his own peril, and had exposed himself to the animadversion

of the House, he moved that General Clavering had prevaricated in his evidence. General Montague Mat thew called upon Mr Wynn not to press a motion which went to affect the honour and feelings of a gallant and deserving officer. He had listened attentively to the evidence, and could not say there was any prevarication. Sir Matthew White Ridley also defended the general. Mr Perceval said, he was not zealous to cover him; but though there existed contradictions between his letters and his verbal testimony, he still did not think it could be proved that he had prevaricated. Mr Yorke observed, that General Clavering had come to the bar to explain his former evidence: it was not therefore a trifling variation that was to be considered prevarication. He thought it would be better to put off the consideration of such points, except in cases of gross and wilful falsehood, till the inquiry was concluded. The day of reckoning would come, when the House ought to take up the consideration of the various acts of corruption, imposition, and swindling which had come out in the progress of this business. Sir T. Turton also, and the secretary at war spoke in favour of the general. Upon this Mr Wynn exposed in a perspicuous manner the contradictions involved in General Clavering's testimony, and warned the committee what the public would think, if they saw that delinquents of a higher rank were suffered to escape, while men in humbler life were punished for the same offence. Mr Wilberforce. reasoned to the same effect, but advised Mr Wynn to adjourn the discussion. This Mr Perceva! advised also, till the inquiry was concluded; and Mr Wynn, yielding to that ad

vice, withdrew his motion for the present.

On the last evening of the inquiry, Miss Taylor Feb. 22. was again called in. The solicitor-general asked her if her father did not go by the name of Chance. Mr W. Smith objected to this mode of examination, the fact being of little consequence; and Mr Whitbread, observing that the present questions pressed upon the witness were very severe, maintained that any temporary change in her father's name, arising from embarrassment, or other circumstances, could not affect her credit. The question, however, was insisted on, and she answered, that she had never heard him called by any other name than Taylor.But, said Mr Cavendish Bradshaw, might he not, to avoid his creditors, have taken the name of Chance, or any other name, without your know. ledge? Then how should I know it, she replied.-Mr Perceval now took up the examination. Is your father alive?-He is. Has your mother been in custody for debt within a short time?-I cannot answer that.

Do not you know that your mother has been in execution for debt? And here he expressed his regret that he should be thus compelled to hurt her feelings, for she burst into tears, and replied, My mother has nothing to do with the present subject.-The question, however, was repeated, and she was informed that she must answer it. Still she hesitated, saying, I must appeal to the indulgence of the chairman: I cannot answer it. The chairman said, it was his duty to call upon her for an answer; and upon its being again asked, Do you know that your mother is in custody for debt? she acknowledged, in tears,

that it was so. How long? She replied, still weeping, nearly two years. Then she was directed to withdraw, and Mr Perceval said, the gentlemen on the opposite side of the House, when ready to condemn his mode of examination, appeared to forget that this witness had represented herself, on a former night, as the legitimate daughter of married parents; though it was now proved, by the imprisonment of her mother, that her parents were never married. Mr W. Smith replied, he did condemn his mode of examination. First, it had been attempted to cast imputations upon the character of the witness herself, and when that had failed, her veracity was to be questioned, because she had the misfortune to be the offspring of an illicit connection. In his opi. nion, her delicacy in endeavouring to conceal that circumstance, instead of weakening, strengthened her yet unshaken claims to credit. The same opinion was maintained by Mr Whitbread. The question for the decision of the committee was not, he said, whether Miss Taylor's birth was respectable, but whether her testimony was creditable. Besides, he believed the chancellor of the exchequer had assumed more than the evidence would justify, when he asserted that she had represented herself as the daughter of married parents. Her former evidence was then read, and it was found that she had made no such statement. She had been asked, what are your parents, and her auswer was, my father was a gentle man; an answer which Sir John Sebright declared, impressed him at the time with an opinion that she was an legitimate child. Mr Barham cried cut against this attempt to discredit a correct witness, not upon her own testimony, but upon the errors of

her parents; and Mr Williams Wynn said, it was not to be endured, if, because her explanation was not made at once, without regard to decorum or natural feeling, that therefore a suspicion was to be cast upon her veracity. The feeling of the House and of the country were most decidedly with Mr Wynn upon this subject; and the prejudice which prevailed against the duke was materially heightened by the indignation which was felt against the means that had been used to defend him.

Before the committee concluded its inquiry, Mr Yorke questioned the general officers in the House as to the improvements which the Duke of York had made in the army. General Chapple Norton affirmed, that he had done more service to the army than all his predecessors, the commanders-in-chief. He was the instru ment, through that House, of giving bread to the soldier, when he had little or nothing to eat. He first got an allowance of bread to the soldiers, and afterwards of beer, and then their pay increased, upon which they are very comfortable. Before that time they had a very scanty pittance to subsist on in this country; so scanty, indeed, that when the 33d regiment was about to return home from a foreign station, and the commanding officer, according to the articles of war, made known to the men, that any one who wished to remain behind upon that station was at liberty to do so; the men informed him that it was their intention all to remain behind, and continue abroad, because where they were they had sufficient to eat, and if they came to England, they should not have a dinner. This evil his royal highness had remedied. The York hospital also had been instituted in the duke's time, and, he

took it for granted, very much by his means; and men, when they were discharged now, were not left to perish. Mr Yorke asked, whether, in his opinion, the discipline of the army was improved since his royal highness took the command? General Norton answered, I am one of those, unfortunately, who think there was a very good system of discipline in the army before his royal highness came to the head of it. Not satisfied with this, Mr Yorke asked if the state of the army was not improved since Lord Amherst's time; but the general replied, there was a very good system then, or our regiments would not have gained the advantages which they did. General Fitzpatrick, however, declared, that the army had derived very great improvement, in every respect, from his royal highness's management. Sir James Pulteney was certain that its discipline in the field had improved to a very great degree. He recollected when it was a matter of difficulty to place five or six regiments upon the ground, so as to be enabled to act a gainst an enemy: that operation was now performed with as much ease as that of placing a company. When five or six regiments were so placed, it was once a matter of great difficulty to make them move in an uniform line: this, also, was now done with the utmost precision and facility. Unquestionably he thought the discipline of the army, and their power of action, had been very considerably improved by the system of the Duke of York, and to that system great part of our military glory was owing. Sir Arthur Wellesley's testimony was more full and comprehensive. "I can say, from my own knowledge," he said, "as having been a lieutenant-colonel in the army when his royal highness

was appointed to command it, and having a very intimate knowledge of it since, that it is materially improved in every respect; that the discipline of the soldiers is improved; that owing to the establishments formed under the directions of his royal highness, the officers are improved in knowledge; that the staff of the army is much better, and much more complete than it was; that the cavalry is improved; that the officers of cavalry are better than they were; that the army is more complete in officers; that the system of subordination among the officers is better than it was; and that the whole system of the management of the clothing, the interior economy of the regiments, and every thing that relates to the military discipline of the soldier, and the military efficiency of the army, has been greatly improved since his royal highness was appointed commander-in-chief." "Do you," said Mr Yorke, " consider the improvements you have specified to be owing to the personal superintendance and personal exertions of his royal highness?" Sir Arthur replied, "the improvements to which I have adverted have been owing to the regulations of his royal highness, and to his personal superintendance, and his personal exertions over the general officers and others who were to see those regulations carried into execution." General Grosvenor rose last, to testify his high sense of the advantages the army had derived from the zeal, attention, and care of his royal highness; and this evidence in favour of the duke's general merit as commander-in-chief having been entered in the minutes of the investigation, the committee concluded their sittings.

Feb. 22.

WHEN the House assemFeb. 23. bled on the following evening, the Speaker received a letter in these words from the Duke of York:

'SIR,-1 have waited with the greatest anxiety until the committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into my conduct as commander-in-chief of his Majesty's army had closed its examinations, and I now hope that it will not be deemed improper to address this letter through you to the House of Commons.

"I observe, with the deepest concern, that, in the course of this inquiry, my name has been coupled with transactions the most criminal and disgraceful; and I must ever regret and lament that a connexion should ever have existed which has thus exposed my character and honour to public animadversion.

"With respect to any alleged offences connected with the discharge of my official duties, I do, in the most solemn manner, upon my honour as a prince, distinctly assert my innocence, not only by denying all cor

rupt participation in any of the infamous transactions which have-appeared in evidence at the bar of the House of Commons, or any connivance at their existence, but also the slightest knowledge or suspicion that they existed at all.

"My consciousness of innocence leads me confidently to hope that the House of Commons will not, upon such evidence as they have heard, adopt any proceeding prejudicial to my honour and character; but if, upon such testimony as has been adduced against me, the House of Commons can think my innocence questionable, I claim of their justice that I shall not be condemned without trial, or be deprived of the benefit and protection which is afforded to every British subject, by those sanctions under which alone evidence is received in the ordinary administration of the law,"

When the Speaker had read this to the House, he suggested, that, instead of the usual course of ordering the letter to lie on the table, it should immediately be copied inte