take it for granted, that is the person referred to. What his services are as a Lieutenant, I really do not know; I found him as a Lieutenant in the Office of the Commander in Chief; and in consideration of his extraordinary good character, and more than common abilities, the promotions of the army going through his hands, under mine, I did recommend him to his Royal Highness the Commander in Chief to be placed upon the half-pay as a Captain, upon which half-pay he most assuredly will be placed as soon as an opportunity offers; but the Commander in Chief has it not in his power. (Page 56, to Colonel GORDON). Do you know whether or not that Captain Maling ever joined and did duty with any regiment? I do not know that he did; and I do not think that he did. 66 66 This case," adds the COURIER, "speaks "so plainly for itself, that it requires no "comment. Most surprising it is that "Colonel Gordon has impressed many persons with an opinion of the great accuracy of his memory, and his rigid conformity to the rules of the service. Now, the Coloner's memory, poor man, seems as failible as that of any other person who has been examined. During an exami«mazon into the undue promotion of the « brother of Captain Maling of the WarOffice, he does not know of any officer being promoted without any service what"ever, though in a few minutes afterwards he owns he himself has lately recommen led to be promoted to a Company, Meng's brother, a gentleman daily "employed under him, who never served in "ary Regiment whatever, or even joined one. "How unlucky that the man he had the "most concern with in the world, (the "Duke excepted) and whose brother's "case was under consideration at the mo"ment, should thus have slipped altoge"ther out of his memory, though he, the Colonel, had lately recommended him for promotion, for lately it must be. "And how unlucky that the Colonel, so very nice in enquiring into the qualifica❝tions of Officers as to points of service be"fore he submits their names to the Duke, "should himself have recommended a gen"tleman who never served at all! But let "this military paragon take the advantage "of his "errors excepted." If he can"not justify himself in the field of Mars, "he has fortunately put in a saving clause "which must secure his acquittal in Change-alley." This case alone gives us a pretty good view of the rigid adherence, the inflexible adherence, to the rules laid down about promotion; and, whatever Sir Arthur Wellesley may think of it, it will weigh most lumpingly against any general assertion, founded upon the observation of any general in the army.But, let us take another case, containing a contrast; and though the facts may be dry in detail, they cannot fail to be useful. FREDERICK ADAM (son of Mr. Wm. Adam) DATE. Ensign in the 26th Reg. of foot. 1797 Lieut. in the same Lieut, with rank of was an Capt. of } 1798 AGE. · 14. 15. Guards 1799 - 16. - 1804 21. Major in the 5th Bat. Reserve 1803 - 20. Lt. Col. in the same Lt. Col. in 21st foot - 1805 Now, mark, reader; I beg you to mark it well; that Colonel Gordon says, that the rules of the service are, that an officer must serve Six YEARS before he can be a field officer, that is to say, a Major, a Lt. Colonel or a Colonel; but, we here find, that Frederick Adam became a field officer in four years after he entered the army; at the age of 20 years; and that of these four years, a part, at least, according to his father's own statement, was spent, not in service, but at school.No comment is necessary; but now let us see the contrast. ANTHONY FRENCH, who was a captain in the 21st Reg. of foot, at the period when Frederick Adam entered the army and was put to school at Woolwich, is still a Captain, and, in that same regiment, is of course under the command of Frederick Adam. FREDERICK JONES, who were LieuteJ. G. FORTH, nants, in the 26th JAMES CONNOLLY, foot, in 1798, at the time when Frederick Adam was a Lieutenant in that Regiment hold, at the present moment, the rank of Captain in that corps. who were senior Lieutenants, in the Coldstream Guards, to Frederick Adam, when the latter was serving with them, are Lieutenants in that Regiment still. MONTAGUE WYNYARD, } These facts have been stated to me, in a letter, in which I am referred to the army lists, published by authority. I have not those lists at hand; but if the statement be incorrect, the error can, at once, be rectified by a reference to those lists.- -Now, then, what are we to think about the in flexible adherence to the rules of promotion? | seniors, at the out-set, and in one regiWhat are we to think about that " general ment; but, we see him going from corps satisfaction," which we are told, that the to corps, and we see his good fortune still Duke's management of promotions has follow him, wherever he goes; we see given?—I am of opinion, and so must, I him still and still jumping over the heads think, every reasonable man, that a strict of his seniors.It must, I think, be miarule of promotion by seniority would be a nifest to every man, that such preferences very bad rule; that it would damp all emula- cannot fail to be greatly injurious to the tion; and that little that is brilliant, daring, service. When officers see their juniors glorious, could be expected in such a get the start of them, without any such service. But, then, seniority must be a rule, claim as I have before described, it is imand a departure from it the exception; else possible, decidedly impossible, that their all would be mere favour, caprice, and in- zeal should not be damped; that they trigue. That there ought to be the power should not have a cold heart for the serof departing from the rule we all allow; vice; and that, in the end, they should reason says it should be so; but, then, not care to have any care beyond that of reason, united with justice, say, that this mere self. This is so obvious, and there power never should be exercised, except are so many thoughts connected with it, in cases where the good of the service de- which will, at once, strike the reader, that mands such exercise;, and, in cases, too, I shall not longer dwell upon it.—I do where that demand is so obvious that there not know whether it occurred to any body can be no doubt upon the point. Length of else, but to me it immediately did, upon service is, of itself, a military merit; such reading General Fitzpatrick's evidence, in it has always been deemed; and it has praise of the Duke of York's commanderbeen a rule to reward accordingly. When, ship, to express a wish to know, according therefore, there exists no particular, no to what "rule of promotion" it was, that special and obvious reason for preferring the General, who had not been in any one man to another, the rule of seniority military service, I believe, for above 20 ought to be strictly adhered to. Now, in years, and who, I believe, had not actually the case of Frederick Adam, to say no- served since he was a Captain in the thing about his rank and promotion, while Guards, came to have a Regiment given to ut school, there does not appear any such him, the moment Mr. Fox and his party special and obvious reason for a prefe- came into place, in 1806. We see, that rence. His father says, he behaved very in the case of Major Brooke, a stoppage bravely and skilfully in Holland at the of the proposed exchange took place, the age of 16 years; but, will he pretend to Major having been upon half pay for six say, that there were not many other of years. This circumstance required an inficers, his seniors, whose good conduct quiry, one of Colonel Gordon's inquiries. was not equal to his? No, no; it is not The Colonel does not (what a pity!) keep on account of an act of ordinary merit, any minutes of his inquiries, or I should that will warrant a departure from the certainly be for asking him to oblige us rule of seniority. Had it, indeed, fallen with a copy of the inquiry, made with reto the lot of Frederick Adam to go, as we spect to General Fitzpatrick, who had, for sce Lord Cochrane has done (and which, so many years, I believe a full quarter of a had the occasion offered, I have no doubt century, been, not upon half pay, but upon he would), into the ditch of a rampart, no pay at all, at least, I mean, as an of and, amidst a shower of balls, bring up ficer in the army. Perhaps, if we were to the flag of the fortress, and again set it search through the whole of the army flying defiance against the enemy; had a list, we should not find a more complete case of this sort occurred, the whole army instance of the excellent arrangements at would have seen the rule of seniority de- the Commander-in-Chief's office, than this parted from, not only without pain, but instance of the promotion of General Fitzwith pleasure. But no such case appears patrick. It is notorious; it is a thing not to have existed; we never till now to be denied by any one, that he had, for heard of any extraordinary merit in the many years, been living in and about son of Mr. Adam; most of us never heard London, with not the smallest appearance of his name before; nay, for my own of any thing military about him, with the part, I am amongst those, who did not sole exception of the rank prefixed to his know that Mr. Adam had a son in the uame; nor have I ever heard, that he ever army. Besides, we see Frederick Adam, actually served, either abroad or at home, not only promoted over the heads of his except in the Guards, as far as the rank wise, when I saw, in the course of every year, so many hundreds of advertisements like those here spoken of; nor was it without the most agreeable surprize, that, when Mr. Donovan's disclosure came forth, I found that the East India Directors took the thing to heart, and called for "a committee, up-stairs," to inquire into "so seri"ous a matter." This was a most agreeable surprize to me, who had seen their offices advertised for sale for so many years, without one word having ever been said against such advertisements, or such sale. of Captain. And yet, he not only came into the army all at once, as soon as Mr. Fox was in office, but had the Colonelcy and the profits of a regiment given to him. This is not for life, indeed; it is not so good as a patent place, which has been compared to a freehold estate; it is not so good as that, because, if the king pleases, he can, at any time, without reason assigned, take the regiment away. But, it is a good thing, as long as the General has it; and the reader will readily suppose, that, in the whole of our army, containing from 12 to 15 thousand officers, a person might have been found with as good claims to a regiment as General Fitzpatrick.—————And yet, we are desired; in the face of all this, we are desired to believe, that nothing in the world can be better managed than the promotions of the army have been; that the rules of promotion are most religiously adhered to; and that the Duke's conduct, as to promotions, in particular, have given "general satisfaction." We are a believing nation. There is hardly any thing too much for us in this way. But, I really do think, that our belief is not quite equal to this.After all, however, the conduct of the Duke of York, in the general ma-ing to a prosecution of that sort, which nagement of the army, has, the reader will clearly see, nothing at all to do with the specific Charges against him. Those charges must stand, or fall, upon their own merits; and, unless the Duke can produce evidence to rebut the evidence brought against him, all the efforts of his supporters, in any other way, are perfectly useless. -As to the offices and places under the government of this country, I had, more than once, and a long while ago, taken advertisements, relating to them, for mottos to my Register; and, in one Number, having such a motto, I appealed to Mr. Perceval, whether such things were pro per; whether they were not calculated to disgust the country; and I asked him why the authors were not prosecuted. This statement, intended to refresh the mind of the reader, is by way of preface to the very curious matter that came out in the House of Commons, from the lips of Mr. Perceval, on the 24th of February, relat 66 was so long ago recommended by me.——— We now come to a matter, which, though not relating to any of the charges against the Duke of York, is so nearly connected with them as never to be lost sight of when we are making observations, as to the ef-"ing an advertisement for the sale of an fects of the transactions stated in those "office under Government, he had ancharges. I allude to the general traffic for "swered it to the persons who kept this Offices and Places under Government, which, "office, and was then in treaty for it. He as the reader will remember, has before "was sent to the Solicitor of the Treasury, been a subject of observation with me, "who had instructions to furnish any upon many occasions. At page 181 of" sum of money necessary for a deposit, the present volume, I inserted several ad- "and to proceed in the business till the vertisements relating to the sale of such parties were entrapped beyond the possibioffices and places, and, in the half month's lity of escaping the law. The business was papers, from which I collected them, I "in this state at the time the hon. genfound one for a Writership, one for a Cadet- "tleman had brought forward his charges, ship, and several relating to commissions "and he thought it imprudent to appear in the Militia; but, as no money was spoken" as if at all acquainted with the subof in the latter case, I did not insert it, and really, as to the East India sovereigns' offices, I thought they were always bought and sold; and how should I think other 66 'ject. An indictment was now filed against "Messrs. Pullen and Haylock, and a Lady "of the name of Harvey, as well as against "the Banker (Watson, it afterwards ap ' peared) who received the deposit. "From what he had said, it would be seen “that Government had determined to inquire "into and proceed against these abuses a con"siderable time before the hon. gentleman "brought the subject of inquiry before the "House."- --Oh! no, no, no!--No, no! Not "a considerable time." Mr. Wardle brought forward his charges on the 27th of January; but, he gave notice of his intention so to do about a week before that. Well, this leaves but eight days between Mr. Perceval's receiving "the gentleman's" letter, and the notice of Mr. Wardle, which notice, observe, must, in this case, be coupled with the threat of Mrs. Clarke, sent to Mr. Adam so long ago as the month of June last. Eight days is not what we mean by a "considerable time," in such cases; nor must we allow Mr. Wardle thus to be deprived of this part of the effect of his exertions. - -Besides, though Mr. Perceval got the " gentle"man's" letter (Mr. Wardle always mentioned names) on the 12th of January, it does not follow, that he set the Solicitor of the Treasury to work before Mr. Wardle gave notice of a motion. This does not follow; and, if I had been one of the House, I would have called for names, dates, and papers of all sorts. The great object, in this most curious movenent, evidently was, to cause the public to believe, that the government was, of itself, disposed to put a stop to these shameful transactions, and that it would have done it, if Mr. Wardle had never been born; and, | the proof is, that it had actually set to work, even before his notice of any charges was given.To believe this, we must also believe that there has been a very wonderful concurrence; a wonderful jumping of judgment. Yes, we must believe; it does not signify talking about "a gen"tleman's' letter; we must believe it to be very strange indeed, that, just at this time, the government should have taken the first, the very first step, in the detection and punishment of those who buy and sell offices and places; and that an advertisement, too, should set them to work, though thousands of such advertisements have appeared, during the last 10 or 15 years. Very strange, indeed! But, though Mr. Wardle did not give his notice till the 20th of January, or thereabouts, will Mr. Perceval say, that he did not hear of Mr. Wardle's intention so to do, long before the 20th or even the famous 12th of January? Will he say, that he did not hear of this? I did. I heard of it in the first week of January, and, I believe, on the 2nd day of the month; and the intention, as being publicly rumoured, was mentioned to me in a letter, the day after my return home, which was on the 9th of January. Nay, must it not have been known to the ministers before the 12th of January? Must not this have been the case, from the inquiries of Mr. Wardle? He says, that he had been about a month at work to get at his facts; and, will any one believe, that the ministers were not well acquainted with all his movements? Aye, from the first or second day of them, at the latest. The moment Mr. Wardle began his inquiries, the whole gang of jobbers would, of course, be in alarm, and like a nest of hornets, disturbed by the intrusion of the spade, would begin to fly about, in all directions. Such a thing could not be kept secret for half an hour; and, are we, good souls as we are, to believe, that the ministers would be the last to hear of it?-Now, then, let us look back again at what this very Mr. Perceval said in the Debate, the evermemorable Debate, of the 27th of January, which see at page 201 of this volume. Having read that passage, having recolleeted the "loud and general laugh," which the House set up, when they heard Mr. Wardle's description of the office in Threadneedle Street; and having also called to mind the scoffs, which, on account of this part of his statement, the ministerial papers, and particularly the Nabobs' Gazette, uttered against Mr. Wardle; having thus refreshed his me mory, the reader will be the better able to judge, whether the prosecution, now mentioned by Mr. Perceval, would ever have taken place had it not been for Mr. Wardle's most admirable conduct.— Again. As Mr. Perceval was in possession of such facts, before Mr. Wardle brought forward his charges, how came Mr. Perceval to speak, generally, as to that gentleman's charges, as he did? Might not one have reasonably expected to hear him, who was in possession of such facts, speak more on Mr. Wardle's side, and not oppose him in his mode of inquiry, not hold the language of defiance, language calculated to throw discredit upon all that Mr. Wardle said?- -It remains to be accounted for, too, why this acknowledg ment of the ministers, as to the existence of the traffic, was kept back 'till after the inquiry was over, 'till after such damning proofs had been produced? This is a very important circumstance. Being in pos 1 government, that the preparation for this session of such facts, one would have expected to hear Mr. Perceval taking the first opportunity to state them, and to acknowledge that Mr. Wardle had but too good grounds for his statement respecting the Threadneedle Street Office. But, on the contrary, Mr. Wardle had to go through the whole inquiry, with the denial, the flat denial, against him, that the ministers knew any thing of any such practices.-The concise view of the matter is this: That Advertisements, for the purchase and sale of offices and places under government, have appeared, in all the News-papers, for many years past, to the number of many hundreds in every year, with as much boldness as the advertisements for Mr. Packwood's razor strops, or Doctor Spilsbury's drops;-that, more than a year ago, and more than once, I took, such advertisements for my motto, and, in an essay, or m essays, upon the subject, called upon Mr. Perceval himself, to know why such offences were not punished by law; that it now appears, that the government has always had the power of punishing such acts by law; that no such punishment, and that no prosecution for any such offence, has ever taken place, nor have we ever heard, that the government has ever made any inquiry into the matter;- -that in June, 1808, Mrs. Clarke sends letters to Mr. Adam, threatening an exposure of her practices under the Duke of York;that in December, or in the first days of January last, Mr. Wardle sets to work making inquiries, as to the practices of Mrs. Clarke, and as to the prac-class have been, by one tie or another, intices of other dealers in offices and places under government ;-that, on the 20th of January, Mr. Wardle gives notice of a motion respecting the Duke of York;that, on the 27th of January he brings forward his charges against the Duke, and states, at the same time, that there is an office in Threadneedle Street for the sale of offices and places under government: that Mr. Perceval (one of the king's ministers) treats this statement in a manner whence it appears that he discredits the existence of such practices;——that Mr. Wardle, between the 27th of January and the 23rd of February, pursues his charges against the Duke, and produces undeniable proof of the existence of such practices to a great extent ;- that, after all this, and on the 24th of February, out comes Mr. Perceval with information to the House, that he knew of such practices on the 12th of January, that the parties in one instance, are under prosecution by the duced to remain in inactivity, and that, at last, the work of reform has fallen to the hands of the lower class; and, then, need we wonder at the wild work they have made? That we now stand in need of reform, there is no man, not even a trading Anti-Jacobin, will attempt to deny. That a reform must and will come, is, I think, as evident; and, is it not, then, the duty of persons in the middling rank of life to act in such a manner as to prevent the danger of this work of reform falling into the hands of those, who cannot be supposed capable of managing it well? To talk of a love of country is as easy as to talk of any thing else. The country calls for deeds, not words. The excuses of her professed lovers are exactly those made by the Calf, to "THE HARE WITH "MANY FRIENDS." « Older and abler pass you by; "How strong are those! How weak am I! |