ed:--"I perceived no impropriety in the case,
considering it perfectly fair for one friend to serve another at an
election." The house acquitted Lord Castlereagh of any intention to do
wrong; but this exposure enabled Mr. Curwen to carry a bill for better
securing the purity and independence of parliament, by preventing the
obtaining of seats through corrupt practices, and also for the more
effectual prevention of bribery. While this bill was pending, Mr.
Maddocks brought forward a charge against the treasury of corrupt
conduct in the purchase of parliamentary seats, which were filled by
members attached to the interests of ministers, and bound to support all
their measures; but a motion for a committee of inquiry was negatived by
three hundred and ten against eighty-five. During this year, also, the
commissioners of naval inquiry and revision presented another report,
which brought to light many more abuses in that department. Moreover,
the commissioners of military inquiry, who still continued their
labours, presented several reports, showing that large sums of money,
and large powers in money transactions, had often been entrusted
to various persons, without the necessary securities, checks, and
precautions; that in the West Indies a regular and unchecked system of
peculation had been carried on in the most unblushing manner; that the
paymasters, the agents of the commissary-general, and others in our West
India islands, had been in the habit of committing great frauds, &c, for
a series of years. Corruption, in fact, pervaded at this time all
orders of public men, and this was the more inexcusable, because the war
necessarily imposed heavy burdens on the people. These burdens were made
heavier by the extravagance which prevailed in the expenditure of the
country, and which had been augmented since last year by the enormous
sum of nearly eight million pounds sterling. The extravagance of
government was attacked in the month of June by Colonel Wardle, who
seems to have set himself up for a reformer of abuses; but, though from
his statements many came to the conclusion that great saving might be
effected, there were few who thought that he had pointed out a proper
mode of retrenchment. Moreover, many of his statements were incorrect or
unfounded, so that he failed to sustain the character he had assumed. He
who wishes to reform public abuses should prove their existence to all
the world, and be able to point out how they