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It has been thought that, as Col. Wardlo was undoubtedly indebted to Mrs. Clarke for his popularity, it would have been no great sacrifice, if he had settled this affair; but who, that has heard Mrs. Clarke's own account of herself, can for a moment suppose that the sacrifice would have ended there? No; Mrs. Clarke is a skip angler, who only plays with a fish to drag it more securely to shore. How could Col. Wardle have acquiesced in a demand, grounded on a prior promise of remuneration, consistently with his declaration in the House of Commons? The fact is, that the cleansing of the Augæan Stable was but boy's play to his undertaking, and it was almost impossible that he should wade through such a miry slough, without having a single speck of dirt on his clothes.

But what stain hath all the ingenuity of

the ministerial phalanx, and crown-law-officers been able to bring forward to his prejudice? Why truly, that he has been tricked by that mistress of tricksters, Mistress Clarke, into a responsibility for a debt, incurred, if it ever was incurred, for the public benefit! On that very account, the public ought to support and countenance him more than ever; or never deserve to find another bold and intrepid assertor of their constitutional rights. Do, Mister Bull, only place yourself in Col. Wardle's arduous situation, and if you do not, upon reflection, vote him your everlasting gratitude, we pray thee to let us hear no more talk about British liberality and generosity.

To sum up all :-Notwithstanding the most injurious reports of the Duke of York's conduct had been long afloat, and had occasioned great discontent in the nation in

general, among the army in particular, no man in the House of Commons would honestly dare to prefer charges against the second son 'of his sovereign, except Col. Wardle. Nay, every one of them, out of tenderness to the royal family, affected to believe that the charges could never be substantiated. One member was instantly visited with a vision of a foul conspiracy to overturn the constitution, and pretended to see (with a sort of scotch second sight) treason and sedition at work(he might easily have seen corruption and peculation): Another held over the colonel's head, like the sword of Damocles, the threat of infamy, if the charges were not substan tiated; and the whole nation were set grinning by another (of notorious principles) who tenderly warned the colonel against lending himself to an unprincipled association. As some kind of a proof of it, he called himself

the colonel's friend. Col. Wardle, however, was not to be intimidated; he was even complimented by some of the ministerial party on the fairness and firmness with which he had discharged his duty to the public, and

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the gratitude of the whole nation poured in upon him. Now," says Mistress Clarke, " is my time.

Colonel Wardle owes all his popularity to me; and, if he closes his pursestrings against me, I will nip it in the bud." Has she been able to do so?-No; she has only exhibited herself in all her naked, hideous deformity; a cloak of simplicity over a lump of putrescence. What bounds could Col. Wardle hope to set to her extor tions, when not satisfied with the thousands such a reptile has been suffered to expend of the public money, she extorts thousands more for the suppression of the Duke of York's letters; and, as if her appetite became

more voracious with the quantity of golden food lavished upon it, she now threatens to publish the letters (real or manufactured) of all her other admirers, and to gratify her rapacity at the expence of the domestic happiness of a number of families. Such har pies the poet well describes:

"They snatch our meat, defiling all they find, And, parting, leave a loathsome stench behind.”

DRYDEN.

Let Mistress Clarke gull a few sensual individuals in future, if any will fall into her trap after being so well forewarned of the Circean Cup; but Johnny Bull must be a driveller indeed, if he suffers himself to be gulled by her affected simplicity, after having been admitted to peep behind the curtain of her boudoir, and even behind her bed-curtains, at the army lists and applications for

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