§ WILLIAM ADAM, esq. a Member of the House, was then examined in his place as follows:
§ (By the Chancellor of the Exchequer.)
§ You have heard the account which the last Witness has given of the part you took in this transaction; will you give your own account of it? I wish to stale to the Committee, in answer to the question put to me by the hon. and learned gent, that I believe in the year 1789 I was first desired by b. r. h. the D. of Y. to look into some concerns of his. From that time to the present period I have continued my attention to those concerns, and I have continued it upon the ground that I staled the other night to the House; namely, that it is not professional, that it is not attended with any emolument whatever, but it has been perfectly gratuitous on my part. I felt it a duty, when engaged in it, to discharge all of it, and every part of it, with as much fidelity and accuracy and attention as I could. It came to my knowledge, late in the year 1805, that the husband of the person who has been examined at the bar, threatened au action for crim. con. against the D. of Y.: it was necessary to inquire into the circumstances of the case; and it fell to my lot, from the communications which I had upon other subjects with h. r. h., and from the intercourse which had constantly and invariably subsisted (if I may use the expression) between h. r. h. and myself, that I should give directions for those inquiries. In the course of these direc- 293 tions, and in the matter that was laid before me in consequence of the investigation, I had reason to believe that the conduct of the person who has been examined at the bar had not been so correct as it ought to have been, and that it had a tendency to prejudice h. r. h.'s interests, not his character in a military point of view or in a public capacity, but his interests and his name with regard to money: This led to further inquiry; and I con ceived it to he my duty to intimate the result of these things to the D. of Y.: I found the Duke not inclined to believe that there could be any thing wrong in that quarter, and that he continued of that opinion almost to the last, till the very close of the Connection; and that the connection, as the facts will shew, closed in consequence of his conviction that that investigation had disclosed the character of the person who has just been examined. The transactions of a pecuniary nature, which as I have stated, bad no relation to any tiling like the subject of this inquiry: these transactions came to be brought more directly home to h. r. h.'s attention by a fact which I could state, if it were (it according to the rules of evidence; but it would be stating hearsay evidence, and that, hearsay evidence of the party whose conduct is the subject of inquiry: I state it merely to make my evidence intelligible. I then directed the inquiry more at large, and had an accurate investigation made by employing Mr. Lowton, an eminent Solicitor, who employed Mr. Wilkinson, as the person that he generally gets to superintend business until it is brought forward in proper shape, he not having leisure for those parts of his business. By Mr. Wilkinson, to whom the person at the bar alluded, these investigations were completed; and when they were completed, they were, I think, either upon the 6th, 7th, or 8th of May 1806, submitted in detail and in writing to h. r. h., accompanied with the proofs: it was an unpleasant task, because it is not pleasant to state to any person that which is contrary to their inclinations and their feelings; but it was a thing that I thought I was bound, in the discharge of my duly to the Duke, to do exactly in the manner in which I had received the information. This information was considered. In the course of it, h. r. h. wished that I should have an interview with the person who has just been examined; I accordingly agreed to have that interview, because I considered that no unpleasantness that might afterwards, or at the time, arise to myself, should prevent me from following up the business, and extricating that royal person from the person with whom he was at that time connected. Upon the score of those representations, I had this interview: it was an interview not of very long duration; but, of course, I conducted the conversation to those points which led me to discover how far, with perfect accuracy, there was truth or falsehood in the information which I had obtained in the manner I have stated. It had been represented to we hat this person had defended 294 an action as a married woman, having obtained the property for which the action was brought in the character of a widow. Investigation was made with regard to the place of her marriage, and it was found she was married a minor at Pancras. She had represented, at different times, that her mother was of a family of the name of Mackenzie; that her lather was named Farquhar; that they lived in the neighbourhood of Berkhampstead, and that accounts would he had of the family there. The Berkhampstead Register had been examined with that view, and it was examined with accuracy for forty years back. In the course of the conversation I had with her in the first interview, I took occasion to ask her, where she was married; and she stated to me, seriously and distinctly, that she was married at Berkhampstead. I then took occasion to put some questions with regard to the register of Pancras; and I took occasion likewise to state what I knew with respect to the registers of births, burials, and marriages at Berkhampstead; and, from the impression it made, I came away with a conviction in my mind, that those facts which have been stated to me upon the investigation I had directed, were correct and true; because, no doubt remained upon my mind, from her demeanour and conduct upon that occasion. She stated seriously that her marriage was at Berkhampstead. She likewise stated, in that conversation, that her husband was a nephew of Mr. Alderman Clarke, now the chamberlain of London. I know, from the same investigation, that that was equally incorrect with the other. In a few days after this, h. r. h.'s mind being made up to separate himself from this person, I was again asked by h. r. h., whether I had any difficulty in undertaking the communicating to her his determination. My being to wait upon her was announced in a short letter from the Duke to her; and I, accordingly, from the same motive which I have already stated, and, feeling it to be a duty, as I had commenced the transaction which was to lead to this, not to flinch from any personal inconvenience, or any unpleasantness which might arise at the time, or in future, to make the communication, I made the communication, and I accompanied it with this declaration, That the Duke thought; it his duty, if her conduct was correct, to give her an annuity of 400l.a year, to be paid quarterly; that he could enter into no obligation in writing, by bond or otherwise, that it must rest entirely upon his word, to be performed, according to her behaviour, and that he might therefore have it in his power to withdraw the annuity in case her behaviour was such as to, make him consider that it was unfit it should be paid. That was the nature of the proposition which I made, and no other. The conversation lasted for a very short time. I left the lady, and I have not seen her from that time to the present moment. These circumstances seem to me in the narration, all that is necessary to he stated with respect to that part of the transaction in which my name has been so frequently 295 used There are, however, two other matters, the one in which my name was used when it was first introduced, and the other respecting a particular person, upon which I wish to state the facts to the Committee. I did at some time in the year 1808, receive a letter, I think the 11th of June; I will not be quite sure about the date, but I think it is marked in my own hand 11th of June 1808, which is the letter which has been alluded to. I am not in possession of the letter, I gave it into the same custody that had the papers which constituted the investigation I have stated; that letter I shall state nothing of the contents of; I only mean to say that letter is in a situation to be produced, and I suppose from what has passed there will be no necessity for any thing more. The other fact to which I wish to speak, is with respect to the persons whom I employed. With respect to Mr. Wilkinson, the Committee have already heard the manner in which he has been employed, and those who know him, know his capacity for that employment. With regard to the other person, of the name of Taylor, I can only say that I never happened to see that person in the whole course of my life. If, in what I have stated, in which the facts only can he considered as evidence, but which I have endeavoured to make intelligible by connecting circumstances, any tiling has arisen for any question to be put to me, I am most anxious that all or any gentlemen in the House should call upon me to answer it. The separation took place upon the 11th of May 1806; the transaction which has been examined took place in July 1305.
§ (By the Attorney General.)
§ Did you guarantee this annuity? Never, I Staled that it was to depend entirely upon her I behaviour, and not to be guaranteed, because the Duke was to be at liberty to withdraw it, in case of her behaviour rendering it proper so to do.
§ (By Lord Folkestone.)
§ Was the promise, whatever it was, made to her in a letter written by you? That was what I stated in conversation.
§ When you announced the separation, it was not by a conversation, but by a short letter written to her? I did not state that the short letter was written by me, hut that the short Utter was written by the Duke. On subjects of this kind, not having had any opportunity of refreshing my memory, I may not have been perfectly correct in trilling particulars, but now I can state, that the only letter I ever wrote to her was a very short note, that I was coming to wait upon her in consequence of the Duke's wishes that I should do so.
§ (By the Attorney General.)
§ Did Mrs. C. appear exasperated at the separation? She appeared, very much surprised at the communication; she did not appear exasperated, but she declared her detemination to 296 see the Duke again; and I collected from what she said, that she expected to be able to prevail upon him to receive her again under his protection.
§ Did she know that you had been active in explaining the nature of her conduct to the Duke? I had every reason to believe so; I do not know it of my own knowledge.