§ Mr. Wardle,previous to going into the Committee of Inquiry into the Conduct of his royal highness the Duke of York, wished to correct the error to which he had alluded yesterday, in his former evidence.
§ The Speakerinformed the hon. member, that the time for offering any thing relevant to his former evidence, would be, when the house should have resolved itself into a committee. The matter then immediately before the house, was the notice the hon. gent. had yesterday given, of a motion for certain Papers or Books, from the Office of the Commander in Chief.
After a short conversation, which led to the omission of a part of Mr. Wardle's original motion, the following motion was agreed to: "That the proper officer from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief do attend the Committee of the whole House, appointed to inquire into the Conduct of his royal highness the Duke of York, with the Book containing the Applications for Purchase by Subaltern Officers, within the period in which Captain Maling had his three Commissions given to him."
The house having then resolved itself into the Committee, Mr. Wharton in the Chair,
§ Mr. Wardlebegged to call the attention of the committee to the correction he had to make of his former evidence. He had on the former night stated that he had not seen Mrs. Clarke on Tuesday morning, though he had waited a considerable time in her drawing-room for the purpose of seeing her. On recollection, however, he found that it was on Monday he had waited a long time in the drawing-room, and that on the morning of Tuesday he had seen Mrs. C. for a few minutes, as well as in the evening, as he had before stated.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerobserved, that in the explanation of the hon. member, there was some ambiguity, in as much as the words "as I before stated" might be construed to the correction of the former evidence now first given as well as to the former statement of the honourable gentleman.
§ Mr. Wardledeclared that he meant the words "as I before stated" to apply solely to the interview which he had with Mrs. Clarke, for a few minutes in her drawing-room, on Tuesday evening, and which he had stated in his former examination.
On the suggestion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the questions and answers relative to Mr. Wardle's interviews with Mrs. Clarke on Tuesday, were read from the notes of the short-hand writer, from which it appeared, that in his former examination Mr. Wardle had fallen into an error, which he had in this instance corrected, namely, by stating that he had not 328 seen Mrs. Clarke at all on Tuesday morning. The admission therefore, that the hon. member had seen Mrs. Clarke on the morning of that day, was added to his evidence, but in order to avoid ambiguity, the words "as I have stated before" were expunged.