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as the duty which he owed to the Noble Defendant, that High Court, and the Public, required all the energies that could be possessed, by minds of more capacity than he found himself possessed of. It was true, indeed, that he was released from apprehensions, which, on ordinary occasions, he might very justly entertain, as he was convinced the liberal and enlightened minds of their Lordships would not be susceptible of those injurious impressions, which prevailed amongst the generality of the public, by speeches and publications, prejudging the cause which he had now to advocate. Their Lordships were, no doubt, sensible of the inequality of the parties now before them. The Commons came to the prosecution, armed with all the power and authority which justly belonged to that important branch of the Legislature; and the Managers, besides being persons endowed with no ordinary share of learning, eloquence, industry, and ability, had the additional and important advantage of all the power, dignity, and authority, that the Commons of Great Britain could confer upon them; but he had, notwithstanding all this, the consolation and satisfaction to know, that their Lordship's decision would be made according to the justice and me rits of the case. He then adverted to the report of the Naval Commissioners, which had gone abroad, and taken possession of the public mind, before the Noble Defendant could have even been aware of the injury which his reputation was sustaining, from the notoriety of the abuses which prevailed in the department committed to his management.

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After this, it was perfectly fit and proper that the public should have the matter sifted to the bottom, and know whether the Noble Viscount, now upon his trial, had encouraged or employed them for his own benefit or not. However, before this enquiry could be made, one of the first steps taken, was to strike the Noble Viscount from the presence, councils, and confidence of his Sovereign for ever. The Noble Viscount was also stripped of all the offices, power, and influence which he might before have possessed. Every obstacle that could have opposed itself to inquiry was speedily removed, and witnesses were examined, from week to week, and from day to day : All the Noble Viscount's papers and correspondence ransacked, and his private dealings scrutinized in vain, for grounds of criminality. After stating so much, their Lordships must think that the Noble Defendant, instead of gentle treatment, had been very hardly dealt by. But his accusers and enemies did not stop here; for the Noble Defendant had further

to complain of an extraordinary, not to say atrocious outrage to all justice and humanity, by infamous libels, circulated through all parts of the kingdom, with an astonishing degree of industry and activity. These libels were not only scattered and disseminated abroad, to inflame the minds of the people, but were even carried to the foot of the throne, and registered amongst the records of his Eordship's accusers Nay, they had gone so far, as to pass an act of Parliament, to facilitate the means of bringing evidence against him. In this manner was the natural purity and integrity of the minds of Englishmen disturbed and prejudiced by libellous speeches, publications, and proceedings of every kind. Under all these disadvantages, he must once more observe, that he stood in need of their Lordships, utmost candour and indulgence. In what he had to address to them, he should not attempt to tread through the immense labyrinth of evidence and accounts referred to on the part of the Managers. He would not fatigue the attention of their Lordships by any such unnecessary repetitions, but he trusted that his omission of any of the topics referred to in the opening or summing up of the Managers of the Prosecution, may not operate against the Noble Defendant.

The subject to which he had principally to call the attention of their Lordships, might be divided into two 'general heads': First, what regarded the transactions before the passing of the act of Parliament for regulating the office of Treasurer of the Navy; and, second, the transactions which happened posterior to the passing of that act. In fact, the sole charge against the Noble Viscount may fairly be said to be the corrupt application of the public money to his own use, and the declaration he made in the House of Commons, that he had diverted the sum of 10,000l. which came into his hands as Treasurer of the Navy, to other than naval purposes, but not to his own use or benefit, and that he ne ver would disclose in what manner he had so applied it. The 8th article charged his having transferred money from the Bank to any other place of custody, as a crime; and the corollary made upon it was, that this transfer was for his own benefit and emolument. The other article took his Lordship's having destroyed certain accounts, as an inference of his criminality. These he considered as forming an outline of the whole of the charges. In all these proceedings, he observed, that whatever irregularity or inattention to order might be ap parent, it would be for the judgment of their Lordships, whether they proceed ed from corrupt motives, or the intention

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of converting these practices to his own emolument. But if what came out in evidence should amount to no more than that something still remained unexplained in a series of twenty-four years transactions, he hoped their Lordships would pause before they pronounced the Noble Defendant guilty of corruption, whose habits of life were well known always to have exhibited every proof of carelessness with regard to money matters.

The Hon. Manager himself (Mr Whitbread), who opened these charges, with a manly candour and liberality, which did him the highest honour, declared, that he believed Viscount Melville to possess a generous spirit in regard to money, incapable of being influenced by the sordid principle of avarice." Such a declaration on the part of an accuser, when coupled with -the known habits of his life, must render it incredible that he should, in this single instance, depart from his usual character, for an object he never was attached to. Placed as he was, in a situation, perhaps, of all others, the most likely to elevate the mind, filling, as he did, some of the most important offices of the State, being at the same time one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, President of the Board of Controul over East India Affairs, Treasurer of the Navy, &c it was not to be supposed that he could sink and let himself down into so degraded a being as these charges would represent him to be, and that for an object that it was impos sible he should ever be in want of; nor would their Lordships, he was convinced, suffer it to operate to the defendant's disadvantage, if he could not, after the lapse of 22 years, produce witnesses to disprove every article of charge; and after the principal witness was dead, whose testimony would otherwise serve to acquit him.-As to the first sum, the irregular application of which was charged against the Noble Viscount, it would be sufficient for him to say, that it' arose at a period when there was no common nor written law against it. He might, in full confidence, rest there; but he would not have the House to suppose that he was flying from the charge, or sheltering himself under the absence of the act of Parliament which afterwards took place. So far from its being a crime, for a public accountant to make even the greatest temporary use of the public money to his own advantage, he would shew their Lordships, there was no law, no condition, no, not even any express or implied obligation against it. It was true, that his Hon. and Learned Friend the Manager who summed up the evidence did not much in-, sist upon this point; but the honour.

This

able Manager who opened the pro.ceedings, had boldly thrown down the gauntlet, and affirmed, that such application was always a crime by law, which law was declared and sanctioned by the House of Commons. He, however, denied the existence of the law, and if there were any such, it was incumbent upon them to shew it, as their Lordships knew very well, that no resolution of either House of Parliament, even supposing it to remain in full force, could have the effect of a law. opinion of his was far from being new, as it was one which, by some of the first parliamentary authority, was declared over and over again, in that very sanctuary of liberty (the House of Comunions) which his Learned Friend (Sir S. Romilly) seemed to think violated by the declaration made in it by Visc. Melville. All the arguments on the other side would have equally applied to every former public accountant; but he was prepared to shew that it was not then the law, was not now the law, and never was the law, that such applica tions of the public money was a high crime and misdemeanour. He would even go farther, and shew that the contrary was the law, and had been so declared by the ancestors and relatives, not only of many of their Lordships, but of one of the present Managers, and that too in the sanctuary of liberty.

He then went into a detail of the numerous instances, in which public accountants had acknowledged that they applied the public money to their own advantage, and maintained that they had a right to do so, provided the public sustained no loss by it. He dwelt particularly on the case of the late Lord Holland, who, when called to account for a balance of no less than 450,cool. was so far from acknowledging that he had no right to employ the balances in his hands to his own advantage, that he maintained his right to do so, and that he was ready to produce them, whenever called upon, for the service for which they were intended, any intermediate use he might make of them being a matter of indifference to the public. What was still more to his purpose, that doctrine was assented to by the Minister of the day (the late Earl of Chatham), and these two great men, who never agreed in any other point, were of the same opinion upon this. The resolution of the House of Commons against such applications, passed on the 18th of June 1782, had never since been acted upon, but at all events could not have the form of a law upon the subject. Amongst the instances he stated in support of his proposition, was one in which a motion was made, in the House of Commons, to

oblige the Receiver-General of the land tax to pay in his balances to the bank, when one of their Lordships now present, but then a Member of the other House, was not ashamed to stand up in his place, in that sanctuary of liberty, and oppose the motion, on the ground that it would be a hardship on the Receiver-General. Even a Right Hon. Gentleman, whose name and virtues, he was sure, would always be considered with the highest respect in that House (he meant the late Mr Grenville,) when called upon for the balances of the public money in his hands, required two months to pay them in, which was tantamount to a confession, that he had been applying them otherwise than to the public use, for which they were intended. If, therefore, it were true that the Noble Defendant, in this case, had been applying any sums of the public money to his own use, it would be a sufficient defence for him to say that they were always promptly, fairly, and honourably paid, whenever called upon for the public service; and as he had already shown, it was of little consequence, whether he intermediately applied them for purposes of profit to himself, or left them deposited in the Bank, where they could be advantageous or profitable to no one. With respect to the ro,cool. referred to by Viscount Melville, in the House of Commons, it was a sum which never was called for, never was wanted, and which he need not have said any thing about, if he thought proper. He made no disposition of that money, until his accounts were passed, and then he was at liberty to transfer it to any other branch of the public service he thought proper, or where it might be most wanted. Upon this subject, which had been emphatically dwelt upon, he must maintain that his Lordship was under no obligation, either legal or moral, of telling in what manner he disposed of it-It was quite sufficient for him that to say the money had been paid. When called upon to make the disclosure, it must be remembered, that it was the call of an enemy, the call of an accuser, to convict himself of high crimes and misde

meanours.

The Learned Gentleman then went into a legal disquisition of the obligations imposed by conditions and compacts; and contended, that even if any such obligation did exist at any time, it must cease as soon as the Noble Lord was out of office. Was it to be expected that he would make a candid disclosure at the monient he was called upon to answer for crimes? If he was, let men talk no more of the liberality of British justice. Was it ever held to be a principle of law, that when a man was

put upon his defence, silence should be interpreted as a crime? As far as he under. stood the law of England, a person accused had the liberty of making whatever an swer he thought proper, or if he so chose to do, it was not incumbent on him to make any answer at all. The charge of the Managers against the Noble Viscount was, that he had not told enough against himself, but he believed, that before this time silence was never held to be a crime in that or any Court whatever. If, then, it was shewn that silence was never before deemed a crime, why was it held so now? The reason was, that the Noble Defen dant, in the dignity and manliness of his nature, spurned at any accusation unworthy of his character. The only proofs produced in support of his criminality, were the suggestions of the Managers, and his own silence. He candidly confessed, that he felt himself bound by honour, and a sense of public duty, not to disclose in what manner he disposed of the money; and was he to suffer for being influenced by such principles? was it to be deemed à crime, if, conscious of being in the right, he chose to carry his secret with him to the grave, and make himself responsible for any consequences that may attend it? But, though the Noble Defendant consi dered himself bound by various ties to ob serve this silence, sure the enlightened minds of their Lordships must easily sug gest circumstances, in which a high officer, seeing the country surrounded by numerous enemies, foreign and domestic, might find a necessity of applying a sum of money for a purpose different from that for which it was appropriated by law. Was it diffi cult to devise uses in which such an application would be meritorious, instead of criminal? The Managers alledged, that he made the application corruptly, but of that they had not been able to produce a single

tittle of evidence.

One of the Managers (Mr Whitbread) occupied some time in representing to their Lordships the impressions which this transaction made upon his own mind. The Hon. Gentleman, however, then went out of his way, and assumed the character of a witness. He only stated, not the impres sion which it made upon an unbiassed mind, but upon the mind of an accuser, and therefore not entitled to all the weight which they might otherwise give to him. The Hon. Manager must excuse him for saying, that in the Supreme Court of Judicature, Whitbread the Manager, and Whit bread the witness, stood in very different characters. In opposition to those impres sions on the mind of the Hon. Manager, he had to state that this charge had already

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been clearly and positively disproved by two witnesses; and if, after all the ingenuity and talents which the Managers could employ, and these qualities in them, he believed, never to have been exceeded by any set of Managers; if after all the most minute researches into the official documents of the Noble Defendant, and even the me morials presented to him; if, after ransacking all his letters and correspondence; if, after the most laborious investigation into his private accounts, and most intimate and confidential relations in life, they were unable to trace out one shilling of the public money applied to his own private use, it would be most unjust and unreasonable not to infer, that he was innocent of these charges. He then came to consider the additional articles exhibited by the Managers, after the Noble Lord had given in his first answers, and said, that he did not want from them that candour of which they made so much profession, in giving him time to put in a supplementary answer to this article; the Hon. Managers had made confusion more confounded. They had stated in general divers sums, at divers times, on divers days, to charge upon him the sum of 26,000l. but they rendered it impossible for him to refer back to those divers days, and had included, in the time of their charge, nine months of a period, when the Noble Lord was out of office.

After all, however, he would ask, what did the proof brought on the part of the Managers amount to? It, in fact, came to nothing more than this-that Lord Melville, after the lapse of twenty-four years of active and official life, was not able to account for every little item of the public money that came into his hands. The Managers, after travelling over all the accounts from the Bank to the Treasurer of the Navy, and back again, had not, he contended, proved a single iota of their charges. All they could discover from their enquiries was, that money had been applied from under the head of one public service to another, so that all the time employed in these details was uselessly consumed. They shewed that money had been transferred, but they had not proved that he made any profit by the transfer. It was corruption and profligacy that constituted guilt, but that could never even be inferred by the transfer of money from one place to another. All the money they charged had been sufficiently and satisfactorily accounted for, with the exception of two small sums, which appeared to be placed to the Noble Lord's private account, at the bank of Mr Drummond; and supposing, which, however, he only did for the sake of argument,

that he should be unable to give any ac count of these notes, yet, from the failure of accounting for such a trifle, in the immense transactions of four and twenty years, and it not having been proved that the Noble Lord made any private profit of his balances, nothing could be more unfair or illiberal than to draw from such a failure an inference of his guilt. Could it be expected that a Minister of State, constantly occupied in the most important public concerns, should direct much of his time in prying into all the minuteness of accounts? Was it surprising that a man engaged in so many departments, connected with the public expenditure, should have a running ac count of 29581. 15s. Id. at his banker's! In further corroboration of his innocence, it appeared, that at a time when he was informed of his having overdrawn his banker, he did not help himself out of the public purse, but repaid the same, by remittances from his own fortune, in Scotland, though at the same time, and for ten months after, he had in his possession public balances, uncalled for, to the amount of 56,000l. As to the note, received by a draft from the bank, which had been paid to bankers in the city, where it had been sent in payment of a bill, it by no means afforded any thing like the inference that was drawn from it. They were not to enquire into such a circumstance there in the manner that an end on any occasion was resorted to for the detection of a forgery. It surely signified nothing, whether he sent this note, or any other that he might have taken out of his pocket, as the amount of it was not found deficient in the passing of his accounts. There was no more obligation on the Noble Lord than on his predecessors, not to keep the money where he pleased. The Hon. Managers also made it an aggravation on the part of the Noble Lord, that he was the person who brought in the bill for regulating the office of Treasurer of the Navy into the House of Commons, as if such a circumstance was to be considered as a crime. It was no high crime or misdemeanor in him to draw the money from the bank, and deposit it at his private banker's or in his iron chest, whichever he might deem most convenient for public purposes, or for private security. He said, he was miserably deceived, if there was a clearer case ever argued, than that Lord Melville's conduct, in this respect, was not against the law; and if it was, the act should not be suffered to remain in force one moment, as it would be a law of the, greatest cruelty and oppression towards our seamen that ever was enacted. The noble Lord, he contended, could not, without the greatest injustice and hardship, do

other.

otherwise. The Managers contended, that the bank was the only place of deposit authorised by the act; that he denied. Upon such a construction, the law could never be carried into effect. If there was only rool. to be paid to three or four different persons, in warrant expences, nothing could be more embarrasing, than to send each of them with a draught upon the Bank.

Would it be practicable to pay such sums as 3s. or less, to a sailor, when he came to demand it, by a check upon the Bank. The sailor may say, he did not know his way to the Bank; and if he did, he must, from his ignorance of such transactions, be exposed to innumerable impositions. A sailor's wife or mother also, when applying for a pittance of a few shillings, must by the same interpretation be sent to receive their trifles at the Bank of England. He begged their Lordships to consider, how such minute accounts, occurring every moment, could possibly be kept by the Bank of England? But there was one observation, which must be decisive of the question. By an act of Parliament, passed some time ago, all draughts for money, under the amount of twenty shillings, were declared to be illegal, and therefore the Paymaster of the Navy was precluded from the possibility of paying sums of a few shillings by drafts, and therefore must always be supplied with ready money to answer these demands immediately. The Noble Lord, he maintained, carried the act into execution in every point of policy, justice, and convenience. The necessity for the act was, that before it, large balances of money were left for payment in the hands of inferior clerks, having only small salaries, and it was not always easy to get these balances out of their hands. On these, and a variety of other grounds, which he argued at considerable length, he submitted to their Lordships, that the Noble Defendant was not guilty of any breach or violation of the law.

The Lord Chancellor then informed Mr Plomer, that the Lords, being desirous to hear, with attention, all he had to alledge in behalf of the defendant, and perceiving that he was then nearly exhausted, by the strenuous exertions he had made, would, for the present, adjourn the proceedings.

Mr Plomer had then been about three the hours and a half upon his legs.

Twelfth Day, May 14,

Mr Plomer this day resumed the defence. Having on the preceding day considered three of the articles, he now took a rapid view of the remaining seven, distinguishing, as he proceeded, the nature and the extent of each of them, and applying to them the known principle of law.

He said, that the impeachment did not in any part of it proceed upon any omission or inattention of Lord Melville, but the charge was of a much higher and more criminal kind; not what he omitted to do, but what he actually and personally did. It stated, that he was acquainted with the frauds, and for corrupt purposes confederated and participated with Mr Trotter, and by that means committed a gross breach of duty. The sixth article occasioned the Learned Counsel to solicit the peculiar notice of their Lordships, because the sub. ject of the books was so intermixed with the release, and because it was stated in so irregular a manner. First, the books of account were mentioned; then was introduc ed the subject of the release; again the books were heard of, as if the release were intimately connected with them, and the consequent destruction of all the papers.In the eighth article was the most singular and novel allegation, that Lord Viscount Melville did obtain and receive a sum of 22,000l. or some other large sum or sums of money, from Mr Trotter; and for the purpose of more effectually concealing the said advances of money, the books, ac. counts, vouchers, &c. were burnt and destroyed. The framers of this article had not even taken the pains to alledge, that these sums were drawn from the public money; so that, for any thing that appeared to the contrary, this might be a loan from one friend to another; and what high crime and misdemeanour such a trans. action might constitute, it was for the ingenuity of the Learned Managers to explain.

The ninth, and concluding article, to which the Learned Counsel had occasion to advert (having already considered the first and tenth collectively), assigned two motives for the concurrence of Lord Melville in the use of the public money; first, because Mr Trotter would act as his private agent without salary; and, secondly, because he might receive advances for his convenience, from time to time. These advances, the Hon. Managers contended, were to the amount of from 10 to 20,000l. and were drawn from a mixed fund, composed partly of private, and partly of public mo ney. This general view of the articles was consistent with the plan pursued by the Honourable and Learned Manager who summoned up the case for the prosecution; and he adopted this, because the applica tion of his defence to the arguments of that Hon. and Learned Manager, would be more easily understood, and because the nature of the allegations themselves seemed to point out this method as the most perspicuous; for the whole contents of

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