HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



Q7 



CHAR VII. 



Parliamentary Proceedings conlinued. — ^lolhm of Mr. Whitbread on ilie 

 Subject of the Tenth IS'aval Report — And Ra-oliitiuns moved thereoii. — 

 Interesting Debate. — Remarkable Division. — Speakcr''s cusfi/ig Vote a- 

 gaist Government. — Resolutions against Lord Mi.lville carried. — Subse- 

 quent Vroccedings thereon. — 37r IVlntbreud moves an humble Address to 

 the King for the Removal of Lord Melville from his Places, and from his 

 Majesfij^s Councils for ever. — Debate, — Motion lust. — House agree unani- 

 mously to lay the Resolutions before the King. 



ON the Gth day of April, Mr. 

 Whitbread, in pursuance of a 

 former notice, brought under the 

 consideration of the house the sub- 

 ject of the tenth report of the com- 

 missioners of naval enquiry. He 

 began by describing the origin of 

 the commission, praised the integri- 

 ty and preseyerance of the com- 

 missioners themselves, and compli- 

 mented the late board of admiralty, 

 by which they were appointed ; 

 after Avhich he passed on to the 

 nature of the charge he liad to bring 

 against lord viscount Melville, and 

 in which were implicated the con- 

 duct of Mr. Trotter, Mr. Wilson, 

 and Mr. Mark Sprot. He then re- 

 ferred fo the act, of which lord 

 Melville was the supporter, in 1785, 

 for regulating the department of 

 treasurer of the navy, and t!ie order 

 of council by which his salary was 

 advanced from 2000/. to 4000/. a 

 year, in lieu of all profifs, fees, or 

 emoluments he might before have 

 derived from allowances of the pub- 

 lic money in his hands. Lord Mel- 

 ville was himself at that tinie treasu- 

 rer of the navy, and though the act 



was passed in July, it was not till 

 the subsequent January that the 

 balances were paid into the bank, 

 pursuant (o the terms of the act, 

 and this delay in the transfer could 

 only be accounted for on the score 

 of private emolument. He then 

 stated his three heads of charges 

 against the noble lord, — first, his 

 having ajjplied the money of the 

 public to other uses than those of 

 the naval department, in express 

 contem|)t of an art of parliament, 

 and in gross violation of his duty. — 

 Secondly, his conniving at a system 

 of peculation in an individual, for 

 whose conduct, in the use of the 

 publicmoney, he was deeply respon- 

 sible, and for this connivance he 

 denounced liim as guilty of a high 

 crime and misdemeanour. — Thirdly, 

 his having himself been a participa.. 

 tor in that system of peculation ; 

 but as this only rested on suspicion, 

 at present, he should not now much 

 insist upon it ; but, if the enquiry 

 should be instituted, he pledged 

 himself to follow it up, with mode- 

 ration on his own part, but with 

 firmness and steadiness for the coun- 

 F 2 try. 



