68 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



try. He knew that, even at the ut- 

 must height of party spirit, charges 

 such as these had seldom been pre- 

 ferred, and it was singidar that the 

 only instance of a similar charge, 

 for a great number of years, was 

 brought by lord Melville himself 

 against Sir Thomas Rumbold, for 

 malversations in India. He -then 

 ■went to observe, that the commis- 

 sioners had discovered deficiencies, 

 for a number ot years, in the trea- 

 s\irer's department, of 674,000/. a 

 year. It then became necessary to 

 call lord Melville and Mr. Trotter 

 before them, and there they had an 

 opportunity of exculpating them- 

 selves if they could, which was a 

 s-ufficient refutation of ;he argument 

 that this report of the commissioners 

 ■was only an ex parte proceeding. 

 But lord Melville could not answer, 

 because he destroyed the documents, 

 and Mr. Trotter could only answer 

 that there were some advances made 

 to other departments, the amount 

 of which he could not tell. Mr. 

 Trotter, it appeared, opened five dif. 

 lerent accounts — -his own account — 

 his account as paymaster of the 

 na,vy — his first separate account — 

 his broker's account — and Jelli- 

 co's account, and when asked for 

 vliat they were intended, he had 

 the assurance to tell the commission- 

 ers that they had no right to infer, 

 fere in his private alTairs. Mr. 

 Trotter was also found busy in buy- 

 ing all sorts of stock, to sell again 

 to advantage, and lord Melville, on 

 whom the responsibility attached, 

 was n.-vcr known to Interfere in it, 

 though, if he happened to have been 

 disappointedjiu his speculations, the 

 public nioiiey was lost, and inevita- 

 ble ruin must have been the conse- 

 quence. The broker, MarkSprott, 

 who niiiiht have given a clue to these 

 transactions, said that he was ad- 



vised by his la\vycr (Mr. Serjeant 

 Sheplieid) to keep a religious silence. 

 Lord Melville, however, owned that 

 he knew of the transactions, but 

 not the details, and if he knew of 

 either, he held him fo be equally 

 criminal. Mr. Trotter was in the 

 Jiabit of making lord Melville pecu- 

 niary advances, to a large amount, 

 and as the former had no fortune 

 when the latter took him under his 

 patronage, he must have known fliat 

 the advances were made out of the 

 public money. He here commented 

 on the evidence of lord Melville and 

 Mr. Trotter, observing that the 

 other paj-masters of the nav)-, since 

 the act of parliament, lord Bayning, 

 lord Harrowby, Mr. Bragge, and 

 Mr. Tierncy, had no hesitation in 

 declaring, upon oath, that they ha.d 

 received no eraoliinient from the 

 application of the |)ublio money, 

 V. hile lord ]Melvil!e alone w as driven 

 to evasive answers, and 'J'votter, 

 screening himself under a clause ia 

 the act of parliament, allowing wit- 

 nesses to decline questions wliich 

 might criminate themselves, refused to 

 give any answer. After having ex. 

 hortcd gentlemen of all descriptions 

 in that house to join with Irim in 

 bringing sucii enormous delinquency 

 to punishment, he concluded with 

 reading thirteen resolutions, found- 

 ed on the subject matter of his 

 speech, but added that, for the pre. 

 sent, he should oply press the first 

 eleven of them. 



The chancellor of the exchequer 

 observed, that, whatever else tha 

 report of the commissioners might 

 contain, there was not a siiigle word 

 in it which could imply that any 

 mischief had arisen to the public, or 

 that the delay of even a single day 

 had occurred in the discharge of 

 any of the demands of the seamen. 



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