HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



101 



of June, in the house of cominons, 

 aiid several amendments, by sir W. 

 Scott, were agreed to. 



Mr. Johnstone animadverted, in 

 strong terms, upon the conduct of 

 the king's proctor, for having per- 

 mitted his partner to act, in many 

 cases, for tlie adverse party, and 

 concluded by moving, '' that any 

 " proctor, Avho shall allow liis 

 " partner to take the adverse side, 

 " or who shall receive any part of 

 " the profits from the proctor on 

 *' the other side, or any other per- 

 " son, shall, upon conviction there- 

 " of, be utterly excluded from (he 

 " profession, and also from any 

 " place he may hold in the admi- 

 *' ralty, or vice-admiralty courts, 

 " and, for each offence, forfeit 500/." 

 The clause was adopted, and the 

 bill ordered for a third reading. 



The next debate of any consider- 

 able importance, occurred in the 

 house of commons, on (he 11th of 

 June, when, previously to Mr. Whit- 

 bread's motion, for an impeachment 

 against lord Melville, the Speaker 

 acquainted the house, that he had 

 received a letter from his lordship, 

 requesting the permission of the 

 house to attend and be heard, upon 

 the subject of (he reports of the 

 naval commissioners. Upon the mo- 

 tion of Mr. 11. Dundas Chis lord- 

 ship's son,) he was (hen con- 

 '!t:cfed in by the Serjeant at Arms, 

 to a chair placed for him within the 

 bar; and having been seated for a few 

 moments, he rose and addressed the 

 house. For the detail of his speech, 

 we must refer to the appendix ; but 

 the general purport of it was, an 

 Bcknoulcdgment of ids having ap- 

 propriited the public money, entrus- 

 ted to him for the service of the 

 navy, to oilier public purposes ; and 

 v: solemn denial of his ever having 



derived any private benefit there- 

 from, or in any degree participated 

 in the profits made by Mr. T/otter ; 

 he at the fane time confcised, that 

 he had applied tiie sum of 10,000/. 

 in a way, which, consistently with 

 private honour and public duly, he 

 never could and never would reveal. 

 After (he conclnsion of his speech, 

 his lordship was conducted out with 

 the same ceremony as on his intro- 

 duction. 



Mr. Whitbread, in adverting to th« 

 subject of his motion, comment- 

 ed on the observations made by the 

 noble lord, and the unwillingness 

 he shewed to put himself upon his 

 trial, on the ground of there being 

 no tribunal before which I.? could 

 have justice, on account of the im- 

 pressions made on the public mind 

 against him. He had even stated, 

 that the house had fettered itself by 

 its own proceedings, and rendered 

 itself incompetent to pass that vote, 

 for which he now called upon it. 

 This position the honourable gentle- 

 man denied, because there could b« 

 no bar to an impeachment by the 

 commons of Great Britain. The 

 civil suit instituted against him 

 could be no bar, as there were many 

 instances, in the courts of law, that 

 a civil action, and a criminal prose- 

 cution, were instituted at the same 

 time, even for an assault. As to the 

 appeal made by the nol)le lord to 

 the feelings of the house; though no 

 man could be more alive to it thaa 

 he was. yet it was only a common 

 case w ith every man, who committed 

 an act which subjected him to the 

 animadversion of the law. The sort 

 of defence made, was such, as rather 

 to aggravate, than to do away .what 

 h'^ was accused of: that he felt and 

 suflercd great degradation, was most 

 trne ; but that punishment was not 



1{ 3 sufficient, 



