6622 ANNUAL RE 
receiving that which it was out of 
his power to receive. But he might 
have relinquished one of his offices, 
had he not known from experience 
that 40001. a year as treasurer of 
the navy, was better than 40001. a 
year as third secretary of state. Mr. * 
Whitbread then touched upon the 
éestruction of vouchers; and ob- 
served, that notwithstanding Mr. 
Trotter had made the act exclusively 
his own, yet their lordships would 
deezde whether it was possible that. 
lord Melville should not have partici- 
patedin that act. He then referred 
to the several bank notes issued for 
the public service, and traced to his 
lordship’s private account; intro- 
ducing, by way of analogy, the story 
inthe ‘* Adventures of a Guinea.” 
—T'irst, he said, it was given to 
a counsel for gaining a cause against 
evidence — then passed into the 
pocket of the great earl of Chatham, 
from him to general Wolfe, and so 
on; but he would ask, what would 
have been the gratification of that. 
guinea, had it becn sent from the 
exchequer for the naval service of 
@he country? ‘¢ QO, happy guinea, 
that I am (it would have exclaimed), 
now shall I be conveyed to Ports- 
mouth to clothe the gallant tar, to 
administer to his comforts, or be 
expended to make his infant and 
its mother happy!” But what 
the disappointment, when, instead 
of Being thus honourably employed, 
it found itself thrust into an iron 
chest, for the private uses of a 
treasurer, or, with 3 or 4000 fel- 
low-sufferers transported into Scot.. 
land in aid of ostentatious prodiga- 
lity, and applied to services that 
could not be revealed? Their lord- 
ships would draw their own conclu. 
sion; but he would maintain, that 
the public money had been inter. 
GISTER, 1806. 
cepted, and applied to the private 
advantage of the noble defendant, 
in violation of his lordship’s con. 
tract, in violation of Jaw, and in 
abuse of his high office. The iden- 
tity of certain notes, he said, had 
been proved with the same accuracy 
as ona trial for forgery; and though 
it was said that his character was . 
dear to the defendant as his life, 
yet if the managers had proved him 
gnilty, it was their lordships’ duty 
to find him so, whatever the conse- 
quences might be to that character. 
The high and the low were amenable 
to the same law ; and if their lord- 
ships were convinced of the noble 
defendant’s peculation, they were 
bound'to say so by their verdict. 
Mr. Whitbread then adverted to 
lord Melville’s declaration, that he 
would not account for the applica- 
tion of a sum of 10,000/. charged 
against him, and asked, whether a 
public accountant should be per- 
mitted to say, with impunity—“ I 
will not tell you how I have dis- 
posed of the public money!” But 
he would tell their lordships why 
Jord Melville did not choose to di- 
vulge the application of that 10,000/. 
as he had done the 40,000/, to 
Boyd, Benfield, and co. It was be- 
cause the application and the appro. 
priation were exclusively his own— 
administered to his own private 
wants and uses, With respect to 
that ‘¢ Sanctuary of Liberty,” the 
house of commons, which the learn. 
ed counsel had taken the liberty 
to sneer at and treat contemptuous. 
‘ly, he should not conclude without 
noticing the insult he had con- 
veyed, and in the name of that 
house of commons expressing its in- 
dignation. The commons.house of 
parliament, he would tel! him, were 
rightly jealous of their privileges, 
and 
