Between the 29th of April and the 17th of May, 1806.

To which is prefixed,

A SKETCH

OF

THE LIFE AND POLITICAL CHARACTER OF HIS LORDSHIP,

AND A COMPLETE ACCOUNT OF

The Proceedings in Parliament

Relative to the Charges on which the Impeachment was founded.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES AND ORME,

PATERNOSTER - ROW.

1806.

WQ RM 20JUN 34

PREFACE.

IN this volume the public is presented with the pro. gress and result of an important enquiry into the conduct of a nobleman, who, having held the most dignified offices of the state, was impeached by the House of Commons, for corruption in the administration of the public money.

It was impossible to compress this work into any convenient form, and to include all the particulars adduced in evidence; it was therefore found necessary to select certain parts of the testimony, which are given in detail, while others are passed over more slightly, as containing matters of mere professional formality. On this account the introductory proof, to the conclusion of the second day of the trial, is considerably abridged; the subsequent testimony, to the commencement of the eighth day, is recorded with all the minuteness that a technical facility, known only to the English language, could enable the reporter to produce. This interval comprises the whole of the depositions of Mr. Alexander Trotter. From the eighth day to the conclusion, the evidence is again contracted,

The orations of the honourable managers, and of the learned counsel, unfold the grand maxims of British jurisprudence, and apply them to the case of the noble defendant; the importance of these suggested the propriety of introducing them nearly

verbatim

verbatim as they were delivered; it is hoped they will be found, not only interesting to public curiosity, but a permanent record of British eloquence, and a masculine display of British patriotism.

The promptitude, impartiality, energy, and talent, with which these proceedings were conducted, (to use the language of the speaker of the House of Commons) have rescued the Trial by Impeachment from the disgrace into which it had fallen, and restored it to its former dignity and honor. "It is," (says that distinguished member of the legislature) the power of impeachment which has enabled the Commons of this country, at all times, to lay open the misdeeds of the highest servants of the crown, and to prevent or punish all inroads which may be made on the liberty of the subjects of this realm.”

At a period when the ministry have recommended to the representatives of the people a new project for auditing the public accounts of the kingdom, and when it appears, that the sum of these accounts, unexamined and unexplained, composes an amount more enormous than the whole national debt, this investigation of the duties of an office, in which upwards of 150 millions sterling were circulated under the administration of Lord Melville, will, it is presumed, prove peculiarly acceptable to every friend to the security, independence, prosperity, and glory of the British Empire.