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A POLITICAL SCANDAL.

Lord Harrowby, and his office of Foreign Secretary was given to Lord Mulgrave.*

These arrangements were by no means acceptable to all Pitt's followers, and among others Canning strongly disapproved of them. They were not regarded with much favour by the public; and in the House of Commons they did not bring the accession of strength that Pitt had expected. Early in the session of 1805, the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry issued their celebrated Tenth Report, which brought forward certain facts in reference to an alleged misappropriation of public money by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Melville, when Treasurer of the Navy. Melville was Pitt's "fidus Achates," the confidential friend of many years,† and a blow struck at him was a blow struck at Pitt also. As, even before it was made public, it was known that this report would impugn Melville's conduct, Pitt had looked for its appearance with intense anxiety. Wilberforce was at his office when the report came out, and the Minister was reading it for the first time. "I shall never forget," he says, "the way in which he seized it and how eagerly he looked into the leaves without waiting even to cut them open." The report distinctly charged Mr. Trotter, Lord Melville's deputy-paymaster, with misapplication of the public money under circumstances which seemed to imply the connivance of his principal. Mr. Whitbread, therefore, brought into

* Lord Mulgrave's Under Secretary of State was Robert Plumer Ward, afterwards distinguished as the author of 'Tremaine' and 'De Vere.'

+ According to Wilberforce, however, an actual coolness existed between them at this time, and they were " scarcely upon speaking terms."

THE MELVILLE AFFAIR.

79

the House of Commons a motion inculpatory of Melville, which speedily assumed the proportions of a political event. Contrary to Wilberforce's advice, Pitt threw himself into the conflict with great fervour, apparently from a feeling that his own honour had been trifled with.* But he was not able to carry his Cabinet along with him, and Sidmouth threatened to resign if he met the vote of censure with a direct negative. He was willing, however, that it should be proposed to refer the matter to a Select Committee. On the 8th of April the question came up. After Whitbread had stated his case, Pitt submitted his proposition of a Select Committee, and concluded by "moving the previous question" as a technical preliminary. Lord Henry Petty (afterwards third Marquis of Lansdowne) supported Whitbread, and was followed on the same side by Fox and George Ponsonby. The defence was undertaken by Spencer Perceval, Canning, and Castlereagh; but it did not satisfy the independent members, who were bound by no strict party allegiance, and they turned for guidance

*

"Some years before, Mr. Raikes (a) had hinted to him that the public money was illegally employed. Dundas soon after coming in, Pitt said to him at once, ‘Dundas, here has been Tom Raikes with a long story of your way of employing the public money; what does he mean?' Dundas assured him that it was a mistake, and that no money had been drawn except for public service. When, therefore, the facts came out, Pitt seemed to a degree involved in Melville's fault. He was, however, 'quite sure that there was no real pocketing of public money.' Pitt fancied himself bound in honour to defend one who had so long acted with him."— Life of Wilberforce,' p. 262.

(a) The Governor of the Bank of England.

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DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.

to Wilberforce, whose rigid conscientiousness was rightly estimated. In his judgment, the accuser had made out his case; and honestly, though reluctantly, he rose to press the claims of justice. He sat in a line with the Treasury Bench, and as he turned to address the Speaker, looked just across Mr. Pitt, who was watching with intense eagerness for some intimation of the line he would take. "It required no little effort to resist the fascination of that penetrating eye, from which Lord Erskine was always thought to shrink." But he stated forcibly his impression of Lord Melville's fault, and reminded the House of the importance of basing its decision on the strictest grounds of justice. His adverse opinion had a great effect, and on a division the numbers were 216 to 216. The Speaker (Abbot, a friend of Addington's) gave his casting vote against Government.*

A few days afterwards Pitt informed the House that Lord Melville had resigned his post as First Lord of the Admiralty; and he subsequently stated, not without emotion, that he had advised the King to remove him from the Privy Council. At first it was intended to

* Lord Fitzharris, afterwards second Earl of Malmesbury, writes :— "I have ever thought that an abiding cause of Pitt's death, certainly one that tended to shorten his existence, was the result of the proceedings against his old friend and colleague, Lord Melville. I sat wedged close to Pitt himself the night when we were 216 to 216, and the Speaker, Abbot (after looking as white as a sheet, and pausing for ten minutes), gave the casting vote against us. Pitt immediately put on the little cocked hat that he was in the habit of wearing when dressed for the evening, and jammed it deeply over his forehead, and I distinctly saw the tears trickling down his cheeks."-MALMESBURY, 'Diary and Correspondence,'

iv. 347.

THE TENTH REPORT.

81

order him to be proceeded against criminally; but Pitt's influence in the House was sufficient to carry a motion for his impeachment before the House of Lords, by whom he was eventually acquitted. The blow was not, however, the less effective, and it shook Pitt's Ministry seriously. "We can get over Austerlitz," he said afterwards to Huskisson, "but we can never get over the Tenth Report. Such is the nature of Englishmen." The appointment of a successor involved him in much embarrassment. Lord Sidmouth proposed that his friend Lord Buckinghamshire should be First Lord, and that his brother-in-law, Bragge Bathurst, should take Lord Buckinghamshire's place; but Pitt persisted in appointing Sir Charles Middleton (Lord Barham), a naval officer of much distinction. Thereupon Sidmouth resigned, but some explanations having been exchanged,

* Bragge Bathurst, and Sidmouth's brother Hiley, were, as placehunters, the frequent objects of Canning's satiric wit. He represents them as bound to applaud their liberal relative and patron :—

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CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.

withdrew the resignation. The question of Lord Melville's impeachment, however, revealed further differences of opinion; and Sidmouth again tendered his resignation, which, this time, was accepted. He was followed in his retirement by Lord Buckinghamshire; and Pitt, worn, anxious, and in ill-health, brought the disastrous session to a close on the 12th of July. In addition to the Melville scandal, it had been distinguished by a revival of the movement for Catholic Emancipation. In the Lords the proposition was introduced by Lord Grenville, who, however, could muster only 40 peers in its favour against a hostile majority of 178. In the Commons it was brought forward by Fox in one of his most powerful speeches. He was supported by Henry Grattan, the Irish orator, with great effect,* and opposed by Pitt. The division showed 124 for, and 336 against, Fox's motion.

Looking round on the troubled condition of Europe, keenly conscious of the difficulties that threatened the country, and not ignorant of the "balanced state of public feeling," the Minister, as the year ran out, grew anxious to effect a coalition with Fox and Lord Grenville. His sense of its necessity he represented to the

* It was Grattan's maiden speech in the Imperial Parliament; and it was for some minutes doubtful whether the House would laugh at him or cheer, owing to his strange gestures and extravagant attitudes. But when the Ministerial party, who watched Pitt, their thermometer, for their cue, saw him repeatedly give his stately nod of approbation, they took the hint from their huntsman, and broke out into the most rapturous cheers. 'Life of Lord Byron,' by Moore, p. 185 (edit. 1873). Byron says that Grattan would have been near his ideal of an orator but for "his harlequin delivery.'

See