Early in this session Lord Melville was threatened with impeachment. In February Wilberforce wrote, “Rumour has for some time impeached Lord Melville’s integrity. I have had much talk with George Rose about him. Rose is confident that Pitt will defend him, though he tells me some stories, and strong ones, of jobs which have fallen under his own view.” The storm which menaced Melville fell upon his head in April. In 1803 a bill had been passed, appointing commissioners to make inquiries into the abuses of the naval department. These commissioners produced many reports, the truth of which appeared to implicate Lord Melville, who, while he filled the office of treasurer of the navy, had illegally retained balances of the public money. This report was brought under the consideration of the commons by Mr. Whitbread, who exhibited three charges against Lord Melville:—first, his application of the public money to other uses than those of the naval department, in express contempt of an act of parliament;—secondly, his connivance at a system of peculation in an individual, for whose conduct he was officially responsible;—and, thirdly, his own participation in that system. This second charge had reference to Mr. Trotter, who, it was said, appropriated the public money to private purposes, at the express connivance of Lord Melville. In making these charges Whitbread remarked:—“To the honour of public men, charges like the present have seldom been exhibited; and it is a remarkable circumstance that the only instance, for a long-period, is one that was preferred against Sir Thomas Rumbold by this noble lord himself, on the ground of malversations in India.” With respect to the first point of accusation, it appeared from the report that there had been for several years deficiencies in the accounts of the treasurer of the navy, to the amount of £600,000 a year and upwards. When Lord Melville was asked a plain question respecting the appropriation of this money, he, as well as Trotter, professed total ignorance of the deficiencies; but presently, beginning to recover his recollection, he confessed that from the year 1788 down to the period of his examination, he had been in the habit of drawing out public money, and placing it in the hands of his own bankers. When the commissioners extended their inquiries a little further, he had the assurance to declare that they had no right to interfere in his private affairs. In a letter to the commissioners he acknowledged the fact of advances having been made to him, but said that he could not give the other information required, because he could not disclose state secrets, and because he was not in possession of the accounts of advances made to other departments, having himself committed them to the flames. And not only had the noble lord destroyed the papers, but he had actually lost all recollection of the whole transaction. This was the principal charge against the noble lord; and Mr. Whitbread concluded by moving thirteen resolutions, founded on the circumstances which he developed in making the whole of his charges. Lord Melville was defended by Pitt, who observed that neither the report nor Mr. Whitbread himself alleged that any loss had proceeded from the transactions set forth to the public. The subject, he said, was of a grave and solemn nature; and that if, in a great pecuniary department, irregularities had been committed, though unattended with loss, the house might justly set a mark on such proceedings. As, however, all the circumstances of the case were not before them in the report, he contended that till they were the house could not be in a situation to come to any vote. Pitt moved the previous question; and after some observations from the attorney-general, Mr. Canning, the master of the rolls, and Lord Castlereagh, in support of Pitt’s views,—and from Lord Henry Petty, Messrs. Ponsonby, Fox, and Wilberforce in support of Whitbread’s resolutions, the house divided. On a division there were two hundred and sixteen votes for, and an equal number against Mr. Whitbread’s motion, and the speaker gave a casting vote in its favour. This led to Lord Melville’s retirement from office. On the 10th of April the house was informed that he had tendered his resignation to the king, and that it had been accepted. On the 6th of May Mr. Whitbread proposed the erasure of the delinquent’s name from the list of the privy-councillors; but as Pitt observed that the measure was generally considered expedient, no motion was made on that subject. Later in the session, after a long and able speech, he moved that “Lord Viscount Melville be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors;” and this measure was adopted on the 25th of June, Mr. Whitbread being appointed manager. On the next day, in company with a great number of members, Whitbread impeached Lord Melville at the bar of the house of lords; and subsequently he brought a bill into the commons to avoid those differences of opinion which had arisen in the case of Warren Hastings, or to prevent the proceedings in the impeachment of Lord Melville from being affected by any prorogation or dissolution of parliament. This bill was carried without a division; but here the proceedings rested for the present. Before any further progress could be made in them, Pitt, on whose health and strength they had operated unfavourably, was laid in Westminster Abbey.
PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.
Parliament was prorogued by commission on the 12th of July. On that occasion, his majesty sent a message to the lords and commons, stating that the communications which had taken place, and were still depending between him and some of the powers on the continent, had not yet been brought to such a point, as to enable him to lay the result of them before the house, or to enter into any further explanation with the French government consistently with the sentiments he uttered at the opening of the session. At the same time he recommended parliament to consider the propriety of making provision for enabling him to take such measures, and entering into such engagements, as the exigencies of affairs might require. A sum, not to exceed £3,500,000 was instantly voted by the commons, for the purposes stated in the message.
DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET.
Soon after the Easter recess, Lord Sidmouth had suggested the propriety of removing Lord Melville from the privy-council, but Pitt imagined that the country would be satisfied with the resignation of his office, and therefore refused to comply. Lord Sidmouth was also offended by the premier’s refusal to place his friend, the Earl of Buckinghamshire, at the head of the admiralty; and expressed his intention of retiring from office, together with the Earl and Mr. Vansittart. This intention was delayed by the erasure of Lord Melville’s name from the list of privy-councillors, and the vote of impeachment which followed; but the breach made was too wide to be thus healed. Two days before the prorogation, Lord Sidmouth and the Earl of Buckinghamshire resigned, and were succeeded by Lords Camden and Harrowby, while Lord Castlereagh obtained Earl Camden’s place of secretary for foreign affairs. These dissensions, as well as the loss of so able a colleague as Lord Melville, occasioned deep anxiety to Pitt, and contributed to oppress and wear down a constitution already on the decline. His anxiety was further increased by the uncertain state of affairs on the continent.
NAPOLEON CROWNED KING OF ITALY
An Italian historian, writing of Napoleon’s character at this period, says: “The nature of Napoleon was restless, disordered: constant only in ambition. He never remained long at the same point, changing continually to rise the higher. It appeared, and it was even solemnly, and with magnificent words, said by him, and by Melzi, the vice-president of the Cisalpine republic, that the regulations made at Lyons with the Italian consulta, were to be unchangeable and eternal; but before two years those regulations were described as defective, insufficient, and not conducive to anything good or lasting. All this signified, that he who had made himself an emperor in France, must be made a king in Italy. It was not without a design that so many Italians of note had been invited to Paris, to attend, in the name of the Cisalpine republic, the imperial coronation and ceremonies. Melzi, the vice-president, the councillors of state, together with deputies from colleges, &c., obeyed the summons, and remained some considerable time in France. They were given to understand, that the emperor must be king on the other side of the Alps; that the Italian republic was an anomaly; and that the proceedings at Lyons must be condemned and reversed.” This plain language was understood by the state consulta of the Italian republic, and they chose the powerful monarch of France King of Italy. On the 26th of May in this year Napoleon placed the iron crown of Charlemagne upon his head in Milan, and appointed Eugene Beauharnois, his step-son, viceroy. By a stroke of his pen he also annulled the constitution of the Ligurian republic, and incorporated Genoa with the French empire. Three departments, Genoa, Moulenotte, and the Apennines were formed out of this republic; and the incorporation of Parma and Piacenza was subsequently formed by an imperial decree. About the same time, the people of Lucca having expressed a wish to be governed by a prince of the house of Napoleon, the emperor gave them his brother-in-law, Pascal Felix Bacciochi, for hereditary prince. Moreover, in Batavia the republican principle became incompatible with the interest of the new imperial state, and that country had to accommodate itself to the monarchic form; its government was dissolved, and superseded by a grand pensioner, elected for five years, and invested with almost unlimited power. By incorporating Genoa with the empire, Napoleon said that he had only one end in view—that of obtaining 15,000 seamen, for the purpose of venturing a great naval struggle, in which, if he proved victorious, he should then invade England. His plan was to distract the British government; to scatter its fleets, by despatching his own squadrons, some to the West Indies, and others to the Spanish ports; and then to effect a junction of all, and collect such a force as would ensure success in a naval combat. This, however, could not have been his principal object. At this time he could not have been ignorant of the coalition forming against him, which it was his interest to provide against. So many violations of treaties, and such unbounded desire of aggrandizement this year promoted the formation of a third coalition against him, of which England was the centre. Sweden first, then Russia, and next Austria, joined themselves with the British government in a league against France; and though Prussia stood neutral, yet she secretly approved the spirit of this coalition. But its ruin was nevertheless induced by the policy of Russia. Austria was exposed alone to the blows of the enemy; the aid of Russia was too remote, and England fought only with money and vessels. The treaty aimed at nothing less than a league of all the European states against France, and the re-establishment of all the relations that existed before the war of the revolution. But these designs were frustrated, and that chiefly by Prussia’s remaining neutral; without the accession of this power, it was scarcely possible to make an effectual attack on the enemy. Its neutrality was, in fact, a protection to the northern half of the French empire.