The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-04-09 00:00:00

suffered to remain in the hands of the
Navy; and they should not he suf-
any emoluments from it individually;
• provision should extend to the Pay-
Clerks who should receive salaries, in-
• 'tes fees, or any other emoluments.
time when Mr. Barre held the office of
the Navy, no emoluments were suf.-
isted to the Treasurer or Clerks ; that
ale's Administration the salary of
the Navy was advanced to 8001.
Lord Melville himselt had a salary
tear; that Mr. Trotter had specuiated
money, by connivance of laird Mel-
many Bills to a caesiderable
had lent th-refore to Lord Melville
41)001. that large sums appropriated to
the Navy had been applied by Lord
her services, the nature of which he
lain; that then, was reason to swipe&
ieleille participated in the emoln-
rived from these misapplications of
money ; and that in all these proceedings
in a manner inconsioent with his
:ornpatil•le with the injunftions of the
' He then, on recollection, said, that it
, intention to press this night any of the
beyond thne that regarded the
applt-
public money, but to reserve for a
tsion what Teta. ed to the suspicians of
tale having participated in use advane
first resolution having then been read
lair;
NCELLOR of the NACHEQUER
ovever much he approved of the resolti-
i by the Hon. Gentleman at the corn-
f his speech, not to lose sight, in its
the language of temperance and mm
should have applauded it more, it that
been consistently persevered in. In
part, however, of what had fallen from
;tittle/min, he was sorry to observe that
adhering to the CO:, he took that line fre-
adopted in criminal proceedings and charges.
appeals to the passions, and of pas-
sio i; too, 'Which had nn conndlion with the subjea,
under discussion He spoke very feelingly of the
heAvyburthens and the mass of taxation with which
the cOnno-y was oppressed, as if any thing arising
nom this subjeft ever added a single shilling to the
hurthens of the people. 'Mere certainly could
have been no occasion for all this industry in
matching out topics of aggravation upon a
rOojea which produced not the slight, ,t griev-
e .^e, and from which no mischief whatever
esuhe 1. Mere thcre ions • toed cry of bear!
k• ' Arch cootmerd rafter longer thin front
the ohe, tile of the Itiose). He then contilmed his
speech with some degree of warmth. If Gentle-
men, he said, attempted thus to preveia tile exercise
c:free.inm of speech in that House, by Mut ruption
and clamonr ; and if these interruptions proceeded
hem the vere quarter which professed a disposition
for temperance and moderation. it afforded no good
tar.en of the sincerity of such declarations. So
vi+ lint an attempt tii aggravate and inflame the pas
siis, on a sitbjeft which had en very remote a con-
reehen with them, and even within their own
walls, made it the less to he wondered at. th tt
se mach industry had been used in making ca-
lumnies and inflammatore misrepresentations of it
out 1,1 doors. Amongst the rest or these calum-
nies, it had been publicly represented, that by these
proceedings, seamen hid h-en defrauded of their
wages, though no single instance had been she am,
nor any allegation made, that the payment of
seamen's wages had been delAved a single mo-
ment, or coat there was the slightest hitetrup.
lion in any part of the Naval S'lNlte The Hon.
Mover of these resolution.; had not only lost sight of
his professed principles of forbearance ar. the language
he made use of; but had also presented a view of the
sithieft, which it could not bear him nut in.
stated that these Gentlemen might have been tried,
and that they were under trial, because questions had
been put to them. He, however, must contend, on
the other hand, dust this engine!, was any thing but a
trial. l'he charaaer of a trial was, that the parties,
when put upon their defonee. were informed of the
wholenaturent thecharge preferred against them, that
they were placed before theer accusers, nd acquainted
with the scope of the evidence they bad to repel ;
that they had the power of cross-examining the wit-
nesses ; that they might make their defence, without
bung called upon for their persdnal testimony; and,
above all, that they were never called upon"nor al-
lowed criminate themselves In these proceedings,
however, en trace was to be sem of any of these
charaaco. ; end surely the Flotrte of Commons
could never allow that any thing contained in the
Report of the Comm.scioners could bear out the
-resolutions proposed Ise the Honourable Gentleman.
He must, however, upon the whole, admit that the
Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry pre-
sented some eery important en liter ; and, though it
(lei nut appear that a single shilling had been lot
by all ther.:.• transattions, to the public, yet, if it
should turn rut that any thing was wrong or irre-
gular in the pioceedings of the public affairs, it was
the duty or that House, after maturely considering
the whole of the circumstances, and weighing duly
the motives or reasons n hich may be alleged.
in justice, to set a mat k, and not let it pars
nett impunity, if a penalty should attach to
h. After making this admission, he must at
the same time say, that the representation, as it
rood at present, did not justify the Hou.c in com-
ing to any decision whatever, much less to the Re-
solutions which had now been proposed to it. which
u, evidently involved in them a vote of censure.
Whether that shnuld be their final determination or
rot must depend upon other documents which were
not now before them ; and he was the more con-
firmed in that opinion, by finding that the Resolu-
vons proposed by the I knowable Gentleman
were founded on the admission of long and in-
tricate calculations contained in the Appendix to
the Report, the accuracy of which the best
arithmetician may find it necessary to aonsum- some
time in ascertaining. The Hon. Gent. who brought
forward the business this day, thought proper in his
speech to represent three o barges ;-Ist. That the
Nolle Lord had, in violation of law, applied the
public money to other services. wily. That he had,
contrary to his duty, connived at the speculations of
ethers, in employing the public money for their own
ernelomen: ; and, idly. That he had hirnsalf par-
ticipated in these emoluments. After, however,

•

descanting in the Most aggravated terms on all of
these, he was contented to rest fir the present
upon the former two, reserving the point of par-
ticipation to sonic future opportunity. But if
he did not intend to have pressed the last point
at this time, it would' have In-en more consist-
ent with his proposed forbear iiice not t) have
brought it forward in aggravation of the two former,
which also still remained to. he proved. What he on
the other hand meant to propose, was, to put the
matter in such a stat? as to e-able the House to
form a mature and distinct jodzment on the wholt!

of the proceedings, and afterwards to corn • to a
fin..l determination upon th•am. He should for-
bear, at present, to enter into a derailed account of
what came to his own knowledge upon the sullied,
because the materials regul rrly before the House
were much too confined and shapeless for any ade-
quate judgment to be prr.notincad upon them. All
tie other documents tit-cm:lay to be considered were
not so numerous as to require any great delay ; for
it was a sullied on which much delay must he
inadmissible; bat he thought they might all be
put into such a shape as speedily to be arranged
and digested, so as to enable the House to come to
a final determination immediately after the holi-
days. The first charge of the Hon. Gentleman
was, that money had been issued from the Navy
Office for other services irregularly, and contrary
to law. Supposing that to be admitted, he would
ask, whether it would be either policy or justice to
make that a matter of consideration, without any in-

quiry intothe circumstances of the existing exigencies,
or reasons f so doing ? Would the House consent
t make it criminal before they were informed of
the necessity of the measure, or the quantity of the
corns which might have been so applied? Would
the dry and naked statement of its being contrary
to the letter of the law be decisive in the mind of

any man pretendi:lg to be a statesman Could nn caw
of policy, secrecy, or debracy, be stated, in which
even a direct infraction of the law may not be

. . _
desirable? And filially, upon all these considera-
tions, were Gentlemen prepared to state that no
farther information was at all desirablt ? For all
these reasons, what he wanted was, by no means to
avoid or to prolong the decision, lint to he put in a
train so as to let in all thi; information. His proposi-
tion, therefore, would be, o.at th,• whole should be
referred to a Seleut Comm nee, berme which every

information and explanation might be made, with-
out the danger of indiscreet disclosures, and upon
whose report the House might he enabled to come to
a final dec i• ion upon it. There was, however, one cir-
cumstance, -nentioned in the Repot t, in which an Hon
Friecr; of his ( Mr. Smith) was named, of advances to
ti.e trea,ury. in wh ch he should be ashamed if there
should I.e the slightest lifficulty of explanation, pro-
vided the seri ft ea: put in a proper train for the
dit.closure of l'.nr transaition. All that he need
now say upon that subjed was, that when the
proper time arrived, the House would have a
full importunity of deciding whether that instance
of the money being diverted to another service was
mote deserving of censure or of praise. He neruld
then demonstrate, that no injury whatever could
have ensued, for the money was diverted without
inconvenience, and replaced quickly without
loss. The slim at that time so disposed of was to
the amount re 40,00a1., and after all they had heard
upon the subject. perhaps the House would be
somewhat amp, ised at hearin6 that it was, at least,
three-fourths of all the sums that, to the course of
Lord Melville's long occupancy of the situation of
t:easiiret of the Navy, had been so applied from or.e
service to another. If this, therefore, which w
the largest, and Corm-d so great a part of the whole,
could he satisfactotily accounted for, as he pledged
himself to the House it would be, it was not on.
reasonable to infer, that the othets would be fannu,
on examination, equally justifiable. The next
charge which was meant this night to be insisted on
Was, that Lord Melville commended Mr. Trotter's
having employed the public money, entrusted to Ili.
charge, to purposes of personal emolument to him-
self. This, indeed, if true, would he a proper oh•
jeet of serious enquiry, and ouelit to he hive tigated,
tor he should never contend, that allowing 'he Pay-
master of the Navy to aa in such a manner was
by any means jusiifiable the Report, however, of
the Naval Commissioners, did ma state that Lord
Melville had ever suffered his Paymaster to draw
for larger sums than were aCtually wanted, and the
great fault was, that the Paymaster had so com-
plicated his accounts, that the different drafts, and
the distin4 sums could not easily be separated. He
certainly should admit irt its fullest extent the posi-
tion; that notwithstanding thecitcumstance of no loss
whatever having been incurred, the setting the pub-
lic money to any risk or hazard was alone highly to
be censured ; but h could not at the same time help
observing that the circumstance of no loss whatever,
even of a haying been incurred, was in it-
self no mean argument, that, considering the vastness
of the sums and the transaStions, there could scarcely
have been any great mismanagement. Some of
the transaCtions were certainly so very inaccurately
given in the Report, that they required further
investigation. For instance, the Report stated,
that the sums paid into the house of Mr. Coutts
were not in the legal manner of drafts im-
mediately from the 'Bank, but in their passage
to other different services, and the sums so irre-
gularly drawn, were said to be to the amount of
five millions. But, if he was not misinformed. one
million of this was drawn direetly from the hawk of
England, in the manner prescribed. and the others
were drawn at different times in smaller proportions,
so as to make it doubtful whether' the report was
accurate even as to these. The Commissioners, in
fa R, did not appear thoroughly to understand that no
money could be drawn for by the Treasurer, but in
consequence of memorials sent to him for that purpose
from the other offices, specifying the amount, and the
purposes fur which they were demanded ; and that
in this the Treasurer was merely ministerial, and had
no discretion whatever. There was ruching con-
tained in the Report that could insinuate a charge
of the offices dewing in this manner on the 'Trea-
surer oftener than the money was wanted ; and if
so, it was impossible that the money could remain
any great length of time in his hands. It had, in-
deed, intimated, that they might be iikluced to
draw upon the Treasurer some time before the
money may be wanted, under the supposition
that he Was dilatory in his application to the
ilaak ; but this very supposition of dilatoriness,
or slowness iu doing so, rather inferred that

111111011 Mom
tenger be stiff
'reasurer of the
ered to derive an
h.tt the same in
and (lei
isters
•
stead of perquisi
'at in the time
assurer of the
.red to be derive
• Lord Melva'
paymaster of t
nnally ; that I
of 4pool• a year
viii the public T 1
Ole, and purch:
amount, and he
the sum Of YO,OO
the service of tl
Melville to rube
declined to expl:
that Lord me
vents so delis,
tit, public mane
he had aged i
atuty, and incor
Legislatore.". ti
•irus not his :nt
resolutions bey
cation of tho I
future occasion
Lord Melville
tagei• The 6'
from the Chair
Tl•e C HAh
said, that how'
don expressed
mencement of
progress, of thi
Aeration, he sit
intention had
the greater par
the Hon. Gvnt
instead of adhi
quentiv a,lopts
of making. a;
sio i; t ti,, svhi,
wider disenssi,
Leavy burt hen
the conn:ry w
nom this sultj
burthens of
have been I
searching on
sl'ojea whirl
a e. and 1
.esuhe
h- •
chhe, silt
speech with
• men, he said.
o'..free.lnm n 1
• and clamonr
ham the vei.
for t,raporan
omen of the
of an art