The Sun.
London, England, 1806-06-13 00:00:00

Lord Melville's appointment to this orfice, and en&
merated the various conversions of the public money
..to his own use, which' were the grounds of the Ar-
: tides of
_Charge. Te .stated distinCtly the sums so
,-converted during the first Treasurership.; the amount
• remaining due to the Public on his Lordship's going
out and on -his return to the 'office in his second
Treashrarahip. He then adverted to the ACt passed
on the suggestion , of Lord Melville, for preventing
the money voted for Navy Services from being drawn
from the Bank except for Naval Services. He con-
tended that it was absurd and ridiculous to suppose
that this At was complied with, or that any security
was gained for the Public, if merely mentioning
_ some naval service in the draft, one, two, or three
hundred thousand pounds more than was wanted,
may be drawn-put of the. Bank and placed in the
hands of a private Banker, to. be employed to the
advantage of a Paymaster or any other person. That
Mr. Trotter had employed- the Naval Money placed
by him in the hands of Messrs. Courts to various
purposes, of profit Would he.made most clear. That
Lord Melville,was aware of Mr. Trotter's so employ-
. hag the money was evident from his frequently bor-
rowing, large sums, sometimes so large as 10,0001.
—from Mr. Trotter, sometimes without paying in-
terest Upon them. How was Mr. Trotter, lately but
a Clerk in the Navy Office. at 2001.. a-year, and
whose salary as Paymaster was but 8001. how ,was
he to furnish such sums unless it was from the pub-
lic money in his hands ? If by any chance he did
possess such a sum of his own, and it would be
sheWn that he could not, was,it reasonableto expe&
that he would lend all his money without interest ?
It was indeed bitt too clear that the money thus ad-
vanced was public nit.ney ; and that no interest was
alloWed or demanded upon 'it was in itself an invin-
cible proof that it was understood so to be. It was
true Lord Melville denied having,any-knowledge that
the money thus advanced to him' was public money,
or, that the-public money .was converted to purposes
of private emolument by Mr. Trotter : be had made
this denial solemnly, and, in writing in a letter to
the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry, which letter
would ,be given in evidence. But the fiats that
would be adduced would prove that Lord Melville
did and must know both these things ; and what
• must be thought of a Peer of the Realm, a .Member
of a Body in whom' the Constitution supposed a ve-
racity so pure that they were, allowed. to nags judg-
ment in cases of life and death upon their honour,
that must be averring as fa& what he must have
known. not to be so ? Their .Lordships would think
this so material to their own dignity as to merit their
particular attention ; and when 'it should be made
appear in the' mariner he
.stated, they would look
upon it as no small aggravation of the offences laid •
in the Articles of Charge, which he had no doubt he
should-be able to make good. Mr. 'Whitbread wish-
ed to point the attention of their Lordships particu-
larly to the sum of 10,0001. advanced by .Lord Mel-
ville,
as his Lordship said, for particular purposes,.
the nature of which he never would reveal. If the
public money were thus diverted -from the services
for which it was granted to"purposes important per-
haps'only to the caprice of the person who,so divert-
ed, it, surely the least satisfa&ion .the
,pnblic \was
entitled to was, an express statement of the purpose
to which the money was applied. To refuse that,
explanation, and to profess a positive and contuma-
cious silence, to be for ever persisted in, was itself an
offence of the first magnitude in a public accountant,
whose_ first obligation, was to make clear to the
public the application of every farthing of the. pub,
lic money committed to his charge. He had been
informed that within these few days the Defendant's
Counsel had in their . hands the-receipt given for'
that 10,0001. Let that receipt be produced—let
Lord Melville have the full benefit of it, if the oc-
casion was of such a nature as to justify or, excuse
the-a&—let the public now, at least, have the aatis-
faCtion, insulted as itwas by the refusal of it hitherto,:
of adisclosure by means of _which it Would know
something of the use that had been made of its pro-
perty, If the receipt had been so lately in existence,
but was .now in existence no longer; if it was in
existence, and would not be prodnced, the world
would know what judgment to form of the nature
of thearansaaion to which it referred. But there
was another discovery which his attention to the-
duty entrusted to him by the'Representatives of the
whole Commons oftheUnited Kingdom had enabled
him to make, and of the benefit of which no art
ofdefence the accused or his Counsel could devise,
could deprive him. It was the discovery of some of
the identical bank notes that had :been 'used in these
transactions, - which he would trace to the hands of
Lord Melville's private Banker, where they had
been paid in for his private account. When- all this
should be proved,. he allowed that their Lordships
must. still pause with hesitation and astonishment,
and ask' themselves -how it .was possible that a man
of such high understanding, rank, and station—a
man uninfected with the love of money for its own
sake, could be guilty of such culpable derelidion of
his public duty, such gross violation- of his public
trust for his private advantage. He allowed the in,
consistency of the a& with the charatierand station
according to every principle of human reason. But,
unhappily, there were, in the history of mankind,
instances still mOrd eXtraordinary and deplorable, of
the total oblivion of every thing that was honourable
and distinguished, for the sake of sorlid interest and
base corruption. There was in otr own history
an instance of a man whose intellkent and highly
cultivated mind might rank him with any of the
sages of ancient or modern times, whose writings
abounded with every thing that Tas profound in
science, with every thing that was ure and sublime
in morality ; yet this man, enjoyig the highest,
, consideration, and filling the highkt station in the
kingdom, had sunk into thiS base citne ; and of the
most extraordinary, the most alio-ling and.. most
humiliating convictions • in' histor, was that of Sir
Frauc4 Bacon, found guilty at 'thir Lordships' Bar