suiting from the situation in which I am now placed. I will not trouble you with any of the particulars of the outset of my life; they are too well known to need any detail from me. I content myself with barely alluding to them. It has pleased
Providence to bless my family with success beyond my most sanguine expectations: while we, therefore, continue to resist the pernicious effects of these frantic principles of ideal equality, incompatible with the government of the
world, and the just order of human society, let us rejoice in those substantial
blessings, the result of real freedom and of equal Jaws, which open to the fair
ambition of every British subject the means of pursuing with success those objects
of honour, and those situations of power, the attainment of which, in other
countries, rest solely upon a partial participation of personal favour, and the
enjoyment of which rests upon the precarious tenure of arbitrary power. It is
impossible to look round to any quarter without seeing splendid examples of
the truth of this remark."
On Mr Pitt resuming the premiership in 1804, lord Melville was appointed first lord of the admiralty; but this important office he did not long enjoy. The earl of St Vincent, his predecessor at the head of the admiralty, had obtained the appointment of a commission of inquiry to investigate certain suspected abuses in the naval department of the public service. That commission, in their tenth report, implicated lord Melville, while he held the treasurership of the navy, in a breach of the statute which he had himself introduced in 1785; whereby the treasurer of the navy was prohibited from converting to his own use or emolument, any part of the public money voted for the service of the navy. This report led to an unsatisfactory correspondence between lord Melville and the commissioners ; and on the 8th of April, 1805, Mr Whitbread brought the matter under the notice of the house of commons. After a speech full of violent invective, that gentleman moved thirteen resolutions, to the effect generally, that lord Melville had been guilty of gross malversation, and breach of duty, in so far as he had misapplied or misdirected certain sums of public money, and had also in violation of the act of parliament, retained in his possession, or authorized his confidential agent, Mr Alexander Trotter, who held the office of paymaster of the navy, to retain, and to speculate in the funds, and discount private bills with the balances of the public money, voted for the service of the navy, in the profits of which transactions lord Melville had participated. Mr Pitt, after an eloquent and able defence of lord Melville, concluded by moving as an amendment, that the tenth report be referred to a select committee of the house. He was replied to by lord Henry Petty, now lord Lansdowne, Mr Fox, and other leading members of the whig party; and the result was, that in a very full house (433), the original resolutions were carried by the speaker's casting vote.
The debate was then adjourned to the 10th of April, 1805, on which day Mr Pitt announced to the house on its meeting, that in consequence of the vote of the former evening, lord Melville had resigned the office of first lord of the admiralty. Mr Whitbread then delivered another vituperative speech, and concluded by moving that an address should be presented to the king, praying that lord Melville might be dismissed "from all offices held by him during pleasure, and from his majesty's council and presence for ever." Mr Canning, who at that time held the office of treasurer of the navy, deprecated the rancour with which the whig party were proceeding.—He contrasted their conduct with that of lord Melville himself, when lord Grey and the earl of St Vincent were on their trial before the house, under similar circumstances, upon which occasion, lord Melville, although the political opponent of these noblemen, had strenuously defended them; while he, "so far from experiencing equal generosity,
