THE DUKE OF LEEDS IMPEACHED.

The report of the committee produced violent altercations, and the most severe strictures upon the conduct of the lord president. At length the house resolved that there was sufficient matter to impeach Thomas, duke of Leeds, of high crimes and misdemeanors, and that he should be impeached thereupon. Then it was ordered that Mr. comptroller Wharton should impeach him before the lords in the name of the house and of all the commons in England. The duke was actually in the middle of a speech for his own justification, in which he assured the house, upon his honour, that he was not guilty of the corruptions laid to his charge, when one of his friends gave him intimation of the votes which had passed in the commons. He concluded his speech abruptly, and repairing to the lower house, desired he might be indulged with a hearing. He was accordingly admitted, with the compliment of a chair, and leave to be covered. After having sat a few minutes, he took off his hat and addressed himself to the commons in very extraordinary terms. Having thanked them for the favour of indulging him with a hearing, he said that house would not have been then sitting but for him. He protested his own innocence with respect to the crime laid to his charge. He complained that this was the effect of a design which had been long formed against him. He expressed a deep sense of his being under the displeasure of the parliament and nation, and demanded speedy justice. They forthwith drew up the articles of impeachment, which being exhibited at the bar of the upper house, he pleaded not guilty, and the commons promised to make good their charge; but by this time such arts had been used as all at once checked the violence of the prosecution. Such a number of considerable persons were involved in this mystery of corruption, that a full discovery was dreaded by both parties. The duke sent his domestic Robart out of the kingdom, and his absence furnished a pretence for postponing the trial. In a word, the inquiry was dropped; but the scandal stuck fast to the duke’s character.

In the midst of these deliberations, the king went to the house on the third day of May, when he thanked the parliament for the supplies they had granted; signified his intention of going abroad; assured them he would place the administration of affairs in persons of known care and fidelity; and desired that the members of both houses would be more than ordinarily vigilant in preserving the public peace. The parliament was then prorogued to the eighteenth of June. 058 [See note M, at the end of this Vol.] The king immediately appointed a regency to govern the kingdom in his absence; but neither the princess of Denmark nor her husband were intrusted with any share in the administration—a circumstance that evinced the king’s jealousy, and gave offence to a great part of the nation. 059 [See note N, at the end of this Vol.]