lemen and prevent their being
employed for the future, suffered the impeachments to be neglected until
they themselves moved for trial. On the fifth day of May the house of
lords sent a message to the commons, importing, That no articles had
as yet been exhibited against the noblemen whom they had impeached. The
charge was immediately drawn up against the earl of Orford: him they
accused of having received exorbitant grants from the crown; of having
been concerned with Kidd the pirate; of having committed abuses in
managing and victualling the fleet when it lay on the coast of Spain;
and lastly, of having advised the partition treaty. The earl, in his own
defence, declared that he had received no grant from the king except a
very distant reversion, and a present of ten thousand pounds after he
had defeated the French at La Hogue; that in Kidd's affair he had acted
legally, and with a good intention towards the public, though to his own
loss; that his accounts with regard to the fleet which he commanded had
been examined and passed; yet he was ready to waive the advantage, and
justify himself in every particular; and he absolutely denied that he
had given any advice concerning the treaty of partition. Lord Somers
was accused of having set the seals to the powers, and afterwards to the
treaties; of having accepted some grants; of having been an accomplice
with Kidd; and of having some guilt of partial and dilatory proceedings
in chancery. He answered every article in the charge; but no replication
was made by the commons either to him or the earl of Orford. When the
commons were stimulated by another message from the peers, relating to
the impeachments of the earl of Portland and lord Halifax, they declined
exhibiting articles against the former on pretence of respect for his
majesty; but on the fourteenth of June, the charge against Halifax was
sent up to the lords. He was taxed with possessing a grant in Ireland,
without paying the produce of it according to the law lately enacted
concerning those grants; with enjoying another grant out of the forest
of Deane, to the waste of the timber and the prejudice of the navy; with
having held places that were incompatible, by being at the same time
commissioner of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer; and with
having advised the two treaties of partition. He answered, that his
grant in Ireland was of debts and sums of money, and within the act
concerning confiscated estate