[Rarebooks] fa: TRIAL BY IMPEACHMENT of HENRY DUNDAS, LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE - 1806

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 16. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/nsy6zyd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


The Trial, by Impeachment, of Henry Lord Viscount Melville, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors before the House of Peers in Westminster Hall, between the 29th of April and the 17th May of 1806. To which is prefixed, a sketch of the life and political character of His Lordship and a complete account of proceedings in Parliament relative to the charges on which the impeachment was founded. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1806. FIRST EDITION. Thick 8vo (25 cm), untrimmed, bound in modern three-quarter leather and marbled boards; xcv, [1], 378, [8] pp.; engraved portrait frontispiece.

Henry Dundas, Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty and one of William Pitt's closest advisers and political allies, was accused of misuse and misappropriation of funds during his time as Treasurer of the Navy. The trial pitted Whigs against Tories in one of the liveliest and noisiest political scrums of the period. Melville was ultimately found to have been negligent, but not corrupt, and was acquitted of all the charges against him. But the damage had been done: Melville resigned his office and retired to live quietly at his seat near Comrie in Scotland, where he died in 1811.

Binding with modest rubbing and wear to the extremities; some light browning and spotting to the title and last page; mild toning to the contents with browning to the untrimmed edges, a few occasional small spots, but generally very clean and sound, firmly bound.