possessions of the French King in North America; but with a real design to promote his interests, by weakening the confederate army in Flanders, and dissipating the naval force of this kingdom, as well as for the sake of the private interest and corrupt gain of the promoters of the said expedition, he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, being then one of her late Majesty's Privy Council and one of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, was not only wanting in his duty to her late Majesty, by wilfully and industriously absenting from the meetings of other persons then in high trust under her Majesty, wherein the said expedition was concerted; and by not advising her Majesty against, and doing what in him lay to have prevented the putting the same in execution; but did, contrary to his oath and the high trust then reposed in him, advise her Majesty to consent to the making an expedition for the conquering Canada, and the city of Quebec, on the river of St. Lawrence, in North America; and, in execution of his said evil counsels, he did further advise her Majesty to give orders for detaching several battalions of the forces then in the service of her Majesty in conjunction with her allies in Flanders, and to send the same, with a large squadron of men of war, on the said enterprise; although the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer well knew, that the said project or expedition, having been frequently deliberated on, and maturely considered a short time before in a committee of council, was then laid aside as dangerous and impracticable; and a demand being made, at the treasury, on or about the months of May and June 1711, for the sum of 28,000l. or thereabouts, on pretence of arms and merchandizes said to be sent on the said expedition to Canada, he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, being then Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain and one of her Majesty's Privy Council, though he well knew, or had reason to suspect, that the same was an unjust and exorbitant demand, and a great abuse on her Majesty and the public, and such as ought not to have been complied with, was not only wanting in his duty to her Majesty, in not giving his humble advice against

the said demand, or at least in not representing to her the ground of such his suspicion; but did, contrary to his oath and his duty, advise her Majesty that the said sum should be issued and paid, and did accordingly countersign a warrant to the Paymaster of her Majesty's Forces for the payment of the same, pursuant to which the same was issued and received: and, in further violation of his oath, his duty, and trust, and with the most corrupt design to prevent the justice due to her Majesty and the nation, he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, being then Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain, and exercising a most unexampled arbitrary power, not only in her Majesty's private councils, but extending his evil influences to the great council of the nation, after the said expedition had proved unsuccessful, and it had been discovered to him the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer that the nation had been cheated of above 20,000l. on that account, did most ungratefully and corruptly employ his wicked arts, and the credit which he had gained by his many false and crafty insinuations and practices, to keep the House of Commons from examining that affair: and, in or about the month of August 1714, in a letter or memorial, under his own hand, to her late Majesty, he did presume, not only to insinuate the ill opinion he therein pretended always to have had of the said expedition, but did declare the suspicions he had of the great injury and abuse done to her Majesty and the public in the demand of the said. 28,000l. even at the time when the same was made, and that the public had been cheated of above 20,000l. on that account; and, in the said memorial, did presume further to declare to her Majesty, "That he was forced to use all his skill and credit to keep the House of Commons from examining that affair the last parliament;" thereby vainly, but most wickedly, recommending himself to the continuance of her Majesty's favour by the success of his most profligate measures. By all which unparalleled corruptions and most dangerous counsels and practices of him the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, the good and faithful allies of her Majesty were deprived of the aid of her Ma

jesty's troops, to which they were entitled by their conventions; and the confederate army in Flanders was greatly diminished, to the apparent advantage of the common enemy; the public money granted by parliament for reducing the power of France, and which was expressly appropriated for other special services, was arbitrarily and illegally misapplied and embezzled, and a heavy debt incurred on the nation, not only setting the parliament, but even in contempt and defiance of a representation made by the House of Commons to the throne, even while the said expedition was concerting; and whereby the highest injustice was done, in suppressing an inquiry so just to her Majesty and her people, and a lasting reproach and scandal brought on that House of Commons, of which he boasts as having been wrought on, by his corrupt influence, not to examine into so high and scandalous an abuse.

ARTICLE II.

That the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, not contented with the high employments and places of honour and profit bestowed on him by her late Majesty, nor with the large and excessive gains by him made by the incomes and profits of the said employments, on or about the month of October 1711, whilst the nation was engaged in a most expensive war against France and Spain for preserving the liberties of Europe, and greatly exhausted with the supplies and taxes for carrying on the same, and was under such heavy debts as were impossible to be satisfied without the utmost frugality, or laying grievous taxes on the Commons of Great Britain, contrary to his oath and his high trust, and making a most dishonourable and ungrateful use of the ready access he had to her late Majesty, did prevail on and advise her Majesty to sign a warrant to himself, being then Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain, for the issuing and payment of the sum of 13,000l. to John Drummond, Esq. or his assigns, for such special services, relating to the war, as her Majesty had directed; and the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, on or about the 24th

day of November following, in pursuance of the said warrant under her Majesty's sign manual, did sign a warrant for the payment of the said 13,000l. for such special services of the war as her Majesty had directed, although no special services had been, or were at any time afterwards, directed by her Majesty, to which the said monies were to be applied: and the said Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer having privately desired leave of the said Drummond to strike some tin tallies in his the said Drummond's name, he did, pursuant thereto, direct that orders, amounting to the sum of 13,000l., should be charged in the register of the exchequer, on monies arising by sale of tin, in the name of the said John Drummond; and though the same were accordingly struck, in the name of the said Drummond, in or about the month of November 1711, they were not delivered out to the said Drummond, but were kept in the treasury chamber, or elsewhere in the power or custody of the said Earl, till about the end of January following; when the said Drummond having occasion, as the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer well knew, to go into Holland, at the desire and request of the said Earl, he endorsed his name on the said orders; and the same were left by his privity, direction or consent, in the hands of Master John Taylor, a clerk of the Treasury; and the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, having afterwards got possession of the said orders, did, in or about the month of June 1712, send an order in writing to the said Master Taylor, to deliver the said tallies to a servant of the said Earl, which was done accordingly, the same endorsements not being at that time filled up; and the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, having by these corrupt and scandalous methods got the said tallies and orders into his own hands, did afterwards fill up assignments of the said orders for 12,000l., part of the said 13,000l., to himself, and the remaining part to such other persons as he thought fit; and did afterwards, in or about the months of August, October, and November 1713, at several times, dispose of the said orders and tallies to his own private use and

advantage: and, to cover the said scandalous embezzlements, he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer did afterwards, as he pretends, advise and prevail on her Majesty, on or about the 14th of December 1713, to sign a warrant prepared by himself, wherein, after the recitals of his own good, faithful, and acceptable services, which had tended to the quiet, safety, and prosperity of her Majesty and her realms, though accompanied with great difficulties on himself and hazards to him and his family; and that her Majesty was resolved to bestow upon him a sum of ready money; but the said Earl representing to her Majesty, that the arrears then due to her servants and tradesmen were very great and pressing, her Majesty did therefore agree and determine that he should have to his own use the said several sums, amounting to 13,000l. comprised in the orders aforesaid; it was directed, that the said John Drummond should assign the same orders, and the whole right and benefit thereof, to the said Earl and his assigns; although the said Earl had privately and clandestinely procured from the said Drummond an assignment of the said orders near two years before the said warrant, and had fraudulently and corruptly disposed and converted them to his own use, without her Majesty's privity or consent, some time before her Majesty was prevailed on to sign the said warrant; and though the lastmentioned warrant, if any such there be, was not communicated to the said Druinmond by the said Earl during her Majesty's life, nor was the same countersigned, nor entered in the treasury, yet he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, even after his said corruption had been discovered in Parliament, did presume, without the privity of the said Drummond, to send the said warrant to the Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, desiring that the same might then have been entered in the treasury; but the same was, with great honour and justice, refused to be so entered by which most vile and scandalous corruption, he the said Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer was guilty of the most notorious breach of his oath and trust as Lord High Treasurer