They filled twelve bound volumes and three small books. As they were so voluminous, he moved that they should be referred to a committee of twenty-one persons. The motion was carried without opposition; the committee met that evening, and appointed Walpole chairman. They pursued their inquiries with all diligence for two months. Whilst this was going on, the opposite parties in the house could not refrain from breaking out in almost every debate into heats, which showed the fiendish condition of the house. On one occasion Sir William Wyndham broke forth into strong terms of reprobation of the king's proclamation in January, which he declared was dangerous to the very existence of parliament. He was fiercely called upon to explain, and, on his refusing, there was a loud cry of "To the Tower!—to the Tower!" But Walpole parried so unwise an act of rigour by declaring that he would not gratify the member's desire of being sent to the Tower—that would make the young man of too much importance; and he rather desired to see him in his place when they came to inquire into the measures of his friends. On another occasion Wyndham denounced the grant of so large a civil list, declaring that the late queen could afford out of the same sum to pay fifty thousand pounds a year to the widow of king James. This was an unlucky slip, and it was instantly seized on by Stanhope, who begged the house to mark well what had fallen from that gentleman, as it confirmed matters which the committee had discovered amongst his papers intrusted to them.
On the 1st of June, Shippen, a leading Jacobite, threw out a taunt, that he believed all the labours of the secret committee must end in smoke. But Boscawen, one of the committee, replied that, so far from that, the committee was prepared to chastise the insolence of a certain set of men by making its report. Walpole followed, declaring that he "wanted words to express the villainy of the late Frenchified ministry;" and Stanhope, that he "wondered that men who were guilty of such enormous crime had still the audaciousness to appear in the public streets."
The report was accordingly brought up on the 9th. It was brought up by Walpole in a clear and masterly style, and was read by himself. It took five hours for the perusal, and was read a second time the next day by the clerk. It was supported by seventy-one extracts from the correspondence of the late ministry; and, by its details of the shameful conditions of the peace of Utrecht, of the line of conduct prescribed to Ormonde on the occasion, of the most infamous betrayal of the Catalans to the vengeance of Spain, the wanton gift of Tournay to the French, and the whole conduct of Bolingbroke in these transactions, it roused the most unspeakable indignation in the house. It was ordered to be printed, and Sir Thomas Hanmer moved that it should be printed, and its consideration postponed till the 21st; but such was the feeling of the house that this was opposed by Walpole, Stanhope, and all the whigs, and Hanmer's motion was rejected by two hundred and eighty votes to one hundred and sixty.
Walpole then rose and moved the impeachment of Bolingbroke of high treason. The friends of Bolingbroke were deprived of the power of defending him by his flight; for, though the report had most strikingly proved the infamy of the peace of Utrecht, and of the conduct of the ministry to the allies, it was far weaker in the charges regarding his correspondence with the pretender, many papers having been secretly conveyed away. These papers have since, and many of them recently, come to light, and establish in the broadest daylight the whole of the guilt of those ministers. Yet, as that evidence was to a great degree wanting at the moment, it afforded ground for defence; but, except some observations from Mr. Hungerford and general Ross, asserting that there was nothing in the evidence against lord Bolingbroke amounting to high treason, the whole of the Jacobite party was silent, and the motion passed without a division. Lord Coningsby then rose and said — "The worthy chairman has impeached the hand, and I do impeach the head; he has impeached the clerk, and I the justice; he has impeached the scholar, and I the master. I impeach Robert, earl of Oxford and earl Mortimer, of high treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanours."
There was a more spirited defence of Oxford than there had been of Bolingbroke. Mr. Harley and Mr. Foley, Oxford's brother-in-law, warmly defended their relative, and Sir Joseph Jekyll, a member of the committee, admitting that they had evidence to convict Bolingbroke, doubted whether they had evidence enough to convict Oxford. But other members stated that, besides the report, they had a quantity of living evidence in readiness, and the motion was carried without a division. On the 21st Stanhope impeached Ormonde. There was in the duke's case a strong array of defence. The debate continued nine hours and a half. His correspondence with the pretender was not so well proved as that of the two ministers, though there was no question of his guilt being equal; but it was contended by his friends that he had only obeyed orders in withdrawing the troops from the allies, as he was bound to do; that the guilt, if any, rested with the ministers who issued these orders. Jekyll also spoke in his favour, and the motion was only carried by a majority of forty-seven. The next day the earl of Strafford was impeached by Mr. Aislabie, as one of the plenipotentiaries at Utrecht, not of high treason, but of high crimes and misdemeanours; and, as no charge was brought against Robinson, bishop of Lincoln, the other plenipotentiary, Mr. Hungerford sarcastically observed that it seemed he was to enjoy the benefit of clergy.
Much effort was made on behalf of Ormonde, in which the duke of Devonshire took the lead, to reconcile him to the court, in which case the prosecution would have been dropped; and his Jacobite friends warmly urged him to accept this offer, because they were anxious to retain him in England with a view to his services in plans of fresh treason. There was a scheme for a rising in the west, and Ormonde was already deep in it; but he was too honourable to adopt the hollow part recommended by his friends, and he therefore followed the example of Bolingbroke, and fled. Before taking his departure, he is reported to have visited Oxford in the Tower, and advised him by all means to effect his escape too; but when he found the ex-lord treasurer insensible to his arguments, he said, "Farewell, Oxford without a head;" to which Oxford replied, "Farewell, duke without a duchy." Bolingbroke was destined to revisit England, but Ormonde never. He lived and died in
