The flight of this man made it impossible for the Commons to proceed.  They vehemently accused Leeds of having sent away the witness who alone could furnish legal proof of that which was already established by moral proof.  Leeds, now at ease as to the event of the impeachment, gave himself the airs of an injured man.  “My Lords,” he said, “the conduct of the Commons is without precedent.  They impeach me of a high crime; they promise to prove it; then they find that they have not the means of proving it; and they revile me for not supplying them with the means.  Surely they ought not to have brought a charge like this, without well considering whether they had or had not evidence sufficient to support it.  If Robart’s testimony be, as they now say, indispensable, why did they not send for him and hear his story before they made up their minds?  They may thank their own intemperance, their own precipitancy, for his disappearance.  He is a foreigner; he is timid; he hears that a transaction in which he has been concerned has been pronounced by the House of Commons to be highly criminal, that his master is impeached, that his friend Bates is in prison, that his own turn is coming.  He naturally takes fright; he escapes to his own country; and, from what I know of him, I will venture to predict that it will be long before he trusts himself again within reach of the Speaker’s warrant.  But what is that to me?  Am I to lie all my life under the stigma of an accusation like this, merely because the violence of my accusers has scared their own witness out of England?  I demand an immediate trial.  I move your Lordships to resolve that, unless the Commons shall proceed before the end of the session, the impeachment shall be dismissed.”  A few friendly voices cried out “Well moved.”  But the Peers were generally unwilling to take a step which would have been in the highest degree offensive to the Lower House, and to the great body of those whom that House represented.  The Duke’s motion fell to the ground; and a few hours later the Parliament was prorogued.584

The impeachment was never revived.  The evidence which would warrant a formal verdict of guilty was not forthcoming; and a formal verdict of guilty would hardly have answered Wharton’s purpose better than the informal verdict of guilty which the whole nation had already pronounced.  The work was done.  The Whigs were dominant.  Leeds was no longer chief minister, was indeed no longer a minister at all.  William, from respect probably for the memory of the beloved wife whom he had lately lost, and to whom Leeds had shown peculiar attachment, avoided every thing that could look like harshness.  The fallen statesman was suffered to retain during a considerable time the title of Lord President, and to walk on public occasions between the Great Seal and the Privy Seal.  But he was told that he would do well not to show himself at Council; the business and the patronage even of the department of which he was the nominal head passed into other hands; and the place which he ostensibly filled was considered in political circles as really vacant.585