Melville Henry Dundas

Melville, Henry Dundas, Viscount, was born in 1741, educated in Edinburgh, and admitted to the Scotch bar, becoming Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate. In 1774 he entered Parliament as a supporter of Lord North, but joined Pitt in 1784, being appointed successively to the Board of Control, the Home Office, and War Office. Created Viscount Melville in 1802, he was impeached in 1806 for appropriating public money. Though acquitted, he was made the scapegoat for a rotten system of official corruption, being personally quite innocent, and he retired from public life, dying in 1811.