ABSTRACT
At a push the most famous impeachments in English history and British history are arguably those of Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal, in 1787, and the attempted impeachments of Archbishop William Laud and Thomas Wentworth, the first Earl of Strafford, during the Long Parliament. The question of what was the most famous (or infamous) impeachment will, of course, depend on the person answering the question and crucially the context. Nonetheless, impeachment has a formidable (or rather controversial) historical reputation and brings together themes such as accountability, parliamentary trials, questions of legitimacy, fairness and partiality. This chapter begins by considering the final impeachment, that of Henry Dundas, the first Viscount Melville, in 1806. It will then consider the legacy of British impeachment during the two hundred or so years that followed the impeachment of Viscount Melville. It will argue that despite not being used during this time impeachment is in abeyance, rather than obsolete, and whilst it could still be possible to impeach a minister or indeed a judge, it would no longer be appropriate to do so, unless one was to first engage in wholesale modernisation of the procedure. This is because a revised form of impeachment would offer much in terms of accountability and would draw upon its historical legacy.
