Their books were subjected to the same committee that carried on the former inquiry, and a surprising scene of venality and corruption was soon disclosed.

It appeared that the company, in the course of the preceding year, had paid near ninety thousand rounds in secret services, and that sir Thomas Cooke, one of the directors, and a member of the house, had been the chief managers of this infamous commerce.

Cooke, refusing to answer, was committed to the Tower, and a bill of pains and penalties brought in obliging him to discover how the sum mentioned in the report of the committee had been distributed.

The bill was violently opposed in the upper house by the duke of Leeds, as being contrary to law and equity, and furnishing a precedent of a dangerous nature.

Cooke, agreeably to his own petition, being brought to the bar of the house of lords, declared that he was ready and willing to make a full discovery, in case he might be favoured with an indemnifying vote to secure him against all actions and suits, except those of the East India company which he had never injured.