Tories and malecontent Whigs, elated by the hope that Montague might be convicted of malversation, eagerly called for inquiry.

An inquiry was instituted; but the result not only disappointed but utterly confounded the accusers.

The persecuted minister obtained both a complete acquittal, and a signal revenge.

Circumstances were discovered which seemed to indicate that Duncombe himself was not blameless.

The clue was followed; he was severely cross-examined; he lost his head; made one unguarded admission after another, and was at length compelled to confess, on the floor of the House, that he had been guilty of an infamous fraud, which, but for his own confession, it would have been scarcely possible to bring home to him.