Note 376 — Chapter XVI · ON THE STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION IN THE REIGNS OF ANNE, GEORGE I., AND GEORGE II. (continued 2)

This secret committee were checked at every step for want of sufficient powers. It is absurd to assert, like Mr. Coxe, that they advanced accusations which they could not prove, when the means of proof were withheld. Scrope and Paxton, the one secretary, the other solicitor, to the treasury, being examined about very large sums traced to their hands, and other matters, refused to answer questions that might criminate themselves; and a bill to indemnify evidence was lost in the upper house. Parl. Hist. xii. 625 et post.