16

HTSTOHY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXI.

1695.

Suspi-ciousdealingsof Sey-mour.

and ordered warrants for these great sums to be instantly madeout. It appeared that a few mutinous directors had murmuredat this immense outlay, and had called for a detailed statement.But the only answer which they had been able to extract fromCook was that there were some great persons whom it was ne-cessary to gratify.

The committee also reported that they had lighted on anagreement by which the Company had covenanted to furnisha person named Colston with two hundred tons of saltpetre.At the first glance, this transaction seemed merchantlike andfair. But it was soon discovered that Colston was merely anagent for Seymour. Suspicion was excited. The complicatedterms of the bargain were severely examined, and were found tobe framed in such a manner that, in every possible event, Sey-mour must be a gainer and the Company a loser to the extent often or twelve thousand pounds. The opinion of all who under-stood the matter was that the compact was merely a disguiseintended to cover a bribe. But the disguise was so skilfullymanaged that the country gentlemen were perplexed, and thatthe lawyers doubted whether there were such evidence of cor-ruption as would be held sufficient by a court of justice. Sey-mour escaped without even a vote of censure, and still con-tinued to take a leading part in the debates of the Commons.*But the authority which he had long exercised in the House andin the western counties of England, though not destroyed, wasvisibly diminished; and, to the end of his life, his traffic in

* On vit qu’fl ^toit impossible (le le poursuivre en justice, chacuntoutefois drfmeurant convaincu que c’dtoit un marclid fait a la main pour luifaire prdsent de la somme de 10,COOL, ct qu’il avoit 6l6 plus habile que lesautres novices que n’avoient pas su faire si finement lours affaires. —

L'licvmitage, Commons* Journals, March 12.; Vernon to Lex-

Ajiril 8.

ington. April 20.; Burnet, ii. 145.