Company," to have the sole privilege of trade with the Mississippi. The rage for this speculation soon became general; it rose to its greatest height about December, 1719; and the "actions," or shares, of the new Company sold for more than twenty times their original value. The Rue Quincampoix, the chief scene of this traffic, was thronged from daybreak by a busy and expecting crowd, which disregarded the hours of meals, and seemed to feel no hunger or thirst but that of gold, nor could they be dispersed until a bell at night gave them the signal to withdraw. The smallest room in that street was let for exorbitant sums; the clerks were unable to register the growing multitude of claimants; and it is even said that a little hunchback in the street gained no less than 50,000 francs by allowing eager speculators to use his hump for their desk.* Law, the projector of this System, as it was called, at once became the greatest subject in Europe. "I have seen him come to Court," says Voltaire, "followed humbly by Dukes, by Marshals, and by Bishops;" and even Dubois, the Prime Minister, and Orleans, the Regent, might be said to tremble at his nod. Arrogance and presumption, the usual faults of upstarts, daily grew upon him: he said publicly, before some English, that there was but one great kingdom in Europe, and one great town, and that was France and Paris.† And at length he so far galled the pride or raised the jealousy of his countryman, Lord Stair, as to draw him into personal wrangling, and consequently interrupt the friendly correspondence between the French and British Governments. It was one main object of Stanhope's journey in January to re-establish harmony; but finding the two Scotsmen irreconcilable, and one of them supreme in France, he, in concert with Dubois, recalled Lord Stair to England, and appointed Sir Robert Sutton his successor. Thus ended Stair's celebrated embassy, which Lord Hardwicke truly calls most important in its objects, most brilliant and spirited in its execution.§ But this last great error kept him under disgrace, or at least out of employment, for twenty years. In 1733, we find Horace Walpole write of him as one "whose haughty intriguing character has drawn upon him the displeasure of the King." The connection of Law with the French Government was very profitable to the latter, who contrived to throw off 1500 millions of public debts from their shoulders upon his; but this very circumstance, and the natural revulsion of high-wrought hopes, soon began to shake his air-built edifice. Two or three arbitrary Royal Decrees to support him served only to prove that credit is not to be commanded. The more the public was bid to trust, the more they were inclined to fear, and the more eager they became to realise their * Mém. de la Régence, tom. iv. p. 53, ed. 1749. † Lord Stair to Secretary Craggs, Sept. 9, 1719. Lord Stanhope to Abbé Dubois, Dec. 18, 1719 (Appendix); and Lord Stair's apologetic letters in the Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 603–615. § Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. p. 521. To Baron Gedda, 1733. This, however, was after the Excise Scheme. imaginary profits. No sooner was the bubble touched, than it burst. Before the end of 1720, Law was compelled not only to resign his employments, but to fly the kingdom for his life; a few speculators were enriched, but many thousand innocent families ruined.* Still, however, in the early part of that year the crash had not yet begun, and the rage of speculation spread over from France to England. In fact, from that time downward, it may be noticed that each of the two countries has been more or less moved by the internal movements of the other; and there has been scarcely any impulse at Paris which has failed to thrill and vibrate through every member of the British Empire. As soon as the South Sea Bill had received the Royal Assent in April, the Directors proposed a subscription of one million, which was so eagerly taken, that the sum subscribed exceeded two. Α second subscription was quickly opened, and no less quickly filled. The most exaggerated hopes were raised, and the most groundless rumours set afloat; such as that Stanhope had received overtures at Paris to exchange Gibraltar and Port Mahon for some places in Peru! The South Sea trade was again vaunted as the best avenue to wealth; objections were unheard or over-ruled; and the friends of Lord Oxford might exult to see his visions adopted by his opponents. In August, the stocks, which had been 130 in the winter, rose to 1000! Such general infatuation would have been happy for the Directors, had they not themselves partaken of it. They opened a third, and even a fourth subscription, larger than the former; they passed a resolution, that from Christmas next their yearly dividend should not be less than fifty per cent.; they assumed an arrogant and overbearing tone. "We have made them Kings," says a Member of Parliament, "and they deal with every body as such!" But the public delusion was not confined to the South Sea Scheme; a thousand other mushroom projects sprung up in that teeming soil. This evil had been foreseen, and, as they hoped, guarded against by Ministers. On the very day Parliament rose they had issued a Royal Proclamation against "such mischievous and dangerous undertakings, especially the presuming to act as a corporate body, or raising stocks or shares without legal authority." But how difficult to enforce that prohibition in a free country! How impossible, when almost immediately on the King's departure, the Heir Apparent was induced to publish his name as a Governor of the Welsh In 1723, Walpole wished to promote the restoration of Law in France, since the power might fall into much worse hands for England. (To Sir Luke Schaub, April 19, 1723.) But the public resentment was far too violent to admit of such a scheme. It is very remarkable as the strongest proof of the ascendency of Lord Stanhope over Dubois and the French Government, that it was he who, from Hanover, planned and counselled all the steps for the expulsion of Law and the restoration of public credit in France. (M. Destouches to Dubois, Sept. 8, 1720. See Appendix.)® "You remember when the South Sea was said to be Lord Oxford's brat. Now the King has adopted it, and calls it his beloved child; though perhaps you may say, if he loves it no better than his son, it may not be saying much!" (Duchess of Ormond to Swift, April 18, 1720.) Mr. Brodrick to Lord Midleton, Sept. 13, 1720. Copper Company! In vain did the Speaker and Walpole endeavour to dissuade him, representing that he would be attacked in Parliament, and that "The Prince of Wales's Bubble" would be cried in Change Alley.* It was not till the Company was threatened with prosecution, and exposed to risk, that His Royal Highness prudently withdrew, with a profit of 40,0007. Such an example was tempting to follow; the Duke of Chandos and the Earl of Westmoreland appeared likewise at the head of bubbles; and the people at large soon discovered that to speculate is easier than to work. Change Alley became a new edition of the Rue Quincampoix. The crowds were so great within doors, that tables with clerks were set in the streets. In this motley throng were blended all ranks, all professions, and all parties; Churchmen and Dissenters, Whigs and Tories, country gentlemen and brokers. An eager strife of tongues prevailed in this second Babel; new reports, new subscriptions, new transfers, flew from mouth to mouth; and the voice of ladies (for even many ladies had turned gamblers) rose loud and incessant, above the general din. A foreigner would no longer have complained of the English taciturnity. Some of the companies hawked about were for the most extravagant objects: we find amongst the number, "Wrecks to be fished for on the Irish Coast-Insurance of Horses, and other Cattle (two millions)-Insurance of Losses by Servants-To make Salt Water Fresh-For building of Hospitals for Bastard Children-For building of Ships against Pirates-For making of Oil from Sun-flower Seeds-For improving of Malt Liquors-For recovering of Seamen's WagesFor extracting of Silver from Lead-For the transmuting of Quicksilver into a malleable and fine Metal-For making of Iron with Pit-coal-For importing a Number of large Jack Asses from Spain -For trading in Human Hair-For fatting of Hogs-For a Wheel for a Perpetual Motion." But the most strange of all, perhaps, was "For an Undertaking which shall in due time be revealed.' Each subscriber was to pay down two guineas, and hereafter to receive a share of one hundred with a disclosure of the object; and so tempting was the offer, that 1000 of these subscriptions were paid the same morning, with which the projector went off in the afternoon. Amidst these real follies, I can scarcely see any difference or exaggeration in a mock proposal which was circulated at the time. in ridicule of the rest,-"For the Invention of melting down Saw Secretary Craggs to Earl Stanhope, July 12, 1720. † A French traveller, a few years afterwards, declares that the " Actions du Sud et les Galions d'Espagne" were almost the only subjects on which Englishmen would talk. In general, he says, we are quite silent. "L'on boit et fume sans parler. Je connais un Anglais, qui, toutes les fois qu'on veut le forcer à rompre le silence, a coutume de répon. dre, que parler c'est gâter la conversation!" (Lettres d'un Français, tom. ii. p. 108, ed. 1745.) Macpherson's Hist. of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 90, ed. 1805. Mr. Hutcheson observes, "To speak in a gaming style, the South Sea stock must be allowed the honour of being the Gold Table; the better sort of bubbles, the Silver Tables; and the lower sort of these, the Farthing Tables for the footinen!" (Treatises, p. 87.) dust and Chips, and casting them into clean Deal Boards without Cracks or Knots!" * Such extravagances might well provoke laughter; but, unhappily, though the farce came first, there was a tragedy behind. When the sums intended to be raised had grown altogether, it is said, to the enormous amount of three hundred millions, the first check to the public infatuation was given by the same body whence it had first sprung. The South Sea Directors, craving for fresh gains, and jealous of other speculators, obtained an order from the Lords Justices, and writs of SCIRE FACIAS, against several of the new bubble companies. These fell, but in falling drew down the whole fabric with them. As soon as distrust was excited, all men became anxious to convert their bonds into money; and then at once appeared the fearful disproportion between the paper promises and the coin to pay. Early in September, the South Sea Stock began to decline: its fall became more rapid from day to day, and in less than a month it had sunk below 300. In vain was money drained from all the distant counties and brought up to London. In vain were the goldsmiths applied to, with whom large quantities of stock were pawned: most of them broke or fled. In vain was Walpole summoned from Houghton to use his influence with the Bank; for that body, though it entered into negotiations, would not proceed in them, and refused to ratify a contract drawn up and proposed by the Minister. Once lost, the public confidence could not be restored: the decline progressively continued, and the news of the crash in France completed ours. Thousands of families were reduced to beggary; thousands more were threatened with the same fate; and the large fortunes made, or supposed to be made, by a few individuals, served only by comparison to aggravate the common ruin. Those who had sported most proudly on the surface of the swollen waters were left stranded and bare by the ebbing of that mighty tide. The resentment and rage were universal. "I perceive," says a contemporary, "the very name of a South Sea man grows abominable in every county;"‡ and a cry was raised not merely against the South Sea Directors, Tindal's Hist., vol. vii. p. 357. Treatises, p. 89. See also in my [See an account of the Caricatures on the "Bubbles,” in Wright's "England under the House of Hanover, its History and Condition during the Reigns of the Three Georges, illustrated by the Caricatures and Satires of the day," vol. i. chap. 2. Mr. Wright remarks that "The period of the South Sea bubble is that in which political caricatures began to be common in England; for they had before been published at rare intervals, and partook so much of the character of emblems that they are not always very easy to be understood. Read's Weekly Journal of November 1, 1718, gives a caricature against the Tories, engraved on wood, which is called ‘an hieroglyphic,' so little was the real nature of a caricature then appreciated." Vol. i. p. 69. It appears from a number of “The Spectator," November 15th, 1712, that at that time the word "caricature" was not introduced in the language, and that the thing itself was a novelty: the writer speaks of "those burlesque pictures which the Italians call caricaturas," and then defines the nature of them.] not merely against the Ministry, but against the Royal Family, against the King himself. Most of the statesmen of the time had more or less dabbled in these funds. Lord Sunderland lost considerably;* Walpole, with more sagacity, was a great gainer:† the Duke of Portland, Lord Lonsdale, and Lord Irwin, were reduced to solicit West India governments; and it is mentioned as an exception, that "neither Lords Stanhope, Argyle, nor Roxburgh, have been in the stocks." Townshend, I believe, might also be excepted. But the public indignation was pointed chiefly against Sir John Blunt as projector, and against Sunderland and Aislabie as heads. of the Treasury; and it was suspected, how truly will afterwards appear, that the King's mistresses and several of his ministers, both English and German, had received large sums in stock to recommend the project. In short, as England had never yet undergone such great disappointment and confusion, so it never had so loudly called for confiscation and blood. That there was some knavery to punish, I do not deny, and I shall presently show. It seems to me, however, that the nation had suffered infinitely more by their own self-willed infatuation than by any fraud that was or could be practised upon them. This should not have been forgotten when the day of disappointment came. But when a people is suffering severely, from whatever cause, it always looks round for a victim, and too often strikes the first it finds. It seeks for no proof; it will listen to no defence; it considers an acquittal as only a collusion. Of this fatal tendency our own times may afford a striking instance. Whilst the cholera prevailed at Paris and Madrid, it was seen that the mob, instead of lamenting a natural and unavoidable calamity, were persuaded that the springs had been poisoned, and ran to arms for their revenge. During this time, express after express was sent to the King at Hanover, announcing the dismal news, and pressing his speedy return. George had intended to make a longer stay in Germany; but seeing the urgency of the case he hastened homewards, attended by Stanhope, and landed at Margate on the 9th of November. It had been hoped that his Majesty's presence would have revived the drooping credit of the South Sea Funds, but it had not that effect; on the contrary, they fell to 135 at the tidings that Parliament was further prorogued for a fortnight. That delay was necessary to frame some scheme for meeting the public difficulties, and this task, by universal assent, and even acclamation, was assigned to Walpole. Fortunately for that Minister he had been out of office when the South Sea Act was passed; he had opposed it as he had opposed all the measures, right or wrong, of Stanhope's and Sunderland's government, and its unpopularity, therefore, turned to his reputation Mr. Brodrick to Lord Midleton, Sept. 13, 1720. † Coxe's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 730. Walpole sold out at the highest price (1000), saying, as be well might, "I am fully satisfied." His wife continued to speculate a little longer on her own account. Mr. Drummond to Mr. D. Pulteney, November 24, 1720. (Coxe's Walpole.) |