Chapter II (2)

Admiral Byng no sooner learned the bad success of the attack at Franca-Villa, than he embarked two battalions from the garrison of Melazzo, and about a thousand recruits, whom he sent under a convoy through the Baro to Scheso-bay, in order to reinforce the Imperial army. He afterwards assisted at the council ol war with the German generals, who, in consequence of his advice, undertook the siege of Messina. Then he repaired to Naples, where he proposed to count Gallas, the new viceroy, that the troops destined for the conquest of Sardinia should be first landed in Sicily, and co-operate towards the conquest of that island. The proposal was immediately despatched to the court of Vienna. In the meantime, the admiral returned to Sicily, and assisted at the siege of Messina. The town surrendered; the garrison retired into the citadel; and the remains of the Spanish navy, which had escaped at Passaro, were now destroyed in the Mole. The emperor approved of the scheme proposed by the English admiral, to whom he wrote a very gracious letter, intimating that he had despatched orders to the governor of Milan to detach the troops designed for Sardinia to Vado, in order to be transported into Italy. The admiral charged himself with the performance of this service. Having furnished the Imperial army before Messina with another supply of cannon, powder, and shot, upon his own credit, he set sail for Vado, where he surmounted numberless difficulties started by the jealousy of count Bonneval, who was unwilling to see his troops, destined for Sardinia, now diverted to another expedition, in which he could not enjoy the chief command. At length admiral Byng saw the forces embarked, and convoyed them to Messina, the citadel of which surrendered in a few days after their arrival. By this time the marquis de Lede had fortified a strong post at Castro-Giovanne, in the centre of the island; and cantoned his troops about Aderno, Palermo, and Catenea. The Imperialists could not pretend to attack him in this situation, nor could they remain in the neighbourhood of Messina on account of the scarcity of provisions. They would, therefore, have been obliged to quit the island during the winter, had not the admiral undertaken to transport them by sea to Trapani, where they could extend themselves in a plentiful country. He not only executed this enterprise, but even supplied them with corn from Tunis, as the harvests of Sicily had been gathered into the Spanish magazines. It was the second day of March before the last embarkation of the Imperial troops were landed at Trapani.

THE SPANISH TROOPS EVACUATE SICILY.

The marquis de Lede immediately retired with his army to Alcamo, from whence he sent his mareschal de camp to count Merci and the English admiral, with overtures for evacuating Sicily. The proposals were not disagreeable to the Germans: but sir George Byng declared that the Spaniards should not quit the island while the war continued, as he foresaw that these troops would be employed against France or England. He agreed however with count Merci, in proposing that if the marquis would surrender Palermo and retire into the middle part of the island, they would consent to an armistice for six weeks, until the sentiments of their different courts should be known. The marquis offered to surrender Palermo, in consideration of a suspension of arms for three months; but, while this negotiation was depending, he received advice from Madrid that a general peace was concluded. Nevertheless, he broke off the treaty in obedience to a secret order for that purpose. The king of Spain hoped to obtain the restitution of St. Sebastian’s, Fontarabia, and other places taken in the course of the war, in exchange for the evacuation of Sicily, Hostilities were continued until the admiral received advice from the earl of Stair, at Paris, that the Spanish ambassador at the Hague had signed the quadruple alliance. By the same courier packets were delivered to the count de Merci and the marquis de Lede, which last gave the admiral and Imperial general to understand that he looked upon the peace as a thing concluded, and was ready to treat for a cessation of hostilities. They insisted on his delivering up Palermo; on the other hand he urged, that, as their masters were in treaty for settling the terms of evacuating Sicily and Sardinia, he did not think himself authorised to agree to a cessation, except on condition that each party should remain on the ground they occupied, and expect further orders from their principals. After a fruitless interview between the three chiefs at the Cassine de Rossignola, the Imperial general resolved to undertake the siege of Palermo; with this view he decamped from Alcamo on the eighteenth day of April, and followed the marquis de Lede, who retreated before him and took possession of the advantageous posts that commanded the passes into the plain of Palermo; but count Merci, with indefatigable diligence, marched over the mountains, while the admiral coasted along shore, attending the motions of the army. The Spanish general perceiving the Germans advancing into the plain, retired under the cannon of Palermo, and fortified his camp with strong entrenchments. On the second day of May the Germans took one of the enemy’s redoubts by surprise, and the marquis de Lede ordered all his forces to be drawn out to retake this fortification: both armies were on the point of engaging, when a courier arrived in a felucca with a packet for the marquis, containing full powers to treat and agree about the evacuation of the island, and the transportation of the army to Spain. He forthwith drew off his army; and sent a trumpet to the general and admiral, with letters, informing them of the orders he had received: commissioners were appointed on each side, the negotiations begun, and the convention signed in a very few days. The Germans were put in possession of Palermo, and the Spanish army marched to Tauromini, from whence they were transported to Barcelona.

PHILIP OBLIGED TO ACCEDE TO THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE.

The admiral continued in the Mediterranean until he had seen the islands of Sicily and Sardinia evacuated by the Spaniards, and the mutual cessions executed between the emperor and the duke of Savoy, in consequence of which four battalions of Piedmontese troops were transported from Palermo to Sardinia, and took possession of Cagliari in the name of their master. In a word, admiral Byng bore such a considerable share in this war of Sicily, that the fate of the island depended wholly on his courage, vigilance, and conduct. When he waited on his majesty at Hanover, he met with a very gracious reception. The king told him he had found out the secret of obliging his enemies as well as his friends; for the court of Spain had mentioned him in the most honourable terms, with respect to his candid and friendly deportment in providing transports and other necessaries for the embarkation of their troops, and in protecting them from oppression. He was appointed treasurer of the navy, and rear-admiral of Great Britain: in a little time the king ennobled him, by the title of viscount Torrington: he was declared a privy-counsellor, and afterwards made knight of the bath at the revival of that order. During these occurrences in the Mediterranean, the duke of Berwick advanced with the French army to the frontiers of Spain, where he took Port-Passage and destroyed six ships of war that were on the stocks; then he reduced Fontarabia and St. Sebastian’s, together with Port Antonio in the bottom of the bay of Biscay. In this last exploit the French were assisted by a detachment of English seamen, who burned two large ships unfinished, and a great quantity of naval stores. The king of England, with a view to indemnify himself for the expense of the war, projected the conquest of Corunna in Biscay, and of Peru in South America. Four thousand men, commanded by lord Cobham, were embarked at the Isle of Wight, and sailed on the twenty-first day of September, under convoy of five ships of war conducted by admiral Mighels. Instead of making an attempt upon Corunna, they reduced Vigo with very little difficulty; and Point-a-Vedra submitted without resistance: here they found some brass artillery, small arms, and military stores, with which they returned to England. In the meantime captain Johnson, with two English ships of war, destroyed the same number of Spanish ships in the port of Ribadeo, to the eastward of Cape Ortegas, so that the naval power of Spain was totally ruined. The expedition to the West Indies was prevented by the peace. Spain being oppressed on all sides, and utterly exhausted, Philip saw the necessity of a speedy pacification. He now perceived the madness of Alberoni’s ambitious projects. That minister was personally disagreeable to the emperor, the king of England, and the regent of France, who had declared they would hearken to no proposals while he should continue in office: the Spanish monarch, therefore, divested him of his employment, and ordered him to quit the kingdom in three weeks. The marquis de Beretti Landi, minister from the court of Madrid at the Hague, delivered a plan of pacification to the states; hat it was rejected by the allies; and Philip was obliged at last to accede to the quadruple alliance.

BILL FOR SECURING THE DEPENDENCY OF IRELAND UPON THE CROWN.

On the fourteenth day of November, king George returned to England, and on the twenty-third opened the session of parliament with a speech, in which he told them that all Europe, as well as Great Britain, was on the point of being delivered from the calamities of war by the influence of British arms and councils. He exhorted the commons to concert proper means for lessening the debts of the nation, and concluded with a panegyric upon his own government. It must be owned he had acted with equal vigour and deliberation in all the troubles he had encountered since his accession to the throne. The addresses of both houses were as warm as he could desire. They in particular extolled him for having interposed in behalf of the protestants of Hungary, Poland, and Germany, who had been oppressed by the practices of the popish clergy, and presented to him memorials containing a detail of their grievances. He and all the other protestant powers warmly interceded in their favour, but the grievances were not redressed. The peerage bill was now revived by the duke of Buckingham; and, in spite of all opposition, passed through the house of lords. It had been projected by earl Stanhope, and eagerly supported by the earl of Sunderland; therefore, Mr. Robert Walpole attacked it in the house of commons with extraordinary vehemence. Here too it was opposed by a considerable number of whig members; and, after warm debates, rejected by a large majority. The next object that engrossed the attention of the parliament was a bill for better securing the dependency of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain. Maurice Annesley had appealed to the house of peers in England, from a decree of the house of peers in Ireland, which was reversed. The British peers ordered the barons of the exchequer in Ireland to put Mr. Annesley in possession of the lands he had lost by the decree in that kingdom. The barons obeyed this order; and the Irish house of peers passed a vote against them, as having acted in derogation to the king’s prerogative in his high court of parliament in Ireland, as also of the rights and privileges of that kingdom, and of the parliament thereof; they likewise ordered them to be taken into custody of the usher of the black rod: they transmitted a long representation to the king, demonstrating their right to the final judicature of causes: and the duke of Leeds, in the upper house, urged fifteen reasons to support the claim of the Irish peers. Notwithstanding these arguments, the house of lords in England resolved that the barons of the exchequer in Ireland had acted with courage, according to law, in support of his majesty’s prerogative, and with fidelity to the crown of Great Britain. They addressed the king to confer on them some marks of his royal favour, as a recompence for the ill usage they had undergone. Finally, they prepared the bill, by which the Irish house of lords was deprived of all right to pass sentence, affirm, or reverse any judgment or decree, given or made in any court within that kingdom. In the house of commons it was opposed by Mr. Pitt, Mr. Hungerford, lords Molesworth and Tyr-connel; but was carried by the majority, and received the royal assent.

SOUTH-SEA ACT

The king having recommended to the commons the consideration of proper means for lessening the national debt, was a prelude to the famous South-Sea act, which became productive of so much mischief and infatuation The scheme was projected by sir John Blunt, who had been bred a scrivener, and was possessed of all the cunning, plausibility, and boldness requisite for such an undertaking. He communicated his plan to Mr. Aislaby, the chancellor of the exchequer, as well as to one of the secretaries of state. He answered all their objections; and the project was adopted. They foresaw their own private advantage in the execution of their design, which was imparted in the name of the South-Sea company, of which Blunt was a director, who influenced all their proceedings. The pretence for the scheme was to discharge the national debt, by reducing all the funds into one. The bank and South-Sea company outbid each other. The South-Sea company altered their original plan, and offered such high terms to government, that the proposals of the bank were rejected; and a bill was ordered to be brought into the house of commons, formed on the plan presented by the South-Sea company. While this affair was in agitation, the stock of that company rose from one hundred and thirty to near four hundred, in consequence of the conduct of the commons, who had rejected a motion for a clause in the bill, to fix what share in the capital stock of the company should be vested in those proprietors of the annuities who might voluntarily subscribe; or how many year’s purchase in money they should receive in subscribing, at the choice of the proprietors.

{1720}

In the house of lords, the bill was opposed by lord North and Grey, earl Cowper, the dukes of Wharton, Buckingham, and other peers; they affirmed it was calculated for enriching a few and impoverishing a great number: that it countenanced the fraudulent and pernicious practice of stock-jobbing, which diverted the genius of the people from trade and industry: that it would give foreigners the opportunity to double and treble the vast sums they had in the public funds; and they would be tempted to realize and withdraw their capital and immense gains to other countries; so that Great Britain would be drained of all its gold and silver; that the artificial and prodigious rise of the South-Sea stock was a dangerous bait, which might decoy many unwary people to their ruin, alluring them by a false prospect of gain to part with the fruits of their industry, to purchase imaginary riches; that the addition of above thirty millions capital would give such power to the South-Sea company, as might endanger the liberties of the nation; for by their extensive interest they would be able to influence most, if not all the elections of the members; and, consequently, over-rule the resolutions of the house of commons. Earl Cowper urged, that in all public bargains the individuals of the administration ought to take care, that thay shall be more advantageous to the state than to private persons; but that a contrary method had been followed in the contract made with the South-Sea company; for, should the stocks be kept at the advanced price to which they had been raised by the oblique arts of stock-jobbing, either that company or its principal members would gain above thirty millions, of which no more than one-fourth part would be given towards the discharge of the national debts. He apprehended that the re-purchase of annuities would meet with insuperable difficulties; and, in such case, none but a few persons who were in the secret, who had bought stocks at a low rate, and afterwards sold them at a high price, would in the end be gainers by the project. The earl of Sunderland answered their objections. He declared that those who countenanced the scheme of the South-Sea company, had nothing in view but the advantage of the nation. He owned that the managers for that company had undoubtedly a prospect of private gain, either to themselves or to their corporation; but, he said, when the scheme was accepted, neither the one nor the other could foresee that the stocks would have risen to such a height; that if they had continued as they were, the public would have had the far greater share of the advantage accruing from the scheme; and should they be kept up to the present high price, it was but reasonable that the South-Sea company should enjoy the profits procured to it by the wise management and industry of the directors, which would enable it to make large dividends, and thereby accomplish the purpose of the scheme. The bill passed without amendment or division; and on the seventh day of April received the royal assent. By this act the South-Sea company was authorised to take in, by purchase or subscription, the irredeemable debts of the nation, stated at sixteen millions five hundred forty-six thousand four hundred and eighty-two pounds, seven shillings and one penny farthing, at such times as they should find convenient before the first day of March of the ensuing year, and without any compulsion on any of the proprietors, at such rates and prices as should be agreed upon between the company and the respective proprietors. They were likewise authorised to take in all the redeemable debts, amounting to the same sum as that of the irredeemables, either by purchase, by taking subscriptions, or by paying off the creditors. For the liberty of taking in the national debts, and increasing their capital stock accordingly, the company consented that their present, and to be increased annuity, should be continued at five per cent, till Midsummer, in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven; from thence to be reduced to four per cent, and be redeemable by parliament. In consideration of this, and other advantages expressed in the act, the company declared themselves willing to make such payments into the receipt of the exchequer as were specified for the use of the public, to be applied to the discharge of the public debts incurred before Christmas, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixteen. The sums they were obliged to pay for the liberty of taking in the redeemable debts, four years and a half’s purchase for all long and short annuities that should be subscribed, and one year’s purchase for such long annuities as should not be subscribed, amounted on the execution of the act to about seven millions. For enabling the company to raise this sum, they were empowered to make calls for money from their members; to open books of subscription; to grant annuities redeemable by the company; to borrow money upon any contract or bill under their common seal, or on the credit of their capital stock; to convert the money demanded of their members into additional stock, without, however, making any addition to the company’s annuities, payable out of the public duties. It was enacted, that out of the first monies arising from the sums paid by the company into the exchequer, such public debts, carrying interest at five per cent, incurred before the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixteen, founded upon any former act of parliament, as were now redeemable, or might be redeemed by the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, should be discharged in the first place: that then all the remainder should be applied towards paying off so much of the capital stock of the company as should then carry an interest of five per cent. It was likewise provided, that, after Midsummer in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven, the company should not be paid off in any sums being less than one million at a time.

CHARTERS GRANTED TO THE ROYAL AND LONDON ASSURANCE OFFICES.

The heads of the Royal-Assurance and London-Assurance companies, understanding that the civil-list was considerably in arrears, offered to the ministry six hundred thousand pounds towards the discharge of that debt, on condition of their obtaining the king’s charter, with a parliamentary sanction, for the establishment of their respective companies. The proposal was embraced; and the king communicated it in a message to the house of commons, desiring their concurrence. A bill was immediately passed, enabling his majesty to grant letters of incorporation to the two companies. It soon obtained the royal assent; and, on the eleventh day of June, an end was put to the session. This was the age of interested projects, inspired by a venal spirit of adventure, the natural consequence of that avarice, fraud, and profligacy, which the monied corporations had introduced. This of all others is the most unfavourable era for an historian. A reader of sentiment and imagination cannot be entertained or interested by a dry detail of such transactions as admit of no warmth, no colouring, no embellishment, a detail which serves only to exhibit an inanimate picture of tasteless vice and mean degeneracy.

TREATY OF ALLIANCE WITH SWEDEN.

By this time an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded at Stockholm between king George and the queen of Sweden, by which his majesty engaged to send a fleet into the Baltic to act against the czar of Muscovy, in case that monarch should reject reasonable proposals of peace. Peter loudly complained of the insolent interposition of king George, alleging that he had failed in his engagements, both as elector of Hanover and king of Great Britain. His resident at London presented a long memorial on this subject, which was answered by the British and Hanoverian ministry. These recriminations served only to inflame the difference. The czar continued to prosecute the war, and at length concluded a peace without a mediator. At the instances, however of king George and the regent of France, a treaty of peace was signed between the queen of Sweden and the king of Prussia, to whom that princess ceded the city of Stetin, the district between the rivers Oder and Pehnne, with the isles of Wollin and Usedom. On the other hand, he engaged to join the king of Great Britain in his endeavours to effect a peace between Sweden and Denmark, on condition that the Danish king should restore to queen Ulrica that part of Pomerania which he had seized; he likewise promised to pay to that queen two millions of rix-dollars in consideration of the cessions she had made. The treaty between Sweden and Denmark was signed at Frederickstadt in the month of June, through the mediation of the king of Great Britain, who became guarantee for the Dane’s keeping possession of Sleswick. He consented, however, to restore the Upper Pomerania, the isle of Rugen, the city of Wismar, and whatever he had taken from Sweden during the war, in consideration of Sweden’s renouncing the exemption from toll in the Sound and the two Belts, and paying to Denmark six hundred thousand rix-dollars.

THE PRINCE OF HESSE ELECTED KING OF SWEDEN.

Sir John Norris had again sailed to the Baltic with a strong squadron to give weight to the king’s mediation. When he arrived at Copenhagen he wrote a letter to prince Dolgorouki, the czar’s ambassador at the court of Denmark, signifying that he and the king’s envoy at Stockholm were vested with full powers to act jointly or separately in quality of plenipotentiaries, in order to effect a peace between Sweden and Muscovy, in the way of mediation. The prince answered that the czar had nothing more at heart than peace and tranquillity; and in case his Britannic majesty had any proposals to make to that prince, he hoped the admiral would excuse him from receiving them, as they might be delivered in a much more compendious way. The English fleet immediately joined that of Sweden as auxiliaries; but they had no opportunity of acting against the Russian squadron, which secured itself in Revel. Ulrica, queen of Sweden, and sister to Charles XII., had married the prince of Hesse, and was extremely desirous that he should be joined with her in the administration of the regal power. She wrote a separate letter to each of the four States, desiring they would confer on him the sovereignty; and after some opposition from the nobles, he was actually elected king of Sweden. He sent one of his general officers to notify his elevation to the czar, who congratulated him upon his accession to the throne: this was the beginning of a negotiation which ended in peace, and established the tranquillity of the North. In the midst of these transactions, king George set out from England for his Hanoverian dominions; but before he departed from Great Britain, he was reconciled to the prince of Wales, through the endeavours of the duke of Devonshire and Mr. Walpole, who, with earl Cowper, lord Townshend, Mr. Methuen, and Mr. Pulteney, were received into favour, and re-united with the ministry. The earls of Dorset and Bridgewater were promoted to the title of dukes; lord viscount Castleton was made an earl; Hugh Boscawen was created a baron, and viscount Falmouth; and John Wallop baron, and viscount Lymington.

{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}

EFFECTS OF THE SOUTH-SEA SCHEME.

While the king was involved at Hanover in a labyrinth of negotiations, the South-Sea scheme produced a kind of national delirium in his English dominions. Blunt, the projector, had taken the hint of his plan from the famous Mississippi scheme formed by Law, which in the preceding year had raised such a ferment in France, and entailed rain upon many thousand families of that kingdom. In the scheme of Law there was something substantial. An exclusive trade to Louisiana promised some advantage; though the design was defeated by the frantic eagerness of the people. Law himself became the dupe of the regent, who transferred the burden of fifteen hundred millions of the king’s debts to the shoulders of the subjects, while the projector was sacrificed as the scape-goat of the political iniquity. The South-Sea scheme promised no commercial advantage of any consequence. It was buoyed up by nothing but the folly and rapaciousness of individuals, which became so blind and extravagant, that Blunt, with moderate talents, was able to impose upon the whole nation, and make tools of the other directors, to serve his own purposes and those of a few associates. When this projector found that the South-Sea stock did not rise according to his expectation upon the bill’s being passed, he circulated a report that Gibraltar and Port-Mahon would be exchanged for some places in Teru; by which means the English trade to the South-Sea would be protected and enlarged. This rumour, diffused by his emissaries, acted like a contagion. In five days the directors opened their books for a subscription of one million, at the rate of three hundred pounds for every hundred pounds capital. Persons of all ranks crowded to the house in such a manner that the first subscription exceeded two millions of original stock. In a few days this stock advanced to three hundred and forty pounds; and the subscriptions were sold for double the price of the first payment. Without entering into a detail of the proceedings, or explaining the scandalous arts that were practised to enhance the value of the stock, and decoy the unwary, we shall only observe, that by the promise of prodigious dividends and other infamous arts, the stock was raised to one thousand; and the whole nation infected with the spirit of stock-jobbing to an astonishing degree. All distinction of party, religion, sex, character, and circumstances, were swallowed up in this universal concern, or in some such pecuniary project. Exchange-Alley was filled with a strange concourse of statesmen and clergymen, churchmen and dissenters, whigs and tories, physicians, lawyers, tradesmen, and even with multitudes of females. All other professions and employments were utterly neglected; and the people’s attention wholly engrossed by this and other chimerical schemes, which were known by the denomination of bubbles. New companies started up every day under the countenance of the prime nobility. The prince of Wales was constituted governor of the Welsh copper company; the duke of Chandos appeared at the head of the York-buildings company; the duke of Bridgewater formed a third, for building houses in London and Westminster. About an hundred such schemes were projected and put in execution, to the ruin of many thousands. The sums proposed to be raised by these expedients amounted to three hundred millions sterling, which exceeded the value of all the lands in England. The nation was so intoxicated with the spirit of adventure, that people became a prey to the grossest delusion. An obscure projector, pretending to have formed a very advantageous scheme, which, however, he did not explain, published proposals for a subscription, in which he promised that in one month the particulars of his project should be disclosed. In the meantime he declared that every person paying two guineas should be entitled to a subscription for one hundred pounds, which would produce that sum yearly. In one forenoon this adventurer received a thousand of these subscriptions; and in the evening set out for another kingdom. The king, before his departure, had issued a proclamation against these unlawful projects; the lords-justices afterwards dismissed all the petitions that had been presented for charters and patents; and the prince of Wales renounced the company of which he had been elected governor. The South-Sea scheme raised such a flood of eager avidity and extravagant hope, that the majority of the directors were swept along with it, even contrary to their own sense and inclination; but Blunt and his accomplices still directed the stream.

The infatuation prevailed till the eighth day of September, when the stock began to fall. Then did some of the adventurers awake from their delirium. The number of the sellers daily increased. On the twenty-ninth day of the month the stock had sunk to one hundred and fifty; several eminent goldsmiths and bankers, who had lent great sums upon it, were obliged to stop payment and abscond. The ebb of this portentous tide was so violent, that it bore down everything in its way; and an infinite number of families were overwhelmed with ruin. Public credit sustained a terrible shock; the nation was thrown into a dangerous ferment; and nothing was heard but the ravings of grief, disappointment, and despair. Some principal members of the ministry were deeply concerned in these fradulent transactions; when they saw the price of stock sinking daily, they employed all their influence with the bank to support the credit of the South-Sea company. That corporation agreed, though with reluctance, to subscribe into the stock of the South-Sea company, valued at four hundred per cent., three millions five hundred thousand pounds, which the company was to repay to the bank on Lady-day and Michaelmas of the ensuing year. This transaction was managed by Mr. Robert Walpole, who, with his own hand, wrote the minute of agreement, afterwards known by the name of the bank contract. Books were opened at the bank to take in a subscription for the support of public credit; and considerable sums of money were brought in. By this expedient the stock was raised at first, and those who contrived it seized the opportunity to realize. But the bankruptcy of goldsmiths and the sword-blade company, from the fall of South-Sea stock, occasioned such a run upon the bank, that the money was paid away faster than it could be received from the subscription. Then the South-Sea stock sunk again; and the directors of the bank, finding themselves in danger of being involved in that company’s ruin, renounced the agreement; which indeed they were under no obligation to perform, for it was drawn up in such a manner as to be no more than the rough draft of a subsequent agreement, without due form, penalty, or clause of obligation. All expedients having failed, and the clamours of the people daily increasing, expresses were despatched to Hanover, representing the state of the nation, and pressing the king to return. He accordingly shortened his intended stay in Germany, and arrived in England on the eleventh day of November.

A SECRET COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The parliament being assembled on the eighth day of December, his majesty expressed his concern for the unhappy turn of affairs, which had so deeply affected the public credit at home: he earnestly desired the commons to consider of the most effectual and speedy methods to restore the national credit, and fix it upon a lasting establishment. The lower house was too much interested in the calamity to postpone the consideration of that subject. The members seemed to lay aside all party distinctions, and vie with each other in promoting an inquiry, by which justice might be done to the injured nation. They ordered the directors to produce an account of all their proceedings. Sir Joseph Jekyll moved that a select committee might be appointed to examine the particulars of this transaction. Mr. Walpole, now paymaster of the forces, observed, that such a method would protract the inquiry, while the public credit lay in a bleeding condition. He told the house he had formed a scheme for restoring public credit; but, before he would communicate this plan, desired to know whether the subscriptions of public debts and incumbrances, money-subscriptions and other contracts made with the South-Sea company, should remain in the present state. After a warm debate, the question was carried in the affirmative, with this addition, “Unless altered for the ease and relief of the proprietors, by a general court of the South-Sea company, or set aside in due course of law.” Next day Walpole produced his scheme,--to ingraft nine millions of South-Sea stock into the bank of England, and the like sum into the East India company, on certain conditions. The house voted, that proposals should be received from the bank, and those two companies on this subject. These being delivered the commons resolved, that an engrossment of nine millions of the capital stock of the South-Sea company into the capital stock of the bank and East-India company, as proposed by these companies, would contribute very much to the restoring public credit. A bill upon this resolution was brought in, passed through both houses, and received the royal assent. Another bill was enacted into a law, for restraining the sub-governor, deputy-governor, directors, treasurer, under-treasurer, cashier, secretary, and accountants, of the South-Sea company, from quitting the kingdom till the end of the next session of parliament; and for discovering their estates and effects, so as to prevent them from being transported or alienated. A committee of secrecy was chosen by ballot, to examine all the books, papers, and proceedings relating to the execution of the South-Sea act.

The lords were not less eager than the commons to prosecute this inquiry, though divers members in both houses were deeply involved in the guilt and infamy of the transaction. Earl Stanhope said the estates of the criminals, whether directors or not directors, ought to be confiscated, to repair the public losses. He was seconded by lord Carteret, and even by the earl of Sunderland. The duke of Wharton declared he would give up the best friend he had should he be found guilty. He observed, that the nation had been plundered in a most flagrant and notorious manner; therefore, they ought to find out and punish the offenders severely, without respect to persons. The sub and deputy-governors, the directors and officers of the South-Sea company, were examined at the bar of the house. Then a bill was brought in, disabling them to enjoy any office in that company, or in the East-India company, or in the bank of England. Three brokers were likewise examined, and made great discoveries. Knight, the treasurer of the South-Sea company, who had been entrusted with the secrets of the whole affair, thought proper to withdraw himself from the kingdom. A proclamation was issued to apprehend him; and another for preventing any of the directors from escaping out of the kingdom. At this period, the secret committee informed the house of commons that they had already discovered a train of the deepest villany and fraud that hell ever contrived to ruin a nation, which in due time they would lay before the house; in the meanwhile, they thought it highly necessary to secure the persons of some of the directors and principal officers of the South-Sea company, as well as to seize their papers. An order was made to secure the books and papers of Knight, Surman, and Turner. The persons of sir George Caswell, sir John Blunt, sir John Lambert, sir John Fellows, and Mr. Grigsby, were taken into custody; sir Theodore Janssen, Mr. Sawbridge, sir Robert Chaplain, and Mr. Eyles, were expelled the house and apprehended. Mr. Aislaby resigned his employments of chancellor of the exchequer and lord of the treasury; and orders were given to remove all directors of the South-Sea company from the places they possessed under the government.

The lords, in the course of their examination, discovered that large portions of South-Sea stock had been given to several persons in the administration and house of commons, for promoting the passing of the South-Sea act. The house immediately resolved, that this practice was a notorious and most dangerous species of corruption: that the directors of the South-Sea company having ordered great quantities of their stock to be bought for the service of the company, when it was at a very high price, and on pretence of keeping up the price of stock; and at the same time several of the directors, and other officers belonging to the company, having, in a clandestine manner, sold their own stock to the company, such directors and officers were guilty of a notorious fraud and breach of trust, and their so doing was one great cause of the unhappy turn of affairs that had so much affected public credit. Many other resolutions were taken against that infamous confederacy, in which, however, the innocent were confounded with the guilty. Sir John Blunt refusing to answer certain interrogations, a violent debate arose about the manner in which he should be treated. The duke of Wharton observed, that the government of the best princes was sometimes rendered intolerable to their subjects by bad ministers: he mentioned the example of Sejanus, who had made a division in the imperial family, and rendered the reign of Cladius hateful to the Romans. Earl Stanhope conceiving this reflection was aimed at him, was seized with a transport of anger. He undertook to vindicate the ministry; and spoke with such vehemence as produced a violent headache, which obliged him to retire. He underwent proper evacuations, and seemed to recover; but next day, in the evening, became lethargic, and being seized with a suffocation, instantly expired. The king deeply regretted the death of this favourite minister, which was the more unfortunate as it happened at such a critical conjuncture; and he appointed lord Town-shend to fill his place of secretary. Earl Stanhope was survived but a few days by the other secretary Mr. Craggs, who died of the small-pox on the sixteenth day of February. Knight, the cashier of the South-Sea company, being seized at Tirlemont by the vigilance of Mr. Gandot, secretary to Mr. Loathes the British resident at Brussels, was confined in the citadel of Antwerp. Application was made to the court of Vienna, that he should be delivered to such persons as might be appointed to receive him; but he had found means to interest the states of Brabant in his behalf. They insisted upon their privilege granted by charter, that no person apprehended for any crime in Brabant should be tried in any other country. The house of commons expressed their indignation at this frivolous pretence; instances were renewed to the emperor; and in the meantime Knight escaped from the citadel of Antwerp.

SEVERE RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE SOUTH-SEA COMPANY.

The committee of secrecy found, that, before any subscription could be made, a fictitious stock of five hundred and seventy-four thousand pounds had been disposed of by the directors, to facilitate the passing the bill. Great part of this was distributed among the earl of Sunderland, Mr. Craggs, senior, the duchess of Kendal, the countess of Platen and her two nieces, Mr. Secretary Craggs, and Mr. Aislaby chancellor of the exchequer. In consequence of the committee’s report, the house came to several severe, though just, resolutions against the directors and officers of the South-Sea company; and a bill was prepared for the relief of the unhappy sufferers. Mr. Stanhope, one of the secretaries of the treasury, charged in the report with having large quantities of stock and subscriptions, desired that he might have an opportunity to clear himself. His request was granted; and the affair being discussed, he was cleared by a majority of three voices. Fifty thousand pounds in stock had been taken by Knight for the use of the earl of Sunderland. Great part of the house entered eagerly into this inquiry; and a violent dispute ensued. The whole strength of the ministry was mustered in his defence. The majority declared him innocent: the nation in general was of another opinion. He resigned his place of first commissioner in the treasury, which was bestowed upon Mr. Robert Walpole; but he still retained the confidence of his master. With respect to Mr. Aislaby, the evidence appeared so strong against him, that the commons resolved, he had promoted the distinctive execution of the South-Sea scheme, with a view to his own exorbitant profit, and combined with the directors in their pernicious practices to the ruin of public credit. He was expelled the house, and committed to the Tower. Mr. Craggs, senior, died of a lethargy, before he underwent the censure of the house. Nevertheless they resolved that he was a notorious accomplice with Robert Knight, and some of the directors, in carrying on their scandalous practices; and therefore, that all the estate of which he was possessed, from the first day of December in the preceding year, should be applied towards the relief of the unhappy sufferers in the South-Sea company. The directors, in obedience to the orders of the house, delivered in inventories of their estates, which were confiscated by act of parliament, towards making good the damages sustained by the company, after a certain allowance was deducted for each according to his conduct and circumstances.

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The delinquents being thus punished by the forfeiture of their fortunes, the house converted their attention to means for repairing the mischiefs which the scheme had produced. This was a very difficult task, on account of the contending interests of those engaged in the South-Sea company, which rendered it impossible to relieve some but at the expense of others. Several wholesome resolutions were taken, and presented with an address to the king, explaining the motives of their proceedings. On the twenty-ninth day of July, the parliament was prorogued for two days only. Then his majesty going to the house of peers, declared that he had called them together again so suddenly, that they might resume the consideration of the state of public credit. The commons immediately prepared a bill upon the resolutions they had taken. The whole capital stock, at the end of the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty, amounted to about thirty-seven millions eight hundred thousand pounds. The stock allotted to all the proprietors did not exceed twenty-four millions five hundred thousand pounds; the remaining capital stock belonged to the company in their corporate capacity. It was the profit arising from the execution of the South-Sea scheme; and out of this the bill enacted, that seven millions should be paid to the public. The present act likewise directed several additions to be made to the stock of the proprietors, out of that possessed by the company in their own right; it made a particular distribution of stock, amounting to two millions two hun dred thousand pounds; and upon remitting five millions of the seven to be paid to the public, annihilated two millions of their capital. It was enacted, that, after these distributions, the remaining capital stock should be divided among all the proprietors. This dividend amounted to thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight-pence per cent, and deprived the company of eight millions nine hundred thousand pounds. They had lent above eleven millions on stock unredeemed; of which the parliament discharged all the debtors, upon their paying ten per cent. Upon this article the company’s loss exceeded six millions nine hundred thousand pounds, for many debtors refused to make any payment. The proprietors of the stock loudly complained of their being deprived of two millions; and the parliament in the sequel revived that sum which had been annihilated. While this affair was in agitation, petitions from counties, cities, and boroughs, in all parts of the kingdom, were presented to the house, crying for justice against the villany of the directors. Pamphlets and papers were daily published on the same subject; so that the whole nation was exasperated to the highest pitch of resentment. Nevertheless, by the wise and vigorous resolutions of the parliament, the South-Sea company was soon in a condition to fulfil their engagements with the public; the ferment of the people subsided; and the credit of the nation was restored.