THE SPANISH TROOPS EVACUATE SICILY. his courage, vigilance, and conduct. When he waited on his majesty at Hanover, he met with a very gracious The marquis de Lede immediately retired with his reception. The king told him he had found out the army to Alcamo, from whence he sent his mareschal de secret of obliging his enemies as well as his friends; for camp to count Merci and the English admiral, with the court of Spain had mentioned him in the most honovertures for evacuating Sicily. The proposals were not ourable terms, with respect to his candid and friendly disagreeable to the Germans: but sir George Byng de- deportment in providing transports and other necessaries clared that the Spaniards should not quit the island for the embarkation of their troops, and in protecting while the war continued, as he foresaw that these troops them from oppression. He was appointed treasurer of would be employed against France or England. He the navy, and rear-admiral of Great Britain: in a little agreed however with count Merci, in proposing that if time the king ennobled him, by the title of viscount the marquis would surrender Palermo and retire into Torrington: he was declared a privy-counsellor, and the middle part of the island, they would consent to an afterwards made knight of the bath at the revival of armistice for six weeks, until the sentiments of their that order. During these occurrences in the Mediterdifferent courts should be known. The marquis offered ranean, the duke of Berwick advanced with the French to surrender Palermo, in consideration of a suspension army to the frontiers of Spain, where he took Portof arms for three months; but, while this negotiation Passage and destroyed six ships of war that were on the was depending, he received advice from Madrid that a stocks; then he reduced Fontarabia and St. Sebastian's, general peace was concluded. Nevertheless, he broke together with Port Antonio in the bottom of the bay of off the treaty in obedience to a secret order for that pur- Biscay. In this last exploit the French were assisted pose. The king of Spain hoped to obtain the restitution by a detachment of English scamen, who burned two of St. Sebastian's, Fontarabia, and other places taken in large ships unfinished, and a great quantity of naval the course of the war, in exchange for the evacuation stores. The king of England, with a view to indemnify of Sicily Hostilities were continued until the admiral himself for the expense of the war, projected the conquest received advice from the earl of Stair, at Paris, that the of Corunna in Biscay, and of Peru in South America. Spanish ambassador at the Hague had signed the quad- Four thousand men, commanded by lord Cobham, were ruple alliance. By the same courier packets were de- embarked at the Isle of Wight, and sailed on the twentylivered to the count de Merci and the marquis de Lede, first day of September, under convoy of five ships of which last gave the admiral and Imperial general to war conducted by admiral Mighels. Instead of making understand that he looked upon the peace as a thing an attempt upon Corunna, they reduced Vigo with very concluded, and was ready to treat for a cessation of hos- little difficulty; and Point-a-Vedra submitted without tilities. They insisted on his delivering up Palermo; resistance: here they found some brass artillery, small on the other hand he urged, that, as their masters were arms, and military stores, with which they returned to in treaty for settling the terms of evacuating Sicily and England. In the meantime captain Johnson, with two Sardinia, he did not think himself authorised to agree to English ships of war, destroyed the same number of a cessation, except on condition that each party should Spanish ships in the port of Ribadeo, to the eastward of remain on the ground they occupied, and expect further Cape Ortegas, so that the naval power of Spain was orders from their principals. After a fruitless interview totally ruined. The expedition to the West Indies was between the three chiefs at the Cassine de Rossignola, prevented by the peace. Spain being oppressed on all the Imperial general resolved to undertake the siege of sides, and utterly exhausted, Philip saw the necessity Palermo; with this view he decamped from Alcamo on of a speedy pacification. He now perceived the madness the eighteenth day of April, and followed the marquis of Alberoni's ambitious projects. That minister was de Lede, who retreated before him and took possession personally disagreeable to the emperor, the king of Engof the advantageous posts that commanded the passes land, and the regent of France, who had declared they into the plain of Palermo; but count Merci, with inde- would hearken to no proposals while he should continuc fatigable diligence, marched over the mountains, while in office: the Spanish monarch, therefore, divested him the admiral coasted along shore, attending the motions of his employment, and ordered him to quit the kingdom of the army. The Spanish general perceiving the Ger- in three weeks. The marquis de Beretti Landi, minismans advancing into the plain, retired under the cannon ter from the court of Madrid at the Hague, delivered a of Palermo, and fortified his camp with strong entrench-plan of pacification to the states: but it was rejected by ments. On the second day of May the Germans took the allies; and Philip was obliged at last to accede to one of the enemy's redoubts by surprise, and the mar- the quadruple alliance. quis 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. 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 PHILIP OBLIGED TO ACCEDE TO THE QUAD- troubles he had encountered since his accession to the RUPLE 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 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 Buck ingham; and, in spite of all opposition, passed through the house of lords. It had been projected by earl Stan hope, 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 de- | pendency 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 Tyrconnel; but was carried by the majority, and received the royal assent 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 The king having recommended to the commons the a height; that if they had continued as they were, the consideration of proper means for lessening the national public would have had the far greater share of the addebt, was a prelude to the famous South-Sea act, which vantage accruing from the scheme; and should they be became productive of so much mischief and infatua- kept up to the present high price, it was but reasonable tion The scheme was projected by sir John Blunt, that the South-Sea company should enjoy the profits who had been bred a scrivener, and was possessed of procured to it by the wise management and industry of all the cunning, plausibility, and boldness requisite for the directors, which would enable it to make large such an undertaking. He communicated his plan to dividends, and thereby accomplish the purpose of the Mr. Aislaby, the chancellor of the exchequer, as well scheme. The bill passed without amendment or divias to one of the secretaries of state. He answered all sion; and on the seventh day of April received the their objections; and the project was adopted. They royal assent. By this act the South-Sea company was foresaw their own private advantage in the execution authorised to take in, by purchase or subscription, the of their design, which was imparted in the name of the irredeemable debts of the nation, stated at sixteen milSouth-Sea compay, of which Blunt was a director, who lions five hundred forty-six thousand four hundred and influenced all their proceedings. The pretence for the eighty-two pounds, seven shillings and one penny farthscheme was to discharge the national debt, by reducing ing, at such times as they should find convenient before all the funds into one. The bank and South-Sea com- the first day of March of the ensuing year, and without pany outbid each other. The South-Sea company any compulsion on any of the proprietors, at such rates altered their original plan, and offered such high terms and prices as should be agreed upon between the comto government, that the proposals of the bank were re-pany and the respective proprietors. They were likewise jected; 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. SOUTH-SEA ACT 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 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 二 the liberty of taking in the redeemable debts, four years I hand, he engaged to join the king of Great Britain in and a half's purchase for all long and short annuities his endeavours to effect a peace between Sweden and that should be subscribed, and one year's purchase for Denmark, on condition that the Danish king should resuch long annuities as should not be subscribed, store to queen Ulrica that part of Pomerania which he amounted on the execution of the act to about seven had seized; he likewise promised to pay to that queen millions. For enabling the company to raise this sum, two millions of rix-dollars in consideration of the cessions they were empowered to make calls for money from she had made. The treaty between Sweden and Dentheir members; to open books of subscription; to grant mark was signed at Frederickstadt in the month of June, annuities redeemable by the company; to borrow money through the mediation of the king of Great Britain, who upon any contract or bill under their common seal, or became guarantee for the Dane's keeping possession of on the credit of their capital stock; to convert the Sleswick. He consented, however, to restore the Upper money demanded of their members into additional stock, Pomerania, the isle of Rugen, the city of Wismar, and without, however, making any addition to the com- whatever he had taken from Sweden during the war, in pany's annuities, payable out of the public duties. It consideration of Sweden's renouncing the exemption was enacted, that out of the first monies arising from from toll in the Sound and the two Pelts, and paying to the sums paid by the company into the exchequer, Denmark six hundred thousand rix-dollars. 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 twentyfifth 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 THE PRINCE OF HESSE ELECTED KING OF 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 flect im The heads of the Royal-Assurance and London-As-mediately joined that of Sweden as auxiliaries; but they surance 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 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 carls 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. 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 ruin 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 shoul ders of the subjects, while the projector was sacrificed as the scape-goat of the political iniquity. The South 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 trans they employed all their influence with the bank to sup- stock sunk again; and the directors of the bank, finding 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 circula-actions; when they saw the price of stock sinking daily, ted a report that Gibraltar and Port-Mahon would be exchanged for some places in l'eru; 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 astonish-be received from the subscription. Then the South-Sea Ing 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 torics, 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 Lon1 don and Westminster. About an hundred suck schemes The parliament being assembled on the eighth day of were projected and put in execution, to the ruin of many December, his majesty expressed his concern for the unthousands. The sums proposed to be raised by these happy turn of affairs, which had so deeply affected the expedients amounted to three hundred millions sterling, public credit at home: he earnestly desired the commons which exceeded the value of all the lands in England. to consider of the most effectual and speedy methods to The nation was so intoxicated with the spirit of adven- restore the national credit, and fix it upon a lasting ture, that people became a prey to the grossest delusion. establishment. The lower house was too much interAn obscure projector, pretending to have formed a very ested in the calamity to postpone the consideration of advantageous scheme, which, however, he did not ex- that subject. The members seemed to lay aside all plain, published proposals for a subscription, in which party distinctions, and vie with each other in promoting he promised that in one month the particulars of his an inquiry, by which justice might be done to the inproject should be disclosed. In the meantime he de-jured nation. They ordered the directors to produce an clared that every person paying two guineas should be account of all their proceedings. Sir Joseph Jekyll entitled to a subscription for one hundred pounds, which moved that a select committee might be appointed to would produce that sum yearly. In one forenoon this examine the particulars of this transaction. Mr. Waladventurer received a thousand of these subscriptions; pole, now paymaster of the forces, observed, that such a and in the evening set out for another kingdom. The method would protract the inquiry, while the public king, before his departure, had issued a proclamation credit lay in a bleeding condition. He told the house against these unlawful projects; the lords-justices after- he had formed a scheme for restoring public credit; but, wards dismissed all the petitions that had been presented before he would communicate this plan, desired to know for charters and patents; and the prince of Wales re- whether the subscriptions of public debts and incumnounced the company of which he had been elected brances, money-subscriptions and other contracts made governor. The South-Sca scheme raised such a flood of with the South-Sea company, should remain in the preeager avidity and extravagant hope, that the majority sent state. After a warm debate, the question was carof the directors were swept along with it, even contrary ried in the affirmative, with this addition, "Unless to their own sense and inclination; but Blunt and his altered for the ease and relief of the proprietors, by a accomplices still directed the stream. general court of the South-Sea company, or set aside in The infatuation prevailed till the eighth day of Sep- due course of law." Next day Walpole produced his tember, when the stock began to fall. Then did some scheme,-to ingraft nine millions of South-Sca stock of the adventurers awake from their delirium. The into the bank of England, and the like sum into the number of the sellers daily increased. On the twenty- East India company, on certain conditions. The house ninth day of the month the stock had sunk to one hun-voted, that proposals should be received from the bank dred and fifty; several eminent goldsmiths and bankers, who had lent great sums upon it, were obliged to stop and those two companies on this subject. These being delivered, the commons resolved, that an engrossment 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 minis ter, which was the more unfortunate as it happened at such a critical conjuncture; and he appointed lord Townshend 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. Leathes 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 of nine millions of the capital stock of the South-Sea should be treated. The duke of Wharton observed, company into the capital stock of the bank and East- that the government of the best princes was sometimes India company, as proposed by these companies, would rendered intolerable to their subjects by bad ministers: contribute very much to the restoring public credit. A he mentioned the example of Sejanus, who had made a bill upon this resolution was brought in, passed through division in the imperial family, and rendered the reign both houses, and received the royal assent. Another of Gladius hateful to the Romans. Earl Stanhope conbill was enacted into a law, for restraining the sub-ceiving this reflection was aimed at him, was seized with governor, deputy-governor, directors, treasurer, under- a transport of anger. He undertook to vindicate the 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 ex-escaped from the citadel of Antwerp. amined, 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 king-scription could be made, a fictitious stock of five hundred dom. 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 SEVERE RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE The committee of secrecy found, that, before any suband 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 evl dence appeared so strong against him, that the commons resolved, he had promoted the distructive execution of the South-Sea scheme, with a view to his own exorbi tant 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 |