page35
Thus, each corporation having made two proposals, the House
began
to deliberate. Mr. Robert Walpole was the chief speaker
in favour of
the Bank, and Mr. Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the
principal advocate on behalf of the South Sea Company. It
was
resolved, on the 2nd of February, that the proposals of
the latter
were most advantageous to the country. They were accordingly
received,
and leave was given to bring in a bill to that effect.
Exchange Alley was in a fever of excitement. The Company's
stock,
which had been at a hundred and thirty the previous day,
gradually
rose to three hundred, and continued to rise with the most
astonishing
rapidity during the whole time that the bill in its several
stages was
under discussion. Mr. Walpole was almost the only statesman
in the
House who spoke out boldly against it. He warned them, in
eloquent and
solemn language, of the evils that would ensue. It countenanced,
he
said, "the dangerous practice of stockjobbing, and
would divert the
genius of the nation from trade and industry. It would hold
out a
dangerous lure to decoy the unwary to their ruin, by making
them part
with the earnings of their labour for a prospect of imaginary
wealth.
The great principle of the project was an evil of first-rate
magnitude; it was to raise artificially the value of the
stock, by
exciting and keeping up a general infatuation, and by promising
dividends out of funds which could never be adequate to
the purpose.
In a prophetic spirit he added, that if the plan succeeded,
the
directors would become masters of the government, form a
new and
absolute aristocracy in the kingdom, and control the resolutions
of
the legislature. If it failed, which he was convinced it
would, the
result would bring general discontent and ruin upon the
country. Such
would be the delusion, that when the evil day came, as come
it would,
the people would start up, as from a dream, and ask themselves
if
these things could have been true. All his eloquence was
in vain. He
was looked upon as a false prophet, or compared to the hoarse
raven,
croaking omens of evil. His friends, however, compared him
to
Cassandra, predicting evils which would only be believed
when they
came home to men's hearths, and stared them in the face
at their own
boards. Although, in former times, the House had listened
with the
utmost attention to every word that fell from his lips,
the benches
became deserted when it was known that he would speak on
the South Sea
question.
The bill was two months in its progress through the House
of
Commons. During this time every exertion was made by the
directors and
their friends, and more especially by the Chairman, the
noted Sir John
Blunt, to raise the price of the stock. The most extravagant
rumours
were in circulation. Treaties between England and Spain
were spoken
of, whereby the latter was to grant a free trade to all
her colonies;
and the rich produce of the mines of Potosi-la-Paz was to
be brought
to England until silver should become almost as plentiful
as iron. For
cotton and woollen goods, with which we could supply them
in
abundance, the dwellers in Mexico were to empty their golden
mines.
The company of merchants trading to the South Seas would
be the
richest the world ever saw, and every hundred pounds invested
in it
would produce hundreds per annum to the stockholder. At
last the stock
was raised by these means to near four hundred; but, after
fluctuating
a good deal, settled at three hundred and thirty, at which
price it
remained when the bill passed the Commons by a majority
of 172 against
55.
In the House of Lords the bill was hurried through all
its stages with
unexampled rapidity. On the 4th of April it was read a first
time; on
the 5th, it was read a second time; on the 6th, it was committed;
and
on the 7th, was read a third time, and passed.
Several peers spoke warmly against the scheme; but their
warnings
fell upon dull, cold ears. A speculating frenzy had seized
them as
well as the plebeians. Lord North and Grey said the bill
was unjust in
its nature, and might prove fatal in its consequences, being
calculated to enrich the few and impoverish the many. The
Duke of
Wharton followed; but, as he only retailed at second-hand
the
arguments so eloquently stated by Walpole in the Lower House,
he was
not listened to with even the same attention that had been
bestowed
upon Lord North and Grey. Earl Cowper followed on the same
side, and
compared the bill to the famous horse of the siege of Troy.
Like that,
it was ushered in and received with great pomp and acclamations
of
joy, but bore within it treachery and destruction. The Earl
of
Sunderland endeavoured to answer all objections; and, on
the question
being put, there appeared only seventeen peers against,
and
eighty-three in favour of the project. The very same day
on which it
passed the Lords, it received the Royal assent, and became
the law of
the land.
It seemed at that time as if the whole nation had turned
stockjobbers. Exchange Alley was every day blocked up by
crowds, and
Cornhill was impassable for the number of carriages. Everybody
came to
purchase stock. "Every fool aspired to be a knave."
In the words of a
ballad, published at the time, and sung about the streets,
["A South
Sea Ballad; or, Merry Remarks upon Exchange Alley Bubbles.
To a new
tune, called 'The Grand Elixir; or, the Philosopher's Stone
Discovered.'"]
Then stars and garters did appear
Among the meaner rabble;
To buy and sell, to see and hear,
The Jews and Gentiles squabble.
The greatest ladies thither came,
And plied in chariots daily,
Or pawned their jewels for a sum
To venture in the Alley.
