y, that shares in the same bubble were known to have been
sold at the same instant ten per cent higher at one end of the alley than
at the other. Sensible men beheld the extraordinary infatuation of the
people with sorrow and alarm. There were some both in and out of
parliament who foresaw clearly the ruin that was impending. Mr. Walpole
did not cease his gloomy forebodings. His fears were shared by all the
thinking few, and impressed most forcibly upon the government. On the 11th
of June, the day the parliament rose, the king published a proclamation,
declaring that all these unlawful projects should be deemed public
nuisances, and prosecuted accordingly, and forbidding any broker, under a
penalty of five hundred pounds, from buying or selling any shares in them.
Notwithstanding this proclamation, roguish speculators still carried them
on, and the deluded people still encouraged them. On the 12th of July, an
order of the Lords Justices assembled in privy council was published,
dismissing all the petitions that had been presented for patents and
charters, and dissolving all the bubble companies. The following copy of
their lordships' order, containing a list of all these nefarious projects,
will not be deemed uninteresting at the present time, when, at periodic
intervals, there is but too much tendency in the public mind to indulge in
similar practices:

"At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 12th day of July, 1720.
Present, their Excellencies the Lords Justices in Council.

"Their Excellencies the Lords Justices, in council, taking into
consideration the many inconveniences arising to the public from several
projects set on foot for raising of joint-stock for various purposes, and
that a great many of his majesty's subjects have been drawn in to part
with their money on pretence of assurances that their petitions for
patents and charters to enable them to carry on the same would be granted:
to prevent such impositions, their excellencies this day ordered the said
several petitions, together with such reports from the Board of Trade, and
from his majesty's attorney and solicitor-general, as had been obtained
thereon, to be laid before them; and after mature consideration thereof,
were pleased, by advice of his majesty's privy council, to order that the
said petitions be dismissed, which are as follow:

"1. Petition of several persons, praying letters patent for carrying on a
fishing trade by