in Capel Court--Amusements of Stockbrokers--Laws of the Stock
Exchange--The Pigeon Express--The "Alley Man"--Purchase of
Stock--Eminent Members of the Stock Exchange.

The Royal Exchange, in the reign of William III., being found
vexatiously thronged, the money-dealers, in 1698, betook themselves to
Change Alley, then an unappropriated area. A writer of the period
says:--"The centre of jobbing is in the kingdom of 'Change Alley. You
may go over its limits in about a minute and a half. Stepping out of
Jonathan's into the Alley, you turn your face full south; moving on a
few paces, and then turning to the east, you advance to Garraway's; from
thence, going out at the other door, you go on, still east, into Birchin
Lane; and then, halting at the Sword-blade Bank, you immediately face to
the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces there on
your way to the west; and thus, having boxed your compass, and sailed
round the stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jonathan's again."

Sir Henry Furnese, a Bank director, was the Reuter of those times. He
paid for constant despatches from Holland, Flanders, France, and
Germany. His early intelligence of every battle, and especially of the
fall of Namur, swelled his profits amazingly. King William gave him a
diamond ring as a reward for early information; yet he condescended to
fabricate news, and his plans for influencing the funds were probably
the types of similar modern tricks. If Furnese wished to buy, his
brokers looked gloomy; and, the alarm spread, completed their bargains.
In this manner prices were lowered four or five per cent. in a few
hours. The Jew Medina, we are assured, granted Marlborough an annuity of
L6,000 for permission to attend his campaigns, and amply repaid himself
by the use of the early intelligence he obtained.

When, in 1715, says "Aleph," the Pretender landed in Scotland, after the
dispersion of his forces, a carriage and six was seen in the road near
Perth, apparently destined for London. Letters reached the metropolis
announcing the capture of the discomfited Stuart; the funds rose, and a
large profit was realised by the trick. Stock-jobbers must have been
highly prosperous at that period, as a Quaker, named Quare, a watchmaker
of celebrity, who had made a large fortune by money speculations, had
for his guests at his daughter's wedding-feast the famous Duchess of
Marlborough and the Princess of Wales, who attended with 300