quality
visitors.

During the struggle between the old and new East India Companies,
boroughs were sold openly in the Alley to their respective partisans;
and in 1720 Parliamentary seats came to market there as commonly as
lottery tickets. Towards the close of Anne's reign, a well-dressed
horseman rode furiously down the Queen's Road, loudly proclaiming her
Majesty's demise. The hoax answered, the funds falling with ominous
alacrity; but it was observed, that while the Christian jobbers kept
aloof, Sir Manasseh Lopez and the Hebrew brokers bought readily at the
reduced rate.

The following extracts from Cibber's play of _The Refusal; or, the
Ladies' Philosophy_, produced in 1720, show the antiquity of the terms
"bull" and "bear." This comedy abounds in allusions to the doings in
'Change Alley, and one of the characters, Sir Gilbert Wrangle, is a
South Sea director:--

_Granger_ (_to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain_): And all
this out of 'Change Alley?

_Witling:_ Every shilling, sir; all out of stocks, puts, bulls,
shams, bears and bubbles.

And again:--

There (in the Alley) you'll see a duke dangling after a director;
here a peer and a 'prentice haggling for an eighth; there a Jew and
a parson making up differences; there a young woman of quality
buying bears of a Quaker; and there an old one selling refusals to a
lieutenant of grenadiers.

[Illustration: CAPEL COURT.]

The following is from an old paper, dated July 15th, 1773: "Yesterday
the brokers and others at 'New Jonathan's' came to a resolution, that
instead of its being called 'New Jonathan's,' it should be called 'The
Stock Exchange,' which is to be wrote over the door. The brokers then
collected sixpence each, and christened the House with punch."

One of the great stockbrokers of Queen Anne's reign was Thomas Guy, the
founder of one of the noblest hospitals in the world, who died in 1724.
He was the son of a lighterman, and for many years stood behind a
counter and sold books. Acquiring a small amount of ready cash, he was
tempted to employ it in Change Alley; it turned to excellent account,
and soon led him to a far more profitable traffic in those tickets with
which, from the time of Charles II., our seamen were remunerated. They
were paid in paper, not readily convertible, and were forced to part
with their wages at any discount which it pleased the money-lenders to
fix. Guy made large purchase