pulpit, and bench. It had enriched the whole
nation. The Duke of Portland gravely expressed his wonder that any one
could be dissatisfied. But the public were not to be gulled; that same
evening the stock fell to 640, and the next day to 540. It soon got so
low as 400. The ebb tide was running fast. "Thousands of families,"
wrote Mr. Broderick to Lord Chancellor Middleton, "will be reduced to
beggary. The consternation is inexpressible, the rage beyond
description." The Bank was pressed to circulate the South Sea bonds, but
as the panic increased they fought off. Several goldsmiths and bankers
fled. The Sword Blade Company, the chief cashiers of the South Sea
Company, stopped payment. King George returned in haste from Hanover,
and Parliament was summoned to meet in December.

[Illustration: THE OLD SOUTH SEA HOUSE (_see page 538_). _From a Print
of the Period._]

In the first debate the enemies of the South Sea Company were most
violent. Lord Molesworth said he should be satisfied to see the
contrivers of the scheme tied in sacks and thrown into the Thames.
Honest Shippen, whom even Walpole could not bribe, looking fiercely in
Mr. Secretary Craggs' face, said "there were other men in high station
who were no less guilty than the directors." Mr. Craggs, rising in
wrath, declared he was ready to give satisfaction to any one in the
House, or out of it, and this unparliamentary language he had afterwards
to explain away. Ultimately a second committee was appointed, with power
to send for persons, papers, and records. The directors were ordered to
lay before the house a full account of all their proceedings, and were
forbidden to leave the kingdom for a twelvemonth.

Mr. Walpole laid before a committee of the whole house his scheme for
the restoration of public credit, which was, in substance, to ingraft
nine millions of South Sea stock into the Bank of England, and the same
sum into the East India Company, upon certain conditions. The plan was
favourably received by the House. After some few objections it was
ordered that proposals should be received from the two great
corporations. They were both unwilling to lend their aid, and the plan
met with a warm but fruitless opposition at the general courts summoned
for the purpose of deliberating upon it. They, however, ultimately
agreed upon the terms on which they would consent to circulate the South
Sea bonds; and their report being presented to the committee, a bill was
t