hen brought in, under the superintendence of Mr. Walpole, and safely
carried through both Houses of Parliament.

In the House of Lords, Lord Stanhope said that every farthing possessed
by the criminals, whether directors or not, ought to be confiscated, to
make good the public losses.

[Illustration: LONDON STONE. (_See page 544._)]

The wrath of the House of Commons soon fell quick and terrible as
lightning on two members of the Ministry, Craggs, and Mr. Aislabie,
Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was ordered, on the 21st of January,
that all South Sea brokers should lay before the House a full account of
all stock bought or sold by them to any officers of the Treasury or
Exchequer since Michaelmas, 1719. Aislabie instantly resigned his
office, and absented himself from Parliament, and five of the South Sea
directors (including Mr. Gibbon, the grandfather of the historian) were
ordered into the custody of the Black Rod.

The next excitement was the flight of Knight, the treasurer of the
Company, with all his books and implicating documents, and a reward of
L2,000 was offered for his apprehension. The same night the Commons
ordered the doors of the House to be locked, and the keys laid on the
table.

General Ross, one of the members of the Select Committee, then informed
the House that there had been already discovered a plot of the deepest
villany and fraud that Hell had ever contrived to ruin a nation. Four
directors, members of the House--_i.e._, Sir Robert Chaplin, Sir
Theodore Janssen, Mr. Sawbridge, and Mr. F. Eyles--were expelled the
House, and taken into the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms. Sir John
Blunt, another director, was also taken into custody. This man,
mentioned by Pope in his "Epistle to Lord Bathurst," had been a
scrivener, famed for his religious observances and his horror of
avarice. He was examined at the bar of the House of Lords, but refused
to criminate himself. The Duke of Wharton, vexed at this prudent silence
of the criminal, accused Earl Stanhope of encouraging this taciturnity
of the witness. The Earl became so excited in his return speech, that it
brought on an apoplectic fit, of which he died the next day, to the
great grief of his royal master, George I. The Committee of Secrecy
stated that in some of the books produced before them, false and
fictitious entries had been made; in others there were entries of money,
with blanks for the names of the stockholders. There were frequent
er