to the throne: this was the beginning of a negotiation which ended in
peace, and established the tranquillity of the North. In the midst of
these transactions, king George set out from England for his Hanoverian
dominions; but before he departed from Great Britain, he was reconciled
to the prince of Wales, through the endeavours of the duke of Devonshire
and Mr. Walpole, who, with earl Cowper, lord Townshend, Mr. Methuen,
and Mr. Pulteney, were received into favour, and re-united with the
ministry. The earls of Dorset and Bridgewater were promoted to the title
of dukes; lord viscount Castleton was made an earl; Hugh Boscawen was
created a baron, and viscount Falmouth; and John Wallop baron, and
viscount Lymington.

{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}

EFFECTS OF THE SOUTH-SEA SCHEME.

While the king was involved at Hanover in a labyrinth of negotiations,
the South-Sea scheme produced a kind of national delirium in his English
dominions. Blunt, the projector, had taken the hint of his plan from the
famous Mississippi scheme formed by Law, which in the preceding year had
raised such a ferment in France, and entailed rain upon many thousand
families of that kingdom. In the scheme of Law there was something
substantial. An exclusive trade to Louisiana promised some advantage;
though the design was defeated by the frantic eagerness of the people.
Law himself became the dupe of the regent, who transferred the burden
of fifteen hundred millions of the king's debts to the shoulders of the
subjects, while the projector was sacrificed as the scape-goat of
the political iniquity. The South-Sea scheme promised no commercial
advantage of any consequence. It was buoyed up by nothing but the folly
and rapaciousness of individuals, which became so blind and extravagant,
that Blunt, with moderate talents, was able to impose upon the whole
nation, and make tools of the other directors, to serve his own purposes
and those of a few associates. When this projector found that the
South-Sea stock did not rise according to his expectation upon
the bill's being passed, he circulated a report that Gibraltar and
Port-Mahon would be exchanged for some places in Teru; by which means
the English trade to the South-Sea would be protected and enlarged. This
rumour, diffused by his emissaries, acted like a contagion. In five days
the directors opened their books for a subscription of one million,
at the rate of three hundred pounds for every hundred pound