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PAGE

CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS

OF THE

STOCK EXCHANGE.

The national debt has been designated by some a national nuisance; by others it has been termed a national necessity. In the earlier history of the world, when war was a war for dominion, and spoliation followed conquest, the victor returned rich with the treasures of conquered states, and his captive paid trebly the expenses of the war. It was thus that the mistress of the world became an emporium for the gathered wealth of temples, for the gorgeous ornaments of a subdued aristocracy, and for the gold which had filled the treasury of barbarous but luxurious nations. These accumulations, together with annual tributes, prevented the formation of a public debt. The Goth, when he poured from his barren recesses upon the cultivated plains of Italy, ignorant of political economy as a science, felt it as a principle, and more than repaid the expenses of his foray by exacting the riches of imperial Rome. Modern Europe teaches us to similar purport; and Napoleon, in those wars which, to some a memory, are to others history, acted upon the same plan, and made Paris a receptacle for the spoil of many nations.

From a very early period, the mercantile capacity of England has been developed; and her insular position, which at once suggested and favored commerce, was taken advantage of by laymen and churchmen. Bishops entered into speculations in herrings, and abbots did not disdain to unite the smuggling with a more saintly calling. But there were other and more legitimate followers of that pursuit which has since made the name of an English merchant a symbol of English greatness. Among these, William de la Pole stands prominently forward; and the founder of the House of Suffolk is familiar to the student of commercial history. William Canyng--that name so intimately connected with the fortunes of "the marvellous boy who perished in his pride"--and Richard Whittington--dear to household memories, and the founder of many princely charities--were others whose munificence was only surpassed by their wealth.

To the English sovereign a certain power over commerce had always been intrusted; but Elizabeth stretched her prerogative, and granted monopolies by scores. Prices rose enormously, and the evil was felt by every family in the realm. The House of Commons remonstrated. When a long list of patents for monopolies was read, one sturdy member demanded, "Is not bread there?" "Bread!" quoth one. "Bread!" cried another. "Yea, bread!" said Mr. Hackwell; "for, if care be not taken, bread will be there before next Parliament." Nor was this all: the coach of the chief minister was surrounded by the populace; menacing murmurs were heard cursing patents; and indignant voices declared that the old liberties of England should not be encroached on by new prerogatives. With admirable sagacity, the queen saw the necessity of yielding, and did it while she could with grace and dignity. But this sovereign improved upon the plans of her predecessors,--she kept the temporalities of bishoprics in her own hands for years, and appropriated the landed property of sees. Under the name of New Year's gifts, she extorted large sums from the frequenters of the court; she ordered companies to lend her money,--to borrow, if they did not possess it,--and, if she had more than she required, she would return part, provided they would pay her interest for that on which she paid them nothing. To the citizen of the nineteenth century this must appear a fable; but it is a recorded fact, that Elizabeth borrowed money from the citizens, found she had more than she required, and, instead of repaying it, re-lent it to them at seven per cent. on the security of gold and silver plate.

The earliest instance of that fatal love of speculation, so ruinous to the character and credit of all who possess it, occurred in 1634; and the history of the tulip mania in Holland is as instructive as that of any similar period. In the above year, the chief cities of the Netherlands engaged in a traffic which destroyed commerce and encouraged gambling; which enlisted the greediness of the rich and the desire of the poor; which raised the value of a flower to more than its weight in gold; and which ended, as all such periods have ended, in wild and wretched despair. The many were ruined, the few were enriched; and tulips were as eagerly sought in 1634, as railway scrip in 1844. The speculation was conducted on similar principles. Bargains were made for the delivery of certain roots; and when, as in one case, there were but two in the market, lordship and land, horses and oxen, were sold to pay the deficiency. Contracts were made, and thousands of florins paid, for tulips which were never seen by broker, by buyer, or by seller. For a time, as usual, all won, and no one lost. Poor persons became wealthy. High and low traded in flowers; sumptuous entertainments confirmed their bargains; notaries grew rich; and even the unimaginative Hollander fancied he saw a sure and certain prosperity before him. People of all professions turned their property into cash; houses and furniture were offered at ruinous prices; the idea spread throughout the country that the passion for tulips would last for ever; and when it was known that foreigners were seized with the fever, it was believed that the wealth of the world would concentrate on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, and that poverty would become a tradition in Holland. That they were honest in their belief is proved by the prices they paid; and the following list shows that the mania must indeed have been deep, when goods to the value of 2,500 florins were given for one root:--

Florins. 2 Lasts of wheat 448 4 Lasts of rye 558 4 Oxen 480 3 Swine 240 12 Sheep 120 2 Hogsheads of wine 70 4 Tons of beer 32 4 Tons of butter 192 1000 Pounds of cheese 120 1 Bed 100 1 Suit of clothes 80 1 Silver beaker 60

Another species commonly fetched two thousand florins; a third was valued at a new carriage, two gray horses, and a complete harness. Twelve acres of land were paid for a fourth; and 60,000 florins were made by one man in a few weeks. But the panic came at last. Confidence vanished; contracts were void; defaulters were announced in every town of Holland; dreams of wealth were dissipated; and they who, a week before, rejoiced in the possession of a few tulips which would have realized a princely fortune, looked sad and stupefied on the miserable bulbs before them, valueless in themselves, and unsalable at any price. To parry the blow, the tulip-merchants held public meetings, and made pompous speeches, in which they proved that their goods were worth as much as ever, and that a panic was absurd and unjust. The speeches produced great applause, but the bulb continued valueless; and, though actions for breach of contract were threatened, the law refused to take cognizance of gambling transactions. Even the wisdom of the Deliberative Council at the Hague was at fault, and to find a remedy was beyond the power of the government. Many years passed before the country recovered from the shock, or commerce revived from the depression which followed the Tulipomania; and which, not confined exclusively to Holland, visited London and Paris, and gave a fictitious importance to the tulip in the two greatest capitals of the world.

The creation of a national debt has been attributed to the Dutch, but is really due to the Venetians. The immediate treasury of the Doge was exhausted; money was necessary; and the most eminent citizens of that great republic were called upon to redeem the credit of their country. A Chamber of Loans was established, the contributors were made creditors, four per cent. was allowed as interest, and she,

"Who once held the gorgeous East in fee, And was the safeguard of the West,"

resumed her credit, and increased her power.

So fruitful a source of wealth was not allowed to fall into desuetude. The Florentine republic, experiencing a deficiency in her revenue, established a mount, allowed five per cent. interest, and, says Sir William Blackstone, these laid the foundation of our national debt. The Dutch were not long following the example. When the great persecution occurred, which forced the Spanish Jew--the aristocracy of the chosen race--from the place of his nativity, he brought with him to Holland the craft and the cunning of the people. He taught the Dutch to create an artificial wealth; and the people of that republic, by its aid, maintained an attitude of independence, which rendered them so long the envy and the hatred of the proud states which surrounded their territory. Their industry increased with the claims upon them. They cultivated their country with renewed perseverance; they brought the spices of the rich and barbarous East to the shores of the cultivated and the civilized West; they opened new sources of profit; their merchant-vessels covered the waters; their navy was the boast of Europe; their army was the scourge of the great Louis in the height of his pride and power. The markets of Holland evinced a full activity; the towns of Holland increased in importance; and the capital of Holland became the centre of European money transactions, partly in consequence of the great bigotry which banished the Jew from Spain.

When, therefore, the chief of that small yet powerful republic was called to sit upon an English throne, he brought with him many of those whose brains had contrived and whose cunning had contributed to produce these great changes; and from his reign, whatever evils may have arisen from a reckless waste of money, there commenced that principle which, for a century and a half, has operated on the fortunes of all Europe,--which proclaimed that, under every form and phase of circumstance, in the darkest hour of gloom as in the proudest moment of grandeur, the inviolable faith of England should be preserved towards the public creditor. Up to this period, the only national debt on which interest was acknowledged was that sum which had been seized on in the Exchequer; and even these dividends were irregularly paid. Many debts had been incurred by our earlier kings, but all the promises and pledges which had been given for their redemption were broken directly the money was gained; and it remained, we repeat, for William, whatever his errors may have been, to establish the principle, that faith to the public creditor must be inviolate.

The moneyed interest--a title familiar to the reader of the present day--was unknown until 1692. It was then arrogated by those who saw the great advantage of entering into transactions in the funds for the aid of government. The title claimed by them in pride was employed by others in derision: and the purse-proud importance of men grown suddenly rich was a common source of ridicule.

Wealth rapidly acquired has been invariably detrimental to the manners and the morals of the nation, and in 1692 the rule was as absolute as now. The moneyed interest, intoxicated by the possession of wealth which their wildest dreams had never imagined, and incensed by the cold contempt with which the landed interest treated them, endeavoured to rival the latter in that magnificence which was one characteristic of the landed families. Their carriages were radiant with gold; their persons were radiant with gems; they married the poorer branches of the nobility; they eagerly purchased the princely mansions of the old aristocracy. The brush of Sir Godfrey Kneller, and the chisel of Caius Cibber, were employed in perpetuating their features. Their wealth was rarely grudged to humble the pride of a Howard or a Cavendish; and the money gained by the father was spent by the son in acquiring a distinction at the expense of decency. They were seized upon by the satirist and the dramatist as a new object of ridicule; and under various forms they have become a stage property. The term which they had chosen to distinguish them became a word of contempt; and the moneyed class was at once the envy and the laugh of the town. Nor was it until that interest became a great and most important one, that the term assumed its right meaning, or that the moneyed contended with the landed interest on a more than equal footing. The former have always clung to the house of Brunswick; the latter have often used their exertions against it. In time, however, the moneyed became a landed interest, and vied in taste as well as magnificence with the proudest of England's old nobility. Among these was Sir Robert Clayton, director of the Bank, whose banqueting-room was wainscoted with cedar, whose villa was the boast of the Surrey hills, whose entertainments imitated those of kings, whose judicious munificence made him the pride of that great city to the representation of which he was called by acclamation. But there were other and less reputable directors of the great Bank; and a pamphlet, published shortly afterwards, drew public attention to acts which either prove that morality in one commercial age is immorality in the next, or that some of the governors of the corporation were wofully deficient in the organ of conscientiousness.

In the Royal Exchange, erected for less speculative and more mercantile pursuits, were the early transactions of the moneyed interest in the funds carried on. In 1695, its walls resounded with the din of new projects; nor could a more striking scene be conceived than that presented in the area of this building. The grave Fleming might be seen making a bargain with the earnest Venetian. The representatives of firms from every civilized nation--the Frenchman with his vivacious tones, the Spaniard with his dignified bearing, the Italian with his melodious tongue--might be seen in all the variety of national costume; and the flowing garb of the Turk, the fur-trimmed coat of the Fleming, the long robe of the Venetian, the short cloak of the Englishman, were sufficiently striking to attract the eye of the painter to a scene so varied. There, too, the sober manner of the citizen formed a strong contrast to the courtier, who came to refill his empty purse: and there also, as now, might be seen the broken-down merchant, pale, haggard, and threadbare, haunting the scene of his former glory, passing his now valueless time among those who scarcely acknowledged his presence, and, as he had probably dined with Duke Humphrey, supped with Sir Thomas Gresham.

"Trampling the Bourse's marble twice a day, Though little coin thy purseless pockets line, Yet with great company thou art taken up, For often with Duke Humphrey dost thou dine, And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup."

A new impulse had been given to trade, and the nation was beginning to feel the effect of the Revolution. William had already tried his power in the creation of a national debt: jobbing in the English funds and East India Stock succeeded; and the Royal Exchange became--what the Stock Exchange has been since 1700--the rendezvous of those who, having money, hoped to increase it, and of that yet more numerous and pretending class, who, having none themselves, try to gain it from those who have.

The charter granted by William to the Corporation of the Bank of England is the first instance of a debt bequeathed to posterity. Annuities had hitherto been the mode of raising supplies; and the day, therefore, which witnessed the establishment of the Bank is worthy of notice, as being also the day on which William laid the foundation of an irredeemable national debt.

It was soon found that the duties appropriated to the various payments of interest and annuities were insufficient to meet the claims. In 1697, the national debt amounted to twenty millions, and the revenue was deficient five millions. The payment in consequence grew uncertain, and the moneyed men of the day, watching the course of events, made large sums out of the distresses of government. "The citizen," says an old writer on the subject, "began to decline trade and turn usurer."

To prevent this, a law was passed against the stock-brokers and jobbers, which limits the number of the former, enacts some severe regulations, and makes some severe remarks upon the entire body.

At this period the broker had a walk upon the Royal Exchange devoted to the funds of the East India and other great corporations; and many of the terms now in vogue among the initiated arose from their dealings with the stock of the East India Company. Jobbing in the great chartered corporations was thoroughly understood. Reports and rumors were as plentiful then as now. No sooner was it known that one of the fine vessels of the India Company, laden with gold and jewels from the East, was on its way, than every method was had recourse to. Men were employed to whisper of hurricanes which had sunk the well-stored ship; of quicksands which had swallowed her up; of war which had commenced when peace was unbroken; or of peace being concluded when the factories were in the utmost danger. Nor were the brains of the speculators less capable than now. If at the present day a banker condescends to raise a railway bubble 50 per cent., the broker of that day understood his craft sufficiently to cause a variation in the price of East India Stock of 263 per cent.; and complaints became frequent that the Royal Exchange was perverted from its legitimate purpose, and that the jobbers--the term was applied ignominiously--ought to be driven from a spot polluted by their presence. Mines of gold, silver, and copper were so temptingly promised, that the entire town pursued the deception. Tricks and stratagems were plentiful; the wary made fortunes, and the unwary were ruined.

In 1698, the dealers and jobbers in the funds and share market, annoyed by the objections made to their remaining in the Royal Exchange, and finding their numbers seriously increase, deemed it advisable to go to 'Change Alley, as a large and unoccupied space, where they might carry on their extensive operations.

"The centre of jobbing is in the kingdom of 'Change Alley and its adjacencies," said a pamphleteer a few years after. "The limits are easily surrounded 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 due 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 a little 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."

The English funds were assuming a greatness they have ever since maintained. The Hebrew capitalist, who came over with William, had increased the importance of the jobbers by joining them. The English merchant--even at this early period--found that money might be gained in the new operation; and 'Change Alley, so well known in Parliamentary debates and the correspondence of the time as "the Alley," was for a century the centre of all dealings in the funds. Here assembled the sharper and the saint; here jostled one another the Jew and the Gentile; here met the courtier and the citizen; here the calmness of the gainer contrasted with the despair of the loser; and here might be seen the carriage of some minister, into which the head of his broker was anxiously stretched to gain the intelligence which was to raise or depress the market. In one corner might be witnessed the anxious, eager countenance of the occasional gambler, in strong contrast with the calm, cool demeanor of the man whose trade it was to deceive. In another the Hebrew measured his craft with that of the Quaker, and scarcely came off victorious in the contest; while in one place, appropriated to him, stood the founder of hospitals, impressing with eagerness upon his companion the bargain he was about to make in seamen's tickets.

It was soon felt practically that the air of England is cold and its climate variable. The more respectable among the jobbers, therefore, gathered beneath the walls of one of those coffee-houses which formed so marked a feature of London life in the eighteenth century, until the chance became a customary visit, and the coffee-house known as Jonathan's became the regular rendezvous of all the dealers in stock, and consequently the scene of transactions as extensive as any the world ever witnessed.

In 1701, the character of those who met in 'Change Alley was not very enviable. It was said, and said truly, that they undermined, impoverished, and destroyed all with whom they came in contact. "They can ruin men silently," says a writer of the period, with great vehemence; "undermine and impoverish, fiddle them out of their money, by the strange, unheard-of engines of interest, discount, transfers, tallies, debentures, shares, projects, and the devil and all of figures and hard names."

Every thing which could inflate the hopes of the schemer was brought into operation by the brokers. If shares were dull, they jobbed in the funds, or tried exchequer bills; and if these failed, rather than remain idle, they dealt in bank-notes at 40 per cent. discount. These new modes of gambling seized upon the town with a violence which sober citizens could scarcely understand. Their first impulse was to laugh at the stories currently circulated of fortunes lost and won; but when they saw men who were yesterday threadbare pass them to-day in their carriages,--when they saw wealth, which it took their plodding industry years of patient labor to acquire, won by others in a few weeks,--unable to resist the temptation, the greatest of the city merchants deserted their regular vocations and speculated in the newly-produced stocks. "The poor English nation," says a writer, "run a madding after new inventions, whims, and projects; and this unhappy ingredient my dear countrymen have in their temper,--they are violent, and prosecute their projects eagerly."

No sooner had the members of the jobbing community taken their quarter in 'Change Alley, than the city of London was seized with alarm, and tried to keep the brokers at the Royal Exchange. They grew indignant at their deserting so time-honored a place, and bound them in pains and penalties not to appear in 'Change Alley. Pocket, however, triumphed over prerogative; brokers resorted where bargains were plentiful; 'Change Alley grew famous throughout England; but it was not till nearly a century and a quarter after its first transaction, and a quarter of a century after 'Change Alley ceased to exist as a sphere for the stock-jobbers, that the ancient and useless provision not to assemble in 'Change Alley was expunged from the broker's bond.

Among those who employed their great fortunes in the manner alluded to was Sir Henry Furnese, a Director of the Bank of England. Throughout Holland, Flanders, France, and Germany, he maintained a complete and perfect train of intelligence. The news of the many battles fought at this period was received first by him, and the fall of Namur added to his profits, owing to his early intelligence. On another occasion he was presented by William with a diamond ring, as a reward for some important information, and as a testimony of this monarch's esteem. But the temptation to deceive was too great, even for this gentleman. He fabricated news; he insinuated false intelligence; he was the originator of some of those plans which at a later period were managed with so much effect by Rothschild. If Sir Henry wished to buy, his brokers were ordered to look gloomy and mysterious, hint at important news, and after a time sell. His movements were closely watched; the contagion would spread; the speculators grew alarmed; prices be lowered 4 or 5 per cent.,--for in those days the loss of a battle might be the loss of a crown,--and Sir Henry Furnese would reap the benefit by employing different brokers to purchase as much as possible at the reduced price. Large profits were thus made; but a demoralizing spirit was spread throughout the Stock Exchange. Bankrupts and beggars sought the same pleasure in which the millionnaire indulged, and often with similar success.

The wealthy Hebrew, Medina, accompanied Marlborough in all his campaigns; administered to the avarice of the great captain by an annuity of six thousand pounds per annum; repaid himself by expresses containing intelligence of those great battles which fire the English blood to hear them named; and Ramilies, Oudenarde, and Blenheim administered as much to the purse of the Hebrew as they did to the glory of England.

In the midst of these excitements arises a name which, to the dwellers in London, is well known. Thomas Guy, the Bible contractor, was a frequenter of 'Change Alley; and here, duly and daily, might be seen that figure, which the gratitude of his fellow-men has rendered familiar in the statue raised to his memory.

FOOTNOTES:

The tontine is simply a loan raised on life-annuities. In consideration of a certain amount paid by a certain number of persons, government grants to each a life-annuity. As the annuitants die, their shares are divided among the survivors, until the annuity granted to the whole becomes centred in the longest liver; at his death the transaction ceases.

The Parliamentary records of William's reign are curious. The demands which he made for money, the hatred to France which he encouraged, and the frequent supplies he received, are remarkable features in his history. Every art was employed; at one time a mild remonstrance, at another a haughty menace, at a third the reproach that he had ventured his life for the benefit of the country. The bribery during this reign was the commencement of a system which has been very injurious to the credit and character of England. The support of the members was purchased with places, with contracts, with titles, with promises, with portions of the loans, and with tickets in the lottery. The famous axiom of Sir Robert Walpole was a practice and a principle with William; he found that custom could not stale the infinite variety of its effect, and that, so long as bribes continued, so long would supplies be free. Exorbitant premiums were given for money; and so low was public credit, and so great public corruption, that, of 5 millions granted to carry on the war, only 2- 1/2 millions reached the exchequer. Long annuities and short annuities, lottery-tickets and irredeemable debts, made their frequent appearance; and the duties, which principally date from this period, were most pernicious. The hearth-tax was nearly as obnoxious as the poll-tax. The custom and excise duties were doubled. The hawker and the hackney-coach driver, companies and corporations, land and labor, came under his supervision. Births, burials, and bachelors were added to the list, and whether a wife lost a husband, or whether a widow gained one, the effect was alike. Beer and ale, wine and vinegar, coal and culm, all contributed to the impoverished state; and although some who looked back with regret occasionally indulged their spleen, the general tone of the Parliament was submissive. Still, there were times when the truth was spoken; and truths like the following were unpleasant:--

"We have provided," said Sir Charles Sedley, "for the army; we have provided for the navy; and now we must provide for the list. Truly, Mr. Speaker, 'tis a sad reflection that some men should wallow in wealth and places, while others pay away in taxes the fourth part of their revenue. The courtiers and great officers feel not the terms, while the country gentleman is shot through and through. His Majesty sees nothing but coaches and six, and great tables, and therefore cannot imagine the want and misery of the rest of his subjects. He is encompassed by a company of crafty old courtiers."

The subaltern officers were not better off. Colonel Hastings, afterwards cashiered for the offence, made them buy their raiment of him. If they hesitated, he threatened; if they refused, he confined them. In 1693, an inquiry was made into the application of the secret-service money, when great and deserved animadversion was passed upon those through whom it circulated. The power possessed by government under such abuses may be imagined. They were sure of the votes of those who had places and pensions, and they were sure also of the votes of that large class of expectants which always haunts a profuse ministry; and thus "the courtiers," as the ministerial party was long designated, could baffle any bills, quash all grievances, stifle any accounts, and raise any amount of money.

These discoveries inflamed the people, and murmurs that corruption had eaten into the nation became general. Court and camp, city and senate, were alike denounced. The pamphleteers spoke in strong language. "Posterity," said the author of one, termed The Price of the Abdication, "will set an eternal brand of infamy upon those members, who, to obtain either offices, profitable places, or quarterly stipends, have combined to vote whatever hath been demanded."

It has been the fashion of a certain class to decry William because he founded the national debt. But the war which he waged was almost a war of necessity, and could not be supported without liberal supplies. There was, however, with William a personal pride in the contest. He had been taught, from his boyhood, hatred to France, and almost in boyhood had checked the universal dominion aimed at by Louis. With him, therefore, opposition to France was a passion; and he who, at the age of twenty-three, bade defiance to the combined power of the two greatest nations of the modern world, remembered, as soon as he reached the English throne, that proud, though bitter moment, when, surrounded by French force, his people determined to let loose the waters which their skill had confined, and from the homes and hearths of their fathers bear their goods, their fortunes, and their persons, and to erect in a new land the flag they would not see dishonored in the old. When, therefore, William of Orange became monarch of England, his first thought was the humiliation of France. To this point he bent the vast energies of England and his own unconquerable will; for this only was his crown valuable, and for this purpose was the power of England strained to the utmost tension.

The importance of France was then at its height. Louis sought to sway the councils of Europe; and whoever else might have succumbed, the statesmen of England had been in his power, and a monarch of England in his pay. He saw, therefore, with dislike which was not attempted to be concealed, the throne mounted by one who was resolved, not merely to maintain its ancient greatness, but to quell the power of its ancient rival. Louis sheltered the abdicated king, and encouraged his mock court and his mock majesty. This was sufficient proof of his feeling; nor were other indications wanting: and it is a complete fallacy to suppose that the debt was unnecessarily incurred; in it lay the power of William and the safety of the land.

Had the new king employed the arbitrary mode of levying supplies of the earlier monarchs; had he made forced loans and never repaid them; had he seized upon public money, and wrung the purses of public men, the country might as well have been governed by a James as a William, and would in all probability have recalled the exile of the unfortunate House of Stuart. The evils of William's reign were in the facts that his power was not sufficiently established to borrow on equitable terms; that the bribery, abuses, and corruption of men in high places increased with their position; and, above all, that, instead of paying his debts by terminable annuities, he made them interminable. Lord Bolingbroke declares, that he could have raised funds without mortgaging the resources of the nation in perpetuity, and that it was a political movement to strengthen the power of the crown, and to secure the adherence of that large portion of the people by whom the money had been lent.

But the clamor of the people reached her councils. It was said our plans were betrayed to the enemy; treachery was justifiably suspected; and all who were familiar with the period will join the writer in thinking it not only possible, but probable.

During these trials the spirit of William remained unchanged; and, rejecting all overtures from France, he exhibited to the world the soldiership for which he was remarkable. At Namur he fought in the trenches, ate his dinner with the soldiers, animated them with his presence, shared their dangers, and won their hearts. Namur capitulated, and the scene changed. The French power was shaken in Catalonia; its coasts were assailed; its people were suffering, and Louis, whose great general was dead, was sufficiently humbled to renew his proposals for peace, which, after nine years' war, costing Europe 480 millions of money and 800,000 men, was gained by the pacification of Ryswick.

A deep thinker of the present day has said of the war anterior to 1688,--and the argument is supported by that school of which Cobbett was chief,--"The cost happily fell upon those who lived about the time,--it was not transmitted to posterity, according to the clever contrivance devised in a more enlightened and civilized age. They spent their own money, and not that of their grandchildren. They did as they liked with their own labor and its results; they did not mortgage the labor of succeeding generations."

Men do not argue thus, ordinarily. The case is very similar to that of a land-proprietor mortgaging his estate to defend it from a suit which endangers it. His posterity may regret, but they cannot complain; they know it is better to have the estate partially mortgaged than not to have an estate at all. It seems, to the writer, similar with the national debts of the reign of William. He was bound to defend the people who had chosen him; war was then, as now, a popular pastime; and William is no more to be blamed that he was not in advance of the time, than the nobles of the present day are to blame because they bring up their younger sons to be shot at for glory and a few shillings a day, instead of seeing, as their successors will probably see, the anti-progressive and anti-Christian nature of the principle thus supported.

The one great evil was, that the difficulty of getting money tempted William to borrow on irredeemable annuities. Had he borrowed only on annuities terminable in a century, he would have attained his money at a little extra cost, but the pressure on the people would have decreased year by year, the credit of the government have increased, and the discontent of the nation been less.

If, however, any blame be attached to the government of William, how much greater must be that which is attached to succeeding ministries. They knew, for they felt, the evil of perpetual debts. Sir Robert Walpole said, when the nation owed 100 millions it would be ruined; but he, and those who preceded with those who followed him, persisted in neglecting the only principle of action which could save the country. It is the misfortune of governments to abide by that which is only venerable from its antiquity, and persist in following precedents when they should act upon principle. They forget--and the fact cannot be urged too strongly--that government is a progressive science, and that improvement is a law of nations as well as of nature.

The first fraud in exchequer-bills occurred within a year of their creation; when receivers-general, members of Parliament, and deputy accountants formed a confederacy fraudulently to indorse some of these securities, to which their position gave them access. The robbery was discovered; and a Mr. Reginald Marryot, one of the accomplices, saved himself by discovering the plot. The House of Commons expelled from its members the men whose dishonor was increased by their position; and, as the estate of Mr. Charles Duncombe, one of the accused, was worth ?400,000, they fined him ?200,000, being the amount wrongfully circulated. In the House of Lords it fell to the Duke of Leeds to give the casting vote. Mr. Duncombe's estate was saved, but the Duke's credit suffered, for he gave his decision in favor of the defaulter; and it was said that Mr. Duncombe paid no inconsiderable sum for the benefit he received at the hands of his Grace. The charge was never brought home; but the Duke's after-conduct gave a sufficient coloring to the suspicion.

The first foreign loan was negotiated in 'Change Alley in 1706. The victories of the Duke of Marlborough had raised the pride of the English people; and even 'Change Alley possessed a somewhat similar feeling. When, therefore, his Grace proposed a loan of ?500,000 to the Emperor, for eight years, at 8 per cent., on the security of the Silesian revenue, it was received with acclamation, and was filled in a few days by the first commercial names of England.

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