CHAPTER XVIII.. _life Assurance.—Its Benefits.—Its Commencement.—Suicide of an

Life Assurance.—Its Benefits.—Its Commencement.—Suicide of an Insurer.—Insurance of Invalid Lives.—The Gresham.—Sketch of the West Middlesex Delusion.

The day on which the first life-assurance office was established is worthy of remembrance by the great mass of the middle class. Faulty in construction, and erroneous in detail, it was the enunciation of a great principle, the birth of a great blessing. Innovations were not made in the eighteenth, any more than in the nineteenth century, however, without opposition; and when, in 1706, the Amicable commenced business, prophets were plentiful in declaring it must fail, while others announced that it would open the door to gambling, and was flying in the face of Providence. But the excellence of the principle triumphed; and, although one uniform rate prevailed for the sick and for the sound, for the old and for the young, the Amicable succeeded. The pale face of the invalid was no objection; the purple hue of him who fared sumptuously was no preventive. The man on the brink of the grave, and the youth on the verge of manhood, paid the same premium; and for £5 per cent. per annum, and £7 10s. per cent. entrance-money, every one was enabled to insure his life. Such was the primitive plan of the first life association.

The London Assurance and Royal Exchange corporations followed, in 1720. In 1762, the Equitable was established; and, although a trifling progress was made, the clumsy plan of equal payments, without reference to years, was perpetuated, and five per cent. paid by all. When, however, the rates were varied in proportion to age, when sick men were rejected, and only the healthy taken, a step was made in the right direction; and life assurance began to flourish with a vigor which astonished even its promoters.

It is believed that England is the only state in which the insurance of lives has never been prohibited. The Dutch, a commercial people, refused to legalize it until a recent period; and in France it was long deemed unlawful, “because it is an offence against public decency to set a price upon the life of a freeman, which is above all valuation.” Another great objection was the fear that individuals might destroy themselves to enrich their families; and though this exaggerated view of the case is provided for in modern policies, yet the following anecdote will prove that the fear was not altogether groundless. So early as the middle of the eighteenth century, the clause which excluded the representatives of suicides from a participation in the amount insured excited attention; and an office was established, which, for a corresponding increase of premium, paid the amount to the relatives of the self-murderer. One man, deeply in debt, wishing to pay his creditors, and not knowing how, went to the office, insured his life, and invited the insurers to dine with him at a tavern, where several other persons were present. After dinner he rose, and addressing the former, said, “Gentlemen, it is fitting you should know the company you have met. These are my tradesmen, whom I could not pay without your assistance. I am greatly obliged to you; and now——” Without another word he bowed, pulled out a pistol, and shot himself.

The number of insurances was, at first, necessarily very limited; the mode in which the directors transacted business, the premiums they required, the determination to take none but lives which were almost faultless, the pernicious plan of occasionally resisting the payment of policies, the absence of much opposition, all tended to reduce the business. When, however, the capital of the country increased, and men looked earnestly about them for new modes of investment, the profits and the principles of life assurance were anxiously investigated, its demands inquired into, its difficulties overcome; and though from 1706 to 1806 nine offices had been found sufficient, yet from 1806 to 1846 the desire spread so rapidly, that no less than one hundred and eleven were established. In 1820, there were only twenty offices in the United Kingdom; in 1830, their number was exactly doubled; in 1840, they had again doubled; and from 1840 to 1845, they increased in the same proportion.

The success which has attended these companies has induced capitalists to invest their money in similar schemes, and the result has been, that during every period of excitement new associations have been started, with new claims to patronage. Those claims were put prominently forward to benefit themselves; and life assurance companies cannot greatly benefit their promoters without benefiting others. The constant advertisements, the names of their directors, the statement of their terms, the peculiarity of their constitution, pressed upon general attention, the public mind gradually became possessed with the idea that life insurances were for every class, and business increased. Every objection was met, every demand grappled with; and there is now, probably, not a man in London who cannot, in a smaller or greater degree, provide for those he may leave behind. The principal offices were proprietary; and the entire gain went to the shareholder. But the insurers began to see that the profits made by a corporation might as well be made by themselves; and companies which joined the proprietary with the participating principle followed. Another movement was that which divided the entire profits among the assured, reducing the premium as the company prospered; and so thoroughly is the value of life understood, that a society, commencing on this plan, with fair premiums and fair management, is as safe as a company with a capital of half a million.

But there were other difficulties to be met, as a pernicious plan obtained of disputing the payment of policies when the life fell in, on trivial and often unjustifiable grounds; the advantages of the system being greatly reduced owing to the desire for gain of the proprietary offices. To meet this, a society is now established, termed the Indisputable, which holds the policy inviolable when once granted.

There still remained one class for whom life assurances were unavailing. The anxiety for profits of the companies, the determination to divide good dividends, the extreme desire to take none but unexceptionable lives, produced an evil, at first view, irremediable. The stringent regulations, the declarations required, the personal examination, and the private inquiry, produced an unhappy effect. Average lives were declined, and for him whose health was not perfect, there was no chance. The healthy, but nervous man, whose pulse, when examined, beat like a steam-engine, was very often refused; and stories of rejected applicants, which speak volumes, are prevalent. One gentleman was declined because he was deaf, as he ran more risk of being run over. Another was refused because he had been three times bankrupt, and his system might have suffered. A third was too full of health, and might die of apoplexy. A fourth was deficient, and might die of decline. The old companies were absolutely determined to take no life but what was unexceptionable. The consequence was, that men in rude, robust health, if blind in one eye, or deaf with one ear, were often rejected; and there are innumerable instances of the refused party living to a good old age; while cases are not wanting, in which, after outliving doctor, actuary, and half the board of directors, the very man who, thirty years before, was refused at any price, was gladly taken by the same company at the ordinary premium.

The possessor of sound health, who has provided for his family, cannot comprehend the misery occasioned to the invalid by the conviction that his application will be rejected; and in a country where men labor long in an impure atmosphere, there are too many whose lives are early damaged. To these, every allusion to life assurance was an agony; and it is difficult to enter thoroughly into the distress of him who knew he would die penniless, when a sudden sickness possessed him. Unnerved both mentally and physically, he saw his last hour approach. Loathing the trifling luxuries which sustained him, because they would impoverish his family; dreading the footsteps of the physician, as he thought of his fee; the love of his wife was no comfort, the voices of his children no pleasure; for he knew that his death would leave them to public or private charity. Such was the position of the individual rejected by a life office.

But even this want has been responded to. Many offices now profess to take invalid lives at an increased premium; and two are really devoted to this particular risk. The Invalid and Medical Life Assurance Company first began, and was successful; and the Gresham, lately established, has proved that the class for which it is specially intended is numerous. Much may depend upon the judgment of the medical officer; but so great is the anxiety to insure, that the premium is of less importance to the insured than in ordinary cases, and the office is able to protect its interest. The idea has been supported and approved by actuaries generally. The success of the Gresham is a proof of its merit. Every man of feeling must cordially agree in the principle; and the speech of Mr. Marshall, cashier to the Bank of England, is one of many proofs that the insurance companies, a quarter of a century ago, were ignorant of their own interests.

“I myself,” said that gentleman, “fell under the class of declined lives, and for the whole of my life have been deprived of the advantages which are offered by life assurances. One-and-thirty years ago, I had the misfortune to break a blood vessel in my lungs, and had I proposed to any office, that fact, as an honest man, I must have stated, and that statement would have caused my rejection. From that time to this I have enjoyed perfect health, and I stand before you this evening, a strong and healthy man, a living example of the value of this society, and I present to you a fact, to show that this is likely to be a profitable investment.”

Another society deserves notice, from its admirable plan of uniting a benevolent principle with the benefit derivable from life assurance, and from its addressing a class, to the families of which life assurance is the only barrier against absolute poverty. That class has been hitherto but little thought of, though there is none on whom it would be better bestowed, than on the clerks of England. Industrious, faithful, and intelligent, they are almost compelled, by virtue of their position, to maintain an appearance beyond their means. With incomes which just enable them to pay their debts, and which provide for no contingencies, they are to a great degree incapacitated from insuring their lives; and solacing themselves, therefore, with the idea that a small insurance would be of no avail, they feel that they cannot afford a great one. To this class, therefore, a society which specially provides for its wants is a great benefit; and a kindly feeling between the clerk on the one side, and his superior on the other, is encouraged, to the advantage of both, through the Provident Clerks’ Mutual Life Assurance Association.

Many instances might be given of the value of this society; and the writer trusts that the few lines in which he has honestly and earnestly indulged, for the sake of pointing attention to those offices which he deems deserving notice, may be regarded in the light in which they are written.

The cause of life assurance has occasionally received severe blows; and though, perhaps, less fraud has been attempted in these than in other companies, yet there is one instance of deception, so boldly planned and so successfully executed, as to stand out in strong relief in the history of life assurance.

About the year 1837, the provincial papers were filled with advertisements, drawing attention to the peculiar claims of the Independent West Middlesex Life and Fire Assurance Company. Its capital was stated to be one million; it was declared to be a legal corporation; and Acts of Parliament, dated from 1696, were boldly quoted. Cautiously did the promoters proceed in the metropolis, where they did not at first advertise, contenting themselves with establishing agencies in various parts of the country, and publishing advertisements in country papers. An imposing array of names as directors, declared to be of the first character and respectability, was promulgated; and when such names as Drummond and Perkins appeared in the list, the uninitiated believed the one to be the great banker, and the other the rich brewer, bearing the same names. To add to the delusion, the Bank of England was advertised as their bankers; and when they opened handsome premises in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, the minds of the many were thoroughly deluded. Some notion may be formed of their intention from the fact, that they not only insured lives on smaller premiums than other offices, but gave larger annuities for smaller sums. According to their tables, a man of thirty, by paying £100, could obtain £8 yearly, and could insure his life at £1 15s. per cent.; thus making a clear interest of £6 5s. per annum.

The deed of the company—for, strange to say, it had a deed—was signed by any one who chose; and the law-stationer applied indiscriminately to all who came near him. Any one who asked for a situation was made a governor. A schoolmaster, who requested a clerkship, was made a director. An errand-man was employed as manager. A boy of sixteen was appointed to a seat at the board. One director had been tapman to a London tavern; another had been dismissed from his employ as a journeyman bell-hanger; a third had been a gentleman’s servant; all had orders to dress well, to place rings on their fingers, and adorn their persons with jewelry; fines being instituted if they omitted to wear the ornaments provided.

The advertisements which blazoned the pretensions of the company, the puffing to which they resorted, the declaration that they had taken £40,000 in one year, together with the terms they offered, attracted that numerous class determined to get every thing cheap. Premiums to a large amount were procured by them, and they prospered.

The attention of the established assurance offices had long been drawn to these transactions; and it was known that a great crash must one day come; but they had not sufficient courage to declare the iniquity. It was left, therefore, to individual energy to expose their doings, and to individual resources to support the consequences. In March, 1839, Mr. Peter Mackenzie, editor and proprietor of the Scotch Reformers’ Gazette, having investigated the question, and made careful inquiries which satisfied him of the nature of the company, commenced a series of articles in that paper, warning the public against transacting business with them. The task was difficult and dangerous; but it was boldly met, and skilfully supported. The following extracts from the journal of Mr. Mackenzie will show the earnest spirit in which he grappled with his task:—

“In a word, we raise our voice and warn the public to beware of this so-called Independent West Middlesex Insurance Company.” “It is a false and fictitious company.” “No better than a parcel of tricksters in London, disowned, repudiated, or condemned by every respectable person.” “Will the mere statement of a parcel of swindlers in their own favor entitle them to public favor, or secure public confidence?” “Nor shall we rest contented till we chase them out of every town and city in her Majesty’s dominions, or till they are fairly seized by the strong arm of justice.” “We defy the confederated band of swindlers, from the highest to the lowest.”

The wild fury of Mr. Mackenzie’s opponents may be conceived. They declared him to be a false and malicious calumniator. They published counter-statements, assumed the aspect of injured and of innocent men, and instituted separate actions against him for £12,000 damages. One of the agents had been in London, and had the audacity to state, on his return, that the deputy-governor of the Bank of England had personally assured him of the respectability of the association. Mr. Mackenzie, however, procured and published a denial from that gentleman; and this increased the hatred of the accomplices. Two thousand pounds were placed at the disposal of their law agents, to destroy Mr. Mackenzie, who appears to have been one of those not easily moved from a righteous purpose. He continued his articles, he continued to warn the public; and though, when the actions brought against him in 1839 were dismissed in 1840, they raised new suits, he persisted in his bold defiance, and did not hesitate one moment in the task he had undertaken. They could not, however, long conceal their practices; and one fine morning, the entire gang absconded, taking with them from the premises every article of furniture, after having realized, in four years, a booty of £250,000.

The distress which pervaded the middle and the lower classes was great. Applications to magistrates were frequent. Aged men, who had invested their all, went to the workhouse; servants, who had bought annuities with the savings of a life, were obliged to commence anew. Parents, who imagined they had provided for their children, were half broken-hearted. Day by day brought some new case, and day by day evinced the importance of being contented with a fair and legitimate percentage.

There is no knowing to what extent the evil might have reached had not the boldness of Mr. Mackenzie induced him to attack the Independent West Middlesex Company. The longer such an association lasts, the more numerous are its constituents; and to the above gentleman the thanks of the entire country are due, for performing, at a personal risk, and at a personal sacrifice of £700, a great public service.

The following extract from a letter, evincing the amenity of disposition and choice of language of the person who conducted the delusion, may prove an interesting close to the above narrative:—

“Thou art a scoundrel, and thy son no better. I give you and your lying rascal of a ——— notice, that if you or he should dare to publish any slander relative to my character, I shall instruct my solicitor to prosecute you, perjured scoundrel. You base wretch, swear against your own handwriting! What! swear you never borrowed any money of me for the office. O wicked wretch! I have your signature, and my solicitor has seen it. Base, base, base, base! Hang thyself with thy friend!

“P. S. I have heard you have again plundered the office. O, how many times, you wretch!”

FOOTNOTES:

The writer can add his personal testimony to the necessity of some such office. Twenty years ago, he suffered similarly to Mr. Marshall, and has since been debarred from the benefit of life assurance, although in possession of good average health. There are a thousand other cases; and the fact that the Gresham gradually increases in business, and has in the first year granted policies to the amount of £150,000, producing nearly £6,000 yearly, is very suggestive of the public requirements. The fact, also, that in such a company no death has occurred during the first twelve months, is honorable to the skill of its medical officer.

APPENDIX.

THE

ANATOMY OF EXCHANGE ALLEY;

OR,

A SYSTEM OF STOCK-JOBBING:

PROVING THAT SCANDALOUS TRADE, AS IT IS NOW CARRIED ON, TO BE KNAVISH IN ITS PRIVATE PRACTICE, AND TREASON IN ITS PUBLIC.

The general cry against stock-jobbing has been such, and people have been so long and so justly complaining of it as a public nuisance, and, which is still worse, have complained so long without a remedy, that the jobbers, hardened in crime, are at last come to exceed all bounds, and now, if ever, sleeping justice will awake, and take some notice of them, and if it should not now, yet the diligent creatures are so steady to themselves, that they will, some time or other, make it absolutely necessary to the government to demolish them.

I know they upon all occasions laugh at the suggestion, and have the pride to think it impracticable to restrain them; and one of the top of the function the other day, when I casually told him that, if they went on, they would make it absolutely necessary to the legislature to suppress them, returned, that he believed it was as absolutely necessary for them to do it now as ever it could be. But how will they do it? It is impossible, said he; but if the government takes credit, their funds should come to market; and while there is a market, we will buy and sell. There is no effectual way in the world, says he, to suppress us but this, viz., that the government should first pay all the public debts, redeem all the funds, and dissolve all the charters, viz. Bank, South Sea, and East India, and buy nothing upon trust, and then, indeed, says he, they need not hang the stock-jobbers, for they will be apt to hang themselves.

I must confess, I in part agree that this is an effectual way; but I am far from thinking it the only way to deal with a consideration of usurers, who, having sold the whole nation to usury, keep the purse-strings of poor and rich in their hands, which they open and shut as they please.

But before I come to the needful ways for restraining those people, I think it will be of some service to expose their practices to common view, that the people may see a little what kind of dealers they are.

And first, they have this peculiar to them, and in which they outdo all the particular pieces of public knavery that ever I met with in the world, viz., that they have nothing to say for it themselves; they have, indeed, a particular stock of hardware, as the braziers call it, in their faces, to bear them out in it; but if you talk to them of their occupation, there is not a man but will own it is a complete system of knavery; that it is a trade founded in fraud, born of deceit, and nourished by trick, cheat, wheedle, forgeries, falsehoods, and all sorts of delusions; coining false news, this way good, that way bad; whispering imaginary terrors, frights, hopes, expectations, and then preying upon the weakness of those whose imaginations they have wrought upon, whom they have either elevated or depressed. If they meet with a cull, a young dealer that has money to lay out, they catch him at the door, whisper to him, “Sir, here is a great piece of news, it is not yet public, it is worth a thousand guineas but to mention it; I am heartily glad I met you, but it must be as secret as the black side of your soul, for they know nothing of it yet in the coffee-house; if they should, stock would rise ten per cent. in a moment, and I warrant you South Sea will be 130 in a week’s time after it is known.” “Well,” says the weak creature, “pr’ythee, dear Tom, what is it?” “Well, really, Sir, I will let you into the secret, upon your honor to keep it till you hear it from other hands; why, it is this,—the Pretender is certainly taken, and is carried prisoner to the castle of Milan; there they have him fast. I assure you, the government had an express of it from my Lord St——s, within this hour.” “Are you sure of it?” says the fish, who jumps eagerly into the net. “Sure of it! why, if you take your coach and go up to the secretaries’ office, you may be satisfied of it yourself, and be down again in two hours, and, in the mean time, I will be doing something, though it is but little, till you return.”

Away goes the gudgeon with his head full of wildfire, and a squib in his brain, and, coming to the place, meets a croney at the door, who ignorantly confirms the report, and so sets fire to the mine; for, indeed, the cheat came too far to be balked at home; so that, without giving himself time to consider, he hurries back full of the delusions, dreaming of nothing but of getting a hundred thousand pounds, or purchase two; and even this money was to be gotten only upon the views of his being beforehand with other people.

In this elevation he meets his broker, who throws more fireworks into the mine, and blows him up to so fierce an inflammation, that he employs him instantly to take guineas to accept stock of any kind, and almost at any price; for the news being now public, the artist made their price upon him. In a word, having accepted them for fifty thousand pounds more than he is able to pay, the jobber has got an estate, the broker two or three hundred guineas, and the esquire remains at leisure to sell his coach and horses, his fine seat and rich furniture, to make good the deficiency of his bear-skins; and, at last, when all will not go through it, he must give them a brush for the rest.

There are who tell us, that the Exchange Alley improvements made upon the news of the Pretender’s being taken, were part of the plot, that the late Earl of Mar having concerted the voyage of Voghera, and how and in what manner the report of the Pretender’s being there should spread, who it should amuse, and how at one blow it should spread east to Vienna, and northwest to Paris, and so on, forgot not to contrive it, as at once should serve political ends in Italy and at Vienna: so, on the other hand, it should not fail to serve a private view in Exchange Alley; and, at the same time that he deceived some of the Whigs who he owed a large grudge to for shrewd turns at Preston and Dumblain, he might also raise a tax upon them towards the incident changes of his wandering circumstances.

I do not aver this story to be true, but the concert is so exact, and the nature of it so agreeable to the stock-jobbing art, nay, and to the artists also, whose correspondents are very punctual, especially since it is said that Mr. T——’s chief agent was formerly my Lord M——r’s broker; that I won’t affirm it may be true; but this I will venture to say of it, that if we are often served thus, the Pretender may very easily raise a hundred thousand pounds a year in Exchange Alley, for the carrying on an invasion, and lay the tax wholly upon his enemies the Whigs, which, by the way, I leave them to consider of.

But now that I make good the charge, viz., that the whole art and mystery is a mere original system of cheat and delusion, I must let you see, too, that this part of the comedy may be very well called, “A Bite for the Biter,” for which I must go back to the broker and his gudgeon; the moneyed gentleman finding himself let into the secret, indeed, and that he was bitten to the tune of £300,000 worse than nothing. After he had, unhappily, paid as far as his ready money would go, of which piece of honesty they say he has heartily repented, and is in hopes all that come after him will forgive him for the sake of what followed, stopped short, as he might well, you’ll say, when his money was all gone, and bethinks himself, What am I doing! I have paid away all this money like a fool; I was drawn in like an ass, by the eager desire of biting my neighbours to a vast sum, and I have been fool enough in that; but I have been ten thousand times a worse fool to pay a groat of the money, especially since I knew I could not pay it all. Besides, who but I would have forgot the nature of the thing I was dealing in, and of the people I was dealing with? Why, is it not all a mere body of knavery? Is not the whole system of stock-jobbing a science of fraud? and are not all the dealers original thieves and pickpockets? Nay, do they not own it themselves? Have not I heard T. W., B. O., and F. S., a thousand times say they know their employment was a branch of highway robbing, and only differed in two things; first, in degree, viz., that it was ten thousand times worse, more remorseless, more void of humanity, done without necessity, and committed upon fathers, brothers, widows, orphans, and intimate friends; in all which cases, highwaymen, generally touched with remorse, and affected with principles of humanity and generosity, stopped short, and chose to prey upon strangers only. Secondly, in danger, viz., that these rob securely; the other, with the utmost risk that the highwayman run, at the hazard of their lives, being sure to be hanged first or last, whereas these rob only at the hazard of their reputation, which is generally lost before they begin, and of their souls, which trifle is not worth the mentioning. Have not I, I say, heard my broker, Mr. ——, say all this and much more, “That no man was obliged to make good any of their Exchange Alley bargains, unless he pleased, and unless he was in haste to part with his money, which, indeed, I am not; and have not all the brokers and jobbers, when they have been bitten too hard, said the same thing, and refused to pay?

“Pray, how much did old Cudworth, Ph. C—p—m, and Mr. G——g, eminent jobbers, monarchs in their days of Exchange Alley, break for? And how much did they ever pay? One, if I mistake not, compounded at last for one penny per pound, and the other two for something less.

“In a word, they are all a gang of rogues and cheats, and I’ll pay none of them. Besides, my lawyer, Sir Thomas Subtle, tells me there is not a man of them dares sue me; no, though I had no protection to fly to; and he states the case thus:—

“‘You have, Sir,’ says Subtle, ‘contracted to accept of stock at a high price; East India at 220, Bank at 160, South Sea 120, and the like. Very well. They come to put it upon you, the stock being since fallen. Tell them you cannot take it yet; if they urge your contract, and demand when you will take it, tell them you will take it when you think fit.

“‘If they swagger, call names,—as rogue, cheat, and the like,—tell them, as to that, you are all of a fraternity; there is no great matter in it whether you cheat them, or they cheat you; ’tis as it happens in the way of trade; that it all belongs to the craft; and, as the Devil’s broker, Whiston, said to parson Giffard, tell them you are all of a trade. If they rage, and tell you the Devil will have you, and such as that, tell them they should let the Devil and you alone to agree about that, it is none of their business; but when he comes for you, tell them you would advise them to keep out of the way, or get a protection, as you have against them.

“‘After this, it is supposed they will sue you at law. Then leave it to me; I’ll hang them up for a year or two in our courts; and if ever in that time the stock comes up to the price, we will tender the money in court, demand the stock, and saddle the charges of the suit upon them. Let them avoid it if they can.’

“This is my lawyer’s opinion,” says he to himself, “and I’ll follow it to a tittle; and so we are told he has; and I do not hear that one stock-jobber has begun to sue him yet, or intends it; nor, indeed, dare they do it.”

This experiment, indeed, may teach understanding to every honest man that falls into the clutches of these merciless men, called stock-jobbers; and I give the world this notice, that, in short, not one of their Exchange Alley bargains need be otherwise than thus complied with. And, let these buyers of bear-skins remember it, not a man of them dare go to common law to recover the conditions; nor is any man obliged, farther than he thinks himself obliged in principle, to make good one of his bargains with them. How far principle will carry any man to be just to a common cheat, that has drawn him into a snare, I do not, indeed, know; but I cannot suppose it will go a very great length, where there is so clear, so plain, and so legal a door to get out at.

It must be confessed that, if the projected story of the taking of the Pretender was acted in concert between Rome and Exchange Alley, between my Lord Mar and a certain broker, as fame reports,—either the broker is the devil of a Jacobite, or my Lord the devil of a broker,—it must be acknowledged it was a far-fetched trick, and answered the end in Exchange most admirably.

Nor can all the world tell us any other end that it could answer; for as to the pretences of deluding the imperialists on shore, or the British men-of-war at sea, and so the better to facilitate the escape of the Pretender to Spain, I undertake to prove that this is absurd and ridiculous; for the Pretender was embarked at Netunna, and gone away to sea thirteen days, at least, before this whim of people taken at Voghera was talked of.

As to the amusements among the Courts at Vienna, Paris, and London, they amounted to nothing at all, answered no end; neither prompted any design on one hand, or hindered any thing on the other. In a word, we may challenge the world to tell us any one turn that was served by it, or end answered by it, but this in Exchange Alley.

Nor was this so inconsiderable a design as not to be worth while to form such a juggle, though a great way off; and, as far off as it is, if we may believe the report of those who remember the machines and contrivances of that original of stock-jobbing, Sir F—— C——. There are those who tell us letters have been ordered, by private management, to be written from the East Indies, with an account of the loss of ships which have been arrived there, and the arrival of ships lost; of war with the Great Mogul, when they have been in perfect tranquillity; and of peace with the Great Mogul, when he was come down against the factory of Bengal with one hundred thousand men;—just as it was thought proper to calculate those rumors for the raising and falling of the stock, and when it was for his purpose to buy cheap, or sell dear.

It would be endless to give an account of the subtleties of that capital ch—t, when he had a design to bite the whole Exchange. As he was the leading hand to the market, so he kept it in his power to set the price to all the dealers. The subject then was chiefly the East India stock, though there were other stocks on foot, too, though since sunk to nothing; such as the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Linen Manufacture stock, Paper stock, Saltpetre stock, and others, all at this day worse than nothing, though some of them then jobbed up to 350 per cent., as the two first in particular.

But the East India stock was the main point. Every man’s eye, when he came to the market, was upon the brokers who acted for Sir F——. Does Sir F—— sell or buy? If Sir F—— had a mind to buy, the first thing he did was to commission his brokers to look sour, shake their heads, suggest bad news from India; and at the bottom it followed, “I have commission from Sir F—— to sell out whatever I can”; and perhaps they would actually sell ten, perhaps twenty thousand pounds. Immediately the Exchange (for they were not then come to the Alley) was full of sellers; nobody would buy a shilling; till perhaps the stock would fall six, seven, eight, ten per cent., sometimes more. Then the cunning jobber had another set of men employed on purpose to buy, but with privacy and caution, all the stock they could lay their hands on; till, by selling ten thousand pounds at four or five per cent. loss, he would buy a hundred thousand pounds stock at ten or twelve per cent. under price; and, in a few weeks, by just the contrary method, set them all buying, and then sell them their own stock again at ten or twelve per cent. profit.

These honest methods laid the foundation, we will not say of a fine great stone house, on a certain forest, but it certainly laid the foundation of an opulent family, and initiated the crowds of jobbers in that dexterity in tricking and cheating one another, which, to this day, they are the greatest proficients that this part of the world ever saw.

By this exactly-concerted intelligence, he then knew how to turn the wages (a sort of jobbing then in mode, and which grew so infamous that they were at length obliged to suppress it by Act of Parliament) which way he pleased, and by which he got an immense sum of money. How often did the gentleman run down true news as if it had been false, and run up false news as if it had been true, by the force of his foreign intelligencers! How often coin reports of great actions, to serve a turn! It is too late a trick to be forgot by many that were bit by it to the bone.

In a word, the putting false news upon us is nothing but an old trade revived,—though, it must be confessed, this of the Pretender has been a masterpiece,—and the worthy projector who has the credit of it must pass for a dexterous manager as any the university of Exchange Alley has bred up for thirty years past.

It had, also, one particular in it for which it was very remarkable. Sham reports, false news, foreign letters, &c., are things that have been often trumped upon us, as above; and the town have been, not long ago, cheated to a good round sum that way; but then they have been soon detected, the morning news has been set to rights in the afternoon, or the evening’s heat has cooled by morning. But this trick had a fatal duration, for it held us near a fortnight in a firm persuasion of the thing; and even then it continued but suspected only for some time longer, and was yet longer before it was fully detected; and even at last it was hardly conquered till the Jacobites laughed us out of it, and the Pretender was looked for nearer home.

The assurance with which it was carried about the several places from whence it was written, made it so effectually be swallowed down, that really people saw no room to question the truth of it for a great while. It was written from Rome, from Leghorn, from Genoa, from Turin, and from Paris. Nay, it was even believed at court, and almost everywhere else.

Exquisite fraud! Who could have believed that this had been born in Exchange Alley, sent over to Rome, agreed to there, and executed in such a manner as to cheat, not the town only, but all Europe!

The authority that every one found attended the report, supported it so that it possessed us all; even those whose concern for the fact extorted tears from them, were not undeceived. Thus the hucksters had time to play their game, and they made hay while the sun shone; for, if we may believe common fame, bargains, contracts, and agreements for stocks, bear-skins included, amounted in that time to some hundred thousands of pounds; nay, some say to two millions and better, most of which was to the loss of the believing party.

But what tricking, what fraud, what laying plots as deep as hell, and as far as the ends of the earth, is here! What cheating of fathers, and mothers, and brothers, gulling widows, orphans, cozening the most wary, and plundering the unwary! And how much meaner robberies than these bring the friendless even to the gallows every sessions!

But I must not stop here. The story of the Pretender is over; that trump is played; and the artful gamester is wanting a new trick, after having played so many already that one would think invention was at an end; yet they have found it out, and we are just let into the secret.

Hitherto, craft and knavery appears to be their method; but we shall trace them now a little farther; and, like true hussars, who plunder not the enemy only, but their own army, as the opportunity presents, so these men are now come to prey upon the government itself.

Let us look into the late lotteries; had not a piercing eye detected the roguery, and not the fall of other things taken off the edge of the people’s fancy for venturing. These artists have brought up the tickets to sixteen shillings apiece, advance, even before the act was passed. That this could not be but by securing the possession of all the tickets in their own hands, except such select tickets as were not to come to market, I say this could not be but by connivance, and this every one knows; and that this connivance again could not be but by some higher people than those that were named to it, this, also, every one may know. Who they were, is none of my business to inquire, though it is easy to guess. It is very hard when our statesmen come into a confederacy to bite the people, and when dukes turn stock-jobbers. Yet that this was done is most certain; and what was this but making a property of the power that might be in their hands, the better to bite the people? For if the Parliament appointed £500,000 in tickets, to be given out at a certain rate that was low and reasonable, was it not to encourage the people, on whom the rest of the national burden lies? And if, by the craft and knavery of jobbers, the people are made to pay £600,000 for them, which is much about the case, pray, why not pay the hundred thousand pounds to the public, either to pay off a hundred thousand pounds of debt, or to make the burden of the current year a hundred thousand pounds lighter?—of which, I am sure, there is need enough.

It has been, indeed, our happiness, that a worthy member, being informed of this abominable cheat, detected it, and laid it before the House; upon which a vote was passed to make void all bargains make for tickets before the act was passed; so the biters were bitten; and a certain Sir George —— was obliged to refund; but the roguery of the design was never a jot the less for that.

But the fatal influence of this growing evil does not end here, and I must trace stock-jobbing now to its new-acquired capacity of intermeddling with the public, assisting rebellion, encouraging invasion; and if I do not bring the stock-jobbers, even the Whigs among them, to be guilty of treason against their king and country, and that of the worst kind, too, then I do nothing.

Had the stock-jobbers been all Jacobites by profession, or had the employment led them by the necessity of their business to put king and nation, and particularly their own, to bargain and sale; and had the feeling of news been their property, and they had an act of Parliament, or patent, to entitle them to the sole privilege of imposing what false things they pleased on the people, I should have had much the less reason to have complained of their roguery, and have rather turned myself to the rest of them people, who are the subject they work upon, and only have stood at Exchange Alley end, and cried out, “Gentlemen, have a care of your pockets.”

Again, had it been a private club, or society of men, acting one among another,—had the cheats, the frauds, and the tricks they made use of, in which the English rogue was a fool to them, being practised upon themselves only, and, like gamesters at a public board, they had only played with those that came there to play with them; in this case, also, I should have held my tongue, and only put them in mind of an old song, every stanza of which chimed in with, “Tantararara, rogues all, rogues all.”

But when we find this trade become a political vice, a public crime, and that, as it is now carried on, it appears dangerous to the public, that, whenever any wickedness is in hand, any mischief by the worst of the nation’s enemies upon the wheel, the stock-jobbers are naturally made assistant to it, that they become abettors of treason, assistant to rebellion and invasion, then it is certainly time to speak, for the very employment becomes a crime, and we are obliged to expose a sort of men who are more dangerous than a whole nation of enemies abroad, an evil more formidable than the pestilence, and, in their practice, more fatal to the public, than an invasion of Spaniards.

It is said by some, that the principal leaders in the jobbing trade at that time, and to whom most part of the satire in this work ought to be pointed, are Whigs, members of Parliament, and friends to the government; and that, therefore, I had best have a care of what I say of them.

My first answer is, So I will. I will have a care of them; and, in the next place, let them have a care of me; for if I should speak the whole truth of some of them, they might be Whigs; but I dare say they would be neither P—— men, or friends to the government very long; and it is very hard his Majesty should not be told what kind of friends to him such men are.

Besides, I deny the fact. These men friends to the government! Jesu Maria! The government may be friendly to them in a manner they do not deserve; but as to their being friends to the government, that is no more possible than the Cardinal Alberoni or the Chevalier de St. George are friends to the government; and, therefore, without reflecting upon persons, naming names, or the like,—there will be no need of names, the dress will describe them,—I lay down this new-fashioned proposition, or postulatum, take it which way you please, that I will make it out by the consequences of what I am going to say.

1. That stock-jobbing, as it is now practised, and as is generally understood by the word stock-jobbing, is neither less or more than high-treason in its very nature, and in its consequences.

2. That the stock-jobbers, who are guilty of the practices I am going to detect, are eventually traitors to King George, and to his government, family, and interest, and to their country, and deserve to be used at least as confederates with traitors, whenever there are any alarms of invasions, rebellions, or any secret practices against the government, of what kind soever.

This is a black charge, and boldly laid, and ought therefore to be effectually made out, which shall be the work of a few pages in the following sheets.

1. I lay down this as a rule, which I appeal to the laws of reason to support, that all those people who, at a time of public danger, whether of treasonable invasion from abroad, or traitorous attempts to raise insurrections at home, shall willingly and wittingly abet, assist, or encourage the traitors invading or rebelling, are equally guilty of treason.

2. All those who shall endeavour to weaken, disappoint, and disable the government in their preparations, or discourage the people in their assisting the government to oppose the rebels or invaders, are guilty of treason.

All that can be alleged in contradiction to this,—and perhaps that could not be made out neither,—is, that they are not traitors within the letter of the law; to which I answer, if they were, I should not satirize them, but impeach them. But if it appears that they are as effectually destructive to the peace and safety of the government, and of the king’s person and family, as if they were in open war with his power, I do the same thing, and fully answer the end proposed.

As there are many thieves besides housebreakers, highwaymen, lifters, and pickpockets, so there are many traitors besides rebels and invaders, and, perhaps, of a much worse kind; for, in a dispute between a certain lord and a woman of pleasure in the town, about the different virtue of the sexes, the lady insisted that the men were aggressors in the vice, and that, in plain English, if there were no whore-masters, there would be no whores; so, in a word, if there were no parties at home, no disaffection, no traitors among ourselves, there would be no invasions from abroad.

Now, I will suppose for the purpose only, that the people I am speaking of were not disaffected to the government; I mean, not originally and intentionally pointing their intention at the government; nay, that they are hearty Whigs, call them as we please; yet, if it appear they are hearty knaves, too, will do any thing for money, and are, by the necessity of their business, obliged, or by the vehement pursuit of their interest, that is to say, of their profits, pushed upon things as effectually ruinous and destructive to the government, as the very buying arms and ammunition by a protest Jacobite, in order to rebellion, could be, are they not traitors even in spite of principle, in spite of the name of Whig; nay, in spite of a thousand meritorious things that might otherwise be said of them, or done of them?

A gunsmith makes ten thousand firelocks in the Minories, the honest man may be a Whig, he designs to sell them to the government to lay up in the tower, or to kill Spaniards, or any of the rest of the king’s enemies; a merchant comes and buys some of them, and says they are for the West Indies, or to sell into France. But upon inquiry, it appears they are bought for rebellion; the undesigning gunsmith comes into trouble, of course, and it will be very hard for him to prove the negative, that when he has furnished the rebels with arms, he had no share in the rebellion.

To bring this home to the case in view, who were the men who, in the late hurry of an expected invasion, sunk the price of stock fourteen or fifteen per cent.? Who were the men that made a run upon the Bank of England, and pushed at them with some particular pique, too, if possible, to have run them down, and brought ’em to a stop of payment? And what was the consequences of these things? Will they tell us that running upon the bank, and lowering the stocks, was no treason? We know that, literally speaking, those things are no treason. But is there not a plain constructive treason in the consequences of it? Is not a wilful running down the public credit, at a time when the nation is threatened with an invasion from abroad, and rebellion at home? Is not this adding to the terror of the people? Is not this disabling the government, discouraging the king’s friends, and a visible encouragement of the king’s enemies? Is not all that is taken from the credit of the public, in such an occasion, added to the credit of the invasion? Does not every thing that weakens the government strengthen its enemies? And is not every step that is taken in prejudice of the king’s interest a step taken in aid of the designed rebellion? The kindest thing that can be said of a certain triumvirate of jobbers, whose hands have been deepest in this part of the work, and who, indeed, had more obligations upon them than any other men in the town, to have assisted the public interest and advanced the credit of the nation, is, that they did not think what they did, and that this excuse may not serve them another time, I may soon furnish them with an anatomy of some of the conduct of that little body of Number Three, that when they see their mistakes with the eyes that other men see them, they may at their leisure give a better turn to the measures of unbounded avarice.

I now, that I may not be said to speak without a precedent, I humbly refer to those moneyed gentlemen to a case recent in memory, and even in their own, which, though indeed they may think fit to have forgotten for a time, they will all call to mind when they hear of it again; and this was the case of two goldsmiths (knights also, and one of them member of Parliament, too) in Fleet Street, who pushed at the Bank of England at the time that the Pretender’s invasion from France was in its preparation. One of them, it was said, had gathered a quantity of Bank-bills, to the value of near £100,000, and the other a great sum, though not so many, and, it was said, resolved to demand them all at once.

Let the gentlemen I point at look back to the printed papers that year; let them inquire what construction was put upon it; let them inquire how the government resented it; how my Lord Treasurer Godolphin looked upon it as a mine formed to blow up the queen’s affairs, and how, in a word, all the friends of the government took it to be such a step in favor of the Pretender, as was impossible to consist with duty to the queen.

Let them inquire farther, with what difficulty Sir R—— Ho—— wiped off the imputation of being a favorer of the rebellion, and how often, in vain, he protested he did it with no such view, and how hard the Whigs were to believe him. Sir F—— C——d, indeed, carried it with a higher hand, and afterwards pretended to refuse the bills of the Bank; but still declared he did it as a goldsmith, and as a piece of justice to himself in some points in which the Bank had, as he alleged, used him ill. But, in general, it was looked upon as an open affront to the government, and an abetting and countenancing the invasion of the Pretender from abroad, and the rebellion intended at home. Nor was the government, much less were the authors of private papers and prints, wanting in letting them know it; nay, if I am not misinformed, they were threatened with being treated as enemies to the government; and if things had gone on to extremities, they had doubtless been marked out as persons the government were to take care of.

Now I only speak in plainer words; it was said then, that such men as endeavoured to run down the public credit were enemies to the government. I know no distinction in the case, that should require so much tenderness. Every subject of King George, who is at the same time an enemy to King George, is a traitor; and every overt act of that enmity, it being his duty to his utmost to favor, aid, and support the government, is an overt act of treason, let it be gilded over with what fine words the persons please, ’tis the same thing, if it is not literal treason, and within reach of the statute, yet the crime is in itself of the same nature.

And let any one tell me what is the difference between two dealers in Paris credit in the time of a French invasion, and three dealers in paper credit in the time of a Spanish invasion, or what sanctity in Birchin Lane more than in Fleet Street, that one should be a protection for the same practice that was resented so justly in another.

Were those stock-jobbers sincerely and heartily in the interest of King George and his government, as they pretend loudly, what run could there be upon the Bank, what ebb of credit, what sinking of stock? The honest Whigs, who were friends to the government at that time, mentioned above, who not only knew their duty, but how to make it seasonable and useful, acted after another manner. When others ran upon the Bank with all the fury possible, they carried all the money thither they could gather up; nay, I could name a man in this city, who, having but £500 in the world, carried it all into the Bank to support the credit of the public; and the story being told to her Majesty by the late Lord Treasurer Godolphin, the sense of such fidelity so moved the queen, that she sent him a hundred pounds as a gift, a royal token of her accepting such an act of loyalty; and caused my Lord to give him an obligation from the Treasury to repay him the whole £500 if any disaster to the Bank should have made it doubtful.

Where ’s the like courage and conduct to be found now? Is it in being? Are the gentlemen less able? Or is it that they have not the same zeal for King George as that honest citizen had for the queen? Or do they doubt the king being as sensible of the service? Or what is the matter that the public credit had rather met with injurious juggling and jobbing upon it, than real support, either from Exchange Alley, Birchin Lane, or some other places less noted?

Let those men reflect a little upon the circumstances the public credit must have been in by such mismanagement, if the Spanish attempt had been made, and if these easterly Protestant winds had not chopped in, by which Providence has given the government time to put itself in a posture of defence, so as now not to be afraid of them; and if the capital stock of the persons interested in the funds is now sunk a million in the real value of them as they stood before even at the market, which is nothing but what the matter of fact will justify, to what degree would the same current, if it had gone on, have sunk the estates of all the moneyed men in England?

In what manner would money have been raised upon a new credit for any immediate exigencies that might have happened? And should the government have been supported,—nay, though the Parliament had granted funds,—while these men had made all credit ebb, perhaps, to twenty-five or thirty per cent. discount? And is not this, then, a species of treason and rebellion?

It was very remarkable, that, in the juncture of those things, the Jacobites could not refrain taking notice how easy it was to set the citizens plundering the Bank, and even the Exchequer, too; for, had this gone on, the funds, which are, in effect, the Exchequer itself, would have gone down hill hand in hand with the Bank; credit would have borne equal pace in one as well as in the other; and the government would no more have been able to borrow, than the Bank would have been able to pay.

It is scarce fit to enter into a description of all the mischievous consequences which necessarily follow running down the public credit, in case of such dangers as I have mentioned above. If I should fully describe them, it would appear incredible. Every one will allow that this practice of the jobbers, carried on a little farther, would indeed appear to be the worst kind of treason.

But it is needful, after having said thus much of the crime, to say something of the place, and then a little of the persons, too. The centre of the jobbing is in the kingdom of Exchange Alley, and its adjacencies. The limits are easily surrounded in about a minute and a half, viz., 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, to do much mischief in fewest words, you immediately face to the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces there in your way west, and thus having boxed your compass, and sailed round the whole stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jonathan’s again; and so, as most of the great follies of life oblige us to do, you end just where you began.

But this is by way of digression; and even still, before I come to the main case, I am obliged to tell you that, though this is the sphere of the jobbers’ motion, the orb to which they are confined, and out of which they cannot well act in their way, yet it does not follow but that men of foreign situation (I mean foreign as to them, I do not mean foreign as to nation); nay, some whose lustre is said to be too bright for the hemisphere of a coffee-house, have yet their influence there, and act by substitutes and representatives. But first I must speak to originals.

C——, a man of brass sufficient for much more business than he can be trusted with, is said to manage for three blue ribbons, and for four or five cash-keepers, who tell more money than their own. He fetches and carries with such indefatigable application, that he is said never to fail his appointments to a minute, however remote from one another. Wherever he appears, he makes an Exchange Alley in his person, and a court in his audience; he is himself a Jonathan’s coffee-house in little; though he be at a cockpit, he realizes Exchange Alley in every place, and yet he rather is directed than directs; and, like a certain great general, famed for more fire than phlegm, is fitter to drive than to lead.

S—— has twice the head, but not half the business as C—— is said to have, yet he gets more money for himself, and C—— gets more for other folks. S—— is as cunning as C—— is bold, and the reserve of one with the openness of the other, makes a complete Exchange Alley man. C—— jumps at every thing, and as he got the start of the world at his beginning, by venturing more than he was worth, so he deals now with all men as if they ventured more than they are worth. Originally he was a bite, which, in modern language, is a sharper; or, being fully interpreted, may signify the head-class of the fraternity called pickpockets.

T——, a gamester of the same board, acts in concert with C—— and S——, and makes together a true triumvirate of modern thieving. He inherits the face of C——, with the craft of S——, but seems to take state upon him, and acts the reserved part more than either; yet even this, too, is all grimace, for wherever he can be sure to kill, he can’t fawn like an Irishman.

They are all three of yesterday in their characters, yet they are old in their crime, viz., of resolving to be rich at the price of every man they can bubble. Their first blow was aimed at the Bank, but there they were outwitted; and the great Lord Treasurer Godolphin, in the late reign, gave them their just characters from that action. The defeat they met with there sticks so close to them, that they reserve the measures of their revenge, not to cool, no, not till the charter of the Bank shall expire.

However, their wings being clipped by the clause then obtained in an Act of Parliament,—that no society, corporation, &c., should issue out bills of credit as a bank, but the Bank of England only,—they were obliged ever since to turn stock-jobbers, or, if we may speak properly of them, they are the stock-jobbers’ masters; for they have so many bear-skins pawned to them at a time, so much stock deposited with them upon bottomrée, as it might be called, that indeed they may be called the city pawnbrokers; and I have been told, that they have had fifty stock-jobbers and brokers bound hand and foot, and laid in heaps at their doors at a time.

The next trick they tried, and which was, indeed, the masterpiece of their knavery, was the getting an assignment of the forfeited estates in Ireland into their hands. Indeed, they began the world upon this prospect, and expected to have had the whole kingdom of Ireland mortgaged to them. But here, too, they were disappointed, and had they not found a man that had as much money as themselves, and more honesty, that bargain of the forfeited estates had been the last they had made in the world.

The endeavours they use to cheat that gentleman, after he had delivered them from a blow that would have blown them up, is another black part of their story that remains to be told, for the illustration of their character, at another time; but in the interim, ’t is enough to say, that he who delivered them as fools, knew how to deliver himself from them as knaves; and so they were dropped out of the Irish bargain, to their great mortification.

Now they stand ready, as occasion offers, and profit presents, to stock-job the nation, cozen the Parliament, ruffle the Bank, run up and down stocks, and put the dice upon the whole town.

They had another flap with a Fox-tail, to the scandal of their politics, in the late vote about the tickets of the lottery which I mentioned above. What market they will make of it is well enough known. But the plot was never the less cunning, and ’t is certain the knavery is not the less visible for the miscarriage. I come next to their more modern management.

Whenever they call in their money, the stock-jobbers must sell; the bear-skin men must commute, and pay differences money; then down come the stocks, tumbling two or three per cent.; then the tools must sell and their masters buy; the next week they take in stocks again, then the jobbers buy, and the managers sell. Thus the jobbers bite their friends, and these men bite the jobbers, qui sarpat sharpabitur,—Exchange Alley Latin: they that are let into the secret will understand it.

The truth is, it has been foretold by cunning men, who often see what can’t be hid, that these men, by a mass of money which they command of other people’s, as well as their own, will, in time, ruin the jobbing trade. But ’t will be only like a general visitation, where all distempers are swallowed up in the plague, like a common calamity, that makes enemies turn friends, and drowns lesser grievance in the general deluge. For if the reprisal trade should adjourn from Exchange Alley to Birchin Lane, it may seem to be like the banishing usury from the city of Rome, which transferred it to a Jew at Genoa, a monk at Naples, and a banker at Venice, who, it was said, had no less than seven-and-twenty principalities in Italy mortgaged to them at a time, besides two kingdoms, seven duchies, and the jewels of the crown of France.

Having thus given the blazing characters of three capital sharpers of Great Britain, knaves of lesser magnitude can have no room to shine; the Alley throngs with Jews, jobbers, and brokers; their names are needless, their characters dirty as their employment: and the best thing that I can yet find to say of them is, that there happens to be two honest men among them,—Heavens preserve their integrity; for the place is a snare, the employment itself fatal to principle, and, hitherto, the same observation which I think was very aptly made upon the Mint, will justly turn upon them,—that many an honest man has gone in to them, but cannot say that I ever knew one come an honest man out from them.

But to leave them a little, and turn our eyes another way, is it not surprising to find new faces among these scandalous people, and persons even too big even for our reproof? Is it possible that stars of another latitude should appear in our hemisphere? Had it been Sims or Bowcher, or gamesters of the drawing-rooms or masquerades, there had been little to be said; or had the groom-porters been transposed to Garraway’s and Jonathan’s, it had been nothing new; true gamesters being always ready to turn their hand to any play. But to see statesmen turn dealers, and men of honor stoop to the chicanery of jobbing; to see men at the offices in the morning, at the P—— house about noon, at the cabinet at night, and at Exchange Alley in the proper intervals, what new phenomena are these? What fatal things may these shining planets (like the late great light) foretell to the state and to the public; for when statesmen turn jobbers, the state may be jobbed.

It may be true that a treasurer or cash-keeper may be trusted with more money than he is worth, and many times it is so; and if the man be honest, there may be no harm in it: but when a treasurer plays for more money than he is worth, they that trust him run a risk of their money, because, though he may an honest man, he may be undone. I speak of private, not public treasurers.

Indeed, it requires some apology to say such a one may be an honest man; it would be hard to call him an honest man, who plays away any man’s money that is not his own, or more than he is able to pay again with his own. But if it be dishonest to play it away, that is, lose it at play, ’tis equally dishonest to play with it, whether it be lost or no; because, in such a case, he that plays for more than he can pay, his master runs the hazard more than himself; nay, his master runs an unequal hazard, for if the money be lost, ’tis the master’s, if there is gain, ’tis the servant’s.

Stock-jobbing is play; a box and dice may be less dangerous, the nature of them are alike a hazard; and if they venture at either what is not their own, the knavery is the same. It is not necessary, any more than it is safe, to mention the persons I may think of in this remark; they who are the men will easily understand me.

In a word, I appeal to all the world, whether a man that is intrusted with other men’s money (whether public or private is not the question) ought to be seen in Exchange Alley. Would it not be a sufficient objection to any gentleman or merchant, not to employ any man to keep his cash, or look after his estate, to say of him he plays, he is a gamester, or he is given to gaming and stock-jobbing, which is still worse, gives the same, or a stronger ground of objection in like cases.

Again, are there fewer sharpers and setters in Exchange Alley than at the Groom Porters? Is there less cheating in stock-jobbing than at play? Or, rather, is there not fifty times more? An unentered youth coming to deal in Exchange Alley is immediately surrounded with bites, setters, pointers, and the worst set of cheats, just as a young country gentleman is with bawds, pimps, and spongers, when he first comes to town. It is ten thousand to one, when a forward young tradesman steps out of his shop into Exchange Alley, I say ’t is ten thousand to one but he is undone: if you see him once but enter the fatal door, never discount his bills afterwards, never trust him with goods at six months’ pay any more.

If it be thus dangerous to the mean, what is it to the great? I see only this difference, that in the first the danger is private, in the latter public.

It has not been many years since elections for members of —— came to market in Exchange Alley, as current as lottery-tickets now, and at a price, like these, much above what any Parliament allowed them to go at. While this was carried on, a great many honest men exclaimed against it, and exposed it; nay, several Acts of Parliament were proposed for regulating elections, and preventing bribery and corruption; but all this would not do, and this, indeed, was one of the happy consequences of that otherwise necessary act for triennial Parliaments; and I firmly believe, that it is owing very much to the late suspending that act for a time, that these things are not come to market again.

It may easily be remembered, that the first occasion of the Exchange Alley men engaging in the case of elections of members was in King William’s time, on the famous disputes which happened between the Old East India Company and the New; which, having held a great while, and having embarrassed, not the city only, but the whole nation, and even made itself dangerous to the public business, it was expected it should be fully decided by the House of Commons. To this end, the members of both companies, with all the trick, artifice, cunning, and corruption, that money and interest could arm them with, bestirred themselves to be chosen members.

Brokers rid night and day from one end of the kingdom to the other, to engage gentlemen to bribe corporations, to buy off competitors, and to manage the elections. You will see the state of things at that time, and the danger this stock-jobbing wickedness had brought the public to, if you please to read the following exclamation of the honest freeholders at that time, which was presented to the public by way of complaint. The thing was laid before the king first, and before the Parliament afterwards; and it was his Majesty’s sense of the consequence, that made him resolve to bring the two East India Companies to unite their stocks; for, in a word, the stock-jobbers embroiled the whole nation.

There was a book published some years ago, and when the stock-jobbing people were thought as willing, yet not quite so daring or so cunning, as they are now; it was entitled, “The Villany of the Stock-jobbers.” Indeed, it set them out in their true colors, and for some time gave them a little shock; for the truth was, they jobbed King William and the government at that time at such a rate, that, in spite of the invincible valor and resolution of the soldiery, in spite of the most glorious prince and most vigilant general the world had ever seen, yet the enemy gained upon us every year; the funds were run down, the credit jobbed away in Exchange Alley, the king and his troops devoured by mechanics, and sold to usury; tallies lay bundled up like Bath faggots in the hands of brokers and stock-jobbers; the Parliament gave taxes, laid funds, but the loans were at the mercy of those men; and they showed their mercy, indeed, by devouring the king and the army, the Parliament, and, indeed, the whole nation, bringing that great prince sometimes to that exigence, through unexpressible extortions that were put upon him, that he has even gone into the field without his equipage, nay, even without his army; the regiments have been unclothed when the king has been in the field, and the willing, brave English spirit, eager to honor their country, and follow such a king, have marched even to battle without either stockings or shoes, while his servants have been every day working in Exchange Alley, to get his own money of the Stock-jobbers, even after all the horrible demands of discount have been allowed; and, at last, scarce fifty per cent. of the money granted by Parliament has come into the Exchequer, and that late, too late for that service, and by driblets, till the king has been tired of the delay, and been even ready to give up the cause.

We have just now had a test of their cunning on the subject of the invasion. These were the men that made the first advantage of the news; immediately those that were to put stock upon any man at a high price tendered it, the accepters, forced by the demand, call in their money on their hand, pay the difference, the price falls, a general run upon the Bank follows, and stock-jobbing began it.

Say this was no design, yet if every alarm of the foolish, or the timorous, or the false, is capable to set the humor afloat by the agency of Exchange Alley, is as dangerous to the public safety as a magazine of gunpowder is to a populous city.

But if it be by design, then, whenever the Pretender is to be pawned upon us by any foreign power that can but talk of lending five or six thousand men, our public credit is at his mercy, by the agency of Exchange Alley and the brokers.

The story of the invasion from Spain, we hope, is now over. Indeed, at the worst, I saw no such reason to be surprised to that degree as was the case here. Let us look back, and see what injury to the public has the very rumor been! what damage to credit! what stop to trade! what interruption to our general commerce! besides sinking above a million sterling upon our estates; and every farthing of this is occasioned by the stock-jobbers, and in the consequence of their contrivance, and by no other means; for as to the design of an invasion, or that they resolved to come hither at all, though we have evident proofs of that, because some of them have been actually landed, yet we cannot yet resolve the question positively, whether it was ever worth our being so much alarmed, as we have been in Exchange Alley.

While these sheets were at the press, we had another little test of their knavery to the public; and it is not at all owing to them that the thing ran no farther. The contrary winds and storms, &c., had disappointed the king’s enemies, and the Spanish fleet was driven back to Spain in a shattered and defeated condition, as appears by the public account of those things: but in the interval of this news came an account, on the other hand, that some of the party were arrived in Scotland, that they had beat it up, notwithstanding all the opposition of nature, the hindrances of winds and seas. Immediately stocks fell two per cent., nor did the good news of the defeated return of the rest animate these men to keep up the interest, by which it appears that they are acted more by the bad principle than by the good; that they choose rather to do evil than to do good; that they sink faster than they rise, and are willinger to do harm than good to the government.

From whence I infer, that the government, looking upon them as they really are, rather enemies than friends to the general interest, should rather incline to root them out than preserve them. AMEN.

ENGLISH FUNDS.

HIGHEST AND LOWEST PRICE OF THREE PER CENTS IN EACH YEAR, FROM 1731 TO 1848.

Highest. Lowest. 1731 99 94 1732 101 96 1733 103 92 1734 94 90 1735 98 92 1736 113 100 1737 107 105 1738 106 102 1739 105 97 1740 101 98 1741 101 98 1742 102 98 1743 103 100 1744 99 90 1745 92 85 1746 89 75 1747 86 81 1748 91 76 1749 102 91 1750 101 98 1751 103 97 1752 106 101 1753 106 104 1754 104 102 1755 101 90 1756 90 88 1757 91 86 1758 98 89 1759 88 79 1760 83 76 1761 88 66 1762 87 63 1763 96 82 1764 86 80 1765 91 85 1766 90 87 1767 91 87 1768 93 88 1769 89 84 1770 87 78 1771 88 81 1772 95 87 1773 87 86 1774 89 86 1775 90 87 1776 90 81 1777 80 76 1778 72 61 1779 64 59 1780 63 60 1781 59 56 1782 61 53 1783 68 58 1784 57 54 1785 71 55 1787 78 69 1789 81¼ 71⅝ 1790 80⅞ 70½ 1791 89¾ 75¾ 1792 97¼ 72½ 1793 81 70½ 1794 72⅜ 62¾ 1795 70½ 61 1796 70⅝ 53¼ 1797 56½ 47½ 1798 58 47¼ 1799 69 52⅝ 1800 67¼ 60 1801 70 54¼ 1802 79 66 1803 73 50¼ 1804 58⅞ 53¾ 1805 62 57 1806 64⅝ 58½ 1807 64⅜ 57⅝ 1808 69⅛ 62⅝ 1809 70⅜ 63⅜ 1810 71 63¼ 1811 66¾ 61¾ 1812 63 55⅛ 1813 67½ 54½ 1814 72½ 61½ 1815 65¾ 53⅞ 1816 64⅝ 59½ 1817 84¼ 62 1818 82 73 1819 79 64⅞ 1820 70¼ 65⅝ 1821 78¾ 68¾ 1822 83 75⅜ 1823 85¾ 72 1824 96⅞ 84¾ 1825 94¼ 75 1826 84½ 73⅞ 1827 89½ 76¾ 1828 88⅜ 80⅞ 1829 94¼ 85⅝ 1830 94¼ 77½ 1831 84¾ 74⅞ 1832 85¾ 81⅝ 1833 91¼ 84¼ 1834 93 87½ 1835 92⅞ 89¼ 1836 92¼ 86⅝ 1837 93⅞ 87⅞ 1838 95¼ 90⅝ 1839 93⅞ 89¼ 1840 93⅛ 85¾ 1841 90½ 87¼ 1842 95⅛ 88 1843 97⅛ 92⅛ 1844 101¼ 96½ 1845 100⅝ 91⅞ 1846 97¾ 93¼ 1847 94 78¾ 1848 89½ 80

LOANS RAISED SINCE 1793, WITH THE RATES OF INTEREST.

Year. Amount. Per cent. 1793 £4,500,000 £4 3s. 4d. 1794 11,000,000 4 10 9 1795 22,600,000 4 15 8 1796 18,000,000 4 14 9 ” 7,500,000 4 12 2 1797 18,000,000 5 12 6 ” 16,120,000 6 6 10 1798 17,000,000 6 4 9 1799 3,000,000 5 12 5 ” 15,500,000 5 5 0 1800 20,500,000 4 12 2 1801 28,000,000 5 5 6 1802 25,000,000 3 19 2 1803 12,000,000 5 2 0 1804 14,500,000 5 9 2 1805 22,500,000 5 3 2 ” 1,500,000 5 16 4 1806 20,000,000 4 19 7 1807 14,200,000 4 14 7 ” 1,500,000 4 16 4 1808 10,500,000 4 14 6 1809 14,600,000 4 11 7 1810 13,400,000 4 4 2 1811 12,000,000 4 13 6 1812 22,500,000 5 5 7 1813 27,000,000 5 8 4½ ” 22,000,000 5 6 2 1814 24,000,000 4 14 1 1815 36,000,000 5 12 4 1835 15,000,000 ” ” ” 1847 8,000,000 3 7 6

A LIST OF ACTS RELATIVE TO BROKERS.

13 Edward I. Statute 5 Anno 1284. 1 James I. ” 21 1604. 8 and 9 William III. ” 32 1697, expired 1707. 6 Anne ” 16 1707. 10 ” ” 19 1711. 6 George I. ” 18 1720. 3 George II. ” 31 1730, for Bristol. 7 George II. ” 8 1739.

DIRECTORS OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

FROM 1694 TO 1847.

Sir John Houblon 1694 Michael Godfrey ” Sir Thomas Abney ” Sir James Bateman ” Brooke Bridges ” George Boddington ” James Denew ” Sir Henry Furnese ” Sir William Gore ” Thomas Goddard ” Sir Gilbert Heathcote ” Sir William Hedges ” Sir James Houblon ” Sir John Huband ” Abraham Houblon ” Sir Theodore Janssen ” John Knight ” Samuel Lethieullier ” John Lordell ” William Patterson ” Robert Raworth ” Sir William Scawen ” Obadiah Sedgwick ” John Smith ” Nathaniel Tench ” Sir John Ward ” Henry Cornish 1695 Edward Clarke ” Sir John Cope, Sen. ” Peter Godfrey ” Anthony Stevens 1695 Sir William Ashhurst 1697 Robert Bristow ” Samuel Bultell ” John Page ” Sir Francis Eyles ” John Shipman ” Sir Nathaniel Gould ” Samuel Lock ” Sir Peter Delme 1698 William Dawsonne ” Francis Stratford ” Peter Gott ” Sir Richard Levett ” John Devinck 1699 John Rudge ” Richard Perry ” John Reynardson 1700 William Desbouverie ” Josiah Diston 1701 John Gould ” John Hanger ” Humphrey South ” Sir Robert Clayton 1702 Sir Gerard Conyers ” Abraham Hill ” Samuel Heathcote ” Charles Chambrelan 1703 Sir William Hodges ” Sir Charles Peers 1705 Sir Thomas Scawen 1705 Sir John Cope, Jun. 1706 James Dolliffe 1708 John Emilie ” William Gore 1709 Sir Justus Beck 1710 William Henry Comellissen ” John Dolben ” Jeremiah Powell ” Sir Denis Dutry 1711 Heneage Fetherstone ” Sir Philip Jackson ” John Ward, Jun. ” Sir George Thorold ” Mr. Robert Atwood 1712 Richard Cary ” Sir Joseph Hodges ” Sir Randolph Knipe ” Christopher Lethieullier ” Matthew Raper ” John Edmonds 1713 Sir Richard Houblon ” Richard Chiswell 1714 Sir William Jolliff ” Henry Lyell ” William Thompson ” Sir John Eyles 1715 Mr. Barrington Eaton 1716 John Francis Fauquier ” Humphrey Morice ” Moses Raper ” Sir Joseph Eyles 1717 Sir William Humphreys 1719 Richard Du Cane 1720 Samuel Holden ” Bryan Benson 1721 Thomas Cooke ” Delillers Carbonnel 1722 Nathaniel Gould ” Henry Herring ” Hon. Horatio Townshend ” Sir Edward Bellamy 1723 Matthew Howard ” John Olmuns ” Sir Francis Forbes 1724 William Fawkener ” Sir John Heathcote 1725 John Nicoll 1726 Sir Francis Porten ” Stamp Brooksbank 1728 James Gaultier ” William Hunt ” William Snelling ” Clement Boehm 1729 Joseph Paice, Jun. 1730 Matthew Raper ” James Spilman ” Robert Alsop 1731 John Bance ” Henry Neale 1732 Robert Thornton ” Charles Savage 1733 Benjamin Lethieullier 1734 Benjamin Longuet ” Sir John Thompson ” Christopher Tower ” John Eaton Dodsworth ” Frederick Frankland 1736 Samuel Trench ” Alexander Sheafe 1737 Richard Chiswell, Jun. 1738 Sir John Lequesne ” Benjamin Mee ” Mark Weyland ” Claude Fonnereau 1739 Charles Palmer ” John South ” Matthew Beachcroft 1741 Robert Nettleton ” Thomas Whateley ” Merrik Burrell 1742 James Lever ” Theophilus Salwey 1742 Robert Marsh 1743 James Theobald ” Robert Salusbury 1744 Peter Thomas ” Bartholomew Burton 1746 Godfrey Thornton 1748 John Weyland ” Thomas Winterbottom 1749 Charles Boehm 1750 Matthew Clairmont ” Samuel Handley ” Richard Stratton ” Harry Thompson ” Sir Samuel Fludyer 1753 John Sargent ” William Cooper 1754 Philip De la Haize ” Sir Thomas Chitty 1755 Peter Du’Cane ” Edward Payne 1756 Thomas Plurner ” Peter Theobald ” Robert Dingley 1757 James Sperling ” Henry Plant 1759 Samuel Beachcroft 1760 Gustavus Brander 1761 Daniel Booth ” John Cornwall ” Peter Gaussen ” James Haughton Langston ” Edmund Wilcox ” William Bowden 1763 William Ewer ” Richard Neave ” John Fisher 1764 Christopher Hake, Jun. ” Thomas Thomas 1765 Edward Darell 1767 William Halhed ” Lyde Browne 1768 George Drake ” George Hayter ” Benjamin Hopkins ” George Peters ” Mark Weyland ” Roger Boehm 1769 Matthew Howard ” Benjamin Branfill 1770 William Snell ” Samuel Bosanquet 1771 Martyn Fonnereau ” Godfrey Thornton 1772 Daniel Giles, Jun. 1774 Christopher Puller ” Thomas Dea 1775 Richard Clay 1776 Thomas Raikes ” Benjamin Mee, Jun. 1777 John Sargent, Jun. 1788 William Cooke 1780 Samuel Thornton ” Thomas Scott Jackson ” Job Matthew 1781 Joseph Nutt ” Thomas Boddington 1782 Benjamin Winthrop ” Beeston Long, Jun. 1784 James Maude ” Isaac Osborne ” Sir Brook Watson ” John Harrison 1785 Bicknell Coney 1786 John Whitmore, Jun. ” Peter Isaac Thellusson 1787 Moses Yeldham 1788 William Manning, Jun. 1790 John Pearce ” John Puget ” Thomas Lewin 1791 Peter Cazalet 1792 William Mellish 1792 Edward Simeon ” Alexander Champion, Jun. 1794 George Dorrien ” Jeremiah Harman ” Nathaniel Bogle French 1796 Charles Pole ” Thomas Amyand 1798 Thomas Langley ” Ebenezer Maitland ” Peter Free 1800 Jeremiah Olive ” Henry Smith 1802 Stephen Thornton ” John Bowden 1803 Cornelius Buller ” Alexander Baring 1805 John Josiah Holford ” John Baker Richards ” Samuel Drew 1806 Henry Davidson 1807 John Stainforth ” Sir Robert Wigram ” John Campbell 1808 William Haldimand 1809 George Blackman 1810 William Tierney Robarts ” John Horsley Palmer 1811 Andrew Henry Thompson ” Sir Thomas Neave 1812 Richard Mee Raikes ” James Pattison, Jun. 1813 William Ward 1817 Samuel Hibbert 1819 Timothy Abraham Curtis 1820 John Rae Reid ” Sir John Henry Pelly 1821 David Barclay ” John Cockerell ” Henry Porcher ” William Cotton 1822 John Benjamin Heath 1823 William R. Robinson 1825 James Morris 1827 William Thompson ” Humphrey St. John Mildmay 1828 John Oliver Hanson 1829 Charles Pascoe Grenfell 1830 Abel Lewes Gower ” Sheffield Neave ” Rowland Mitchell 1833 Christopher Pearse 1834 Henry Davidson 1835 Bonamy Dobree ” Thomson Hankey, Jun. ” Henry James Prescott ” Robert Barclay 1837 John Malcolmson ” John Gellibrand Hubbard 1838 Charles Frederick Huth ” Alfred Latham ” Thomas Charles Smith ” Thomas Matthias Weguelin ” Edward Henry Chapman 1840 Kirkman Daniel Hodgson ” William Little 1842 David Powell ” Francis Wilson ” Arthur Edward Campbell 1843 Thomas Tooke, Jun. ” Henry Lancelot Holland 1844 Thomas Newman Hunt ”

ANNUAL DIVIDENDS OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND,

From 1694 to 1849 inclusive.

Per cent. 1694-1697 8 1698 7 1699 9½ 1700 10¾ 1701 9 1702 12 1703 16½ 1704 15¾ 1705 15½ 1706 18¼ 1707 7¾ 1708 12½ 1709 8½ 1710 7½ 1711 7 1712 8 1713 8 1714 8 1715 7¾ 1716 8 1717 8 1718 8 1719 7½ 1720 7½ 1721 6 1722 6 1723 6 1724 6 1725 6 1726 6 1727 6 1728 5½ 1729 5½ 1730 5¾ 1731 5¾

Dividends, with the highest and lowest prices of Bank of England Stock.

Year. Dividend. Highest. Lowest. 1732 5¾ 152 109 1733 5½ 151 130 1734 5½ 140 132 1735 5½ 146 138 1736 5½ 151 148 1737 5½ 151 142 1738 5½ 145 140 1739 5½ 144 115 1740 5½ 144 138 1741 5½ 143 135 1742 5½ 143 136 1743 5½ 148 145 1744 5½ 148 116 1745 5½ 147 133 1746 5½ 136 125 1747 5 129 119 1748 5 129 117 1749 5 140 128 1750 5 136 131 1751 5 142 135 1752 5 149 141 1753 4½ 144 135 1754 4½ 135 130 1755 4½ 162 119 1756 4½ 121 114 1757 4½ 120 115 1758 4½ 123 116 1759 4½ 123 109 1760 4½ 114 101 1761 4½ 116 98 1762 4½ 119 91 1763 4½ 131 111 1764 4¾ 127 112 1765 5 136 126 1766 5 139 135 1767 5¼ 159 142 1768 5½ 170 158 1769 5½ 175 149 1770 5½ 153 105 1771 5½ 155 134 1772 5½ 153 144 1773 5½ 143 139 1774 5½ 146 139 1775 5½ 146 141 1776 5½ 143 134 1777 5½ 138 128 1778 5½ 120 107 1779 5½ 118 106 1780 5½ 116 109 1781 5¾ 119 105 1782 6 124 109 1783 6 134 112 1784 6 118 110 1785 6 142 111 1786 6 158 138 1787 6 160 145 1788 7 178 158 1789 7 191 169 1790 7 188 164 1791 7 204 178 1792 7 219 171 1793 7 180 161 1794 7 169 153 1795 7 180 152 1796 7 180 142 1797 7 146 115 1798 7 138 118 1799 7 176 134 1800 6¾ 175 154 1801 7 190 148 1802 7 207 178 1803 7 193 136 1804 7 169 146 1805 7 197 167 1806 7 223 191 1807 10 235 208 1808 10 240 224 1809 10 288 235 1810 10 276 273 1811 10 251 229 1812 10 232 212 1813 10 242 211 1814 10 266 234 1815 10 262 219 1816 10 262 215 1817 10 294 220 1818 10 292 207 1819 10 267 210 1820 10 226 215 1821 10 240 221 1822 10 252 235 1823 8 246 204 1824 8 245 227 1825 8 299 196 1826 8 223 193 1827 8 217 200 1828 8 215 203 1829 8 218 208 1830 8 203 194 1831 8 204 189 1832 8 208 185 1833 8 213 190 1834 8 225 211 1835 8 225 208 1836 8 219 199 1837 8 212 203 1838 8 208 201 1839 7 206 177 1840 7 179 156 1841 7 173 157 1842 7 173 165 1843 7 185 172 1844 7 211 185 1845 7 215 199 1846 7 211 199 1847 7 206½ 180 1848 7 202 183 1849 7 200 188½

* * * * *

BANK HOLIDAYS.—At the Bank of England the only holidays in the dividend offices are Good Friday and Christmas. In the transfer offices, besides the above, May 1st and November 1st. East India House and Exchequer,—Good Friday and Christmas. Custom-House,—Christmas, Good Friday, Prince of Wales’s birthday and the Queen’s birthday, November 9th and May 24th.

IN IRELAND.—Banks, Custom-House, &c., Good Friday, Christmas, and Queen’s birthday.

IN SCOTLAND.—New year’s day, King Charles I. martyrdom, Queen’s marriage, Queen’s birthday, Good Friday, Charles II. restoration, Queen’s accession, Queen’s coronation, Gunpowder Plot, and Christmas day.

FLUCTUATIONS OF THE ENGLISH FUNDS IN 1846-47.

Table showing the Highest and Lowest Prices of the principal Funds of the London Market, from November, 1846, to October, 1847.

Months. Bank Stock. 3 per ct. reduced. 3 per ct. Consols. 3 per ct. Annuities, 1726. New 3¼ per ct. New 5 per ct. Long Annuities, expire 1860. Long Annuities, 30 Years exp. 1859. Long Annuities, 30 Years. exp. 1860. India Stock. South Sea Stock. Exchequer Bills, £1,000.

1846: November, {206½ 93⅞ 95 94 95⅞ 118 9⅞ 9¾ 10⅛ 258 103⅞ 14s. at 1½d. {204 93⅛ 94 94 95⅛ 118 9 9 10 255 103⅞ 6s. pm. December, {207¼ 94⅞ 95½ 94⅞ 96½ 121 9⅞ 9¾ 10⅛ 254¾ 105¼ 14s. ” {205 93⅞ 95 94¼ 95⅝ 121 9 9 10 254¾ 104¼ 8s. ”

1847: January, {206½ 94 93¾ 91¾ 95¾ 114 9⅞ 9¾ 9¾ 254¾ 103¾ 15s. ” {203½ 90¾ 91⅛ 91 93 114 9 9 9 249 100 5s. ” February, {205 91⅝ 91½ 89⅜ 93½ 9⅝ 9½ 9½ 251 101¼ 10s. ” {202½ 90⅝ 90⅜ 89¾ 92⅜ 9 9⅜ 9 249 100¼ par. March, {205½ 91½ 90⅞ 88¾ 93⅜ 9⅝ 9⅜ 9⅝ 251 99¼ 7s. pm. {203½ 90⅝ 88⅛ 88¾ 90⅞ 9 9⅜ 9⅛ 250 99¼ 1s. ” April, {200½ 87⅜ 88¼ 88⅝ 118 9⅛ 8⅞ 9¾ 246½ 97⅜ 10s. at 2d. {190 84⅜ 85⅛ 86 118 8⅞ 8¾ 9¼ 244 95½ 1s. pm. May, {196 87½ 88⅝ 85⅜ 89⅛ 117 9 8¾ 9¼ 244 98½ 10s.dis. {188 85¼ 86⅜ 85⅜ 87 117 8⅞ 8¾ 9 240 96¾ par. June, {197½ 89½ 88⅞ 91¼ 118 9⅛ 9⅜ 9½ 246 12s. pm. {195 86¾ 87¾ 88⅝ 113 9 8⅞ 9⅜ 246 3s. ” July, {198 89½ 89¼ 87¾ 91⅝ 115 9⅛ 8⅞ 8⅞ 246½ 98⅝ 15s. ” {195 88⅛ 88 86⅞ 90⅜ 115 9 8⅞ 8¾ 244 97⅜ 10s. ” August, {198 89 88⅝ 90¾ 118 9⅛ 9 8⅞ 244 98⅝ 10s. ” {195 86⅞ 86¼ 88⅝ 118 9 8¾ 8½ 239 95⅛ 2s. ” September,{197½ 88¼ 87½ 89⅝ 112 9⅛ 9 8¾ 241 17s. ” {195½ 86¾ 85⅛ 88¼ 112 9 8⅞ 8¾ 236 11s. ” October, {186 82⅞ 85¾ 83⅜ 115 8½ 8½ 8¾ 238 par. {180 78¼ 79¼ 79½ 115 8 7⅝ 8⅜ 238 30s.dis. 1847: November, {189 83⅞ 85½ 85½ 8⅝ 8¼ 8¾ 235 93¾ 2s. pm. at 2d. {185 81 82 81¾ 8⅛ 8 8½ 228 91¼ 20s.dis. December, {189 85⅜ 86 86¾ 8⅝ 8½ 8⅞ 235 94½ 12s. pm. at 3d. {186½ 84 85½ 85½ 8½ 8⅜ 8 235 92½ 2s. pm. 1848: January, {202 89⅞ 89½ 90⅜ 90¾ 114 9 8¾ 8½ 243 96 35s. ” {187 84⅞ 85⅞ 89¼ 86 108½ 8⅝ 8½ 8⅝ 227 93 12s. ” February, {202 89⅞ 89⅞ 87½ 90¾ 9 8⅞ 8¾ 245 98 41s. ” {191 81¾ 81½ 82½ 8½ 8⅝ 8¼ 230 95¾ 5s. ” March, {194 82⅞ 83⅜ 79⅞ 83¼ 8⅞ 8½ 8½ 253 89¾ 35s. ” {191 80¼ 80⅝ 82⅞ 8⅝ 8⅜ 8¼ 86 13s. ” April, {189 81 82⅝ 82¾ 104 8⅜ 8¼ 8½ 231½ 88¼ 45s. pm. at 2½d. {185½ 78½ 80 79½ 8⅛ 8 8¼ 227 85 33s. pm. May, {193 82¾ 84⅜ 82½ 83⅞ 108 8⅝ 8⅜ 8¾ 234 92⅝ 47s. ” {189 81½ 83¼ 80⅛ 82½ 107 8⅜ 8⅛ 8½ 229 90 30s. ” June, {193 84½ 84¾ 81½ 85 111 8¾ 8⅝ 8¾ 234 92⅝ 41s. pm. at 2d. {189 82¼ 83⅞ 81 83¼ 8¼ 8⅛ 231 90⅛ 32s. pm. July, {198½ 89 88⅞ 84 89⅛ 109 9⅛ 8⅞ 8⅝ 245 97½ 52s. ” {190 85 85⅞ 85⅝ 8⅜ 8½ 8⅜ 239 96⅛ 32s. ” August, {199 87½ 87⅛ 87¾ 112 9 8⅝ 8¾ 243 97¼ 39s. ” {196 85¼ 85⅜ 85⅜ 109 8⅝ 8⅜ 8⅜ 238 21s. ” September,{198 86⅜ 86¼ 87¼ 8⅞ 8⅝ 8⅝ 240 95 31s. ” {196 85⅞ 85⅝ 86½ 8¾ 8½ 8½ 235 22s. ” October, {190 84¾ 86¾ 84¼ 85⅛ 112 8½ 8½ 8¾ 237 95¼ 40s. ” {183 83¼ 84⅛ 84⅛ 84 108½ 8¼ 8⅛ 8½ 234 92¾ 29s. ” 1848: November, {190 86¼ 87½ 85⅜ 89 8½ 8⅝ 8⅞ 237 95⅞ 45s. pm. at 2d. {188 84⅝ 85⅞ 85⅜ 8½ 8⅜ 8⅜ 232 94 36s. pm. December, {191½ 88⅞ 89⅜ 89⅜ 8⅞ 8⅝ 8⅞ 241 96¾ 42s. ” {188½ 86¼ 87⅜ 89¼ 8¼ 8⅝ 8⅜ 237 94⅞ 37s. ” 1849: January, {196 91⅝ 91¾ 88⅞ 92¼ 9 8⅞ 8¾ 245 98⅞ 51s. ” {188½ 88⅞ 88⅞ 87¼ 89¼ 8¾ 8½ 8¼ 238¾ 96¾ 40s. ” February, {197¼ 94½ 94½ 95½ 120 9⅓ 8⅞ 8¾ 249 102 53s. ” {193 91⅛ 91⅛ 92¼ 116 8⅞ 8⅝ 8¼ 243 100 39s. ” March, {196 92¾ 92¾ 93⅞ 119½ 9⅛ 8⅞ 8⅞ 245 100¾ 45s. ” {193 91 90½ 91½ 8⅞ 8¾ 8½ 240 99⅛ 35s. ” April, {194 90⅞ 93¾ 90½ 91¾ 8⅝ 8⅜ 8¾ 248 101 49s. ” {191½ 90 91⅛ 90 91 9⅛ 8¼ 8⅜ 243 44s. ” May, {195 91⅛ 92⅝ 91¾ 8⅝ 8⅜ 8¾ 250 100⅝ 49s. ” {192½ 89¼ 90⅛ 90⅛ 8⅜ 8¼ 8¾ 245 99⅛ 44s. ” June, {195 92⅝ 92¾ 89¼ 92⅝ 8¾ 8½ 8⅞ 252 100¼ 48s. ” {193½ 89¼ 90⅛ 90⅛ 8⅜ 8⅜ 8¾ 250 44s. ” July, {200 93¼ 93¾ 91⅜ 94⅛ 9 8⅝ 8⅝ 253¾ 103 51s. ” {195 91½ 92⅛ 92¼ 8⅝ 8⅝ 8½ 251 102⅞ 44s. ” August, {200 93⅛ 93 90⅛ 94⅛ 118¼ 9 8¾ 8¾ 255½ 102¾ 51s. ” {198½ 92 92½ 92⅝ 8⅝ 8⅝ 8½ 252 101¼ 40s. ” September,{200 92⅞ 92⅞ 89¼ 94 8⅞ 8⅝ 8⅞ 254 102⅜ 42s. ” {199 92½ 93⅛ 93¾ 8⅜ 8⅝ 8½ 252 35s. ” October, {198½ 91¼ 92⅝ 91 92⅜ 8½ 8¼ 8½ 257 102½ 47s. ” {196 90⅛ 91⅜ 90⅞ 91¾ 8⅜ 8⅛ 8¼ 254 100¾ 41s. ”

FOOTNOTES:

The above tract appeared in 1719.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX

CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS

OF THE

STOCK EXCHANGE.

Page

Alison, Remarks on the National Debt, 83

Annuities, Policy of, 85

Asgill, Mr., on reducing the National Debt, 87

Baily, Francis, Defence of the Brokers, 72, 81

Bank of England,—First Charter, 27th July, 1694, 9

” ” First payment of Government dividends, 23

” ” Directors of, from 1694 to 1847, 156

” ” Dividends of, from 1694 to 1849, 161

Barbier, Mr., on the National Debt, 87

Barclay and Co., Bankers, Operations of, 104

Baring and Goldsmid, Anecdotes of, 61, 75

Barings, Sketch of the House of, 75

Barnard, Sir John, Opposition to the Stock Exchange, 26

” ” Act against Stock Gambling, 27

Blackboard, Notices of the, 55, 120

Blunt, Sir John, Originator of the South-sea Bubble, 23

Bolland, James, Execution of, for forgery, 119

Bolingbroke, Remarks on the National Debt of England, 82, 84

Bonaparte, Policies on the life of, 79

Bowring, and the Greek Loan, 106

Bridgewater Canal, 90

Brokers, Acts against, 71

’Change Alley, Origin of, 10

Charitable Corporation Frauds in London, 19

Chatham, Lord, Opinions of ’Change Alley, 57

Clayton, Sir Robert, notice of, 8

Cochrane, Lord, Fraud of, 80

Consols, Highest and Lowest Prices of, for 120 years, 153

Daniels, Joseph Elkin, Fraud of, 69

Douglas, Heron, & Co., of London, Failure of, 39

Dunbar, Speculations of, 118

East India Company, Stock of, 9, 18

” ” Restriction of its Dividends, 37

Elizabeth, (Queen,) Numerous Monopolies granted by, 8

Equitable Loan Company, Charter of, 97

Exchequer Bills, First Fraud in, 17

Exchange Alley, Anatomy of, 135

Fordyce, Alexander, Fraud of, 40

Foreign Loans contracted, 17

Fox, Charles James, Anecdote of, 58

Frauds and Forgeries, 32, 40, 69, 77, 80, 100, 119

Furness, Sir Henry, Anecdote of, 11

French Revolution, Effects of the, 64

Germany, Attempted Loan for, 26

Gideon, Sampson, the Jew Broker, 33, 118

Goldsmid, Abraham and Benjamin, 59

” Suicide of, 60

Gordon, Lord George, Anecdote of, 58

Gray, Thomas, Plan for Roads, 92, 94

Greece, Loan to, 104

Guatemala, Loan to, by English Capitalists, 103

Guise, Count de, Notice of, 119

Guy, Thomas, Anecdote of, 12, 25

Hebrew Brokers, Number limited to Twelve, 42

Hume, David, Remarks on the National Debt, 84

Hume, Joseph, and the Greek Loan, 105

Johnstone, Cochrane, Fraud of, 80

Joint Stock Companies, Speculations in, 73

Life Insurance, Notices of, 125, 127

” ” Indisputable Company, 127

” ” Policies on Diseased Lives, 128

” ” Fraudulent Companies, 130

Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, 93

Loans to Continental Powers, 104, 115

” New, Frauds, &c., 44, 154

” Since 1793, and Rates of Interest, 154

Lopez, Manassez, Punishment of, 29

Lotteries, Invention of, 49

” Employed by the State, for Revenue Purposes, 47

” Evils of, and Frauds in, 49

” Abolition of, 53

” Effects of, 50

Loyalty Loan, Subscriptions to, 68

Marlborough’s (Duke of) Victories, Effects of, 21

MacGregor, Gregor, Notice of, 100

Mining Companies, Speculations in, 98

Moneyed Interest, Origin, Extravagance, and Folly of the, 7

National Debt (The), Remarks on, 1, 6, 23

” ” Proposal to reduce the Interest on, 28

” ” Increase of, 1740-1766, 32, 35

” ” Curious Proposition to pay off, 66, 86

” ” Review of, 82

” ” Smith, Paine, Hervey, Graham, on, 84

Newcastle, Duke of, Notice of, 118

Petty, Sir Henry, Proposal for a Sinking Fund, 72

Pitt, William, Policy of, 64, 65

Plomer, Sir Thomas, Fraud on, 77

Portugal, Loan to, by English Capitalists, 115

Poyais Fraud, Disastrous Effects of the, 100

Ricardo, David, Notice of, 77

Rice, John, Execution of, for Forgery, 32

Rothschild, Notices of, 109, 111

” Death of, 114

Royal Exchange, (The) Notice of, 8

Secret Service Money, 37

Sedley, Sir Charles, Speech of, 13

Sinking Fund, the Origin of the, 34, 55

Spanish Stock, Fall in, 116

Speculations of 1825, 108

South American Loans, 99, 103

South-sea Bubble, Notices of the, 23, 25

Sprot, Mark, Death of, 74

Stephenson, on Railroads, 94

Stock Exchange, Increased Importance of, 22, 76

” ” Opposed by Sir John Barnard, 26

” ” Origin of the Blackboard, 55

” ” Removal of, 67, 108

” ” Increase of Business, 1810-15, 76

” ” Morals and Manners of the, 121

” ” Rules of the Board for its Members, 124

Time Bargains, Origin of, 27

Tontines, History of, 6

Tulip Mania in Holland, Sketch of, 4

Vansittart, Mr., Modification of the Sinking Fund, 78

Walpole, Sir R., Opposition to the German Loan, 26

” ” ” to a Reduction of Interest on National Debt, 28

” ” Adoption of the Sinking Fund, 34

” ” Remarks on the National Debt, 84

Walsh, Benjamin, Trial of, for Fraud, 77

Wilkes, John, Anecdotes of, 42

William III., Modes of raising Money for War Purposes, 7

” Enormous Briberies of, 12

” Increased Taxation under, 13

” Defence of his Policy, 14

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 32 Changed: conscience of Rice took the the alarm to: conscience of Rice took the alarm

pg 36 Changed: was carried through and approved by a phcuniary to: was carried through and approved by a pecuniary

pg 147 Changed: said to manage for three blue ribbonds to: said to manage for three blue ribbons