70 A. D. 17 19* 



this Ilock ; iuloniucli, that it was currently believed, there might then 

 refide uc Paris iialt" a million of flrangers more than ufual, and that 

 1 200 now coaches were let up. Nothing to be feen but new and 

 Iplendid equipages, new houfes, and fmery in apparel ; lodgings Icarce- 

 ]y to be had for money ; and the highefl; prices given for provifions. 

 See. in that city. Yet, in a few more months after, the very revcrfc 

 of all this was feen to be the miferable condition of both city and 

 country. 



By an ael for fettling certain yearly funds, payable out of the 

 revenue of Scotland, to fatisfy public debts in Scotland, and to dif- 

 charge the equivalents claimed on behalf of Scotland, &c. it was enabl- 

 ed, that, for obviating many doubts and difficulties, which the commif- 

 lioners of the equivalent found too hard for them to fettle, arifing fron\ 

 the doubtful and various conftrudion ot the 15th article of the union 

 of the two kingdoms, the fum of 1^48,550 : o : 97 fliould be a capital 

 Hock, transferable, attended with an annuity, or annual fund, of 

 LiG.oco, out of the exclfe and cuftoms of Scotland, as alio L600 per 

 annum allowed for charge of management, out of thofe revenues. The 

 king was hereby empowered to incorporate the proprieto-rs thereof, who 

 fliould have perpetual fucceflion, &c. Yet the fiid ftock is to be re- 

 deemable by parliament. {5 Geo. I. c. 20.] The Hock remains to this 

 day transferable, and its directors meet weekly at their office in Lon- 

 don, being 13 in number, eleven refiding in London, and two refiding 

 at Edinburgh. Their charter is dated nth Geo. on the 21ft of No- 

 vember 1724. They pay their proprietors 4 per cent per annum. 



By this fame flatute, L2000 per annum, out of the revenues of cuf- 

 toms and excife in Scotland, was allotted for ever, to be wholely applied 

 towards encouraging and proteding the filheries and fuch other manu- 

 fadures and improvements in Scotland as may mod conduce to the 

 general good of the united kingdom, according to the tenor and true 

 meaning of the 15th article of the union. Provided however, that up- 

 on payment by parliament of L4o,ooo, the faid annuity of L20CO {hall 

 <;eafe and determine. 



The irredeemable debt being at this time thought a dead weight on 

 the public, the miniflry and parliament were extremely defirous to get 

 rid of as much of it as they could, at a reafonable rate : a bargain was 

 therefor now flruck with the South-fea company ; whereby, in the firll 

 place, the blank pay-tickets, and the prizes of the lottery of the year 

 1710, which were irredeemable annuities tor 32 years from 17 10, were 

 now to be turned into redeemable principal fums at 5 per cent intereft, 

 by an ad of parliament of the 5th of King George, for redeeming the 

 fund appropriated for payment of the lottery tickets, which were made 

 forth for the fer vice of the year 17 10, by a voluntary fubfcription of 

 the proprietori into the capital ftock of the South-fea company, &c. It 



