44 THE SEA. 



" Visions of ingots danced before their eyes," 



and the directors opened their books for a subscription of a million, and then for a second 

 million, and the frantic speculators took it all. Swift described 'Change Alley as a gulf in 

 the South Seas : 



" Subscribers here by thousands float, 



And jostle one another down, 

 Each paddling in his leaky boat, 

 And here they fish for gold and drown. 



"Now buried in the depths below, 



Now mounted up to heaven again, 

 They reel and stagger to and fro, 

 At their wits' end, like drunken men. 



" Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs, 

 A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, 

 Lie waiting for the foundering skiffs, 

 And strip the bodies of the dead." 



The directors used every art to keep up the price of the stock. It rose finally to 1,000 

 per share. A few weeks afterwards it was down to 175, then to 135, and the Bubble 

 had burst. 



To detail the various plans tried or suggested to bolster up the company, the Parliamentary 

 inquiries, or the stringent measures adopted to punish the directors, would be out of place 

 here. Suffice it to say that a bill was brought in for restraining the South Sea directors 

 and officers from leaving the kingdom for a twelvemonth. They were forbidden to realise 

 on their estates and effects, neither must they will or remove them. Eventually they were 

 obliged to disgorge their gains. "A sum amounting to two million and fourteen thousand 

 pounds was confiscated from their estates towards repairing the mischief they had done, 

 each man being allowed a certain residue in proportion to his conduct and circumstances, 

 with which he might begin the world anew. Sir John Blunt was only allowed 5,000 out of 

 his fortune of upwards of 183,000 ; Sir John Fellows was allowed 10,000 out of 243,000 j 

 Sir Theodore Janssen 50,000 out of 243,000; Mr. Edward Gibbon 10,000 out of 

 106,000; Sir John Lambert 5,000 out of 72,000." After every effort on the part 

 of the Committee of Investigation, a dividend of about 33 per cent, was divided among the 

 unfortunate proprietors and stock-holders. It took long before public credit was restored. 



