Ai, D. 1672. ^6r 



'laid, that near io,oco himilies were greatly hurt, and many of them 

 tntirely ruined. It was now faid, and even publhhed, that a flop of 

 this kind, which fo much lellcned the credit of the exchequer and the 

 reputation of the crown, could proceed from nothing lefs than a refo- 

 lution of the court to borrow no more hereafter but to take. The king, 

 in his printed declaration, declared, that, although, contrary to his in- 

 clination, he had been obliged to caufe a flop to be made as to the 

 principal money, he would punctually pay it hereafter, and till then 6 

 per cent mlerefl for the fame ; at the fame time directing the treafury 

 to fit out his fleet with that money. His main purpofes for fuch pre- 

 parations were, the ruin of the Dutch, the introdudion of poperv", and 

 the eflabliihment of defpotic power, without the control of a parlia- 

 ment, for which ends he had entered into a fecret league with France, 

 by means of the interview he had at Dover \vh\\ his filler the duchefs 

 of Orleans, jointly to attack the Dutch by fea, while France, the eledlor 

 of Cologne, and the bilhop of Munfler, fliould invade them in dif- 

 ferent places by land at the fame time. But as King Charles had al- 

 ready laviflied away L2, 500,000 given him by parliament, and LyoOjOOo 

 given him by France, his cabal advifed him to this unjuft feizure of the 

 bankers money, without which he could not fend out his fleet. As the 

 payments were always wont to come weekly from the exchequer to the 

 bankers, they were thereby enabled to anfwer the intereft and other 

 demands of their creditors : which now failing, they could neither pay 

 the principal nor interefl to the crowds of creditors by whom they were 

 dayly befieged. But the king's miniflers paid no regard to thofe ruin- 

 ed people's lamentations ; and the exchequer long remained fhut, to the 

 great detriment of trade and bufinefs. Yet, if poflible, to quiet thofe 

 clamours, the king found himfelf necelTitated to grant them his patent 

 to pay the faid 6 per cent interefl out of his hereditary excife ; but he 

 never paid the principal: for althovigh, after lome years, the exchequer 

 was indeed opened, yet it was to no purpofe for the bankers principal 

 money. That we may here complete this account of the bankers debt 

 altogether, we fhall farther obferve, that, although it was not a parlia- 

 mentary debt, the parliament by an adl of the i 2th year of King Wil- 

 liam, [c. I 2] after providing for a large arrear of interefl on it, fettled 

 an interefl of 3 per cent on it for the future ; but this debt was there- 

 by made redeemable on paying one moiety of the principal fum, being 

 L664,263, farther confirmed by an act of the 2d and 3d year of Queen 

 Anne, [c. 15J which moiety was now therefor become the proper debt 

 of the public ; and, being reduced from 6 to 5 per cent at michaelmas 

 1 71 7, it was finally fubfcribed into the South fea capital flock in the 

 year 1720. 



Upon this fubjed: Sir William Temple, in his INIifcellanies, makes the 

 following remark : ' The credit of our exchequer is irrecoverably loll 



Vol. ir. 3 4 B 



