408 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



English Mules, to Trade in Human Hair, and for a multitude 

 of other equally absurd purposes. The subscriptions thus 

 opened amounted at one period to no less than three hundred 

 millions sterling. 



These projects, which rose rapidly one after another and danced 

 in prismatic radiance before the public view, were regarded with 

 jealous eyes by the South Sea Directors, who wished to have a 

 monopoly of the trade in public credulity. They therefore ap- 

 plied for writs of " scire facias" agains't their managers, and, 

 by showing them to be frauds, suppressed them. But in thus 

 destroying the national confidence in bubbles generally they 

 seriously undermined that enjoyed by their own. Distrust was 

 now excited, and every one became anxious to convert his 

 bonds into money ; and then the enormous disproportion be- 

 tween the promises to pay on paper and the means to redeem in 

 coin became evident to all. The stock fell at once, as the basis 

 which sustained it was proved to be altogether imaginary. 

 Thousands of families were reduced to beggary, and the rage, 

 resentment, and disappointment were bitter and universal. The 

 Company sank into nothingness as rapidly as it had risen to 

 notoriety. Parliament passed a bill by which public confidence 

 was in a measure restored, while the estates of the Directors 

 and officers were confiscated and applied to the relief of the 

 sufferers. The proposed commerce with the Spanish American 

 provinces was naturally never opened, and the next expedition 

 of the English to that quarter, so far from being a voyage for 

 trade, was a very formidable excursion for plunder, — that of 

 Lord Anson, in 1740. We shall refer to this at length in its 

 proper place. 



