with dismay the various debentures which were then due from government, without any arrangement for paying them off.

His ministry was mistrusted; the debentures were at a large discount. He turned his mind accordingly, that mind so fertile in expedients, and so prompt in execution, to devise some scheme which should ensure the regular payment at least of the interest, and at the same time give the creditors something to stay their anxiety for the principal.

The scheme he hit on was not a new one; it had been before tried by William III, and with considerable success.

He accordingly, in the year 1711, caused an act to be passed enumerating the debts which were unprovided for, decreeing certain duties for the payment of the interest thereof, and incorporating the public creditors into a company to trade in the South Seas.

That the Earl of Oxford showed his usual sagacity in choosing the South Sea trade as the bait, cannot be denied. Since the days of Queen Elizabeth, when Drake had led the way to the far-off land of treasures; when Raleigh had returned, bringing reports of the immense riches and luxuriant vegetation of the Western Land: when Cavendish had sailed up an English river with his ships laden with merchandise, such as England had rarely seen; and beneath sails of silk, with ropes twisted with gold; since those days, which, though so long past, were still remembered with wonder, the idea that from the South Seas would come the richness of England had never entirely disappeared. Old men had handed the stories down to their children, and the tradition of the prowess of Oxenham and Drake was fresh as ever in the reign of Queen

Anne. The scheme caught every one's fancy, crowds rushed to join a plan which agreed with every one's ideas, and promised at least a certain guaranteed interest.

In the year 1719, the fifth of the reign of King George I. an act was passed converting the irredeemable annuities owed by government to the holders of lottery tickets, into redeemable principal sums at 5 per cent. This, however, all the holders of lottery tickets would not agree to, so the capital of the South Sea Company was but increased from £10,000,000 to £11,746,844.

The partial success, however, which attended - this transaction, induced the government in the succeeding year, to endeavour in like manner, to get rid of all the irredeemable debts which still clung to, and encumbered the nation.

But the directors of the South Sea Company thought they saw a wider opening for their greed than even this offered them, they proposed to give above 7,000,000 for the privilege of taking in all the irredeemable debts, and indeed, in their ambition, were desirous of incorporating all the funds of the Bank, and the East India Company, with their own capital. The first part of this proposal was accepted by government, whilst the second part, though rejected, had the immediate effect of raising the price of their stock to 126 per cent., and a few days after to 319 per cent.

The scheme rapidly increased from that time forward. Between the beginning of April, and Midsummer, there were no less than three money subscriptions for stock, at the extraordinary prices of 300, 400, and 1000 per cent. Nothing could stop the infatuation of the people, who were so soon to be ruined by the fall of that edifice which

they were now so eagerly endeavouring to raise. In vain did a few reasonable men point out the absurdity of the scheme. In vain did the distress of France, caused by the Mississipi Scheme, which resembled the South Sea bubble in every respect, cry to them-Beware. A spirit of gaming had siezed upon England. Sad experience alone would put a stop to the wondrous infatuation.

The bursting of the bubble was not long delayed; various causes, no doubt, assisted in its fall; but the chief one was the issue of the scire facias, for the abolition of all the lesser bubbles. This was done at the directors' request; what could have led them to such an unparalleled act of folly is hard to perceive. But the blow was struck, and the giant form of the scheme melted away, even quicker than it had arisen. For no sooner were the lesser bubbles broken up, than not only did the lower orders lose their power of acquiring money, and so adding their gains to the greater schemes; but suspicion was also raised against the Great Project, when they saw the smaller ones, which had risen no faster, prove but empty and deceitful shows.

In vain the directors endeavoured to keep up the stocks. The Bubble had been blown upon; it must soon burst. Well would it have been for many had it been as inoffensive as a bursting bubble. In vain the directors voted 50 per cent. interest for twelve years. They had struck their own death blow, and must await their death as patiently as may be. In vain they held general courts; in vain did their panegyrists assured them "that they had lain asleep all our domestic animosities, and had reconciled all parties in one common interest." The fascination was over, and the end was at hand. Exchange Alley was once more quiet, no more bustling crowds, no more hawkers; silence held

the lately bustling thoroughfare, and the Great South Sea Scheme was no more.

Not the least wonderful part of the excitement followed the crash. An outcry was raised from one corner of Great Britain to the other. Newspapers, pamphlets, parliamentary committees, all took up the cry, a cry of vengeance against the directors, a cry for recompense from the Government. But little however could be done. A pretty fair division of the real property of the Company was made, and men were compelled to be satisfied with a portion of what they had paid, instead of receiving it back as they had expected, increased a hundred-fold. Proceedings were commenced against the Directors, but the implication of various people in high office prevented severe steps being taken.

Such was the lamentable end of the Earl of Oxford's great masterpiece for the regeneration of the system of finance. The rapid progress and success of this baseless scheme, when considered in conjunction with the precisely similar course of Law's Mississipi Bubble, exhibits a striking example of the credulity of man, in his pursuit of pecuniary advantages; and affords no less strong a proof than the agitations of the popular mind which were illustrated in the last two numbers, of the excitability of public feeling in all matters, whether political, religious, or pecuniary.

How

LINES ON A NEW YEAR.

prone is man to waste the present day, And mournfully to float adown life's stream Wrapt in the past; Ah! truly may we say, "This life is but a dream."

For far too oft we cherish vain regrets,
And harbour in our hearts,-alas, too long,-
Both happy moments fled, and gone-by frets,
Or joys, or fancied wrong.

In sad remembrance oft we love to dream
Of some sweet hour, whose memory lingers still,
Perchance illumined by so soft a gleam,

That we forget the ill.

But more than these the Heaven-sent friendships move,
We formed when still, in years, but youth, or child;
The treasured glance, the kindly word, the love,
So pure and undefiled.

Sweet is the spring-born fragrance of some flower
In verdant lane, that wakes, we scarce know why,
Some slumbering sense of former peaceful hour,
In many a spring gone by.

Dear though this be, we may not, must not, more,
In memory's mesmeric cup lie steeped;
Lest, dwelling in the past, the present store
Of good be left unreaped.

And yet, I ween, the days of childhood's joy
Should sway within our hearts a magic spell,
For then we see a time without alloy,

Quite pure-then all was well.

Regret for blameless days but lights within
The yearning wish again to be unstained;
Whilst aye to sadden in the past, is sin,
Ever to be restrained.