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Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions — Volume 1 by Charles Mackay
page 100 of 314 (31%)
religious deportment, and professed to be a great believer. He
constantly declaimed against the luxury and corruption of the age, the
partiality of parliaments, and the misery of party spirit. He was
particularly eloquent against avarice in great and noble persons. He
was originally a scrivener, and afterwards became, not only a
director, but the most active manager of the South Sea Company.
Whether it was during his career in this capacity that he first began
to declaim against the avarice of the great, we are not informed. He
certainly must have seen enough of it to justify his severest
anathema; but if the preacher had himself been free from the vice he
condemned, his declamations would have had a better effect. He was
brought up in custody to the bar of the House of Lords, and underwent
a long examination. He refused to answer several important questions.
He said he had been examined already by a committee of the House of
Commons, and as he did not remember his answers, and might contradict
himself, he refused to answer before another tribunal. This
declaration, in itself an indirect proof of guilt, occasioned some
commotion in the House. He was again asked peremptorily whether he had
ever sold any portion of the stock to any member of the
administration, or any member of either House of Parliament, to
facilitate the passing of the hill. He again declined to answer. He
was anxious, he said, to treat the House with all possible respect,
but he thought it hard to be compelled to accuse himself. After
several ineffectual attempts to refresh his memory, he was directed to
withdraw. A violent discussion ensued between the friends and
opponents of the ministry. It was asserted that the administration
were no strangers to the convenient taciturnity of Sir John Blunt. The
Duke of Wharton made a reflection upon the Earl Stanhope, which the
latter warmly resented. He spoke under great excitement, and with such
vehemence as to cause a sudden determination of blood to the head. He
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