In a prophetic spirit he added, that if the plan succeeded, the
directors would become masters of the government, form a new and
absolute aristocracy in the kingdom, and control the resolutions of
the legislature. If it failed, which he was convinced it would, the
result would bring general discontent and ruin upon the country. Such
would be the delusion, that when the evil day came, as come it would,
the people would start up, as from a dream, and ask themselves if
these things could have been true. All his eloquence was in vain. He
was looked upon as a false prophet, or compared to the hoarse raven,
croaking omens of evil. His friends, however, compared him to
Cassandra, predicting evils which would only be believed when they
came home to men's hearths, and stared them in the face at their own
boards. Although, in former times, the House had listened with the
utmost attention to every word that fell from his lips, the benches
became deserted when it was known that he would speak on the South Sea
question.

The bill was two months in its progress through the House of
Commons. During this time every exertion was made by the directors and
their friends, and more especially by the Chairman, the noted Sir John
Blunt, to raise the price of the stock. The most extravagant rumours
were in circulation. Treaties between England and Spain were spoken
of, whereby the latter was to grant a free trade to all her colonies;
and the rich produce of the mines of Potosi-la-Paz was to be brought
to England until silver should become almost as plentiful as iron. For
cotton and woollen goods, with which we could supply them in
abundance, the dwellers in Mexico were to empty their golden mines.
The company of merchants trading to the South Seas would be the
richest the world ever saw, and every hundred pounds invested in it
would produce hundreds per annum to the stockholder. At last the stock