stock, monied men had vastly increased their fortunes;
country-gentlemen had seen the value of their lands doubled and
trebled in their hands. They had at the same time done good to the
Church, not a few of the reverend clergy having got great sums by the
project. In short, they had enriched the whole nation, and he hoped
they had not forgotten themselves. There was some hissing at the
latter part of this speech, which for the extravagance of its eulogy
was not far removed from satire; but the directors and their friends,
and all the winners in the room, applauded vehemently. The Duke of
Portland spoke in a similar strain, and expressed his great wonder why
anybody should be dissatisfied: of course, he was a winner by his
speculations, and in a condition similar to that of the fat alderman
in Joe Miller's Jests, who, whenever he had eaten a good dinner,
folded his hands upon his paunch, and expressed his doubts whether
there could be a hungry man in the world.

Several resolutions were passed at this meeting, but they had no
effect upon the public. Upon the very same evening the stock fell to
six hundred and forty, and on the morrow to five hundred and forty.
Day after day it continued to fall, until it was as low as four
hundred. In a letter dated September 13th, from Mr. Broderick, M.P. to
Lord Chancellor Middleton, and published in Coxo's Walpole, the former
says,--"Various are the conjectures why the South Sea directors have
suffered the cloud to break so early. I made no doubt but they would
do so when they found it to their advantage. They have stretched
credit so far beyond what it would bear, that specie proves
insufficient to support it. Their most considerable men have drawn
out, securing themselves by the losses of the deluded, thoughtless
numbers, whose understandings have been overruled by avarice and the
hope of making mountains out of mole-hills. Thousands of families will