Company, stopped payment. This being looked upon as but the beginning
of evil, occasioned a great run upon the Bank, who were now obliged to
pay out money much faster than they had received it upon the
subscription in the morning. The day succeeding was a holiday (the
29th of September), and the Bank had a little breathing time. They
bore up against the storm; but their former rivals, the South Sea
Company, were wrecked upon it. Their stock fell to one hundred and
fifty, and gradually, after various fluctuations, to one hundred and
thirty-five.

The Bank, finding they were not able to restore public confidence,
and stem the tide of ruin, without running the risk of being swept
away with those they intended to save, declined to carry out the
agreement into which they had partially entered. They were under no
obligation whatever to continue; for the so called Bank contract was
nothing more than the rough draught of an agreement, in which blanks
had been left for several important particulars, and which contained
no penalty for their secession. "And thus," to use the words of the
Parliamentary History, "were seen, in the space of eight months, the
rise, progress, and fall of that mighty fabric, which, being wound up
by mysterious springs to a wonderful height, had fixed the eyes and
expectations of all Europe, but whose foundation, being fraud,
illusion, credulity, and infatuation, fell to the ground as soon as
the artful management of its directors was discovered."

In the hey-day of its blood, during the progress of this dangerous
delusion, the manners of the nation became sensibly corrupted. The
Parliamentary inquiry, set on foot to discover the delinquents,
disclosed scenes of infamy, disgraceful alike to the morals of the
offenders and the intellects of the people among whom they had arisen.