impossible to be honest in the employment.

I confess when I began to search into the Conduct of these Men, at
least of some of them, I found there were abundance of black Stories
to be told of them, a great deal known, and a great deal more
unknown; for they were from the beginning continually Encroaching
into all sorts of People and Societies, and in Conjunction with some
that were not qualify'd by Law, but meerly Voluntarily, call'd in the
Moon by a hard long Word, in English signifying PROJECTORS these
erected Stocks in Shadows, Societies in Nubibus, and Bought and Sold
meer Vapour, Wind, Emptiness and Bluster for Mony, till they drew
People in to lay out their Cash, and then laught at them.

Thus they erected Paper Societies, Linnen Societies, Sulphur
Societies, Copper Societies, Glass Societies, Sham Banks, and a
thousand mock Whimsies to hook unwary People in; at last sold
themselves out, left the Bubble to float a little in the Air, and
then vanish of it self.

The other sort of People go on after all this; and tho' these
Projectors began to be out of Fashion, they always found one thing or
other to amuse and deceive the Ignorant, and went Jobbing on into all
manner of things, Publick as well as Private, whether the Revenue,
the Publick Funds, Loans, Annuities, Bear-Skins, or any thing.

Nay they were once grown to that extravagant highth, that they began
to Stock-Job the very Feathers of the Consolidator, and in time the
King's employing those People might have had what Feathers they had
occasion for, without concerning the Proprietors of the Lands much
about them.