The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-17 00:00:00

BEGINNING OF THE NATIONAL DEBT•

(Front Macaulay's theory of England.)
It was about the year 1688 that the word stock'
jobber was first heard in London. In the short
space of four years a crowd of companies, every one
of which confidently held out to subscribers the
hope of immense gains, sprang into existence : the
Insurance Company, the Paper Company, the
Lutestring Company, the Pearl Fishery Cony
pany, the Glass Bottle Company, the Alum Coro'
pany, the Blythe Coal Company, and the Sword'
blade Company. There was a Tapestry Compal3l9
which would soon furnish pretty hangings for
all the parlours of the middle class, and for
all the bed-chambers of the higher. There
was a Copper Company which proposed to explore
the minis of England, and held out a hope that
they would prove not less valuable than those of
Potosi. There was a Diving Company, which un-
dertook to bring up precious effects from ship-
wrecked vessels, and which announced that it had
laid in a stock of wonderful machines resembling
complete suits of armour. In front of the helmet
was a large glass eye like that of a Cyclop, and out
of the crest went a pipe through which the air was
to be admitted. The whole process was 'exhibited
on the Tharee=. Fine gentlemen and fine ladies
were invited to the show, were hospitably
regaled, and were delighted by seeing the divers
in their panoply descend into the river, and return
laden with old iron and ships' tackle.
There was a Greenland Fishing Company, which
could not fail to drive the Dutch whalers and
herring busses out of the Northern Ocean. There
was a Tanning Company, which promised to fur'
nish leather superior to the best that was brought
from Turkey or Russia. There was a society which
undertook the office of giving gentlemen a liberal
education, on low terms, and which assumed the
sounding name of the Royal Academies Company
In a pompous advertisement it was announced
that the directors of the Royal Academies Cora'
pany had engaged the best masters in every
branch of knowledge, and were about to issue
twenty thousand tickets at twenty shillings each.
There was to be a lottery, two thousand primes
were to be drawn, and the fortunate holders of
the prizes were to be taught, at the charge of the
company, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spa-
nish, conic sections, trigonometry, heraldry, P.'
panning, fortification, book-keeping, and the art
of playing the theorbo. Some of these companies
took large mansions and printed their advertise-
ments in gilded letters. Others less ostentatious were
content with ink, and met at coffee-houses in the
neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange. Jonathan's
and Garraway's were in constant ferment with
erokers, buyers, sellers, meetings of directors,
and meetings of proprietors. Time bargains soon
came into fashion. Extensive combinations
were formed, and monstrous fables were circu-
lated, for the purpose of raising or depressing the
price of shares. Our country witnessed for the first
time those phenomena with which a long experience
has made us familiar. A mania, of which the
symptoms were essentially the same with those
of the mania of 1720, of the mania of 1825, of themania of 1845, seized the public mind. An impati-
ence to be rich, a contempt for these slow but sure
gains which are the proper reward of industry, pa'
tience, and thrift spread through society. The spirit
of the cogging dicers of Whitefriars took pos session
of the grave senators of the City, wardens of trades,
deputies, aldermen. It was much easier and much
more lucrative to put forth a lying prospectus an-
nouncing a new stock, to persuade ignorant people
that the dividends could not fall short of twenty
per cent., and to part with five thousand pounds
of this imaginary wealth for ten thousand solid
guineas, than to load a ship with a well-chosen
cargo for Virginia or the .Levant. Every day some
new bubble was puffed into existence, rose buoyant,
shone bright, burst, and was forgotten.

DEATH OF THE BEV. JOHN BRANCH.

( From, th,e Patriot.)

We are this day called upon to record the lamented
death of the Rev. John Branch, pastor of the Baptist
Church meeting in Church•street Chapel, Blackfriars.
This melancholy event took place somewhat suddenly.
On Sunday week Mr. Branch preached as usual, and
apparently in his usual health. During the subsequent
week, he employed himself with wonted activity in
benevolent pursuits. On Saturday, at noon, he breathed
his last ; death being ascribed to asthma connected with
disease of the heart, from which he was known to suffer.
He had not attained his 50th year.
_ _ _ _

The career of this estimable Christian labourer, though
neither brilliant nor protracted, was more than ordi•
narily laborious and useful. Though not trained for
the ministry, in the common signification of that term,
he bad received the best of all training for pastoral and
ministerial success. Relinquishing business in middle
life, he became a City Missionary in connection with the
London City Mission. While thus engaged, his piety
and talents attracted the notice of Mr. Geo. Hitchcock,
at whose request be occupied for a length of time what
may be designated as the office of domestic chaplain to
that gentleman's numerous establishment in St. Paul's-
churchyard. In like manner, his devoted labours among
the poor, the ignorant, and the abandoned, drew the
attention and engaged the confidence and esteem of the
Earl of Shaftesbury and other eminent Christian philan-
thropists ; and he eventually became the Superintendent
of the Missionaries of the London City Mission. While
thus occupied, be was called to be the pastor of the
Baptist Church in Waterloo-road, where he developed
features of moral and intellectual character which im-
pressed the sister church in Church-street, Blackfriars,
with the importance of securing his services for the re•
vival of that depressed Christian community. Mr. Branch
saw it to be his duty to accept this invitation ; and the
results were such as to vindicate the steps taken on
both sides. The chapel, which had been comparatively
deserted, was speedily filled ; and though, in the inter-
val, there came a preacher more popular than any man
on that aide of the river since Win. Jay first startled the
town in Surrey Chapel, yet the church and congregation
which Mr. Branch found weak and wasted, he has,
though called thus suddenly away, left comparatively
strong, numerous, and flourishing.

Yesterday morning the West India steamer arrived in
Southampton water in the midst of an impenetrable fog,
Although she continually fired guns and sent up rockets,
none of the boats which went off to her could find her,
and the persons in them were obliged to return to land
for compasses to enable then► to steer their course to the
West India moorings.

LIVERPOOL GRANDPOULTRY SHOW.— LIVER?OOL,
Jan. 16.—The annual exhibition of fancy poultry was
onened today at Lucas's Carriage Repository, Great
Charlotte street. There is a sensible falling off in the
number of birds exhibited, and a less numerous attend-
ance of visitors than on former occasions affords proof
that the rage for poultry shows is on the decline.
THE ALKALI MANUFACTURES OF THE TYNE.—WO ar
informed that the manufacture of alkali on the Tyne
has quite recovered the severe depression of last year.
Beat alkali is quoted at gd. per cent. per cwt. ; second
quality, 21d. ditto ; crystal soda, five guineas per ton ;
about 11. per ton advance upon the same period of last
year. The demand is good, and the stocks are reported
to be less than the average. The market is buoyant,
with every prospect of a good year,