The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-03-11 00:00:00

THE SOUTH SEA SCHEME.

Governments, as well as individosts, direct an en.
viouv and asaricivas eye to their neighbours, and are
ready to borrow every thing that promises to enlarge
their own power, or strengthen their hands. without
waiting to /PO the issue of a new espe►iment, or re.
Ilectiog whether the project Mils fair to increase the
comforts or felicities of Ma People at large. The
Mk ' 'ppi scheme had at least wiped away the greatest
part of the debts of the State, though at the ',pence
and ruin of the unthinking People. It brought more
gold into this French Treasury than any honest men.
sure of finance could do louder the ablest Minister
that ever presided over the @thin of that coutriry.
had the credit, at Irmo, of haying pat the Siete in
readiness to commence some nee beherre of amb;tion
or aggrandizement, whenever the /totert of it should
think proper. Prom this period finance has beer.
considered one of the chief prigloes of war. To those
who have rsamined with more than a aopericial eye.
bow the wars of the last fifry or sialy years have been
carried on, it most obviously appear, that finance.
or in ether words, money, has &Hairier, more victories
than ell t►e bilterirg rows and calicoes put together.

Under cover of the ionnortetion which the British
'gents of the nouth Sea Company were authorized to
make by the slop sent annually to Porto Bello, they
poured its their commodities ou the Speuish colonies,
without limitation or reserve. Instead of a vessel et
five hundred tons, as stipulated by the Treaty, they
employed one of a thousand. She was accompanied
also by three or four Smaller vessels which supplied
her waits, sod mooring in some neighbouring creek,
furnished her clandestinely with fresh bales of goods,
in order to replace such as bad been previously sold.
By these espedients the profits of the South Sea Com-
pany become eacesvively groat, and the Public were
led to believe them greater than they really were.
Kncoureged by these circumstances and the general
spirit of avaririous enterprise, which bad been raised
,up by Law's Mississippi scheme in France, Sir John
Blount, one of the Directs rs of this Company (and
who had been bred a scrivener), in emulation of the
Scotch Projector, laid in 1719 the plan of the iota.
moos South Sea Scheme.
Under pretence of enabling Government to pay off
the National Debt, by lowering the interest, and re-
ducing all the fends into one, be proposed that the
South See Company should become the sole public
creditor. This lure was readily adopted by the Mi-
nistry, who obtained the sanction of Parliament for
it. Bet as the Directors could not be supposed pos.
wised of money sufficient for so great an undertak-
ing, they were empowered to raise it by opening &
subscription, and granting annuities to such public
creditors as should think proper to exchange the se-
verity of the Crown, for that of the Company, with
the probable emoluments arising from their con.
metre. This atfoir was conducted so artfully that
the stock of the Company rose, in the first instance,
from 1301. to near 4001. a share, and la order to lift
it still higher, Blount circulated a report on the pass- •
ing of the Bill, that Gibraltar and Minorca world
be exchanged for some places in Peru, which would
open a still more enlarged field of commerce. This
✓emoter spread like contagion, and tinted hopes of
prodigious dividends. Persons of all routs crowde.t
to the Sooth Sen.house, eager to have their names in
the subscription books: the infatuation wended to
far that the stock sold at last for ten times its origi-
nal value. At length, however, to use the phrase of
thoeittimes, the bubble began to beret. It was dis-
covered that those in the secret bad sold all their
stock while the tide was at its height. Uni !ex-
pectation now gave limy to general alarm, every one
wanted to sell, but nobody would boy. 'Ft,. stock.
fell more rapidly than it had risen, and nothing was
to be seen but the direful effects of fraud on one title,
and confidence on the other. Private (intones were
*recited, and merchants and trailing Companies re-
deiced to ha Ilk tuplry. Nothing war heard but t:.e
✓avings of doeppointea ambition, and the execratiots
of beggared avarice.
The 'louse of Commons examined the hooks, pa•
pets, and proceedings of the Company, and discovered
that before ant sob•cription could he made oat by
authority, a fictitious stock of 371,0001. had been
ptly disposed of by the Directors in bribe, to
facilitate the pa.siog of the Bill. Mr. A 8.1 the
then Chancellor c f the fischesper, •nJ f. 111,011/ I
the confidence of the People in at v.:it a Lt 0,,,•