d men
of the city.

On January 22, 1720, the House of Commons, sitting in what was then
termed a Grand Committee, or what would now be called Committee of the
whole House, took into consideration a proposal of the South Sea Company
towards the redemption of the public debts. The proposal set forth that,
"the Corporation of the Governor and Company of Merchants of Great
Britain, trading to the South Sea and other parts of America, and for
encouraging the fishery, having under their consideration how they may be
most serviceable to his Majesty and his Government, and to show their
zeal and readiness to concur in the great and honorable design of
reducing the national debts," do "humbly apprehend that if the public
debts and annuities mentioned in the annexed estimate were taken into and
made part of the capital stock of the said Company, it would greatly
contribute to that most desirable end." The Company then set forth the
conditions under which they proposed to convert themselves into an agency
for paying off the national debt, and making a profit for themselves.

The proposal fell somewhat short of the general expectation, which looked
for nothing less than a sort of financial philosopher's stone. Besides,
the Bank of England was willing to compete with the South Sea Company.
If the Company could coin money out of cobwebs, why should not the Bank
be able to accomplish the same feat? The friends of the Bank reminded
the House of Commons of the great services which that corporation had
rendered to the Government in the most difficult times, and urged, with
much show of justice, that if any advantage was to be made by public
bargains, the Bank should be preferred before a Company that had never
{190} done anything for the nation. Well might Aislabie, the unfortunate
Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose shame and ruin we shall soon come to
tell of, exclaim in the speech which he made when defending himself for
the second time before the House of Lords, that "the spirit of bubbling
had prevailed so universally that the very Bank became a bubble--and this
not by chance or necessity, or from any engagement to raise money for the
public service, but from the same spirit that actuated Temple Mills or
Caraway's Fishery." In plain truth, as poor Aislabie pointed out, the
Bank started a scheme in imitation of the South Sea Company, and the
House of Commons gave time for its proper development. The Bank offered
its scheme on