inning of 1825, two hundred and seventy-six companies had been
projected, of which the aggregate capital (on paper only) represented
L174,114,050. Thirty-three of these were established for the
construction of canals and docks, forty-eight of railroads, forty-two
for the supply of gas, six of milk, and eight of water, four for the
working of coal, and thirty-four of metal mines; twenty new insurance
companies were started, twenty-three banks, twelve navigation and packet
companies, three fisheries, two for boring tunnels under the Thames,
three for the embellishment and improvement of the metropolis, two for
sea-water baths, and the rest for miscellaneous purposes; it is a
somewhat significant fact that two only had for their object the
establishment of newspapers. Notwithstanding the manifest absurdity of
many of these projects, the shares of several--especially of the mining
adventurers in South America--rose to enormous premiums. Among the last
may be mentioned those of the Real del Monte, the price of which,
between the 10th of December and the 11th of January, rose from L550 to
L1350, and the United Mexican during the same period from L35 to L1550.
On these last shares only L10 had been paid, and on the former only L70.
Speaking of this mania, the Rev. T. F. Dibdin (in his "Reminiscences")
says, "If it did not partake of the name, it had certainly all the wild
characteristics of the South Sea Bubble. To-day you had only to put your
name down to a share or shares in the Rio de la Plata or other South
American mines, and to-morrow a supplicant purchaser would give you
fifty per cent. for every share taken. The old were bewitched ... the
young were in ecstasies. Everybody made a rush for the city. A new world
of wealth had been discovered. It was only to ask and have." George
Cruikshank refers to this state of things in a caricature called, _A
Scene in the Farce of Lofty Projects, as Performed with great success
for the benefit and amusement of John Bull_. Besides these, he gives us
_The Four Mr. Prices_ (High Price, Low Price, Full Price, and Half
Price).

I can assign no date to _Waiting on the Ladies_; _The Death of the
Property Tax, or Thirty-seven Mortal Wounds for Ministers and the
Inquisitorial Commissioners_; or to _The Court at Brighton, a la
Chinese_, one of the most admirable of the whole series. In this last,
the fat prince habited as a mandarin, is seated on a sofa between the
Princess Charlotte and an en