nscious that a world was on his shoulders. But the airs which he gave
himself only heightened the respect and admiration which he inspired.
His demeanour was regarded as a model. Scotch men who wished to be
thought wise looked as like Paterson as they could.

His plan, though as yet disclosed to the public only by glimpses,
was applauded by all classes, factions and sects, lords, merchants,
advocates, divines, Whigs and Jacobites, Cameronians and Episcopalians.
In truth, of all the ten thousand bubbles of which history has preserved
the memory, none was ever more skilfully puffed into existence; none
ever soared higher, or glittered more brilliantly; and none ever burst
with a more lamentable explosion. There was, however, a certain mixture
of truth in the magnificent day dream which produced such fatal effects.

Scotland was, indeed, not blessed with a mild climate or a fertile soil.
But the richest spots that had ever existed on the face of the earth had
been spots quite as little favoured by nature. It was on a bare rock,
surrounded by deep sea, that the streets of Tyre were piled up to a
dizzy height. On that sterile crag were woven the robes of Persian
satraps and Sicilian tyrants; there were fashioned silver bowls and
chargers for the banquets of kings; and there Pomeranian amber was set
in Lydian gold to adorn the necks of queens. In the warehouses were
collected the fine linen of Egypt and the odorous gums of Arabia; the
ivory of India, and the tin of Britain. In the port lay fleets of great
ships which had weathered the storms of the Euxine and the Atlantic.
Powerful and wealthy colonies in distant parts of the world looked up
with filial reverence to the little island; and despots, who trampled
on the laws and outraged the feelings of all the nations between the
Hydaspes and the Aegean, condescended to court the population of that
busy hive. At a later period, on a dreary bank formed by the soil which
the Alpine streams swept down to the Adriatic, rose the palaces of
Venice. Within a space which would not have been thought large enough
for one of the parks of a rude northern baron were collected riches
far exceeding those of a northern kingdom. In almost every one of the
prorate dwellings which fringed the Great Canal were to be seen plate,
mirrors, jewellery, tapestry, paintings, carving, such as might move
the envy of the master of Holyrood. In the arsenal were munitions of war
sufficient to maintain a conte