over, it did reach the Stock
Exchange at a little after ten o'clock. Probably you know that business
commences at ten. At ten business commenced as it had left off on
Saturday; the price of Omnium for some time was 27-1/2. It began
extremely flat at 27-1/2--it went on 27-1/2--but in about a quarter of
an hour, accounts came that an officer from Paris had arrived at Dover,
and had come up in a post chaise and four to Government with this news,
which was recited in detail. The Funds immediately rose to
28--28-1/2--29 and 30, and on it went till about twelve o'clock, when no
letter coming from the Secretary of State to the Lord Mayor, people
began to doubt its truth, and from 30 Omnium fell to 29, and was getting
down, when between twelve and one o'clock there came the amplest
confirmation. This, Gentlemen, you will find to be auxiliary to the main
plot, and a very important auxiliary. In itself it would have been
absolutely nothing. There drove through the City, a post chaise and
four, with three persons in it, two of them dressed like French
Officers, in blue great coats, with white linings; they wore white
cockades, and their horses were decorated with laurel. As they went
along they dispersed little billets announcing this news. After a kind
of triumphal progress through the City, they turned to the left at
Bridge Street, went over Blackfriars Bridge, quitted the main road for
the New Cut, and when they had arrived near the Marsh Gate, within a
hundred yards of the spot at which Colonel Du Bourg had alighted, these
three gentlemen got out of their chaise, folded up their cocked hats,
put on round hats, and walked off.

Gentlemen, this you may suppose, indeed we all know, produced an emotion
in the City not to be described. There is nothing so contagious as
popular feeling, especially on a subject of great public interest. This
stamped certainty upon the news; this reached the Stock Exchange, and
the funds, which had begun to droop, revived; Omnium rose to 30, 31, 32
and 32-1/2. Thus it went on for a short time, till persons having been
sent to the West End of the Town, and it being found that no Messenger
had arrived at the Office of the Secretary of State with this
intelligence, it was discovered that this had been a gross and wicked
deception; and the Funds returned to very nearly their former level. But
there were very large sales made, and of course there were many persons
defrauded. The members of the Stock Exchan