re insulted there to their
faces, several of them expelled, the most violent charges made against
them all. A secret investigating committee was set to rip up the whole
affair. Knight, the treasurer, who possessed all the dangerous secrets
of the concern, ran away to Calais and the Continent, and so escaped.

The books were found to have been either destroyed, secreted, or
mutilated and garbled. Stock bribes of $250,000, $150,000, $50,000 had
been paid to the Earl of Sunderland, the Duchess of Kendal (the King's
favorite,) Mr. Craggs (one of the Secretaries of State,) and others. Mr.
Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had accumulated $4,250,000
and more out of the business. Many other noblemen, gentlemen, and
reputable merchants were disgracefully involved.

The trials that were had resulted in the imprisonment, expulsion or
degradation of Aislabie, Craggs, Sir George Caswell (a banker and member
of the House,) and others. Blunt, a Mr. Stanhope, and a number more of
the chief criminals were stripped of their wealth, amounting to from
$135,000 to $1,200,000 each, and the proceeds used for the partial
relief of the ruined, except amounts left to the culprits to begin the
world anew. Blunt, the chief of all the swindlers, was stripped of about
$925,000, and allowed only $5,000. By this means and by the use of such
actual property as the Company did possess, about one-third of the money
lost by its means was ultimately paid to the losers. It was a long time,
however, before the tone of public credit was thoroughly restored.

The history of the South Sea bubble should always stand as a beacon to
warn us that reckless speculation is the bane of commerce, and that the
only sure method of gaining a fortune, and certainly of enjoying it, is
to diligently prosecute some legitimate calling, which, like the quality
of mercy, is "twice blessed." Every man's occupation should be
beneficial to his fellow-man as well as profitable to himself. All else
is vanity and folly.

CHAPTER XXVII.

BUSINESS HUMBUGS.--JOHN LAW.--THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME.--JOHNNY CRAPAUD AS
GREEDY AS JOHNNY BULL.

In the "good old times," people were just as eager after money as they
are now; and a great deal more vulgar, unscrupulous, and foolish in
their endeavors to get it. During about two hundred years after the
discovery of America, that continent was a constant source of great and
little money humbugs. The Spaniards and Portuguese and Fr