With good roast beef his belly full, The steed, oppress'd, would break his girth, But view him in another scene, THE SOUTH-SEA PROJECT. 1721. Apparent rari nantes in gurgite, vasto, Arma virûm, tabulæque, et Troïa gaza per undas.-VIRG. WHEN the deluded people of England awoke from their golden dream of South-Sea wealth, their wrath rose to the brim against the directors by whom that ruinous project had been conducted. The parliamentary proceedings instituted against them were carried on with unusual violence. Gibbon, the historian, descended from one of these directors, complains grievously of the injustice with which they were treated. "The legislature restrained the persons of the directors, imposed an exorbitant security for their appearance, and marked their characters with a previous note of ignominy. They were compelled to deliver, upon oath, the strictest value of their estates, and were disabled from making any transfer or alienation of any part of their property. Against a bill of pains and penalties, it is the common right of every subject to be heard by his counsel at the bar: they prayed to be heard; their prayer was refused; and their oppressors, who required no evidence, would listen to no defence. It had been at first proposed, that one-eighth of their respective estates should be allowed for the future support of the directors; but it was speciously urged, that, in the various shades of opulence and guilt, such a proportion would be too light for many, and for some might possibly be too heavy. All were condemned, absent and unheard, in arbitrary fines and forfeitures, which swept away the greater part of their substance."-GIBBON'S Miscellaneous Works, vol. I. p. II. YE wise philosophers, explain What magic makes our money rise, Put in your money fairly told; Thus in a basin drop a shilling, It rises both in bulk and height, In stock three hundred thousand pounds, Thus the deluded bankrupt raves, So, by a calenture misled, The mariner with rapture sees, With eager haste he longs to rove In that fantastic scene, and thinks Five hundred chariots just bespoke, Like Pharaoh, by directors led, They with their spoils went safe before; Raised up on Hope's aspiring plumes, On paper wings he takes his flight, A moralist might here explain His wings are his paternal rent, In Southern Seas he leaves his name. Inform us, you that best can tell, Why in that dangerous gulf profound, Where hundreds and where thousands fell, Fools chiefly float, the wise are drown'd? VOL. XIV. K So have I seen from Severn's brink A flock of geese jump down together; Swim where the bird of Jove would sink, And, swimming, never wet a feather. But, I affirm, 'tis false in fact, Directors better knew their tools; We see the nation's credit crack'd, Each knave has made a thousand fools. One fool may from another win, And then get off with money stored; But, if a sharper once comes.in, He throws it all, and sweeps the board. As fishes on each other prey, The great ones swallowing up the small. So fares it in the Southern Sea; The whale directors eat up all. When stock is high, they come between, Making by second-hand their offers; Then cunningly retire unseen, With each a million in his coffers. So, when upon a moonshine night, The day of judgment will be soon, Cries out a sage among the crowd; An ass has swallow'd up the moon! The moon lay safe behind the cloud. |