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 DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH FLEET OFF SICILY BY
ADMIRAL SIR GEORGE BYNG, JULY 31, 1718.
Source.—Byng's original despatch in Oldmixon's History of England: George I., 1735. P.
663.

August 6, O.S.—Early in the Morning, on the 30th of July, as we

were standing in for Messina, we saw two Scouts of the Spanish
fleet in the Faro, very near us; and at the same time a Felucca
coming off from the Calabrian shore, assur'd us they saw from the
Hills the Spanish Fleet lying by; upon which the Admiral stood thro'
the Faro after the scouts, judging they would lead us to their Fleet,
which they did, for before Noon we had a fair sight of all their
Ships.... Their Fleet consisted of 26 Men of War, great and small, two
Fireships, four Bomb Vessels, seven Galleys, and several Ships with
Stores and Provisions. The Admiral order'd the Kent, Superbe,
Grafton and Oxford, the best Sailors in the Fleet, to make what Sail
they could to come up with the Spaniards; and that the Ship that
could get nearest to them should carry the Lights usually worn by
the Admiral, that he might not lose sight of them in the Night, and
he made what sail he could with the rest of the Fleet to keep up
with them. It being little Wind the Spanish Galleys tow'd their
heaviest Sailors all Night. The 31st in the Morning, as soon as it was
day, they finding us pretty near up with their Fleet, the Galleys and
smaller Ships, with the Fireships, Bomb-Vessels, and Store-Ships
separated from their Admiral and bigger Ships, and stood in for the
Shore. After whom the Admiral sent Captain Walton in the
Canterbury, with the Argyle and six Ships more. As those Ships were
coming up with them, one of the Spaniards fir'd a Broadside at the
Argyle. The Admiral seeing those Ships engag'd with the Spanish
which were making towards the Shore, sent orders to Captain
Walton to rendezvous after the Action at Syracuse.... We held our
Chace after the Spanish Admiral with three of his Rear Admirals and
the biggest Ships, which staid by their Flags, till we came near them.
The Captains of the Kent, Superbe, Grafton and Orford having
Orders to make all the Sail they could to place themselves by the
four Headmost Ships, were the first that came up with them. The
Spaniards began by firing their Stern Chace at them. But they having
Orders not to fire unless the Spanish Ships repeated their firing,
made no return at first, but the Spaniards firing again, the Orford
attack'd the Santa Rosa, the St. Charles struck without much
Opposition, and the Kent took Possession of her. The Grafton
attack'd the Prince of Asturias, formerly call'd the Cumberland, in
which was Rear Admiral Chacon, but the Breda and Captain coming
up, she left that Ship for them to take, which they soon did, and
stretched ahead after another 60 Gun Ship, which was at her
Starboard Bow while she was engaging the Prince of Asturias, and
kept firing her Stern-Chace into the Grafton. About One o'clock the
Kent and Superbe engaged the Spanish Admiral, which with two
more Ships fir'd on them, and made a running Fight till about Three,
when the Kent bearing down upon her and under her Stern gave her
a Broadside, and went away to Leeward of her; then the Superbe
put for it and laid the Spanish Admiral on Board, falling on her
Weather-Quarter, but the Spanish Admiral shifting her Helm and
avoiding her, the Superbe rang'd under her Lee-Quarter, on which
she struck to her. At the same time the Barfleur being within Shot of
the said Spanish Admiral, one of their Rear Admirals, and another 60
Gun Ship, which were to Windward of the Barfleur, bore down and
gave her three Broadsides, and then clapt upon a Wind, standing in
for the land; the Admiral in the Barfleur stood after them till it was
almost Night, but it being little Wind ... he left pursuing them and
stood away to the Fleet again, which he found two Hours after
Night. The Essex took the Juno, the Montague and Rupert took the
Volante; Vice Admiral Cornwall followed the Grafton to support her
... Rear Admiral Delaval with the Royal Oak chas'd two Ships that
went away more Leewardly than the rest, one of them said to be
Rear Admiral Crammock, a Scotch or Irish Renegade, who had serv'd
several years in the English Fleet; but we not having seen them
since, know not the Success.[2]
[2] The result of the battle, in which the English had 1,360 guns, the Spanish 1,310,
was that fifteen Spanish ships of war, 744 guns in all, one fireship, and one store-ship
were taken, and two smaller vessels burnt, and Byng goes on to say that, "as is usual
on such Occasions, their Mortification after their Defeat was equal to their Presumption
before."
 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE (1720).

I.
The Proposals: The Second Scheme of the South Sea
Company.
Source.—The Schemes of the South Sea Company and the Bank of England as Propos'd to
the Parliament for the Reducing of the National Debts. London, 1720.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament

Assembled.
The Corporation of the Governors and Company of Merchants,
Trading to the South Seas and other Parts of America, and for
Encouraging the Fishery, having on the 27th January last presented
their Humble Proposal to this Honourable House, for Enlarging the
Capital Stock of the said Company, by taking thereinto the several
Annuities and Publick Debts therein Mentioned, on the Terms and
Conditions in the said Proposal also Mentioned, in which Proposal
such Advantages were offer'd to the Publick, as the said Corporation
did humbly hope would have been to the entire Satisfaction of this
Honourable House, and most conducive to the certain Discharging
and Paying off the whole Debt of the Nation, and to which Proposal
they humbly crave Leave to refer. But the Governors and Company
of the Bank of England having the same day also delivered a
Proposal to this Honourable House, for enlarging their Capital Stock,
by taking in the same Annuities and Debts on the Terms and
Conditions in their Proposal also mentioned.
This Corporation therefore further, to manifest their Zeal and
Earnest desire to Contribute their utmost to the reducing and paying
off the Publick Debts, crave leave to offer the following Explanations
and Amendments to their said Proposal.
 I. As to the sixth Article of their said former Proposal, wherein
they have humbly desir'd to be Allowed for Charges of Management,
for their to be increased Capital, so much as it now costs the
Government for the Charges of Paying, Assigning and Accounting for
the said Debts, or such Proportion thereof, as the Sum which shall
be taken in by the Company, shall bear to the whole of those Debts.
They now offer by way of Explanation of that Article, that the
Allowances therein Mentioned, are not to exceed a Proportion to the
Allowance they now have by Act of Parliament on their present
Capital for that purpose.
II. That whereas, in their seventh Article of their said Proposal it is
Mentioned that the Annuities for the Company's present, and to be
increased Capital, be continued at the Rates therein Mentioned till
Midsummer, 1727. And that from and after that time their then
Annuity on their whole Capital, shall be actually reduced to £4 per
Cent. per Ann. and likewise be from thenceforth redeemable by
Parliament.
They do humbly offer that if this Honourable House do think it
more for the Interest of the Publick, that in lieu of the said seventh
Article, all the Sums to be taken into the Company's Capital, in
pursuance of their proposal, shall be redeemable by Parliament,
from and after Midsummer 1724, in Sums not less than £500,000 at
a time they do consent thereto.
III. And whereas by the tenth Article of their said former Proposal,
they offer'd for the Liberty of Increasing their Capital Stock, as is
therein aforesaid; that they would give and pay into his Majesty's
Exchequer, for the Service of the Publick, the sum of £3,500,000.
They now humbly Offer, that over and above the said £3,500,000,
They will farther give and pay into his Majesty's Exchequer, for the
use of the Publick, by four Equal Quarterly Payments on the days
Mention'd in their said former Proposal, £500,000 more certain, and
also upon all the said Annuities for certain Terms of Years which this
Company shall take into their Capital Stock, before the first day of
March, 1721, after the rate of four Year and half purchase, by four
Quarterly Payments which if all the said Annuities be taken into the
said Company, will amount to the Sum of £3,567,503 or thereabouts,
to which being added the said £3,500,000 and the said further Sum
of £500,000 will amount in the whole to the Sum of £7,567,500 or
thereabouts.
IV. That whereas in the eleventh Article of their former Proposal,
they did submit that so much as shall arise by the sinking Fund
before Midsummer 1727 may from and after paying Off such Part of
the Publick Debts, as may be Redeemed within that time, and which
shall not be taken into this Company, be applied at the end of every
Year towards paying off, in even One Hundred Thousand Pounds,
that part of the Company's Capital, which carries £5 per Cent. per
Ann.
They do humbly offer in lieu thereof, that if this Honourable House
think fit to make their to be Increased Capital, Redeemable at
Midsummer 1724, That the said sinking Fund may till that time be
applied half Yearly, to the paying off that part of the Company's
which is to carry £5 per Cent. per Ann.
V. As to the twelfth Article of this Company's former Proposal,
Relating to the Circulating of £1,000,000 in Exchequer Bills Gratis,
and likewise pay the Interest for that Million, so as no other
Exchequer Bills be issued than what shall be Circulated by the Credit
of the Exchequer, without the aid of Subscription or Contract.
VI. And Lastly, that this Honourable House may be fully satisfied of
the sincere Intentions of this Company to use their best Endeavours
to take in all the said Annuities for ninety-nine, and ninety-six Years,
which amount to £667,705 8s. 1d. per Ann. This Company do further
Humbly offer to give and pay into his Majesty's Exchequer, for the
Service of the Publick, by four Equal Quarterly Payments, one Years
Purchase upon all such of those Annuities as shall happen not to
come into the Company's Capital within the time aforesaid.
 And whereas this Company is very Sensible, that the Prosperity of
the Nation doth greatly depend upon the discharging the Publick
Debts (a Motive which Induced them to make the first Propositions
of this Publick and beneficial nature) They do Humbly submit these
Explanations and Amendments to this Honourable House, flattering
themselves that Readiness and Cheerfulness that Ingaged them so
much earlier than any other Society, to endeavour to reduce that
great Debt under which this Nation is Oppressed, will Intitle them to
the favour and preference of this House, since they are willing and
do hereby declare they are ready to undertake this great work upon
whatever Terms may be offered by any other Company.
By Order of the General Court.
John Fellows, Sub-Governour.
Charles Joye, Dep. Governour.
Feb. 1, 1719

II.
The Bubble Burst.
Source.—The Case of the Borrowers on the South Sea Loans Stated. Pp. 1-7. London,
1721.

Since the Parliament has thought it of service to the Publick, that

the unhappy sufferers by the South Sea should have Relief: and are
at present considering how to give it them: I am persuaded, no one
will think it either improper or unreasonable, that the case of the
Borrowers on the Loans (who in my opinion are the most unhappy of
them all) should be truly stated and made publick.
For my part, I will endeavour it, as far as I am able, with Justice to
the Company who are their Creditors, and with no more Compassion
to these unfortunate People, than their Circumstances honestly
deserve: And I have this Satisfaction in what I undertake, that as I
believe it is not the Intent of the Members of either of the
Honourable Houses to administer Relief with Partiality, or to neglect
any set of Men who really want it, should I so far succeed, as to
show that these Borrowers do, I can't but hope that they will be
esteemed at least worthy their Care and Protection.
To what purpose these Loans were opened by the late Directors, I
need not mention: Every one knows, that without them they could
never have perfected their Scheme, as they used to term their
Villainy. It was not enough for them to have raised their Stock to
such a Price, as to have been only able to have discharged their
Agreement with the Government; they had larger Views, they were
to satisfy their own Avarice, and could not therefore give too great
an imaginary Value to their Stock. These Managers (unhappily for
us) set out with the good opinion of Mankind: they were esteemed
too wise to be deceived themselves, and too honest to deceive their
Friends. Thus qualified for Mischief, they soon began it: they soon
intoxicated the Brains of all they talked with, gave them wild Notions
of the rising Value of their Stock, and persuaded them at any rate to
put themselves in Fortune's way: Having with great Art and Industry
gained a Credit to their Stock, they immediately upon it took in the
first Subscriptions; but these Subscriptions having drawn a great
Quantity of Money into their hands, they apprehended the rising
Spirit of the Stock might soon be checked for want of Money, and
their Project by it injured: For even then the Species of our Nation
was not infinite, it was therefore necessary to contrive some Means
to carry on quick Circulations of it: and the Means contrived was to
issue Money on these Loans. The Success they had we all
remember; the Price increased prodigiously, and, if I am not
mistaken, above £100 per Cent. in a Day. And indeed this Success
was very probable: for these Loans served two Ends at once of the
greatest moment to their Schemes: While they furnished the
unhappy Borrowers with Money to purchase Stock with, they gave
fresh Credit to the Stock, and raised the Price: For when the
Directors, who must be supposed to know what they were doing,
had put so great a confidence in their Stock, as to lend such Sums
upon the Security of that alone, others might with good reason take
courage, and trust it too. And their Cunning upon this occasion was
very extraordinary, for they were not contented with the Credit they
gave to their Stock by this Act, which was a tacit Declaration that
they knew it to be intrinsically worth as much or more than what
they ventured to lend on it; but they were diligent in private
Companies to confirm Men in such Opinion of it, by a constant
Ridicule of the Bank for their pitiful and cautious Loan of £100 per
Cent. To this Step are greatly owing all our Misfortunes: The most
Prudent now began to blame themselves for the most unjust
Suspicions they had entertain'd of so good a Project. A Man of
moderate Fortune now seem'd poor by the Vast Riches all about him
had so suddenly acquired. All grew impatient and uneasy, who were
not in this Stock, the Managers were idolised, and only they were
happy, who had Directors for their Friends. The Merchant, who thro'
a long Diligence and great Variety of Hazard had gained a small
Estate, grew mad to see so many idle Fellows enrich themselves
within a day or two. The honest Country Gentleman, who by good
Management and wise economy had been an Age in paying off a
Mortgage, or saving a few small Portions for his younger Children,
could not bear the big Discourse and Insults of this New Race. Both
laid aside their Prudence, and at last became unhappy Converts to
South Sea: Both were persuaded now to use their Diligence, and
recover that time their Disbelief had lost them. The one despised his
Trade, and sold his Effects, at any rate, to try his Fortune: The other
mortgaged what he could, or sold it for a little stock or Third
Subscription: And now both are undone, both Beggars. I should
think Cases of such Distress as these could not be reflected on
without even Humanity itself becoming painful; and yet, whether it
proceeds from such Cases being frequent and daily seen, or from an
Hardness of Heart, which Providence for a Judgment has suffered to
fall on us, I know not; but such Cases are scarce pitied by us: Every
one still pursues his own Interest, and seems to grudge the Expense
even of a few Shillings, to save thousands from Destruction.
 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE AS PRIME MINISTER (1721-
1741).

I.
By Lord Hervey.
Source.—John, Baron Hervey (1696-1743), Memoirs, 1848. Vol. i., pp. 23-25.

No man ever was blessed with a clearer head, a truer or quicker

judgment, or a deeper insight into mankind; he knew the strength
and weakness of everybody he had to deal with, and how to make
his advantage of both; he had more warmth of affection and
friendship for some particular people than one could have believed it
possible for any one who had been so long raking in the dirt of
mankind to be capable of feeling for so worthless a species of
animals. One should naturally have imagined that the contempt and
distrust he must have had for the species in gross, would have given
him at least an indifference and distrust towards every particular.
Whether his negligence of his enemies, and never stretching his
power to gratify his resentment of the sharpest injury, was policy or
constitution, I shall not determine: but I do not believe anybody who
knows these times will deny that no minister ever was more
outraged, or less apparently revengeful. Some of his friends, who
were not unforgiving themselves, nor very apt to see imaginary
faults in him, have condemned this easiness in his temper as a
weakness that has often exposed him to new injuries, and given
encouragement to his adversaries to insult him with impunity.
Brigadier Churchill, a worthy and good-natured, friendly, and
honourable man, who had lived Sir Robert's intimate friend for many
years, and through all the different stages of his power and
retirement, prosperity and disgrace, has often said that Sir Robert
Walpole was so little able to resist the show of repentance in those
from whom he had received the worst usage, that a few tears and
promises of amendment have often washed out the stains even of
ingratitude.
In all occurrences, and at all times, and in all difficulties, he was
constantly present and cheerful; he had very little of what is
generally called insinuation, and with which people are apt to be
taken for the present, without being gained; but no man ever knew
better among those he had to deal with who was to be had, on what
terms, by what methods, and how the acquisitions would answer. He
was not one of those projecting systematical great geniuses who are
always thinking in theory, and are above common practice: he had
been too long conversant in business not to know that in the
fluctuation of human affairs and variety of accidents to which the
best concerted schemes are liable, they must often be disappointed
who build on the certainty of the most probable events; and
therefore seldom turned his thoughts to the provisional warding off
future evils which might or might not happen; or the scheming of
remote advantages, subject to so many intervening crosses; but
always applied himself to the present occurrence, studying and
generally hitting upon the properest method to improve what was
favourable, and the best expedient to extricate himself out of what
was difficult. There never was any minister to whom access was so
easy and so frequent, nor whose answers were more explicit. He
knew how to oblige when he bestowed, and not to shock when he
denied: to govern without oppression, and conquer without triumph.
He pursued his ambition without curbing his pleasures, and his
pleasures without neglecting his business; he did the latter with
ease, and indulged himself in the other without giving scandal or
offence. In private life, and to all who had any dependence upon
him, he was kind and indulgent; he was generous without
ostentation, and an economist without penuriousness; not insolent in
success, nor irresolute in distress; faithful to his friends, and not
inveterate to his foes.
 II.
By Horace Walpole.
Source.—Horace Walpole's Reminiscences, Works, 1798. Vol. iv., p. 271.

It was an instance of Sir Robert's singular good fortune, or

evidence of his talents, that he not only preserved his power under
two successive monarchs, but in spite of the efforts of both their
mistresses to remove him. It was perhaps still more remarkable, and
an instance unparalleled, that Sir Robert governed George the first in
Latin, the King not speaking English, and his minister not German,
nor even French. It was much talked of, that Sir Robert, detecting
one of the Hanoverian ministers in some trick or falsehood before
the King's face, had the firmness to say to the German, "Mentiris,
impudentissime!"
WOOD'S HALFPENCE: THE FIRST DRAPIER'S LETTER
(1724).
Source.—Works of Jonathan Swift. Pp. 13 seqq. Bohn's edition, 1903.

To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and Common People in

General of Ireland.

Brethren, Friends, Countrymen and Fellow-Subjects,

What I intend now to say to you, is, next to your duty to God
and the care of your salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves,
and your children, your bread and clothing, and every common
necessary of life entirely depend upon it. Therefore I do most
earnestly exhort you as men, as Christians, as parents, and as lovers
of our country, to read this paper with the utmost attention, or get it
read to you by others; which that you may do at the less expense, I
have ordered the printer to sell it at the lowest rate.
It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no
other intention than to do you good, you will not be at the pains to
read his advice: One copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you,
which will be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you
have no common or general interest in your view, not even the
wisest among you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are
your friends, or who are your enemies.
About three years ago a little book[3] was written to advise all
people to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: It
had no other design, said nothing against the King or Parliament, or
any man, yet the POOR PRINTER was prosecuted two years, with the
utmost violence, and even some WEAVERS themselves, for whose
sake it was written, being upon the JURY, FOUND HIM GUILTY. This
would be enough to discourage any man from endeavouring to do
you good, when you will either neglect him or fly in his face for his
pains, and when he must expect only danger to himself and loss of
money, perhaps to his ruin.
However I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest
destruction before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you
ought.
I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then I
will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and
according to the laws of your country.
The fact is thus: It having been many years since COPPER
HALFPENCE OR FARTHINGS were last coined in this kingdom, they have
been for some time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about
under the name of raps, several applications were made to England,
that we might have liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we
did; but they did not succeed. At last one Mr. Wood, a mean ordinary
man, a hardware dealer, procured a patent under his Majesty's broad
seal to coin fourscore and ten thousand pounds in copper for this
kingdom, which patent however did not oblige any one here to take
them, unless they pleased. Now you must know, that the halfpence
and farthings in England pass for very little more than they are
worth. And if you should beat them to pieces, and sell them to the
brazier you would not lose above a penny in a shilling. But Mr. Wood
made his halfpence of such base metal, and so much smaller than
the English ones, that the brazier would not give you above a penny
of good money for a shilling of his; so that this sum of fourscore and
ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, must be given for trash
that will not be worth above eight or nine thousand pounds real
value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, when he pleases, may
by stealth send over another and another fourscore and ten
thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven parts in twelve,
under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a dozen of hats for
five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three pounds, and receives
the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really receives only the value of
five shillings.
 Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr.
Wood could have so much interest as to get His Majesty's broad seal
for so great a sum of bad money, to be sent to this poor country,
and that all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same
favour, and let us make our own halfpence, as we used to do. Now I
will make that matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the
King's court, and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a
great number of lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are
our countrymen, spending all their lives and fortunes there. But this
same Mr. Wood was able to attend constantly for his own interest;
he is an Englishman and had great friends, and it seems knew very
well where to give money, and those that would speak to others that
could speak to the King and could tell a fair story. And his Majesty,
and perhaps the great lord or lords who advised him, might think it
was for our country's good; and so, as the lawyers express it, "the
King was deceived in his grant," which often happens in all reigns.
And I am sure if his Majesty knew that such a patent, if it should
take effect according to the desire of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin
this kingdom, which hath given such great proof of its loyalty, he
would immediately recall it, and perhaps show his displeasure to
some one or other. But "a word to the wise is enough." Most of you
must have heard, with what anger our honourable House of
Commons received an account of this Wood's patent. There were
several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proof that it was all A
WICKED CHEAT from the bottom to the top, and several smart notes
were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to answer
likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a better
man than our whole Parliament put together....
The common weight of this halfpence is between four and five to
an ounce, suppose five, then three shillings and four-pence will
weigh a pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six
pound butter weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay
two hundred pound a year rent. Therefore when one of these
farmers comes with his half-year's rent, which is one hundred
pound, it will be at least six hundred pound weight, which is three
horse load.
If a 'squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine
and spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter
here; he must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as
the farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach
to our shops, it must be followed by a car loaden with Mr. Wood's
money. And I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more
than it is worth.
They say 'Squire Conolly [Speaker of the Irish House of Commons]
has sixteen thousand pounds a year. Now if he sends for his rent to
town, as it is likely he does, he must have two hundred and forty
horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or three great cellars
in his house for stowage. But what the bankers will do I cannot tell.
For I am assured, that some great bankers keep by them forty
thousand pounds in ready cash to answer all payments, which sum,
in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to carry
it.
For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a
pretty good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr.
Wood's bad copper. I intend to truck with my neighbours the
butchers, and bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods,
and the little gold and silver I have, I will keep by me like my heart's
blood till better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will
buy as my father did the brass money, in K. James's time,[4] I who
could buy ten pound of it with a guinea....
When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition, I will tell
you what must be the end: The gentlemen of estates will all turn off
their tenants for want of payment, because as I told you before, the
tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling which is lawful
current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as
too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can,
keeping only such other cattle as are necessary, then they will be
their own merchants and send their wool and butter and hides and
linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks.
They will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob
or beg, or leave their country. The shopkeepers in this and every
other town, must break and starve: for it is the landed man that
maintains the merchant, and shopkeeper, and handicraftsman.
But when the 'squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the
good money he gets from abroad, he will hoard up or send for
England, and keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his
own house, who will be glad to get bread at any rate.
I should never have done if I were to tell you all the miseries that
we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this
CURSED COIN. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into
one scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood
should weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets
above a million of good money every year clear into their pockets,
and that is more than the English do by all the world besides.
But your great comfort is, that as His Majesty's patent does not
oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the crown
a power of forcing the subjects to take what money the King
pleases. For then by the same reason we might be bound to take
pebble-stones or cockle-shells or stamped leather for current coin, if
ever we should happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise
by the same power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for
twenty shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all
the silver and gold of the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us
nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything
reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French government than
their common practice of calling in all their money after they have
sunk it very low, and then coining it anew at a much higher value,
which however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this
abominable project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects
silver for silver and gold for gold, but this fellow will not so much as
give us good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a
twelfth part of their worth.
 Having said thus much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments
of some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for
your sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be
sure I went upon good grounds....
I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before
you in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not
oblige you to.
First, You are obliged to take all money in payments which is
coined by the King and is of the English standard or weight,
provided it be of gold or silver.
Secondly, You are not obliged to take any money which is not of
gold or silver, no not the halfpence, or farthings of England, or of
any other country, and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you
are content to take them, because the custom of coining silver
halfpence and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on
account of their being subject to be lost.
Thirdly, Much less are you obliged to take those vile halfpence of
that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in
every shilling.
Therefore my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy
trash. It is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood. His Majesty in his
patent obliges nobody to take these halfpence,[5] our gracious prince
hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws
have not left it in the King's power, to force us to take any coin but
what is lawful, of right standard gold and silver; therefore you have
nothing to fear.
And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who
are the poor sort of tradesmen. Perhaps you may think you will not
be so great losers as the rich, if these halfpence should pass,
because you seldom see any silver, and your customers come to
your shops or stalls with nothing but brass, which you likewise find
hard to be got. But you may take my word, whenever this money
gains footing among you, you will be utterly undone; if you carry
these halfpence to a shop for tobacco or brandy, or any other thing
you want, the shopkeeper will advance his goods accordingly, or else
he must break, and leave the key under the door. Do you think I will
sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff for twenty of Mr. Wood's halfpence?
No, not under two hundred at least, neither will I be at the trouble
of counting, but weigh them in a lump. I will tell you one thing
further, that if Mr. Wood's project should take, it will ruin even our
beggars; for when I give a beggar an halfpenny, it will quench his
thirst, or go a good way to fill his belly, but the twelfth part of a
halfpenny will do him no more service than if I should give him three
pins out of my sleeve.
In short these halfpence are like "the accursed thing, which," as
the Scripture tells us, "the children of Israel were forbidden to
touch": they will run about like the plague and destroy every one
who lays his hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man
who told a king that he invented a way to torment people by putting
them into a bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the
projector first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment;[6]
this very much resembles the project of Mr. Wood, and the like of
this may possibly be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to
torment this kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his
destruction at last.

N.B. The author of this paper is informed by persons who have

made it their business to be exact in their observations on the true
value of these halfpence, that any person may expect to get a quart
of twopenny ale for thirty-six of them.
I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to
refresh their memories when ever they shall have farther notice of
Mr. Wood's halfpence, or any other the like imposture.
[3] Swift's own Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.
[4] The famous "gun-money," coined to meet the exigencies of the Stuart army in
Ireland, a crown piece of which was by a proclamation of William III. of July 10, 1690,
to pass current as a penny.
[5] The words of the patent are "to pass and to be received as current money, by
such as shall or will, voluntarily and wittingly, and not otherwise, receive the same"
(the halfpence and farthings). [T. S.]
[6] Phalaris, the genuineness of whose Letters had occasioned the famous
controversy which brought about Swift's first venture into literature with the Battle of
the Books.
 CHARACTER OF GEORGE II. (1683-1760).

A. By Lord Hervey.
Source.—Memoirs. Vol. i., pp. 145, 146.

His faults were more the blemishes of a private man than of a

King. The affection and tenderness he invariably showed to a people
over whom he had unbounded rule [in Hanover] forbid our
wondering that he used circumscribed power with moderation [in
England]. Often situated in humiliating circumstances, his
resentments seldom operated when the power of revenge returned.
He bore the ascendant of his Ministers, who seldom were his
favourites, with more patience than he suffered any encroachment
on his will from his mistresses. Content to bargain for the
gratification of his two predominant passions, Hanover and money,
he was almost indifferent to the rest of his royal authority, provided
exterior observance was not wanting; for he comforted himself if he
did not perceive the diminution of Majesty, though it was notorious
to all the rest of the world. Yet he was not so totally careless of the
affection and interests of his country as his father had been. George
the First possessed a sounder understanding and a better temper:
yet George the Second gained more by being compared with his
eldest son, than he lost if paralleled with his father.

B. By Horace Walpole.
Source.—Memoirs of the Reign of George II. (2nd ed.), 1848. Vol. i., pp. 175, 176; vol. iii.,
pp. 303, 304.

The King had fewer sensations of revenge, or at least knew how

to hoard them better, than any man who ever sat upon a Throne.
The insults he experienced from his own and those obliged servants,
never provoked him enough to make him venture the repose of his
people, or his own. If any object of his hate fell in his way, he did
not pique himself upon heroic forgiveness, but would indulge it at
the expense of his integrity, though not of his safety. He was
reckoned strictly honest; but the burning his father's will must be
reckoned an indelible blot upon his memory; as a much later
instance [1749] of his refusing to pardon a young man who had
been condemned at Oxford for a most trifling forgery, contrary to all
example when recommended to mercy by the Judge, merely
because Welles, who was attached to the Prince of Wales, had tried
him and assured him his pardon, will stamp his name with cruelty,
though in general his disposition was merciful if the offence was not
murder. His avarice was much less equivocal than his courage; he
had distinguished the latter early [at Oudenarde]; it grew more
doubtful afterwards[7]: the former he distinguished very near as
soon, and never deviated from it. His understanding was not near so
deficient, as it was imagined; but though his character changed
extremely in the world, it was without foundation; for [whether] he
deserved to be so much ridiculed as he had been in the former part
of his reign, or so respected as in the latter, he was consistent in
himself, and uniformly meritorious or absurd.
[7] This is unjust—George II. displayed conspicuous courage at Dettingen.
 THE CONDITION OF THE FLEET PRISON, AS
REVEALED BY A PARLIAMENTARY ENQUIRY (1729).

A. Description of the Warden, Thomas Bambridge.

Source.—Horace Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1771. Vol. iv., p. 71.

I have a sketch in oil that Hogarth gave me, which he intended to

engrave.[8] It was done at the time when the house of commons
appointed a committee to enquire into the cruelties exercised on
prisoners in the Fleet to extort money from them. The scene is the
committee; on the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in
rags, half starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good
countenance that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the
inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have
drawn of Iago in the moment of detection. Villainy, fear, and
conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance, his lips
are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs
step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust
precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching
uncertainly at his button-holes.

B. His Cruelty.
Source.—Lieutenant Bird's Letter from the Shades to T——s B-m-dge, 1729. Pp. 37, 38.

As soon as he had introduced his Marmadons,[9] he began to treat

the Prisoners in a Manner little different from that Dragooning,
which, upon another Account the Protestants some time ago,
suffer'd in France; some he clapp'd into Irons, and others he flung
into dungeons; so that it may be said without much Impropriety,
that the poor Prisoners underwent a perfect Persecution from their
New Warden. The Effect of Persecution is always the same, tho' the
Pretence may be Religion, or something else, yet Interest is the true
Cause. It soon appear'd that all this Cruelty of B-mb-ge, was only to
make the Prisoners more ready to comply with his Demands, by
striking a previous Terror into their Minds, and they found out that
the only Way to lay that spirit of Cruelty, which possess'd the New
Warden, was to give up to his Avarice all the Little which was left
them, or cou'd be procured from their Friends to support Life, which
every one knows is as much as the generality of Men in those
unfortunate Circumstances can hope or desire to do, so helpless
they are of themselves, and so cold and scanty is the Charity and
Allowance of Friends and Relations; many of those distress'd People,
in order to satisfy his avaricious Demands, and to avoid his rigorous
Treatment, which grew as terrible to them as an Inquisition, have
been obliged to sell their Cloathes off their Backs and give up every
Penny of their little Subsistence, by which Means they have been
ready to perish with cold and hunger, passing many miserable Days
together without eating a Morsel of Victuals.

C. Findings of the Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry.

Source.—T. B. Howell: State Trials. Vol. xvii., pp. 300-302.

The Committee of enquiry found amongst other things. That the

said Thomas Bambridge ... caused one Jacob Mendez Solas[10] ... to
be seized, fettered, and carried to Corbett's, the spunging-house,
and there kept for upwards of a week, and when brought back into
the prison, Bambridge caused him to be turned into the dungeon,
called the Strong Room of the Master's side.
This place is a vault like those in which the dead are interred, and
wherein the bodies of persons dying in the said prison are usually
deposited, till the coroner's inquest hath passed upon them; it has
no chimney nor fire-place, nor any light but what comes over the
door, or through a hole of about eight inches square. It is neither
paved nor boarded; and the rough bricks appear both on the sides
and top, being neither wainscotted nor plastered: what adds to the
dampness and stench of the place is, its being built over the
common sewer.... In this miserable place the poor wretch was kept
by the said Bambridge, manacled and shackled, for near two
months. At length, on receiving five guineas from Mr. Kemp, a friend
of Solas's, Bambridge released the prisoner from his cruel
confinement. But though his chains were taken off, his terror still
remained, and the unhappy man was prevailed upon by that terror,
not only to labour gratis, for the said Bambridge, but to swear also
at random all that he hath required of him; and the Committee
themselves saw an instance of the deep impression his sufferings
had made upon him; for on his surmising, from something said, that
Bambridge was to return again, as Warden of the Fleet, he fainted,
and the blood started out of his mouth and nose.
[The sufferings of Captain John Mackpheadnis, who was ruined by
being surety for a man in the South Sea Bubble, are then narrated.
He was forced to pay double fees, his room, which he duly rented
and had himself furnished, was wrecked, and he was forced "to lie in
the open yard called the Bare," where the little hut he built was
pulled down, and he was exposed to the rain all night. Finally
Bambridge used actual torture.]
Next morning the said Bambridge entered the prison with a
detachment of soldiers, and ordered the prisoner to be dragged to
the lodge, and ironed with great irons, on which he desired to know
for what cause, and by what authority he was to be so cruelly used?
Bambridge replied, "It was by his own authority, and damm him he
would do it, and have his life." The prisoner desired that he might be
carried before a magistrate, that he might know his crime before he
was punished; but Bambridge refused, and put irons upon his legs
which were too little, so that in forcing them on, his legs were like to
have been broken; and the torture was impossible to be endured.
Upon which the prisoner complaining of the grievous pain and the
straitness of the irons, Bambridge answered, "That he did it on
purpose to torture him;" on which the prisoner replying "That by the
law of England no man ought to be tortured"; Bambridge declared,
"That he would do it first and answer for it afterwards;" and caused
him to be dragged away to the dungeon, where he lay without a
bed, loaded with irons so close-rivetted that they kept him in
continued torture, and mortified his legs. After long application[11] his
irons were changed, and a surgeon directed to dress his legs, but his
lameness is not, nor ever can be cured. He was kept in this
miserable condition for three weeks, by which his sight is greatly
prejudiced, and in danger of being lost.
[8] This picture is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
[9] Myrmidons—i.e., the band of soldiers whom Bambridge had procured under false
pretences.
[10] A Portuguese prisoner for debt.
[11] I.e., after he had made many applications.
 THE EXCISE BILL (1733).
Source.—Hervey's Memoirs. Vol. i., pp. 159-163, 175, 176.

But this flame[12] was no sooner extinguished in the nation than

another was kindled, and one that was much more epidemical, and
raged with much greater fury. Faction was never more busy on any
occasion; terrors were never more industriously scattered, and
clamour never more universally raised.
That which gave rise to these commotions was a project of Sir
Robert Walpole's to ease the land-tax of one shilling in the pound,
by turning the duty on tobacco and wine, then payable on
importation, into inland duties; that is, changing the Customs on
those two commodities into Excises; by which scheme, joined to the
continuation of the salt-duty, he proposed to improve the public
revenue £500,000 per annum, in order to supply the abatement of
one shilling in the pound on land, which raises about that sum.
The landed men had long complained that they had ever since the
Revolution borne the heat and burden of the day for the support of
the Revolution Government; and as the great pressure of the last
war had chiefly lain on them (the land having for many years been
taxed to four shillings in the pound), they now began to say, that
since the public tranquility both at home and abroad was firmly and
universally established, if ease was not at this time thought of for
them, it was a declaration from the Government that they were
never to expect any; and that two shillings in the pound on land was
the least that they or their posterity, in the most profound peace and
fullest tranquility, were ever to hope to pay.
This having been the cry of the country gentlemen and
landowners for some time, Sir Robert Walpole thought he could not
do a more popular thing than to form a scheme by which the land-
tax should be reduced to one shilling in the pound, and yet no new
tax be substituted in the lieu thereof, no new duty laid on any
commodity whatsoever, and the public revenue improved £500,000
per annum, merely by this alteration in the method of management.
The salt-duty, which had been revised the year before, could raise
only in three years what one shilling in the pound on land raised in
one year; consequently, as that tax was an equivalent only to one-
third of a shilling on land, if the remission of that shilling on land
was further and annually continued, some other fund must be found
to supply the other two-thirds.
This of Excising tobacco and wine was the equivalent projected by
Sir Robert Walpole, but this scheme, instead of procuring him the
popularity he thought it would, caused more clamour and made him
even, whilst the project was only talked of and in embryo, more
vilified and abused by the universal outcries of the people, than any
one Act of his whole administration.
The art, vigilance, and industry of his enemies had so contrived to
represent this scheme to the people, and had so generally in every
county and great town throughout all England prejudiced their minds
against it; they had shown it in so formidable a shape and painted it
in such hideous colours, that everybody talked of the scheme as a
general Excise: they believed that food and raiment, and all the
necessaries of life, were to be taxed; that armies of Excise officers
were to come into any house and at any time they pleased; that our
liberties were at an end, trade going to be ruined, Magna Charta
overturned, all property destroyed, the Crown made absolute, and
Parliaments themselves no longer necessary to be called.
This was the epidemic madness of the nation on this occasion;
whilst most of the boroughs in England, and the city of London itself,
sent formal instructions by way of memorials to their
Representatives, absolutely to oppose all new Excises and all
extensions of Excise laws, if proposed in Parliament, though
introduced or modelled in any manner whatsoever.