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1721.] ships, on the plea that he had already given his evidence before the secret committee. A vehement debate arose out of this difficulty, during which the duke of Wharton, a most profligate young nobleman, and president of the Hell-fire Club," made a fierce attack on Stanhope, accused him of fomenting the dissensions betwist the king and his son, and compared him to Sejanus, who had sown animosities in the family of Tiberius, and rendered his reign hateful to the Romans. Stanhope, in replying to this philippic, was so transported by his rage, that the blood gushed from his nostrils. He was carried from the house, and soon afterwards expired. Thus one of the wickedest men whom the nation had ever produced actually killed one of the best and ablest ministers which it ever possessed. The ability and integrity of Stanhope had rescued the country from many foreign complications, and his integrity and disinteresteduess stood forth conspicuously amid the corruptions of this great South Sea mania. Wharton, having by this unprincipled onslaught deprived the country of one of its most valuable lives, returned to his debaucheries, which involved him in treason and attainder, and curtailed his own worthless existence.

Lord Townshend succeeded as secretary of state to Stanhope. Aislabie, who had been deep in the iniquities of the South Sea afffair, was compelled to resign his post as chancellor of the exchequer, to which Walpole succeeded. Meantime the secret committee continued its labours indefatigably. They sate nearly every day from nine in the morning till eleven at night, and on the 16th of February they presented their report to the house. This revealed a scene of the most astounding infamy. The committee, owing to Knight having eloped with the register, and to other books being falsified, and some altogether destroyed, had had many difficulties to contend with; but, through rigorous cross examination of the directors and accountants, they had managed to make out that, in order to get the South Sea bill passed, they had made over stock to different influential individuals to the amount of upwards of one million two hndred thousand pounds. Sir John Blunt, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Chester, Mr. Holditch, and Mr. Knight, the cashier, who had eloped, had the disposal of this stock, and they had given to the earl of Sunderland, at the request of Mr. Craggs, senior, fifty thousand pounds; to the duchess of Kendal, ten thousand pounds; to the countess Of Platen, another of the king's mistresses, ten thousand pounds; to the two nieces of the countess of Platen, ten thousand pounds; to Mr. Craggs, senior, thirty thousand pounds; to Charles Stanhope, Esq., secretary of the treasury, and a relative of lord Stanhope, ten thousand pounds; to the Swordblade Company, fifty thousand pounds. Still more monstrously Charles Stanhope had received a difference or profit of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds through Sir George Caswal and Company, but that his name had been altered in their books to Stangape; that Aislabie, chancellor of the exchequer, had accounts with merchants, as brokers, to the amount of seven hundred and ninety-four thousand four hundred and fifty-one pounds, and that he had advised the company to make their second subscription by their own authority, and without any warrant, a millon and a half instead of a million; that, on the third subscription, Aislabie's list amounted to seventy thousand pounds, Sunderland's to a hundred and sixty thousand pounds, Craggs to six hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds, and Stanhope's to forty-seven thousand pounds; and that, on the pawned stock which had been sold, there was, by the means of Mr. Knight, a deficiency of four hundred thousand pounds.

Bad as this was, it was far from reaching the bottom of this sink of iniquity. This report was followed by six others, full of monstrous details, and concluding with that of the absconding of Knight, who had been a depository of the deepest secrets, and often the sole agent in them, so that they were left in the dark as to many transactions. On the very day that this last report was being read in the house died one of the accused, James Craggs, secretary of state. His complaint was smallpox; but the state of mind induced by this exposure is supposed to have rendered the malady fatal. Craggs was considered a man of great business talents, and with a high love of literature and literary men. He was a friend of Pope, and his name remains in the eulogy of Pope's verse. It will always exist, however, equally conspicuous in the history of this transaction as that of one extremely corrupt in principle. His father, who was postmaster-general, was so shamefully involved in the same dishonest proceedings, that he took poison.

Charles Stanhope, whose name had been altered in tha company's books, as we have said, to Stangape, escaped on examination in the house by a majority of three, though clearly guilty, but from respect for the memory of his deceased relative, the upright lord Stanhope. Aislabie's case was the next, and was so palpably bad that he was committed to the Tower, and expelled the house, amid the ringing of bells, bonfires and other signs of rejoicing of the city of London. The bulk of his property, moreover, was seized. This was some compensation to the public, which had murmured loudly at the acquittal of Stanhope. Sunderland's case was the next, and he escaped by the evidence against him being chiefly second-hand, or resting on the word of Sir John Blunt, who now was a man of lost credit. He was acquitted by a majority of two hundred and thirty-three against one hundred and seventy-two. As to the king's mistresses, their sins were passed over out of a too-conceding loyalty; but no favour was shown to the directors, though some of them were found to be much poorer when the scheme broke up than they were when it began. Amongst them was Mr. Gibbon, the grandfather of the historian, who afterwards exposed the injustice of many of these proceedings, though at the time they were considered as only too merited. The directors were disabled from ever again holding any place, or sitting in parliament; and their estates, amounting to upwards of two millions, were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers by the scheme. When some allowance was pleaded for on their behalf out of these large forfeitures, they were jestingly offered twenty pounds, and sometimes a single shilling. One of them, who had, in his elation, talked of feeding his horses on gold, was now told that he might do that himself, for he should have as much gold as he could eat, and no more. But whilst this conduct appears to us inhuman, the public at the time only deemed their treatment too lenient. Petitions were poured in, demanding condign punishment of