soon as the Act was passed, and the Company settled,' Edward Harley wrote, 'the avarice, ingratitude, and perverseness of the proprietors of the vast debt soon appeared, the majority of which, instead of complying with what was necessary for the ease of the Government, and the advantage of the Company, set themselves to embarrass everything that was proposed for the supporting the credit of this Company, and advancing their real interest. This baseness fully appeared after the Peace of Utrecht, by which the sole trade to the Spanish West Indies was vested in this Company, exclusive of all other nations except Spaniards; but such was the factious perverseness of some of the Directors, that were named by the Queen's charter, that they often in their Court endeavoured to represent the whole trade as a useless, unprofitable thing. The Auditor observing this, with great indignation proposed that they should immediately draw up a representation to the Queen to let her Majesty know their sitting there as a Corporation was only the keeping up a great charge upon the Government, without any advantage to the nation, and that therefore they should come to a resolution to surrender their Charter; for if the trade were of no value, their taking salaries for the management of it was a cheat and a gross imposition upon the nation, for as to the payment of interest to the proprietors, he would undertake it should be done by two clerks for £200 a year. The apprehension of this silenced these mercenary fellows.'1

Active dissatisfaction was, however, allayed by a statement made by Oxford at a General Court of the proprietors held on June 2, 1713, that a licence had

1 Portland MSS., V., 653— Memoirs of the Harley Family, by Edward Harley.'

been obtained from the King of Spain for two ships of six hundred tons, in addition to the annual ship, to trade the first year to the northern ports of Spanish America, and that the Queen would lend two ships to the Company to carry goods, factors, and servants. Upon the strength of this concession, the Company forthwith raised, by bonds, the sum of £200,000, to be used for carrying on their trade with vigour.' It presently transpired that the Queen, when making over the assiento, had not only made it a charge on the Company to pay Manuel Manares Gullingham, the Spanish agent at the Court of St. James's, seven-and-ahalf per cent. of the profits resulting from the trade, but had reserved to herself a quarter share in the venture, albeit she was not prepared to furnish an equivalent amount of the cost of fitting out the expeditions. The Directors took an early opportunity to make it clear that they did not see the equity of the arrangement. 'Last Wednesday,' Matthew Decker, an ex-Director, wrote to Thomas Harley, February 19, 1714, 'we had a General Court of the South Sea Company, when was laid before them the assiento trade, as it was designed by the Queen to be given. Instead of joyful accepting, there rose a great many warm debates, mixed with some reflections, upon that trade, and the conclusion was that the proposals of the Court of Directors laid before the General Court should be printed, and to-morrow be given to the members; upon which the Court of Directors adjourned to Wednesday next. The slight, for I think I cannot call it anything else, may be repented by the Gentlemen of the South Sea, for it is still in the Queen's powers to give it to whom she please, and if I am well informed, something seems to be intended by the Court; if so, it may prove for the

benefit of the African Company.'1 The Resolution of the Directors ran: That it is the opinion of this Court, that it may be proper to move the General Court to accept from Her Majesty the assignment of the two licences, and of such shares in the assiento contract as by the last draft of the assignment by Her Majesty (which the Court of Directors have received) are proposed to be assigned for the use of the Company so as the management of the said assiento contract may remain solely in the Company, and the Company be in all other respects on the same foot with the assignees of the other shares or parts of the assiento contract; and that such other assignees be effectually obliged to secure the paying into the Company their proportion of the money for carrying on the trade, and that the Company's accounting with such other assignees be made safe and easy to the Company.' This resolution was agreed to at the meeting of February 26; but an agitation was set on foot to induce the Queen to surrender her share in the assiento. This was successful, and her reluctant consent was on June 18 notified to the Company by Bolingbroke. A few days later, the Company, pleased with this victory, proposed to present an Address both to return Her Majesty their most humble thanks for her great goodness in granting and making over to it the fourth part of the assiento, and most humbly to beseech Her Majesty that she would be graciously pleased likewise to make over to the Company the seven-and-a-half per cent.

1 Portland MSS., V., 385.

The Queen's grant of her quarter share of the assiento not having been formally conveyed to the Company before her death, George I. confirmed it on his accession to the throne, as also that of the four ships.

reserved for Mr. Gullingham.' A copy of this Address was laid before the House of Commons, but the Ministers, who were asked to present it, did not think proper to charge themselves with it.' On July 19, an Address to the Queen, which contained no reference to the Spanish agent, was presented at Kensington by Samuel Shepherd, the Deputy-Governor of the Company. Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Governor and Company of Merchants of Great Britain trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for encouraging the fishery, in General Court assembled,' it ran, have, with great pleasure and satisfaction, been acquainted by a letter from the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, Your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, that, as a further proof of Your Majesty's goodness, and favourable intentions towards them, and to encourage to the utmost a vigorous prosecution of the assiento trade, Your Majesty has graciously resolved to grant to this Company the fourth part which, by the assiento, you had reserved to yourself: for which, as well as for all other instances of your Royal favour and particularly for Your Majesty's sign and manual, whereby you have been graciously pleased to assist them with four menof-war for transporting to the Spanish West Indies their factors and merchandise, they do (as they are indispensably obliged) return Your Majesty their most dutiful and thankful acknowledgments. May God long preserve Your Majesty's most valuable life, whereon the welfare of your subjects, and the happiness of Europe, so much depends.' To this Address Her Majesty made the crushing reply: I thank you for your Address. I wish you good success in carrying on your trade, and hope you will make a better use

than you have hitherto done of what I have bestowed upon you.'

The rebuke was justified in so far as the Company, though three years had elapsed since it was inaugurated, had not yet dispatched a ship to Spanish America. As a matter of fact, however, it was at this time preparing an expedition; but in connection with this, misfortune after misfortune occurred. Captain Johnson, in command of one of the men-of-war appointed to attend the service of the Company, was suddenly and unexpectedly superseded; whereupon he made to the Directors a statement to the effect that he had been removed from his command for refusing to take on board his ship sixty tons of goods to be delivered on a private account. As a result of this communication, the Directors, on June 16, 1714, charged one of their number, Arthur Moore, with being privy to, and encouraging, a design of carrying on a clandestine trade to the prejudice of that Corporation.' Moore denied the accusation, which he stigmatised as false and malicious; but, upon a committee of enquiry being appointed, he, being apprehensive that, if any breach of trust should be made out against him, he should forfeit all the stock he had in the Company, prudently thought fit to transfer it next day.' This was, not unnaturally, regarded as practically equivalent to a confession of guilt.

6

6

The matter made a great noise, and four days later the House of Commons resolved, That the Directors of the South Sea Company do lay before the House an account of all proceedings in the said Company, relating to the assiento trade, together with all orders, directions, letters, or informations, which the Directors, or any

1 Political State of Great Britain, VIII., 540.