proposal all profits that have arisen already by the sale of stock, and all future advantages to be granted by the public, are reserved for the £20,000,000 of South Sea stock. And as every proprietor is to have his just proportion in each part of the distribution, he partakes in the advantages reserved for the South Sea Company in as full a manner as if his whole had remained there. Besides the profits arising in the South Sea Company, he likewise receives Bank stock at £120 per cent., computed at 160 per cent., and India stock at £120 per cent., computed at 200 per cent.; and for the interest of his money he will in all probability receive £8 per cent. per annum from the Bank and £10 per cent. per annum from the East India Company, in lieu of the Exchequer annuity of £5 per cent. per annum upon each, which are now to be transferred to the Bank and India Company.

'And although every proprietor gives £120 per cent. for the Bank stock, which he is to have in his own right, the £20 per cent. upon the £9,000,000 to be ingrafted into the bank, making in the whole £1,500,000, is reserved for the common benefit of the whole Bank, in which every proprietor is to have his just share, and this reduces the price given for Bank stock to £111 5s., or thereabouts; so that every South Sea proprietor gains of one-fourth of his South Sea stock about 40 per cent. in the advanced price of Bank stock, and upon one-fourth about £80 per cent. in the advanced price of India stock; or, in another view, for the £20 per cent. which he pays for Bank stock above par he will receive an additional dividend of 3 per cent. per annum, and for the £20 per cent. paid for India stock above par £5 per cent. per annum; and this is most evidently an addition of so much to every man's property in the South Sea stock.

'Besides these private advantages, this distribution

of this great capital, with regard to the Government and the public, was almost necessary, and being now divided between the three great bodies and companies of the City, establishes such a balance of power among them, as may make them all useful to the public. The capital of the South Sea Company will now be £20,000,000, the capital of the Bank £14,500,000, the capital of the India Company £12,200,000; and as the public has been, and frequently must be, obliged to apply to these corporate bodies for the support of public credit, the public will not be under the necessity to accept the hard terms which one single powerful body might be inclined to impose, when all three are in a condition to aid and assist upon any emergency, and this has been verified by constant experience.'1

6

It was expected by the Commons that this scheme would be put before it on December 15, but on the day in question Walpole declared that no proposal likely to prove effective could be proposed until Parliament had determined whether or no the annuitants should be held to their subscriptions, made in August. Five days later, therefore, Walpole took the sense of the House by moving, That the proprietors of subscriptions redeemable and unredeemable, and all other contracts with the South Sea Company, should continue in their present state, unless mitigated to the several proprietors by a General Court or discharged of their several contracts by a due course of law.' This was pressed to a division and was carried by 267 to 117 votes, the Tories supporting the Court party. At last, on December 22, Walpole unfolded his scheme. The various opinions expressed about it are reflected in the following correspondence: 'Our scheme was yesterday 1 Coxe: Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, II., 197.

opened by Mr. Walpole, who, with the greatest skill imaginable, entrenched himself by telling us that he took for granted things were as they are laid before us, cujus contrarium; and in speaking his thoughts, as he termed it, at least six times desired it might be remembered that he argued upon this supposition,' Thomas Brodrick wrote to Lord Middleton. The substance in short was this: that of the £38,000,000 now invested in the South Sea Company, £9,000,000 should by way of ingraftment be vested in the Bank, as much in the East India Company, and the remaining £20,000,000 remain to the South Sea. The money account, he said, he did not care to meddle with; and he was in the right, for when that shall be discussed (if ever it be) it will not bear an examination. After many long speeches, to very little purpose, it was understood that the House would be ready to receive proposals from these three great bodies, which we shall, I think, agree to, be they what they will, for the same reason (for they will be plentifully made use of) which induced us to pass the Bill last Session. I then told you what I thought would be the issue, which to my great grief proves too rightly judged. I will now tell you my fears of this matter. That Mr. Walpole made the most of everything is very certain; and supposing his postulata (to use his own word) well grounded, his conclusions were right. But my opinion is that skimming over the sore, without probing the wound to the bottom, will end in its breaking out again, when possibly the malignity may be too great to overcome; but we are for putting off the evil day, and he is a fool or knave who joins not therein.' The principal fear that oppressed Brodrick

1 December 22, 1720; Middleton Papers, quoted in Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, II., 204.