[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' Sut,—Turning over the pages
of" Horace Walpole's Letters" the other evening, I came across the following passage in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, dated from Arlington Street on March 19th, 1767 :— "Charles Townshend's tergiversations appear to have been the result of private jobbing. He had dealt largely in India stock, cried up the company's right to raise that stock, has sold out most advantageously, and now cries it down. What ! and can a Chancellor of the Exchequer stand such an aspersion? Oh! my dear sir, his character cannot be lowered. In truth it is a very South-Sea year— at least one-third of the House of Commons is engaged in this traffic ; and stock-jobbing now makes patriots, as everything else has done. From the Alley ('Change Alley) to the House it is like a path of ants."
So history repeats itself.—I am, Sir, &c.,
The Hall, Burley-in-WhaVedale, LIONEL CRESWELL.
Yorks.
Previous page
