Some idea of the wide-spread nature of the disaster which was inflicted by the wreck of the Company may be formed from a rapid glance at some of the petitions for redress and relief which were presented to the House of Commons. We find among them petitions from the counties of Hertford, Dorset, Essex, Buckingham, Derby; the cities of Bristol, Exeter, Lincoln; the boroughs of Oakhampton, Amersham, Bedford, Chipping Wycombe, {195} Abingdon, Sudbury, East Retford, Evesham, Newark-upon-Trent, Newbury, and many other places. We have purposely omitted to take account of any of the London communities. The wildest excitement prevailed; and it is characteristic of the time to note that the national calamity--for it was no less--aroused fresh hopes in the minds of the Jacobites. Such a calamity, such a scandal, it was thought, could not but bring shame and ruin upon the Whig ministers, and through them discredit on the Sovereign and the Court. It was believed, it was hoped, that Sunderland would be found to be implicated in the swindle. Why should not such a crisis, such a humiliation to the Whigs, be the occasion of a new and a more successful attempt on the part of the Jacobites? The King was again in Hanover. He was summoned home in hot haste. On December 8, 1720, the two Houses of Parliament were assembled to hear the reading of the Royal speech proroguing the session; and in the speech the King was made to express his concern "for the unhappy turn of affairs which has so much affected the public credit at home," and to recommend most earnestly to the House of Commons "that you consider of the most effectual and speedy methods to restore the national credit, and fix it upon a lasting foundation." "You will, I doubt not," the speech went on to say, "be assisted in so commendable and necessary a work by every man that loves his country." A week or so before the Royal speech was read, on November 30, 1720, Charles Edward, eldest son of James Stuart, was born at Rome. The undaunted mettle of Atterbury came into fresh and vigorous activity with the birth of the Stuart heir, and the apparently imminent ruin of the Whig ministers.