Original Cost. Value in 1824. Annual Dividend. £140 £2,840 £100 STAFFORD AND WORCESTER. £140 £960 £40 TRENT AND MERSEY. £200 £4,600 £150 and bonus. FOOTNOTES: [5] The road to Paddington, now known as the New Road, was hotly contested by the Duke of Bedford, on account of the dust it would create, and the view it would abridge. Walpole wrote, that the Duke was never in town to feel the dust, and was too short-sighted to see the prospect. [6] The attempt of Mr. Ogle to run locomotives on the public roads must have cost him many thousands; and nothing but the same popular prejudice which attempted to prove that engines on railroads would send horses mad with fright, prevented this great attempt from becoming general. The reader must remember the grave shaking of heads which met Mr. Ogle’s cherished design, as similar heads have always been shaking at novel propositions. CHAPTER XIV. _Monetary Excitement.—Approaches to the Stock Exchange.—Gold Company.—Equitable Loan Company.—Frauds in Companies.—Loan to Foreign States.—Poyais Bubble._ The excitement of 1824 and 1825 has usually been considered in reference to banking and the Bank of England. It is the writer’s present purpose to draw attention to the social and moral evils of the period; and, by a simple detail of some curious incidents and dangerous adventures arising out of it, to draw attention to the great and crying iniquities which obtained.