dispensed with, and an additional time allowed to settle the accounts. To mitigate the evil, the principal holders of foreign securities formed themselves into a society to purchase all stock below forty; but it was found inadequate to meet the catastrophe in the house, while out of it the excitement in Spanish, Portuguese, and other foreign funds created evils which never met the public eye, but which are yet felt by innumerable private families. During this period, the Royal Exchange, previous to the assembling of the merchants, witnessed a curious scene, and beheld a motley group of speculators; and, says Mr. Evans, in his work on the city, such was the rage for shares in companies which had arisen out of the general excitement, that the beadle was obliged to drive them away, as the frequenters of ’Change could not get to their places. In the height of this speculation, some of the dabblers made a price of one farthing per share on a railway now promising to be the first in the kingdom, but of which there were then no buyers. With the above panic the present chronicle of the Stock Exchange closes. To have brought it to 1849 would have involved living men and their actions, and to some future historian must be left the many whose names assume so important a position in English financial history. FOOTNOTES: [7] “The prince of Hesse Cassel,” said Rothschild, “gave my father his money. There was no time to be lost; he sent it to me. I had £600,000 arrive unexpectedly by post; and I put it to such good use, that the prince made me a present of all his wine and linen.” [8] In 1824, it was said that public attention was so entirely absorbed by financial operations, that the movements of Mr. Rothschild and a few London capitalists excited an intensity of expectation scarcely inferior to the march of armies. [9] The intelligence of this gentleman was so good, that he was the first to announce the Paris revolution of July to Lord Aberdeen, and the victory of Waterloo was known to him some days before it was made public. [10] Mr. Salomons attributed the difficulties which followed his death to the sudden withdrawal of the dexterity with which he managed the exchanges, as Mr. Rothschild prided himself on distributing his immense resources, so that no operation of his should abstract long the bullion from the Bank. [11] For a Memoir of Rothschild, see the Bankers’ Magazine, Vol. II. p. 473, _et seq._ CHAPTER XVII. _Legends of the Stock Exchange.—Mr. Dunbar.—Duke of Newcastle.—French Ambassador.—James Bolland.—Extraordinary Incident.—Fortunate Adventure.—Morals and Manners of the Stock Exchange.—Its Constitution and Arrangements._