The early mode of raising money was somewhat curious. When a new tax was imposed by Parliament, any person might advance any sum not less than £100. For this, a tally was given at the Exchequer, with an order for repayment of the principal, and the payment of interest. The sums thus advanced were to be paid off in regular order, as the money arising from the tax was received. But as this was generally found to be insufficient to redeem the loan, it became necessary either to prolong the term, or raise a new loan to pay off the old one. The interest on loans during the reigns of Anne and William was very uncertain. In the reign of George II. a new principle was adopted. Instead of varying it according to the state of the money-market, the rate was generally fixed at 3 or 3½ per cent., and the necessary variation made in the sum funded. In consequence of this practice having prevailed, the principal of the debt now existing amounts to nearly two fifths more than the sum actually advanced. As early as 1762, a stock-broker, named John Rice, met the fearful penalty so liberally awarded to crime by the civil code of the eighteenth century. A client of Rice, for whom he was accustomed to receive her dividends, was, under false pretences, induced to grant a power to sell as well as to receive the interest. As the temptation to speculate on the Stock Exchange is great, the temptation to divert property from its legitimate channel is equally so, when confidence or carelessness has granted the power. The stock-broker sold all his client’s money, employed it to meet his losses, and kept up his deception by sending her the dividends as usual. The lady, moved by doubt, or by some cogent but unknown cause, intimated to Rice her intention of visiting the city. Unable to restore the money, the conscience of Rice took the alarm, and he fled, leaving with his wife £5,000 of the misappropriated property. Ignorant of his evil deeds, and anxious to join her husband, she embarked for Holland. The weather proved rough; the vessel was driven back; and the persons sent in search of the husband apprehended the wife, who yielded the money in her possession, leaving herself entirely destitute; and it is to the credit of the directors of the South-Sea Company, that they settled a small pension on the unhappy woman. The search continued for Rice, who was discovered in the old town of Cambray, where he had taken up his residence. The English ambassador at Paris applied for his delivery; the misguided man found that Cambray was no city of refuge for him; and the last sad penalty of the law was enacted on the body of John Rice, the stock-broker.