The railway "boom" had stimulated that first infirmity of ignoble minds--the desire to "get rich quick"--and cupidity, balked of its expectations, turned eagerly towards the goldfields to satisfy its longings. In 1849 California was the Mecca of the gold craze, and there is hardly a number of _Punch_ in this year which does not refer to the stampede from Europe to the diggings--"the wild-goose chase after the golden calf," as he called it. It was a gold fever in more senses than one, since the diggers suffered terribly from disease, which led to the cynical suggestion that convicts should be sent there, as they were not likely to return. Cobden, still in high favour with _Punch_ as the apostle of national economy, was busy preaching Peace, Retrenchment and Reform, but his efforts were powerless to stem the tide of speculation. In 1850 we find a reference to the glut of bullion at the Bank, a state of affairs long strangely unfamiliar. In 1851 the opening of the goldfields in Australia diverted the stream of speculative emigration from California to the antipodes, and this new phase of the _auri sacra fames_ does not escape _Punch's_ notice, though no mention is made of the curious fact that amongst those who were lured to the diggings was Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards Marquess of Salisbury. Alongside of the evidences of the great expansion of commerce and national prosperity we find frequent references to the growth of gambling. In 1852 _Punch's_ pages abound in allusions, in text and illustrations, to the betting mania--to gulls and pigeons and sharks. "Profiteering" was rampant in the Crimean War, and _Punch_ is eloquent in his denunciation of the contractors who supplied shoddy equipment and bad guns. And the aftermath of the war included, besides other familiar sources of discontent, "defalcations, embezzlements and other cases of gross and enormous dishonesty." It was a time of speculation and peculation, of bank smashes and absconding directors--those of the Royal British Bank coming in for special execration. The fraudulent banker is singled out by _Punch_ as the arch-rogue and thief who excited the envy of the burglar, since the banker stole more and escaped unpunished. The brothers Sadleir are specially selected for dishonourable mention in 1856, but John Sadleir, M.P. for Carlow and an ex-Lord of the Treasury, who was the original of Mr. Merdle in _Little Dorrit_, and was described in _The Times_ after his death as a "national calamity," only escaped punishment by suicide. [Sidenote: _Novelties and Anticipations_]