But this was not the only mode by which he augmented and secured his influence over the weak old peer. Not only had Gammon, in the manner pointed out in a previous portion of this history, diminished the drain upon his Lordship's income, which had so long existed in the shape of interest upon money lent him on mortgage, (and which embarrassments, by the way, had all arisen from his foolish state and extravagance when Lord High Steward;) not only, I say, had Gammon done all this, but infinitely more;--he had enabled his Lordship, as it were, "to strike a blow in a new hemisphere," and at once evince his fitness for the conduct of important and complicated affairs of business, acquire an indefinite augmentation of fortune, and also great influence and popularity. England, about the time I am speaking of, was smitten with a sort of mercantile madness--which showed itself in the shape of a monstrous passion for JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES. John Bull all of a sudden took it into his head, that no commercial undertaking of the least importance could any longer be carried on by means of _individual_ energy, capital, and enterprise. A glimmering of this great truth he discovered that he had had, from the first moment that a private _partnership_ had been adopted; and it was only to follow out the principle--to convert a private into a public partnership, and call it a "Joint-stock Company." This bright idea of John's produced prompt and prodigious results--a hundred _joint stock companies_ "Rose like an exhalation,"