projects were set on foot, which obtained the name of _bubbles_, and were evidently the progeny of the grand bubble. They were near 100 in number, and it was reckoned that almost a million and half was won and lost in them. A proclamation was issued against them on the 11th. of June, and they were soon after entirely suppressed by order of the Lords Justices. As to the South-Sea Stock, it continued to rise till about the end of August. It then began to fall, and fell faster than it rose; so that by Michaelmas-day it sunk to 150. In December it underwent a parliamentary enquiry, which induced _Knight_, the South-Sea Company’s treasurer to abscond. In the end, parliament applied to the relief of the sufferers the estates of the sub-governor, deputy-governor, directors, &c. And also that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, _Aislabie_. They were also incapacitated from sitting or voting in either House of Parliament, or holding any office or place of trust under his Majesty, his heirs, or successors. The following Summer an Act against the directors received the royal assent, and shortly after another _for restoring the public credit_. The share _Walpole_ had in settling this distracted affair, and restoring public credit, brought him into great favour at court, and facilitated his promotion. He was now made chancellor of the Exchequer, and first Commissioner of the Treasury, and continued prime minister to the end of this reign, and fifteen years after; to the no small benefit, no doubt, of many Lynn freemen, whatever may be said of the nation at large. This reign was also distinguished by those memorable religious controversies which sprung from the novel or unfashionable opinions advanced and maintained by Clarke, Whiston, Peirce, Hoadly, and others, and which wrought a considerable revolution in the minds of a great many, both in the church and among the dissenters. The athanasian trinity was given up by numbers of our most learned countrymen; the nature of the kingdom of Christ, with the measure and extent of the obedience due to the civil magistrate, became better understood; the injustice and iniquity of imposing human creeds, or articles of faith, were more fully evinced; in short, the English nation is supposed to have been thenceforth more generally and accurately acquainted with the principles of civil and religious liberty, the claims of conscience, and rights of man, than at any former period. Of late years, however, we are thought to have made no advances on these grounds, but rather to have been moving in a retrogressive direction; so that our favourite word _liberty_ itself would seem to be in danger of losing its wonted meaning, and becoming a vague, or rather an obsolete term in our language. Nor will the violent hubbub lately raised, by Lord Sidmouth’s illiberal, illconditioned, illfeatured, illdigested, and deservedly reprobated bill, be sufficient to invalidate this opinion.