About the time of the bursting of the railway bubble, or the collapse of
the mania of 1844–5, the following clever lines appeared:—
“There was a sound of revelry by night.”—_Childe Harold_.
“There was a sound that ceased not day or night,
Of speculation. London gathered then
Unwonted crowds, and moved by promise bright,
To Capel-court rushed women, boys, and men,
All seeking railway shares and scrip; and when
The market rose, how many a lad could tell,
With joyous glance, and eyes that spake again,
’Twas e’en more lucrative than marrying well;—
When, hark! that warning voice strikes like a rising knell.
Nay, it is nothing, empty as the wind,
But a ‘bear’ whisper down Throgmorton-street;
Wild enterprise shall still be unconfined;
No rest for us, when rising premiums greet
The morn to pour their treasures at our feet;
When, hark! that solemn sound is heard once more,
The gathering ‘bears’ its echoes yet repeat—
’Tis but too true, is now the general roar,
The Bank has raised her rate, as she has done before.
And then and there were hurryings to and fro,
And anxious thoughts, and signs of sad distress
Faces all pale, that but an hour ago
Smiled at the thoughts of their own craftiness.
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The coin from hungry pockets—mutual sighs
Of brokers and their clients. Who can guess
How many a stag already panting flies,
When upon times so bright such awful panics rise?”