Detached from every other part of the Recollections, the following
anecdote appears by itself, and as it seems to have been communicated
from the very highest authority, may be recorded more particularly, as
its authenticity may be easily ascertained.
In the year 1720, celebrated for the bursting of the South Sea bubble,
a gentleman called late in the evening at the banking-house of Messrs.
Hankies and Co. He was in a coach, but refused to get out, and desired
that one of the partners of the house would come to him. Having
ascertained that it was really one of the principals, and not a clerk,
who appeared, he put into his hands a parcel, very carefully sealed up
and protected, and desired that it might be laid on one side till he
should call again, which would be in the course of a very few days. A
few days passed away—a few weeks did the same, and indeed some months
also, but the stranger returned no more.
At the end of the second or third year, the partners agreed to open this
mysterious parcel in the presence of each other. They found it to contain
thirty thousand pounds, with a letter, stating that it was obtained by
the South Sea speculation, and directing that it should now be vested in
the hands of three trustees, whose names were given, and the interest
appropriated to the relief of the poor.
What particular class of poor—whether the poor of London, or of
Westminster, or the poor sufferers by the bubble, was not specified,
and the vagueness of the instructions rendered the matter extremely
perplexing. Under this difficulty, the partners or the trustees very
properly applied to the Lord Mayor, and to the law officers of the
crown. If we are correct, Sir Dudley Ryder was Attorney-General at the
time. It was agreed, that the capital should be vested in the names of
the Lord Mayor, Recorder, and Attorney-General, for the time being and
to come, and that each of the three gentlemen nominated by the stranger
as trustees, should have the interest of ten thousand pounds, to be
distributed at his discretion for the use of the poor. The stranger was
never heard of afterwards.
One of the trustees was a gentleman of Norfolk, whose family was well
known to the Sexagenarian. During his life, he had a room fitted up with
cases, shelves, drawers, &c. which was called the Poors’ Room, and where
coats, waistcoats, shirts, shifts, shoes, blankets, &c. were deposited
for the use of proper applicants. The effect of this for the time, was
the total annihilation of the poor rates in the particular parish where
this trustee resided.
Paucos enim qui sunt eminentissimi excerpere in animo est,
facile est autem studiosis, qui sint his simillimi judicare,
ne quisquam queratur omissos forte aliquos eorum quos ipse
valde probet. Fateor enim plures legendos esse quam qui a me
nominabuntur.