Isaac Newton was not the only famous Brit ruined by the South Sea Bubble scandal of 1720. Lord Robert Molesworth was perhaps the most vehement of those seeking vengeance. He and his grandson had invested heavily in the company. He advised that, as no law existed for punishing such companies, the government "ought upon this occasion follow the example of the ancient Romans, who, having no law against parricide, because their legislators supposed no son could be so unnaturally wicked as to embrue his hands in his father's blood, made a law to punish this heinous crime as soon as it was committed. They adjudged the guilty wretch to be sewn into a sack and thrown alive into the Tiber". Molesworth declared that he would be quite "satisfied to see [the South-Sea Company directors] tied in like manner in sacks, and thrown into the Thames."
[John Wesley Bready, "This Freedom -- Whence?" "England Before and After Wesley" -- 21]
[thumbnail pic: 1st Viscount, Lord Robert Molesworth]
