There was a Tapestry Company which would soon furnish pretty hangings for all the parlours of the middle class and for all the bedchambers of the higher.

There was a Copper Company which proposed to explore the mines of England, and held out a hope that they would prove not less valuable than those of Potosi.

There was a Diving Company which undertook to bring up precious effects from shipwrecked vessels, and which announced that it had laid in a stock of wonderful machines resembling complete suits of armour.

In front of the helmet was a huge glass eye like that of a cyclop; and out of the crest went a pipe through which the air was to be admitted.

The whole process was exhibited on the Thames.