“Persons of honour and reputation”: The voluntary hospital in an age of corruption

In October 1732, the cashier and the banker of the Charitable Corporation absconded to France, having embezzled "more than half a million of money".' This fraudulent diversion of funds intended to provide employment and relief for the poor caused uproar, but it was not an isolated incident. Three other statutory bodies-the South Sea Company, the York Buildings Company, and the Derwentwater Trust- also fell victim to corruption during the early eighteenth century. Individual politicians were guilty too; in 1725, for example, the Lord Chancellor was fined no less than 30,000 for corruption offences. The integrity of the government was further undermined by Walpole's willingness to shield those of his supporters implicated in illegal or irregular activities.2 The frequency with which corruption erupted into Hanoverian politics is indicative of an ancien retgime adjusting to the economic conditions of a "modern" society. Spearheading this transition was the Financial Revolution of the late seventeenth century, which saw the ascent of the joint-stock company and the development of a system of public credit based on the Bank of England, the East India Company, and later the South Sea Company.3 The ramifications were far-reaching. Not only did the changed economic context open up new opportunities for financial corruption, but political life was transformed as well. Landed critics of the increasingly powerful "monied interest" revived the classical model of civic virtue to bolster their attack. The good citizen used his property to