The English Jews, that eminently commercial race, were, as we have shown in our chapter on , our bankers and usurers. To them in immediate succession, followed the enterprising Lombards, a term including the merchants and goldsmiths of Genoa, Florence, and Venice. Utterly blind to all sense of true liberty and justice, the strong-handed king seems to have resolved to squeeze and crush them, as he had squeezed and crushed their unfortunate predecessors. They were rich and they were strangers --that was enough for a king who wanted money badly. At fell swoop Edward seized the Lombards' property and estates. Their debtors naturally approved of the king's summary measure. But the Lombards grew and flourished, like the trampled camomile, and in the century advanced a loan to the state on the security of the Customs. The Steelyard merchants also advanced loans to our kings, and were always found to be available for national emergencies, and so were the Merchants of the Staple, the Mercers' Company, the Merchant Adventurers, and the traders of Flanders.

Up to a late period in the reign of Charles I. the London merchants seem to have deposited their surplus cash in the Mint, the business of which was carried on in the Tower. But when Charles I., in an agony of impecuniosity, seized like a robber the there deposited, calling it a loan, the London goldsmiths, who ever since had been always more or less bankers, now monopolised the whole banking business. Some merchants, distrustful of the goldsmiths in these stormy times, entrusted their money to their clerks and apprentices, who too often cried,

Boot, saddle and horse, and away!

Grown rich by these means, the goldsmiths were often able to help Cromwell with money in advance on the revenues, a patriotic act for which we may be sure they took good care not to suffer. When the great national disgrace occurred--the Dutch sailed up the Medway and burned some of our ships--there was a run upon the goldsmiths, but they stood firm, and met all demands. The infamous seizure by Charles II. of , deposited by the London goldsmiths in the Exchequer, all but ruined these too confiding men, but clamour and pressure compelled the royal embezzler to at last pay per cent. on the sum appropriated. In the last year of William's reign, interest was granted on the whole sum at per cent., and the debt still remains undischarged. At last a , which had been talked abot and wished for by commercial men ever since the year , was actually started, and came into operation.

That great financial genius, [extra_illustrations.1.453.3] , the founder of the , was born in , of a good family, at Lochnaber, in Dumfriesshire. He is supposed, in early life, to have preached among the persecuted Covenanters. He lived a good deal in Holland, and is believed to have been a wealthy merchant in New Providence (the Bahamas), and seems to have shared in Sir William Phipps' successful undertaking of raising a Spanish galleon with worth of sunken treasure. It is absurdly stated that he was at time a buccaneer, and so gained a knowledge of Darien and the ports of the Spanish main. That he knew and obtained information from Captains

The project of a seems to have been often discussed during the Commonwealth, and was seriously proposed at the meeting of the Council of Trade at Mercers' Hall after the Restoration. Paterson has himself described the starting of the Bank, in his . The proposition of a was made in , when the Government had contracted of debt in years, and the Ministers even stooped, hat in hand, to borrow or at a time of the Common Council of London, on the payment of the land-tax, and all payable with the year, the common councillors going round and soliciting from house to house. The project was badly received, as people expected an immediate peace, and disliked a scheme which had come from Holland-

they had too many Dutch things already.

The Bank Bill, timidly brought forward, purported only to impose a new duty on tonnage, for the benefit of such loyal persons as should advance money towards carrying on the war. The plan was for the Government to borrow , at the modest interest of per cent. To encourage capitalists, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor and Company of the . Both Tories and Whigs broke into a fury at the scheme. The goldsmiths and pawnbrokers, says Macaulay, set up a howl of rage. The Tories declared that banks were republican institutions; the Whigs predicted ruin and despotism. The whole wealth of the nation would be in the hands of the

Tonnage Bank,

Something was said,

about the danger of setting up a gigantic corporation, which might soon give laws to the King and the

three

estates of the realm.

It is hardly too much to say,

that during many years the weight of the Bank, which was' constantly in the scale of the Whigs, almost counterbalanced the weight of the Church, which was as constantly in the scale of the Tories.

Seventeen

years after the passing of the Tonnage Bill,

Addison, in

one

of his most ingenious and graceful little allegories, described the situation of the great company through which the immense wealth of London was constantly circulating. He

saw Public Credit on her throne in Grocers' Hall, the Great Charter over her head, the Act of Settlement full in her view. Her touch turned everything to gold. Behind her seat bags filled with coin were piled up to the ceiling. On her right and on her left the floor was hidden by pyramids of guineas. On a sudden the door flies open, the Pretender rushes in, a sponge in

one

hand, in the other a sword, which he shakes at the Act of Settlement. The beautiful Queen sinks down fainting; the spell by which she has turned all things around her into treasure is broken; the money-bags shrink like pricked bladders; the piles of gold pieces are turned into bundles of rags, or fagots of wooden tallies.

In (very soon after its birth) the Bank experienced a crisis. There was a want of money in England. The clipped silver had been called in and the new money was not ready. Even rich people were living on credit, and issued promissory notes. The the had gone rapidly down from to . The golsmiths, who detested the corporation that had broken in on their system of private banking, now tried to destroy the new company. They plotted, and on the same crowded to Grocers' Hall, where the Bank was located from to , and insisted on immediate payment-- goldsmith alone demanding . The directors paid all their honest creditors, but refused to cash the goldiths' notes, and left them their remedy in Hall. The goldsmiths triumphed in scurrilous pasquinades entitled, The directors, finding it impossible to procure silver enough to pay every claim, had recourse to an expedient. They made a call of per cent. on the proprietors, and thus raised a sum enabling them to pay every applicant per cent. in milled money on what was due to him, and they returned him his note, after making a minute upon it that part had been paid. A few notes thus marked, says Macaulay, are still preserved among the archives of the Bank, as memorials of that terrible year. The alternations were frightful. The discount, at time per cent., was presently . A note, taken for more than in the morning, was before night worth less than .

Paterson attributes this danger of the Bank to bad and partial payments, the giving and allowing exorbitant interest, high premiums and discounts, contracting dear and bad bargains; the general debasing and corrupting of coin, and such like, by which means things were brought to such a pass that even per cent. interest on the land-tax, although payable within the year, would not answer. Guineas, he says, on a sudden rose to per piece, or more; all currency of other money was stopped, hardly any had wherewith to pay; public securities sank to about a moiety of their original values, and buyers were hard to be found even at those prices. No man knew what he was worth; the course of trade and correspondence almost universally stopped; the poorer sort of people were plunged into irrepressible distress, and as it were left perishing, whilst even the richer had hardly wherewith to go to market for obtaining the common conveniences of life.

The King, in Flanders, was in great want of money. The Land Bank could not do much. The Bank, at last, generously offered to advance in gold and silver to meet the King's necessities. Sir Isaac Newton, the new Master of the Mint, hastened on the re-coinage. Several of the ministers, immediately after the Bank meeting (over which Sir John Houblon presided), purchased stock, as a proof of their gratitude to the body which had rendered so great a service to the State.

The diminution of the old hammered money continued to increase, and public credit began to be put to a stand. The opposers of Paterson wished to alter the denomination of the money, so that of silver should pass for , but at last agreed to let sterling silver pass at an ounce, being the equivalent of the milled money. The loss of the re-coinage to the nation was about . Paterson, who was of the Directors of the , upon a qualification of stock, disagreed with his colleagues on the question of the Bank's legitimate operations, and sold out in . In , Paterson says, after the peace of Ryswick, he had an audience of King William, and drew his attention to the importance of great measures --the union with Scotland, the seizing the principal Spanish ports in the West Indies, and the holding a commission of inquiry into the conduct of those who had mismanaged the King's affairs during his absence in Flanders. Paterson died in , on the eve of the fatal South Sea Bubble.

When the notes of the Bank were at per cent. discount, the Government (says Francis) empowered the corporation to add to their original stock, and public faith was restored by -fifths of the subscriptions being received in tallies and orders, and - in bank-notes at their full value, although both were at a heavy discount in the market.

The past services of the Bank were not

The charter was at the same time extended to , and not even then to be withdrawn, unless Government paid the full debt. Forgery of the Company's seal, notes, or bills was made felony without benefit of clergy. Sir Gilbert Heathcote, of the Bank Directors, gained by this scheme. The Bank is said to have offered the King at this time the loan of a million without interest for years, if the Government would extend the charter for that time. Bank stock, given to the proprietors in exchange for tallies at per cent. discount, rose to . The Bank had lowered the interest of money. As early as it had proposed to have branch Banks in every city and market town of England.

In -, the conquests of Louis XIV. alarmed England, and shook the credit of the Bank, In the latter year the Bank Directors were once more obliged to issue sealed bills bearing interest for a large sum, in order to keep up their credit. In the fears of an invasion threatened by the Pretender brought down stocks or per cent. The goldsmiths then gathered up Bank bills, and tried to press the Directors. Hoare and Child both joined in the attack, and the latter

During the absurd Tory riots of the Bank was in considerable danger. A vain, mischievous High Church clergyman named Sacheverell had been foolishly prosecuted for attacking the Whig Government, and calling the Lord Treasurer Godolphin (a character in a celebrated play written by Ben Jonson). A guard of butchers escorted the firebrand to his trial at Hall, at which Queen Anne was present. Riots then broke out, and the High Church mob sacked several Dissenting chapels, burning the pews and pulpits in , , and elsewhere, and even threatened to use a Dissenting preacher as a holocaust. The rioters at last threatened the Bank. The Queen at once sent her guards, horse and foot, to the City, and left herself unprotected.

Am I to preach or fight?

In the Bank charter was renewed until . The great catastrophe of the South Sea Bubble in , which we shall sketch fully in another chapter, did not injure the Bank. The directors generously tried to save the fallen company, but (as might have been expected) utterly failed. With prudence, perhaps, gained from this national cataclysm, the Bank, in , commenced keeping a reserve--the

rest

In , when the charter was renewed till , the loan of , without interest, was required by the Government for the favour. By the act of renewal forging bank-notes, & c., was declared punishable with death.

The Bank was at this time a small and modest building, surrounded by houses, and almost invisible to passers by. There was a church called Christopher le Stocks, afterwards pulled down for fear it should ever be occupied by rioters, and taverns, too, on the south side, in , just where the chief entrance now is, and about or private buildings. A few years later visitors used to be shown in the bullion office the original bank chest, no larger than a seamen's, and the original shelves and cases for the books of business, to show the extraordinary rapidity with which the institution had struck root and borne fruit.

In , the capital on which the Bank stock proprietors divided amounted to . It had been more than octupled in little more than half a century. The year is remarkable as that in which the foundation of the present

Three

per Cent. Consols

The stock,

was thus termed from the balance of some annuities granted by George I. being consolidated into

one

fund with a

Three

per Cent. stock formed in

1731

.

In bank-notes of a smaller value than were circulated. In the Bank charter was renewed on a gift of , and an advance of million for Exchequer bills for years, at per cent. interest. It was at the same time made felony without benefit of clergy to forge powers of attorney for receiving dividends, transferring or selling stock. The Government, which had won millions before the Years' War, annihilated the navy of France, and wrested India frbm the French sway, was glad to recruit its treasury by so profitable a bargain with the Bank. In an Act was passed. making it punishable with death to copy the water-mark of the banknote paper. By an Act of notes of a less amount than were prohibited, and years afterwards the amount was limited to .

During the formidable riots of the Bank was in considerable danger. In night there rose the flames of -and- fires. The Catholic chapels and the tallow-chandlers' shops were universally destroyed; Newgate was sacked and burned. The mob, half thieves, at last decided to march upon the Bank, but precautions had been taken there. The courts and roof Of the building were defended by armed clerks and volunteers, and there were soldiers ready outside. The old pewter inkstands had been melted into bullets. The rioters made rushes; the was checked by a volley from the soldiers; at the , which was less violent, Wilkes rushed out, and with his own hand dragged in some of the ringleaders. Leaving several killed and many wounded, the discomfited mob at last retired.

In , the Bank charter having nearly expired, Lord North proposed a renewal for twentyfive years, the terms being a loan of millions for years, at per cent., to pay off the navy debt. In the notes and bills of the Bank were exempted from the operation of the Stamp Act, on consideration of an annual payment of .. The Government allowance of per million for managing the National Debt was reduced at this time to . years later our debt was calculated at millions, which, taken in notes, would weigh, it was curiously calculated, lbs.

It was about that the attempts at forgery on a tremendous scale were discovered by the Bank. A rogue of genius, generally known, from his favourite disguise, as

Old Patch

,

During the wars with France Pitt was always soliciting the help of the Bank. In , great alarm was felt at the diminution of gold, and Tom Paine wrote a pamphlet to prove that the Bank cellars could not hold more than a million of specie, while there were millions of bank-notes in circulation. It was, however, proved that the specie amounted to about millions, and the circulation to only or . Early in , when the specie sank to , the Bank suspended cash payments, and notes under were issued, and dollars prepared for circulation. he Bank Restriction Act was soon after passed, discontinuing cash payments till the conclusion of the war. For the renewal of the charter in , the Bank proposed to lend millions for years, without interest, a right being reserved to them of claiming repayment at any time before the expiration of years, if Consols should be at or above per cent. In , Mr. Addington said in the that since the forgeries of bank-notes had so alarmingly increased as to require additional clerks merely to detect them, and that every year no less than or persons had been executed for forgery.

In , the celebrated chief cashier of the Bank, [extra_illustrations.1.459.2]  the hero of Dibdin's well-known song-

Sham Abraham you may,

But you mustn't sham Abraham Newland,

The Bullion Committee of was moved for by Mr. Horner to ascertain if the rise in the price of gold did not arise from the over-issue of notes. here was a growing feeling that bank-notes did not represent the specified amount of gold, and the committee recommended a speedy return to cash payments. In Parliament Mr. Fuller, that butt of the House, proposed if the guinea was really worth , to raise it at once to that price. Guineas at this time were exported to France in large numbers by smugglers in boats made especially for the purpose. The Bank, which had before issued dollars, now circulated silver tokens for , , and is.

Peel's currency bill of secured a gradual return of cash payments, and the old metallic standard was restored. It was Peel's great principle that a national bank should always be prepared to payi specie for its notes on demand, a principle he afterwards worked out in the Bank Charter. he same year a new plan was devised to prevent bank-notes being forged. The Committee's report says:--

A number of squares will appear in chequer-work upon the note, filled with hair lines in elliptic curves of various degrees of eccentricity, the squares to be alternately of red and black lines; the perfect mathematical coincidence of the extremity of the lines of different colours on the sides of the squares will be effected by machinery of singular fidelity. But even with the use of this machinery a person who has not the key to the proper disposition would make millions of experiments to no purpose. Other obstacles to imitation will also be presented in the structure of the note; but this is the

one

principally relied upon. It is plain that any failure in the imitation will be made manifest to the observation of the most careless, and the most skilful merchants who have seen the operation declare that the note cannot be imitated. he remarkable machine works with

three

cylinders, and the impression is made by small convex cylindrical plates.

In the real re-commencement of specie payments took place. In Turner, a Bank clerk, stole by altering the transfer book. The rascal, however, was too clever for the Bank, and escaped. In Mr. Pascoe Grenfell put the profits of the Bank at millions, in years, after per cent. was divided.

By Fauntleroy's (the banker) forgeries in , the Bank lost , and the interest alone, which was regularly paid, had amounted to or a year. Fauntleroy's bank was in [extra_illustrations.1.459.3] 

The Bank

first

began to refuse our acceptances, thereby destroying the credit of our house. The Bank shall smart for it.

Having given a summary of the history of the , we now propose to select a series of anecdotes, arranged by dates, which will convey a fuller and more detailed notion of the romance and the vicissitudes of banking life.

The Bank was established (says Francis) in Mercers' Hall, and afterwards in Grocers' Hall, since razed for the erection of a more stately structure. Here, in room, with almost primitive simplicity, were gathered all who performed the duties of the establishment.

I looked into the great hall where the Bank is kept,

and was not a little pleased to see the directors, secretaries, and clerks, with all the other members of that wealthy corporation, ranged in their several stations according to the parts they hold in that just and regular economy.

Mr. Michael Godfrey, to whose exertions, with those of William Paterson, may be traced the successful establishment of the Bank, met with a somewhat singular fate, on the . t that time the transmission of specie was difficult and full of hazard, and Mr. Godfrey left his peaceful avocations to visit Namur, then vigorously besieged by the English monarch. The deputy-governor, willing to flatter the King, anxious to forward his mission, or possibly imagining the vicinity of the Sovereign to be the safest place he could choose, ventured into the trenches.

As you are no adventurer in the trade of war, Mr. Godfrey,

I think you should not expose yourself to the hazard of it.

Not being more exposed than your Majesty,

should be excusable if I showed more concern?

Yes,

I am in my duty, and therefore have a more reasonable claim to preservation.

reasonable claim to preservation

On the , a scene was presented which strongly marks the infatuation and ignorance of lottery adventurers. The tickets for the State lottery were delivered out to the subscribers at the ; when the crowd becoming so great as to obstruct the clerks, they told them,

We deliver blanks to-day, but tomorrow we shall deliver the prizes;

Her Majesty presented his Royal Highness the Duke with

ten

tickets.

In the roads were so infested by highwaymen, and mails were so frequently stopped by the gentlemen in the black masks, that the post-master made a representation to the Bank upon the subject, and the directors in consequence advertised an issue of bills payable at

seven

days' sight,

The effect of the arrival, in , of Charles Edward at Derby, upon the National Bank, was alarming indeed. Its interests were involved in those of the State, and the creditors flocked in crowds to obtain payment for their notes. The directors, unprepared for such a casualty, had recourse to a justifiable stratagem; and it was only by this that they escaped bankruptcy. Payment was not refused, but the corporation retained its specie, by employing agents to enter with notes, who, to gain time, were paid in sixpences; and as those who came were entitled to priority of payment, the agents went out at door with the specie they had received, and brought it back by another, so that the holders of notes could never get near enough to present them.

By this artifice,

the Bank preserved its credit, and literally faced its creditors.

An extraordinary affair happened about the year . of the directors, a very rich man, had occasion for £, which he was to pay as the price of an estate he had just bought. To facili- State the matter, he carried the sum with him to the Bank, and obtained for it a bank-note. On his return home he was suddenly called out upon particular business; he threw the note carelessly on the chimney, but when he came back a few minutes afterwards to lock it up, it was not to be found. No had entered the room; he could not, therefore, suspect any person. At last, after much ineffectual search, he was persuaded that it had fallen from the chimney into the fire. The director went to acquaint his colleagues with the misfortune that had happened to him; and as he

In the early part of last century, the practice of bankers was to deliver in exchange for money deposited a receipt, which might be circulated like a modern cheque. Bank-notes were then at a discount; and the , jealous of Childs' reputation, secretly collected the receipts of their rivals, determined, when they had procured a very large number, suddenly to demand money for them, hoping that Childs' would not be able to meet their liabilities. Fortunately for the latter, they got scent of this plot; and in great alarm applied to the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough, who gave them a single cheque of on their opponents. Thus armed, Childs' waited the arrival of the enemy. It was arranged that this business should be transacted by of the partners, and that a confidential clerk, on a given signal, should proceed with all speed to the Bank to get the cheque cashed. At last a clerk from the appeared, with a full bag, and demanded money for a large number of receipts. he partner was called, who desired him to present them singly. The signal was given; the confidential clerk hurried on his mission; the partner was very deliberate in his movements, and long before he had taken an account of all the receipts, his emissary returned with ; and the whole amount of or was paid by Childs' in notes. In addition to the triumph of this manceuvre, Childs' must. have made a large sum, from Bank paper being at a considerable discount.

The day on which a forged note was presented at the forms a remarkable era in its history; and to Richard William Vaughan, a Stafford linendraper, belongs the melancholy celebrity of having led the van in this new phase of crime, in the year . The records of his life do not show want, beggary, or starvation urging him, but a simple desire to seem greater than he was. By of the artists employedand there were several engaged on different parts of the notes--the discovery was made. The criminal had filled up to the number of , and deposited them in the. hands of a young lady, to whom he was attached, as a proof of his wealth. There is no calculating how much longer Bank notes might have been free from imitation, had this man not shown with what ease they might be counterfeited. (Francis.)

The circulation of . notes led to much forgery, and to a melancholy waste of human life. Considering the advances made in the mechanical arts, small notes were rough, and even rude in their execution. Easily imitated, they were also easily circulated, and from the executions for forgery augmented to an extent which bore no proportion to any other class of crime. During years prior to their issue there was but capital conviction; during the following years occurred. The great increase produced inquiry, which resulted in an Act

For the better prevention of the forgery of the notes and bills of exchange of persons carrying on the business of banker.

In the year a judgment was given by the Lord Chief Justice in connection with some notes which were stolen from of the mails. he robber, after stopping the coach and taking out all the money contained in the letters, went boldly to a Mr. Miller, at the Hatfield post-office, who unhesitatingly exchanged of them. Here he ordered a post-chaise, with horses, and at several stages passed off the remainder. They were, however, stopped at the Bank, and an action was brought by the possessor to recover the money. he question was an important , and it was decided by the law authorities,

that any person paying a valuable consideration for a Bank note, payable to bearer, in a fair course of business, has an undoubted right to recover the money of the Bank.

A new crime was discovered in . The notice of the clerks at the Bank had been attracted by the habit of William Guest, a teller, of picking new from old guineas without assigning any reason. An indefinite suspicion-increased by the knowledge that an ingot of gold had been seen in Guest's possession-arose, and although he asserted that it came from Holland, it was very unlike the regular bars of gold, and had a large quantity of copper at the back. Attention being thus drawn to the behaviour of Guest, he was observed to hand Richard Still some guineas, which he took from a private drawer, and placed with the others on the table. Still was immediately followed, and on the examination of his money of the guineas in his possession were deficient in weight. An inquiry was immediately instituted. of the guineas in the charge of Guest looked fresher than the others upon the edges, and weighed much less than the legitimate amount. On searching his house some gold filings were found, with instruments calculated to produce artificial edges. Proofs soon multiplied, and the prisoner was found guilty. The instrument with which he had effected his fraud, of which of the witnesses asserted it

In an action interesting to the public was brought against the Bank. It appeared from the evidence that some stock stood in the joint names of a man and his wife; and by the rules of the corporation the signatures of both were required before it could be transferred. To this the husband objected, and claimed the right of selling without his wife's signature or consent. The Court of King's Bench decided in favour of the plaintiff, with full costs of suit, Lord Mansfield believing that

it was highly

cruel and oppressive

to withhold from the husband his right of transferring.

On the , Neale and Co., bankers, in , stopped payment; other failures resulted in consequence, and throughout the City there was a general consternation. The timely interposition of the Bank, and the generous assistance of the merchants, prevented many of the expected stoppages, and trade appeared restored to its former security. It was, however, only an appearance; for on Monday, the of the same month, may be read, in a contemporary authority, a description of the prevailing agitation, which

It is beyond the power of words to describe the general consternation of the metropolis at this instant. No event for

fifty

years has been remembered to give so fatal a blow to trade and public credit. A universal bankruptcy was expected; the stoppage of almost every banker's house in London was looked for; the whole city was in an uproar; many of the

first

families were in tears. This melancholy scene began with a rumour that

one

of the greatest bankers in London had stopped, which afterwards proved true. A report at the same time was propagated that an immediate stoppage of the greatest Bank of all must take place. Happily this proved groundless; the principal merchants assembled, and means were concocted to revive trade and preserve the national credit.

The desire of the directors to discover the makers of forged notes produced a considerable amount of anxiety to whose name is indelibly associated with British art. George Morland--a name rarely mentioned but with feelings of pity and regrethad, in his eagerness to avoid incarceration for debt, retired to an obscure hiding-place in the suburbs of London.

On

one

occasion,

he hid himself in Hackney, where his anxious looks and secluded manner of life induced some of his charitable neighbours to believe him a maker of forged notes. The directors of the Bank dispatched

two

of their most dexterous emissaries to inquire, reconnoitre, search and seize. The men arrived, and began to draw lines of circumvallation round the painter's retreat. He was not, however, to be surprised: mistaking those agents of evil mien for bailiffs, he escaped from behind as they approached in front, fled into

Hoxton

, and never halted till he had hid himself in London. Nothing was found to justify suspicion; and when Mrs. Morland, who was his companion in this retreat, told them who her husband was, and showed them some unfinished pictures, they made such a report at the Bank, that the directors presented him with a couple of Bank notes of

£ 20

each, by way of compensation for the alarm they had given him.

The proclamation of peace in , says Francis, was indirectly an expense to the Bank, although hailed with enthusiasm by the populace. The war with America had assumed an aspect which, with all thinking men, crushed every hope of conquest. It was therefore amid a general shout of joy that on Monday, the , the ceremonial took place. A vast multitude attended, and the people were delighted with the suspension of war. The concourse was so great that was opened with difficulty, and the Lord Mayor's coachman was kept hour before he was able to turn his vehicle. The Bank only had reason to regret, or at least not to sympathise so freely with the public joy. During the hurry attendant on the proclamation at the , when it may be supposed the sound of the music and the noise of the trumpet occupied the attention of the clerk more than was beneficial for the interests of his employers, notes of-- each were presented at the office and cash paid for them. The next day they were found to be forged.

In Mathison's celebrated forgeries were committed. John Mathison was a man of great mechanical capacity, who, becoming acquainted with an engraver, unhappily acquired that art which ultimately proved his ruin. A yet more dangerous qualification was his of imitating signatures with remarkable accuracy. Tempted by the hope of sudden wealth, his forgeries were the notes of the Darlington Bank. This fraud was soon discovered, and a reward being offered, with a description of his person, he escaped to Scotland. here, scorning to let his talents lie idle, he counterfeited the notes of the Royal Bank of Edinburgh, amused himself by negotiating them during a pleasure excursion through the country, and reached London, supported by his imitative talent. Here a fine sphere opened for his genius, which was so active, that in days he had bought the copper, engraved it, fabricated notes, forged the water-mark, printed and negotiated several. When he had a sufficient number, he travelled from end of the kingdom to the other, disposing of them. Having been in the habit of procuring notes from the Bank (the more accurately to copy them), he chanced to be there when a clerk from the paid in guineas, of which was scrupled. Mathison, from a distance, said it was a good ;

then,

I recollected him.

his friend Maxwell,

He had a reason for declining to answer. He was a citizen of the world, and knew not how he had come into it, or how he should go out of it.

It was his humour.

In the progress of the inquiry, the Darlington paper, containing his description, was read to him, when he turned pale, burst into tears, and saying he was a dead man, added,

Now I will confess all.

The conviction that some check was necessary grew more and more peremptory as the evils of the system were exposed. In years from the issue of. small notes, the number of convictions had been centupled. In the years of the present century, £-- were refused payment, on the plea of forgery. In the years preceding the appointment of the commission directed by Government to inquire into the facts connected with forging notes, nearly were presented, being an increase of per cent. In , the entire cost of prosecutions for forgeries was i£,, and in the last months of it was near . Sir Samuel Romilly said that

pardons were sometimes found necessary; but few were granted except under circumstances of peculiar qualification and mitigation. He believed the sense and feeling of the people of England were against the punishment of death for forgery. It was clear the severity of the punishment had not prevented the crimes.

The instance of fraud, to a great amount, was perpetrated by of the confidential servants of the corporation. In the year , Mr. Bish, a member of the Stock Exchange, was applied to by Mr. Robert Astlett, cashier of the , to dispose of some Exchequer bills. When they were delivered into Mr. Bish's hands, he was greatly astonished to find not only that these bills had been previously in his possession, but that they had been also delivered to--the Bank. Surprised at this, he immediately opened a communication with the directors, which led to the discovery of the fraud and the apprehension of Robert Astlett. By the evidence produced on the trial, it appeared that the prisoner had been placed in charge of all the Exchequer bills brought into the Bank, and when a certain number were collected, it was his duty to arrange them in bundles, and deliver them to the directors in the parlour, where they were counted and a receipt given to the cashier. This practice had been strictly adhered to; but the prisoner, from his acquaintance with business, had induced. the directors to believe that he had handed them bills to the amount of , when they were only in possession of . So completely had he deceived these gentlemen, that of the body vouched by their signatures for the delivery of the larger amount.

He was tried for the felonious embezzlement of bills of exchange of each. He escaped hanging, but remained a miserable prisoner in Newgate for many years.

In Vincent Alessi, a native of of the Italian States, went to Birmingham, to choose some manufactures likely to return a sufficient profit in Spain. Amongst others he sought a brass-founder, who showed him that which he required, and then drew his attention to

another article,

Alessi thought this a very profitable business, while it lasted, as he could always procure as many as he liked, by writing for so many dozen candlesticks, calling them Nos. , , or I, according to the amount of the note required. The vigilance of the English police, however, was too much even for the subtlety of an Italian; he was taken by them, and allowed to turn king's evidence, it being

In December John Nicholls received a letter from Alessi, stating that he was going to America; that he wanted to see Nicholls in London; that he required dozen candlesticks, No. ; twentyfour dozen, No. ; and dozen, No. . Mr. Nicholls, unsuspicious of his correspondent's captivity, and consequent frailty, came forthwith to town, to fulfil so important an order. Here an interview was planned, within hearing of the police officers. Nicholls came with the forged notes. Alessi counted up the whole sum he was to pay, at in the pound, saying,

Well, Mr. Nicholls, you will take all my money from me.

Never mind, sir,

it will all be returned in the way of business.

A curious scene took place in , at the Bank. On the of that month, a notice had been posted, stating that books would be opened on the , and following days, for receiving subscriptions to the amount of from persons desirous of funding Exchequer bills. It was generally thought that the whole of the sum would be immediately subscribed, and great anxiety was shown to obtain an early admission to the office of the chief cashier. o'clock is the usual time for public business; but at in the morning many persons were assembled outside the building, where they remained for several hours, their numbers gradually augmenting. The opening of the outer door was the signal for a general rush, and the crowd, for it now deserved that name, next established themselves in the passage leading to the chief cashier's office, where they had to wait another hour or , to cool their collective impatience. When the time arrived, a further contest arose, and they strove lustily for an entrance. The struggle for preference was tremendous; and the door separating them from the chief cashier's room, and which is of a most substantial size, was forced off its hinges. By far the greater part of those who made this effort failed, the whole being subscribed by the persons who gained admission.

In a very extraordinary appeal was made to the French tribunals by a man named J. Costel, who was a merchant of Hamburg, while the free city was in the hands of the French. He accused the general commanding there of employing him to get worth of English bank-notes changed, which proved to be forged, and he was, in consequence of this discovery, obliged to fly from Hamburg. He also said that Savary, Duke of Rovigo, and Desnouettes, were the fabricators, and that they employed persons to pass them into England, of whom was seized by the London police, and hanged. Mr. Doubleday asserts that some had caused a large quantity of French assignats to be forged at Birmingham, with the view of depreciating the credit of the French Republic.

Merchants and bankers now began to declare that they would rather lose their entire fortunes than pour forth the life which it was not theirs to give. A general feeling pervaded the whole interest, that it would be better to peril a great wrong than to suffer an unavailing remorse. petition against the penalty of death was presented, which bore names only; but those were an honourable proof of the prevalent feeling. The name of Nathan Meyer Rothschild was the ,

through whose hands,

more bills pass than through those of any

twenty

firms in London.

A principal clerk of of our bankers having robbed his employer of notes to the amount of , made his escape to Holland. Unable to present them himself, he sold them to a Jew. The price which he received does not appear; but there is no doubt that, under the circumstances, a good bargain was made by the purchaser. In the meantime every plan was exhausted to give publicity to the loss. The numbers of the notes were advertised in the newspapers, with a request that they might be refused, and for about months no information was received of the lost property. At the end of that period the Jew appeared with the whole of his spoil, and demanded payment. which was at once refused on the plea that the bills had been stolen, and that payment had been stopped.

The owner insisted upon gold, and the Bank persisted in refusing. But the Jew was an energetic man, and was aware of the credit of the corporation. He was known to be possessed of immense wealth, and he went deliberately to the Exchange, where, to the assembled merchants of London, in the presence of her citizens, he related publicly that the Bank had refused to honour their own

In the light sovereigns were called in. The total amount of light coin received from the to the was , and was the loss on each, taking an average of . The large sum of , in notes, was paid into the Bank this year. They had probably been the hoard of some eccentric person, who evinced his attachment to the obsolete paper at the expense of his interest. A few years afterwards a note came in which had been outstanding for about a century and a quarter, and the loss of interest on which amounted to some thousands.

And now a few anecdotes about bank-notes. An eccentric gentleman in , says Mr. Grant, in his framed and exhibited for years in of his sitting-rooms a Bank post bill for . The year he died, and down came the picture double quick, and was cashed by his heirs. Some years ago, at a nobleman's house near the Park, a dispute arose about a certain text, and a dean present denying there was any such text at all, a Bible was called for. A dusty old Bible was produced, which had never been removed from its shelf since the nobleman's mother had died some years before. When it was opened a mark was found in it, which, on examination, turned out to be a Bank post bill for . It might, it strikes us, have been placed there as a reproof to the son, who perhaps did not consult his Bible as often as his mother could have wished. The author of describes, in , of the servants of the Bank putting into his hand Bank post bills, which, before being cancelled by having the signatures torn off, had represented the sum of millions sterling. The whole made a parcel that could with ease be put into the waistcoat pocket.

The largest amount of a bank-note in current circulation in was . It is said that notes for each, and for , were once engraved and issued. A butcher who had amassed an immense fortune in the war time, went day with of these notes to a private bank, asking the loan of , and wishing to deposit the big note as security in the banker's hands, saying that he had kept it for years. The were at once handed over, but the banker hinted at the same time to the butcher the folly of hoarding such a sum and losing the interest.

Werry true, sir,

but I likes the look on't so wery well that I keeps t'other

one

of the same kind at home.

As the pays an annual average sum of to the Stamp Office for their notes, while other banks pay a certain sum on every note as stamped, the never re-issues its notes, but destroys them on return. A visitor to the Bank was day shown a heap of cinders, which was the ashes of of notes recently burned. The letters could here and there be seen. It looked like a piece of laminated larva, and was about inches long and inches broad, weighing probably from to ounces.

The losses of the Bank are considerable. In no fewer than persons were convicted, at a great expense, of forging small notes. In the yearly losses of the Bank from forgeries on the public funds were upwards of .

It is said that in the large room of the Bank a quarter of a million sovereigns will sometimes change hands in the course of the day. The entire amount of money turned over on an average in the day has been estimated as low as , and as high as . At a rough guess, the number of persons who receive dividends on the day of every half year exceeds , and the sum paid away has been estimated at .

The number of clerks in the was computed, in , at ; the engravers and bank-note printers at . The salaries vary from per annum to , and the amount paid to the servants of the entire establishment, about , upwards of . Some years ago the proprietors met times a year. directors sat daily in the Bank parlour. On Wednesday a Court of Directors sat to decide on London applications for discount, and on Thursdays the whole court met to consider all notes exceeding . The directors, , exclusive of the Governor and Deputy-Governor, decide by majority all matters of importance.

The (says Dodsley's excellent

For restoring efficiency to the Laws,

Authority to the Courts of Justice,

Dignity to the Parliament,

To all his subjects their Religion and Liberties,

And confirming them to Posterity,

By the succession of the Illustrious House of Hanover

To the British Throne:

To the best of Princes, William the

Third

.

Five Pound Note Office

Private Banking Department

Founder of the Bank,

This Corporation, from a sense of Gratitude,

Has erected this Statue,

And dedicated it to his memory,

In the Year of our Lord MDCCXXXIV.,

And the

first

year of this Building.

The entablature rests on fluted Corinthian columns, supporting statues, which indicate the quarters of the globe. The intercolumniations are ornamented by allegories representing the Thames and the Ganges, executed by Thomas Banks, Academician, the roses on the vaulting of the arch

On the death of Sir John Soane, in , Mr. Cockerell was chosen to succeed him in his important position. The style of this gentleman, in the office he designed for the payment of dividend warrants, now employed as the private drawingoffice, is very different to the erections of his predecessor. The taste which produced the elaborate and exquisite ornaments in this room is in strong contrast to the severe simplicity of the works of Sir John Soane.

Stow, speaking of St. Christopher's, the old church removed when the Bank was built, says,

Towards the Stokes Market is the parish church of St. Christopher, but re-edified of new; for Richard Shore,

one

of the sheriffes,

1506

, gave money towards the building of the steeple.

Richard at Lane was collated to this living in the year .

Having seen and observed the said parish church of St. Christopher, with all the grave-stones and monuments therein, and finding a faire tombe of touch, wherein lyeth the body of Robert Thorne, Merchant Taylor and a batchelor, buried, having given by his testament in charity

4,445 pounds

to pious uses; then looking for

Plan of Bank

The Specie Vault

Bank Parlour

some such memory, as might adorne and beautifie the name of another famous batchelor, Mr. John Kendricke; and found none, but only his hatchments and banners.

The court-room of the Bank,

is a noble apartment, by Sir Robert Taylor, of the Composite order, about 60 feet long and 31 feet 6 inches wide, with large Venetian windows on the south, overlooking that which was formerly the churchyard of St. Christopher. The north side is remarkable for three exquisite chimney-pieces of statuary marble, the centre being the most magnificent. The east and west are distinguished by columns detached from the walls, supporting beautiful arches, which again support a ceiling rich with ornament. The west leads by folding doors to an elegant octagonal committee-room, with a fine marble chimney-piece. The Governor's room is square, with various paintings, one of which is a portrait of William III. in armour, an intersected ceiling, and semi-circular windows. This chimneypiece is also of statuary marble; and on the wall is a fine painting, by Marlow, of the Bank, Bank Buildings, Cornhill, and Royal Exchange. An ante-room contains portraits of Mr. Abraham Newland and another of the old cashiers, taken as a testimony of the appreciation of the directors. In the waiting-room are two busts, by Nollekens, of Charles James Fox and William Pitt. The original Rotunda, by Sir Robert Taylor, was roofed in with timber; but when a survey was made, in 1794 it was found advisable to take it down; and in the ensuing year the present Rotunda was built, under the superintendence of John Soane. It measures 57 feet in diameter and about the same in height to the lower part of the lantern. It is formed of incombustible materials, as are all the offices erected under the care of Sir John Soane. For many years this place was a scene of constant confusion, caused by the presence of the stockbrokers and jobbers. In 1838 this annoyance was abolished, the occupants were ejected from the Rotunda, and the space employed in cashing the dividend-warrants of the fundholders. The offices appropriated to the management of the various stocks are all close to or branch out from the Rotunda. The dividends are paid in two rooms devoted to that purpose, and the transfers are kept separate. They are arranged in books, under the various letters of the alphabet, containing the names of the proprietors and the particulars of their property. Some of the stock-offices were originally constructed by Sir Robert Taylor, but it has been found necessary to make great alterations, and most of them are designed from some classical model; thus the Three per Cent. Consol office, which, however, was built by Sir John Soane, is taken from the ancient Roman baths, and is 89 feet 9 inches in length and 50 feet in breadth. The chief cashier's office, an elegant and spacious apartment, is built after the style of the Temple of the Sun and Moon at Rome, and measures 45 feet by 30.

The fine court which leads into Lothbury presents a magnificent display of Greek and Roman architecture. The buildings on the east and west sides are nearly hidden by open screens of stone, consisting of a lofty entablature, surmounted by vases, and resting on columns of the Corinthian order, the bases of which rest on a double flight of steps. This part of the edifice was copied from the beautiful temple of the Sybils, near Tivoli. A noble arch, after the model of the triumphal arch of Constantine, at Rome, forms the entrance into the bullion yard.

The old Clearing House of is thus described:--

In a large room is a table, with as numerous drawers as there are City bankers, with the name of each banker on his drawer, having an aperture to introduce the cheque upon him, whereof he retains the key.

A clerk going with a charge of £ 99,000, perhaps, upon all the other bankers, puts the cheques through their respective apertures into their drawers at three o'clock. He returns at four, unlocks his own drawer, and finds the others have collectively put into his drawer drafts upon him to the amount, say, of £ 100,000; consequently he has £ 1,000, the difference, to pay. He searches for another, who has a larger balance to receive, and gives him a memorandum for this £ 1,000; he, for another; so that it settles with two, who frequently, with a very few thousands in bank-notes, settle millions bought and sold daily in London, without the immense repetition of receipts and payments that would otherwise ensue, or the immense increase of circulating medium that would be otherwise necessary.

The illustration on page represents the appearance of the present Clearing House. The business done at this establishment daily is enormous, amounting to something like each day.

All the sovereigns,

returned from the banking-houses are consigned to a secluded cellar; and, when you enter it, you will possibly fancy yourself on the premises of a clock-maker who works by steam. Your attention is speedily concentrated on a small brass box, not larger than an

eight

-day pendule, the works of which are im-

Dividend Office

Bank Note Store Office

Weighing Office

Five Pound Note Office

pelled by steam. This is a self-acting weighing machine, which, with unerring precision, tells which sovereigns are of standard weight, and which are light, and of its own accord separates the

one

from the other. Imagine a long trough or spout-half a tube that has been split into

two

sections-of such a semi-circumference as holds sovereigns edge ways, and of sufficient length to allow of

two hundred

of them to rest in that position

one

against another. The trough thus charged is fixed slopingly upon the machine, over a little table, as big as the plate of an ordinary sovereign-balance. The coin nearest to the Lilliputian platform drops upo it, being pushed forward by the weight of those behind. Its own weight presses the table down; but how far down? Upon that hangs the whole merit and discriminating power of the machine. At the back and on each side of this small table,

two

little hammers move by steam backwards and forwards at different elevations. If the sovereign be full weight, down sinks the table too low for the higher hammer to hit it, but the lower

one

strikes, the edge, and off the sovereign tumbles into a receiver to the left. The table pops up again, receiving, perhaps, a light sovereign, and the higher hammer, having always

first

strike, knocks it into a receiver to the right, time enough to escape its colleague, which, when it comes forward, has nothing to hit, and returns, to allow the table to be elevated again. In this way the reputation of

thirty-three

sovereigns is established or destroyed every minute. The light weights are taken to a clipping machine, slit at the rate of

two hundred

a minute, weighed in a lump, the balance of deficiency charged to the banker from whom they were received, and sent to the Mint to be re-coined. Those which have passed muster are re-issued to the public. The inventor of this beautiful little detector was Mr. Cotton, a former Governor. The comparatively few sovereigns brought in by the general public are weighed in ordinary scales by the tellers.

The Bank water-mark-or, more properly, the wire-mark--is obtained by twisting wires to the desired form or design, and sticking them on the face of the mould; therefore the design is above the level face of the mould by the thickness of the wires it is composed of. Hence the pulp, in settling down on the mould, must of necessity be thinneron the wire design than on the other parts of the sheet. When the water has run off through the sieve-like face of the mould, the new-born sheet of paper is

couched,

This curious sort of paper is unique. There is nothing like it in the world of sheets. Tested by the touch, it gives out a crisp, crackling, sharp music, which resounds from no other quires. To the eye it shows a colour belonging neither to bluewove, nor yellow-wove, nor cream-laid, but a white, like no other white, either in paper and pulp. The roughfringy edges are called the

deckelled

a water-leaf

Dividend day at the Bank has been admirably described, in the wittiest manner, by a modern essayist in Household Words:--

Another public creditor,

appears in the shape of a drover, with a goad, who has run in to present his claim during his short visit from Essex. Near him are a lime-coloured labourer, from some wharf at Bankside, and a painter who has left his scaffolding in the neighbourhood during his dinner hour. Next come several widows--some florid, stout, and young; some lean, yellow, and careworn, followed by a gay-looking lady, in a showy dress, who may have obtained her share of the national debt in another way. As old man, attired in a stained, rusty, black suit, crawls in, supported by a long staff, like a weary pilgrim who has at last reached the golden Mecca. Those who are drawing money from the accumulation of their hard industry, or their patient self-denial, can be distinguished at a glance from those who are receiving the proceeds of unexpected and unearned legacies. The first have a faded, anxious, almost disappointed look, while the second are sprightly, laughing, and observant of their companions.

Towards the hour of noon, on the first day of the quarterly payment, the crowd of national creditors becomes more dense, and is mixed up with sub- Ghost in Bank of England Caricature=Old Lady of Threadneedle Street stantial capitalists in high check neckties, doublebreasted waistcoats, curly-rimmed hats, narrow trousers, and round-toed boots. Parties of thin, limp, damp-smelling women, come in with mouldy umbrellas and long, chimney-cowl-shaped bonnets, made of greasy black silk, or threadbare black velvet--the worn-out fashions of a past generation. Some go about their business in confidential pairs; some in company with a trusted maid-servant as fossilised as themselves; some under the guidance of eager, ancient-looking girl-children; while some stand alone in corners, suspicious of help or observation. One national creditor is unwilling, not only that the visitors shall know what amount her country owes her, but also what particular funds she holds as security. She stands carelessly in the centre of the Warrant Office, privately scanning the letters and figures nailed all round the walls, which direct the applicant at what desk to apply; her long tunnel of a bonnet, while it conceals her face, moves with the guarded action of her head, like the tube of a telescope when the astronomer is searching for a lost planet. Some of these timid female creditors, when their little claim has been satisfied (for £ 1,000 in the Consols only produces £ 7 10s. a quarter), retire to an archway in Jonathan's. From An Old Sketch. the Rotunda, where there are two high-backed leathern chairs, behind the shelter of which, with a needle and thread, they stitch the money into some secret part of their antiquated garments. The two private detective officers on duty generally watch these careful proceedings with amusement and interest, and are looked upon by the old fundholders and annuitants as highly dangerous and suspicious characters.

Among the curiosities shown to visitors are the Bank parlour, the counting-room, and the printingroom; the albums containing original notes, signed by various illustrious persons; and the Bank-note library, now containing million notes that have been cancelled during the last years. There is note for a million sterling, and a note for that had been out years.

In the early part of the century, when

the

Green Man

,

the Lady in Black,

White Lady of

Threadneedle Street

Is my brother, Mr. Frederick, here to-day?

No, miss, not to-day.

Give my love to him when he returns. I will call tomorrow.

[extra_illustrations.1.453.3] William Paterson

[extra_illustrations.1.459.2] Abraham Newland

[extra_illustrations.1.459.3] Buildings at the Bank of England, 1797

[extra_illustrations.1.466.1] Overend and Gurney Trial

[extra_illustrations.1.468.1] New Buildings-1797

[extra_illustrations.1.472.3] Discount Day