| on | ®& j 2. ‘ ; | y . e , 22 wai oC e, a memennenen Neen eee rere eee eee aaeeneenenneneenaennese a 7 . lee Pt og — ee ERT eT alee MEN —HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC, MAY SPEAK FREE.” —EunriPipes. 3 be ; * coanlnehideaenind todd oes pans " ——— aa piaiieinaiaeinense peer ery are tr ce santa tana ena a EEE tence es odes enimmeaienleemimmneedadedepeaer pe a . V OL. TL] toammee scale. Sails oc HARLOT TETOWN, P. E. ISLAND, MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1848. [No. 54. / ? (From Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal, July 22, 1248.) —_ | roving expeditions of the buccaneers, either as a specta-jof the old goldsmiths, although that was only a few years | HISTORY OF THE BANK OF £& NG tot or comrade in their adventures. On his return to|before, wheri the ministry was now and then obliged to ; LAND.* | Europe, he brought into the affairs of everyday life a/solicit the Common Council for an advance of one or two hundred thousand pounds on the land tax, at ten or

work of this title has come under our notice, whieh.) jnagination fired by the stories related by the wild

brain heated by such an education of circumstances, end

twelve per cent., and when the common councilmen

is full both of amusement and instruction—amusement > ai’ : . men of the sea of mines of gold and gems, and rivers themselves went round frony house to house in their re-

was of a romantic character, and instruction of that) with Pactolean sands. His Darien scheme we can only| kind vere preret we the yr rather by U8-!aliude to. Rejected in England, and in various conti- aoa a se = ae 4 Tm nental countries, it met with so warm a reception among | ceneral and popular idea of the history of the great in ad BE, Ay Serr een ener gene 8 r \scribe to the Company, as Sir John Dalrymple tells us stitution referred to; and we shall thus be able to afford | with an eagerness not exceeded by that with which 2 better notion of the varied contents of the work than ‘they siwned ithe Solemn League brag c uid Every | g g :

we could hope to give by means o oe y f the scanty extracts offort was made to crush the Company at the outset,

to which our space would limit us. | more especially by the English ministry and parliament,

Durin Civi -

ha ing o nue when our merchants were un ‘who, among other reasons for their hostility, feared that willing to be robbed for the good of the state, they were |j¢; ae aie heal ineliehasliods thalee so hei ‘ifit succeeded, the Scotch would in time become so iedeiemiaindh aie a pangs Pye ~ own houses powerful as to separate themselves entirely from Eng- cited * see 2 renee and apprentices jand, Nevertheless, in 1698, twelve hundred colonists,

metimes of a more patriotic character. Nothing) under the conduct of Paterson himself, sailed from Leith, would satisfy them but a share of the blows that were} anq arrived in due time at the golden isthmus, where going; oo in order to be able to serve their country,! instead of unheard-of treasures, they met only vith die. they made no scruple of carrying off the money intrust- ial a r mn a rm ot meherirgn Yy ‘ . St- | ease, famine, the sword, and above all, the determined sak rt p. usually NaP-! hostility of the English government, which issued pro- pames Yat ney Were, Qovers EWES heard of. This made} ¢lamations in the West !ndies, forbidding supplies to be the merchants who had still anything to lose, and th ' furnished to the Scotch at Daricn. The result was, that servants who were honest, and still trasted, very uneasy they were obliged to abandon the colony; and of the . ; 9

under sucha charge ; and it became the custom, for the | whole, only thirty, including the projector, ever aaw sake of security, to lend whatever money was not 1M USC | asain the pier of Leith. Such was the originator of the : pe 9 D to the wealthy goldsmiths. ‘The rich were glad to make) Bank of England, which, inspite of the most violent the deposit without interest ; but more necessitous per- |g nosition from goldsmiths, bankers, usurers, atid poli- sons received fourpence per cent. per diem, and the ticjans, was incorporated by royal charter four years

goldsmiths realised a handsome profit by lending at “ earlier than the Darien expedition, on the 27th July, much higher usance to persons of real solidity, whose} 1g94, pecuniary matters were embarrassed by the troubles of

the time. By and by they extended their business ; they | a a oieiet Sa raat Aare ’ ’ "

: ills ; Ice ' discounted bills; they advanced money to government), g, and Genoa: the first three being merely estab-

on the security of the taxes; and the receipte for the|,. y ? P ‘lishments for the convenience of the merchants, and the

cash lodged in their houses passed current from hand | Soha : hand under the name of Goldsmiths’ Notes. Th |last eonnected likewise, for its own advantage, with the eee a ae oT © | state by means of a perpetual fund of interest on public voldsmiths, in fact, became bankers, till the two busi- P g ’ » ; ‘loans. It was on the model of this Genoese bank that nesses were separated by Mr. Francis Child. On the} ,, . | , ithe Bank of England was planned, which began business site of his banking-house stood formerly the shop of Mr. |. : : ° _ = ' ‘in Mercers’ Hall, and then removed to Grocers’ Hall William Wheeler, goldsmith and banker, with whom |) 0 thetw ih: {thild was an apprentice. The apprentice married his where the twenty-four directors and fifty-four secretaries Ch an app | Oe PP we Sand clerks were seen at work together in a single great master’s daughter, as was frequently the case in the’ ve yee 6 BU gO Ner a ee ‘room. The salaries at this time amounted to £4350; sood old times; and at the death of his father-in-law, | : . icine the shop. he established a great banking business and it appears that interest of three or four per cent. sinking th Ps : 2 S > was allowed upon depésits. Paterson was } irec- which remains in full activity and undiminished respec- |; ' P Neale a ahead headbeaan bility ‘no thie day ition only one year, when, after his ideas had been made {a - o ; . . . m use of, ‘the friendless Scot was rnec lhe exact date of the commencement of this concern oat a 2 seat alt dew “to oe eae - -s not known, but its existing books go bank to the year ; : J ae j rit. 1829. Hoares’ began in 1687, and Snows’ in 1685; 1owever, are not the words of Mr. Francis, who is in- a shoot the latter date a Bank of Credit was Sete ter to receive with caution such easily made accusa- ‘tions. Godfrey, the zealous coadjutor of Paterson,—

spective wards for the loan of money.

The convulsions produced by the South Sea Scheme in #720 did not affect the Bank of England unfavourably. On the contrary, by the subsequent purchase of four millions of the stock of that illasive concern, it cleared above £600,000. In 1722, by a new subscription, th capital of the Bank was increased to £9,000,000 ; anc at the same time was commenced the well-known REs7. or reserve fund laid aside for casualties, which has in- creased with the increase of the business, and has fre- guently proved of great service. In 1726 we find that no notes were circulated of less value than 20/. ‘I'he Bank removed in 1734 from the hall of the Grocers Company, and established themselves ih Threadneedle Street, on the site of the house and garden of Sir John Houblon, first governor of the establishment. The new office was comparatively a small stracture, almost inv sible to passers-by, being surrounded by private dwelling houses, a church and three taverns. In 1742 the charter was reconstructed, and forgery on the Bank, and trust- breaking on the part of its servants, were declared capital felonies. In the famons ‘forty-five, when the Highland army was at Derby, and London in momentary expectation of being sacked, we find the Qld Lady of Threadneedle Street employed, somewhat indecorously, in warding offa run upon her, by employing her own adherents to present themselves foremost of the crowd with notes, for which they were paid in sixpences. This gained much precious time, without the sacrifice oi specie; for the friendly creditors, making their exeunt by another door, immediately returned their small change to the treasury. About the same time she at- tempted @ meaner, as well as a less suceessful trick upon her rival Childs’, by collecting about half a million of their receipts, and sending them in at a single blow. The wary bankers, however, had got scent of the plot, and were ‘provided with a cheque upon the enemy for 700,000/., drawn by the celebrated Duchess of Mar'!- borough. When the notes were presented ina great bag, they were examined singly, to give time for the cheque to be cashed in Threadneedle Street ; and the malicious Old Lady was then paid in her own notes, which, chancing at the time tobe at aconsiderable dis- count, a large sum was made by Childs’ upon the trans- action.

The first forgery tok place in 1758, after the Bank had freely circulated its notes for sixty-four years. The criminal was Richard William Vaughan, a Stafford

. but does not appear to hav e met with success. The want fo, between these two the Bank may be said to have ofa great bank was so sensibly felt, that the idea became, heen catablivhedciuet Wil @ eabder fate. “After as brief’ . . . bd i. 2 | -~ ; * ignis-fal wus - gg ON and was a : mae acareer. He undertook the difficult task of carryimy aa by projectors. vo is wer mt vo " neg sPecie to William at Nemur, and while in conversation was thought of, but money. Lottery upon lottery timed with the king in the trenches, was killed by @ onion ‘he heads of the people. Engulfed treasures were to,).), 1 F

»e rescued from the bottom of the deep ; pearl-fisheries, -* * PHA were to pay impossible per centages; joint-stock com-| , e irectors had at first no fixed remuneration, but . ‘ } ’ , panies juggled and cheate 4 da ah example to later Lineal mitted to what the general court chose to allow them. ‘Dividends were pai? quarterly; and so small was the

linendraper, who was tempted to the deed by nothing more than a desire to pass for a rich man. At this time it was decided that the Bank was liable for the amount of stolen notes. In the following year, 15. and 10/. notes were circulated for the first time, in consequence of an unusual scarcity of gold and silver. During the Gordor riots, we find the Bank engaged in actual war- fare, with the old inkstands cast into bullets, and the clerks with swords by their sides instead of pens behinc

At this moment an individva! rose conspicuously amid) : aie’ : by the crowd, whose teeming brain originated the Bank of, usiness, that in 1696, according to an account Seen)

“nolend.* and the fatal Darien expedition. ‘to parliament, the balance in favour of the Bank was a. s ie ¥ ‘ : R a fi : : ;

William Paterson was a native of Dumfriesshire, and |OUly £120,315 2s, Indeed, for the first ten years, it was was educated for the church; but although he visited 22g2ged in a struggle for existence, and so low in its

the West Indian islands on pretext of converting the

their ears. Military were posted within the walls lest matters should coine to extremity ; two assaults of the

lrioters were repulsed with great gallantry, Wilkes rush-

ing out during the pauses of the fray, and dragging i

treasure, that it was sometimes obliged to cash, by|some of the ringleaders with his own hafids. Severa:

heathen, it is supposed that he attached himself to the

« History of the Bank of England, its Times and Tracitions. By John Francis. 2 vols. Third edition. London: Wilough- by. 1948.

- Patterson is also generally represented as the origimtor of the Bank of Scotland, which was established by an act of the scottish pasiiament ia 1695. We snail. by aad by shov some seasons for doubting his alleged concern in the originof thus

a JL.

‘quarterly instalments, notes payable on demand. A new charter vas granted, extending to 1700, and on such favourable terms, that we hear of great fortunes being made, and one of £60,000 by a bank director. The public at the same time was benefitted by the lowering of interest, running notes and bills being discounted at three per cent., and money advanced on merchandise at

persons were killed, and many wounded in this skirmish which inspired the directors with so wholesome a caution that 2 military guard have ever since passed the night in the interior of the establishment. The officer on duty has a capital dinner for himself and two frends, and the hopitality of the City is said to be highiy ap- preciated.

four percent. This was a great change from the time} The Bank suffered more on ar occasion of an opposite

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