such bank note, &e. guilty of felony, and shall be transported for 7 years. 41 Geo. 3. e. 39. s. 6, and 45 Geo. 3. c. 89. s. 7. But note the different wording as to the uttering.

In the first session of the fifteenth Parliament of Great Britain, and in the month of June, 1781, the last act of Parliament was passed for renewing the charter of the bank, upon condition that the company should lend to government 2,000,000l. at 3 per cent. for three years, to enable administration to pay off the like sum of the navy debt. Hav ing now finished what relates to the stock, I shall describe the nature of the mercantile money transactions at the bank.

And, first, whoever has a mind to keep cash with the bank, must give a specimen of his firm, in a book kept for this purpose, and apply to the first clerk of these accounts, commonly called the drawing accounts, who will give him a book, wherein his account is opened, which book he takes away with him, and for which it is customary to give half a crown; the person will likewise receive a parcel of checks, of whose numbers an account is taken by him that delivers them out, on which he is to draw on the bank, as he shall have occasion.

In the books, which are of several sizes, different columns are adapted for the entry of cash, paid and received; and also, for the entry of bills deposited till due, when they become cash to be passed forward, which is done the first time the book is carried to the bank, after they are received.

Whenever you have any cash to pay in, you carry ît to the bank, with your book, in which you have credit immediately given for it; and on the contrary when you want to pay, you draw the sum on one of your checks, in the following manner.

To the Cashiers of the Bank of England.

August the 21st, 1790.

PAY to Mr. A. B. or bearer, on demand, two hundred pounds, ten shillings, and two pence; for account of C. D.

£. 200: 10; 2.

Which is immediately complied with, and your account debited in the bank books; and whenever you are desirous of having your account examined, you carry your book, and leave it for a day or two in the Accountant's office; and on your taking it again, you will find every draught you have made, entered, and your checks returned you, cancelled and no money will be paid, either to yourself or your order, without such a draught, or what is called a write off, which are printed slips of paper, with blanks left for the sums wanted, and are always laying, with pens and ink, at a desk in the great hall, for every one to make use of at pleasure, and when filled up are as follows:

August the 21st, 1790. WRITE off from my bank book, one hundred and fifty-seven pounds, ten shillings and six-pence.

S. T.

. 157 10 6. Which you give to any one of the clerks sitting on the left hand going into the hall for that purpose, with your book, and he debits you the sum therein desired, and gives you money or notes for it, which you please; reserving the write off as a voucher.

If you have any accepted bills payable in London, and, to save yourself the trouble, have a mind that the bank should receive them, you must indorse, and carry them with

your book to the bank, and have them entered by the proper clerks, who sit at one end of the great hall; and after this deposit, the value will be carefully received, or the bills duly protested; if the former, their import will be credited in your account; if the latter, the bills will be returned, and the charges of protesting debited to you.

If you would have the bank pay any bills that are drawn on you, you may accept them payable at the bank; and in this case, you must, before they fall due, give the bank an order to pay them when presented, advising their consents, from whence, and by whom drawn, &c.; or you may, at the time of acceptance, write an order on them to the cashiers, as a draught, to pay them when due, though, besides this, a separate order must be left there for their discharge.

The bank will discount bills for any sum, if the holders and acceptors are to the Directors' satisfaction; the foreign ones after the rate of four, and inland at five per cent. per ann.; and in order to get this transaction effected, you must describe the bills on a slip of paper, with your's and the acceptor's names, and deliver it, with the bills, to a clerk who attends for this purpose in the same office where the checks are delivered, and he carries it to the committee, who either accept or reject the proposal, without assigning any reason for their behaviour; if the former, the money is immediately paid you by the proper clerk, with a deduction of the discount.

The bank will receive by way of deposit, from any person keeping cash with them, bullion, foreign specie, jewels, or any such effects that are not bulky, and take care of them till called for; but they will give no receipt with them, nor otherwise oblige themselves to be answerable for their safety; as they charge nothing for their clerks' attendance, either at their receipt or delivery, nor for the deposit; but they are sealed up, and ticketed with the name of their owners, &c. who may receive them in the same form they were delivered whenever they think proper.

No body is obliged to pay a personal attendance for any transaction with the bank, but may send another with their book of entries, &c. as most merchants do their clerks; and all possible dispatch is given to every one in their turn.

The bank, besides discounting bills, will advance money on government securities, or on a deposit of foreign specie, or bullion, but never on jewels or estates; and they will likewise buy gold and silver bullion, after assaying, Spanish dollars, &c. though seldom at so high a price as private purchasers, these latter often buying for their own use, but the bank by way of merchandize, on which a profit is expected.

The business of this Corporation was for many years carried on at Grocers Hall in the Poultry, though the first subscription was taken at the Mercers in Cheapside, whilst the other was getting ready, till they erected the spacious pile they at present occupy, in Threadneedle Street, where offices are appropriated for every branch of their employment; their cash, notes, and every thing of value, are preserved in the subterraneous vaults, to guard them from fire, and the whole building secured by very strong substantial fastenings; and since the dreadful riot in the month of June 1780, when an attempt was actually made to break in and rob the bank, a military guard has been appointed to do duty day and night, as regularly as in a garrison; the church adjoining to the bank, called St. Christopher le Stocks, having been purchased under a special act of Parliament, and pulled down, for the purpose of enlarging the building, and erecting a guardhouse and barracks for the military nightly guard; which works have been completed in a superb manner; and in the best style of modern architecture.

Here it may be proper to observe, that the public creditors of the nation, whose accounts are kept in books at the bank, need not be under any future apprehension of loss or confusion arising in their respective accounts from accidents happening to them at the bank. For, as the directors of the bank only undertake the management of the public funds, that is to say, the transfers, paying of interest, &c. for government, at their

540

THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

office, for the conveniency of the public; duplicates of all the books are deposited in his Majesty's Exchequer, at Westminster.

The Corporation is under the management of a Governor, Deputy-governor, and twenty-four Directors; of which latter, three attend from ten o'clock till twelve, Sundays and holidays excepted, for fourteen days together, and are then succeeded by the like number for the same term, till the whole have taken their rotation; and Thursday being their court day, the Governor, Deputy, and all the Directors meet, except such as are out of town, or are hindered by sickness, as they are very punctual and exact in their attendance on the business of the Corporation; for which the Governor has 2001. the Deputy 2001. and each of the Directors 150l. per anu. They are chosen yearly by a general court, out of the principal proprietors of bank stock, and are always gentlemen of large fortunes, but more respected and esteemed for their strict adherence to integrity and honour.

The qualification of the Governor is 4000l., of the Deputy-governor 3000l., and for the Directors 20001. bank stock, and that a person may be privileged to vote at their election, he must possess 500l. of the said stock.

As for the clerks, the regularity of their attendance is secured by excellent rules; amongst others, they are obliged to enter their appearance, at nine o'clock every morning, in a book kept in the great hall for that purpose, which book is carried into the parlour to the sitting Directors every day, and if any are found missing, inquiry is made if they are absent the whole day, or any part of it, and if proper reasons are not assigned for the failure of an hour's attendance, a fine is imposed. Sufficient security to the amount of 10001. is likewise taken for their fidelity; and in justice to those gentlemen, it ought to be recorded, that their celerity and exactness in the dispatch of business cannot be equalled by any set of men of the same denomination in any of the other public banks in Europe.

From the preceding account of the bank's establishment and direction, it will readily be seen how much easier affairs are transacted here than in any one of those established in foreign countries; in ours, no fines are extorted, no personal attendance required, nor any delays occasioned by shuttings-up, or non-attendance in the afternoon, as the Bank of England is never shut but three days in a year, Sundays excepted, and transacts business from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon, when that of the day ends, as to the receipt and payment of money; though the clerks have still about half, or three quarters of an hour's employ to balance the transactions of the day, which after the aforesaid hours, they immediately apply themselves to perform. Here is no obligation laid on any one to pay in bank money, or to be satisfied with bank notes; but every one is at liberty to insist on payment in the current coin of the kingdom; yet, as the former are the readiest payment, and a few minutes may convert them into cash, they are commonly preferred, especially for any large sum; so that our bank, compared with the most celebrated and best of the foreign ones, must in every shape be preferred by the mercantile part of mankind, as well as by those gentlemen whose large personal estates would make them at a loss sometimes for a place of security, if there were no bank subsisting to serve them. And if the comparison with the best abroad places our's in so advantageous a light, what shall we say, when we reflect on the shocking consequences of those unstaple and disreputable banks, particularly the Caise d'Escompte erected of late in France, where the fatal effects are felt to this very day? How ought every Englishman to thank Providence for his lot, in being a native of a country secured by the most wholesome laws, under the government of the best of Kings, and where every individual enjoys his property unmolested!

Of Bankers.

This is an employment of great antiquity, for there was a species of it among the Romans, though very different in the exercise of it from from what the practice is at present; in that famous empire, they were deemed public officers, who, as one may say, united the officers of exchangers, brokers, commissioners, and notaries, all in one; negociating exchanges, undertaking trusts, intervening in purchases and sales, and dextrously managing all the necessary acts and writings of so many different functions.

The bankers of the present times differ very widely from the above description, as those in foreign parts do even now from the English. However, it must be acknowledged that the Bank of England does not, in all respects, correspond with the idea of a national bank; if it did we should have no occasion for the business of private banking, of which we are to treat in this chapter. The discretionary power lodged in the hands of the Directors of the Bank of England admits a possibility of partiality in the great business of discounting, which may limit its utility, and cramp mercantile credit, and this should never be the case in a commercial country. Upon some occasions they have even suspended discounting for a time, whereas a general national bank ought to lay no restraint whatever, if the bills offered are good; that is to say, drawn by a known responsible man on persons of like responsibility, and endorsed by one or more of the same description. The only argument that can be brought against making the Bank of England, a general national bank, to answer all the purposes of banking is, the multiplicity of business they are already engaged in for government, on account of the national debt, in addition to the common business in the circulation of cash and notes. And certain it is, that by using proper precautions, the following class of men may be made nearly as useful as a national bank. In France, Holland, &c. they may more properly be termed remitters, as the principal part of their business consists in negociating exchanges; Mr. Savary calls them merchants, traders, or dealers in money, who make contracts and remittances thereof, and confine themselves to such transactions only we have also some gentlemen of great fortune, who act on the same footing here in England; but when we speak of an English banker, he is always to be understood as one acting in a different character and manner from those last mentioned; as these limit their traffic to what may properly be called banking; their dealings being similar to the bank's, and their advantages arising from the same negociations, only in a more limited degree; for their shops are the depositories or receptacles of their cus tomers' money, which is paid in and drawn out by the proprietors, as in the bank, at their pleasure; and the bankers will also discount bills, and advance money on such securities as the bank does, from which their business differs not materially; and though they have no public stock as the bank has, the profits arising from their negociations are their own.

Bankers are generally gentlemen of large estates and monied property, and though some have unhappily failed, it is an uncommon catastrophe, the business being certainly as lucrative as it is genteel.

The denominations was in England first given to some monied goldsmiths, in the Reign of King Charles the second, as will appear by the following paragraph in an act of Parliament made the 22d and 23d of that Prince's reign, viz. "Whereas several persons being goldsmiths, and others, by taking up or borrowing great sums of money, and lending out the same again for extraordinary hire and profit, have gained and acquired to themselves the reputation and name of bankers, &c." and their business, as

has already been said, is copied by the banks in all parts, though with very considerable additions and improvements.

By 6 Anne, c. 22. s. 9. during the continuance of the Bank of England, no company of private bankers are to exceed six in partnership.

The business of private banking having increased considerably of late years, and the lists of bankers, not only in London, but in every capital city and town in Great Britain, amounting to four times the number that subsisted when the last edition of this work was published, it is our indispensable duty to enlarge a little on so interesting a subject.

The principle upon which the public credit of Great Britain has been enlarged and supported, has been the free circulation of paper money; whether consisting of credit given in the books of accompt for annuities of various denominations in consideration of sums of money in specie paid for them; or in Exchequer, navy, or other bills, bonds, &c. being government securities. Also in maintaining and encouraging the acceptance of bank notes as equal in value to their amount in the current coin of the nation; thereby making such paper money as much the medium of our exchanges with each other, and even with some foreign countries, as gold and silver.

Private persons, availing themselves of the same principle, have been enabled to throw into the commercial circulation of the kingdom their own notes, bills, and other paper securities, and on this basis a great number of banking houses have of late years been established; a certain quantity of specie, however, proportioned to the extent of their paper credit is requisite for each house, that they may be ready to answer all demands for specie, where it is required to be given in exchange for bills become due; for their own notes issued payable on demand; or for the draughts of their customers who have deposited cash in their hands. We therefore plainly perceive in the first instance, that bankers ought to be men of considerable property.

Now let us state their great utility to merchants, shopkeepers, and many other classes of the people. In the first place, they will frequently discount bills for merchants and tradesmen, their customers, which the bank, from the smallness of the sums, or from the security not being generally known or acknowledged, will reject. If the banker is satisfied that his customer for whom he discounts is a man of considerable property, it is a secondary object only with him, whether the bills are drawn upon or accepted by persons equally responsible. And as the banker's profit consists in making as much interest of the monies laying in his hands uncalled for, as possible, without loss of time; discounting of course must constitute a great part of his business. And, if there were not a great number of bankers always ready to discount the bills that are circulated in trade, commercial credit would be stagnated, and the trading part of the nation would be thrown into a state of anarchy.

In many trades, great part of the business is transacted by notes or bills drawn to become due at remote periods-three, six, nine, and twelve months after date. If the holder of these could not convert them into cash, it would be impossible for him to go on, because his workmen must be paid weekly in cash. To exemplify this in one instance-A bookseller employs a printer and pays him with his note of hand at three months after date; he is perfectly satisfied with this transaction; but, if he receives payments chiefly in this manner, he must have an immense fortune indeed to be able to pay all his workmen weekly in cash. But by discounting the matter is easily settled, and the interest he pays for the advance of the money must be computed and deducted from his profit, which however will always bear a proportion to this circumstance.

But there is another superstructure of private credit, built upon the principle of public credit. What is become of the immense sums raised by three and four per cent. consolidated bank annuities and other government securities?-expended long since in