STORIES OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 10

STORIES OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

From a review of “ Chronicles of the Bank of England" we take the following : BANKING IN THE BATTLEFIELD. Of course the idea of any national bank at all originated with a Scotsman, William Paterson, of Skipmyre, Dumfriesshire. Of him the book has something that is attractive to say, as also of a deputygovernor who was shot dead in the bank’s service. It was Michael Godfrey who left England to make arrangements with the King for the conveyance of specie, when, in 1695, the allied armies were actively engaged in the siege of Namur. A cannon-ball from the ramparts laid the deputy-governor dead at the King’s feet, and his body was buried in St. Swithin’s Church, near the bank. THE OLD STORY. There are, of course, the inevitable stories of the South Sea Bubble. We are reminded of some present-day prospectuses and outside brokers by the case of one promoter of the time who had the effrontery to announce a “ company for carrying on' an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is ; every subscriber who deposits £2 per share to be entitled to £IOO per annum.” We have schemes of the same sort nowadays, but they are put forward with a little less bluntness. This enterprising individual received subscriptions amounting .to the sum of £2OOO in five hours, and on the next day he was nowhere to be found. How history repeats itself. A SILVER TINKERING PRECEDENT. During-the run on the bank the directors manage to stem the tide by stratagem. Persons in thei* employ were given notes to present for payment, and the cashiers paid these notes in sixpences. It was naturally a lengthened process, and it was lengthened by the fact that those who received the cash, after leaving the office, returned by another door and paid the money in again that the process might be repeated. The genuine holders of paper found a difficulty in even approaching the counter, and the trickery of the Old Lady on that occasion is almost as discreditable aS her recent silver flirtation. SOMETHING LIKE FORGERY. Only 80 years ago the punishment for forgery was death and the crime was as common as could be imagined. In 1817 the bank prosecuted 142 people in connection with it, and from 1800 to 1810 notes to the amount of over £IOI,OOO were refused as forgeries, and in 1818 forged notes were coming in at the rate of £BO,OOO per annum. “ Men were hung in strings. Monday mornings witnessed a waste of human life horrifying and disgraceful.” It is strange how manners have changed with times, but it does not seem so strange when we look at the frontispiece of this work representing the bank and adjoining buildings in 1790. The very heart of London has so changed in appearance in the century that there is scarcely a citizen who would recognise what the frontispiece is meant to repre sent were it not for the descriptive title. The great Fountleroy forgeries wero, of course, not of notes, but of powers of ! powers of attorney. He was hanged, {having swindled the bank out of £360,000. , ALLOTMENT AND REGRET. They knew gilt-edged securities at the time of these forgeries as well as we know them now, and showed it more graphically than we do. In 1818 an issue of seven millions sterling of Exchequer bills was announced. The rush at the bank to subscribe personally was indescribable. Many people assembled outside as early as two o’clock in the morning. When at last the office was opened at ten o’clock there was a tremendous crush for admission, end the very door 1 was forced off its hinges. The beauty of ' it is that the whole seven millions was 1 subscribed by the first ten persons who ' reached the counter. It was a case of - letters of regret with a vengeance. THE OLD LADY’S YOUNG LADIES. ) We need not further indicate the items ! of general interest which are given in [ these “ Chronicles of the Bank of Fngr land," by Mr B. ,B. Turner. We need ■ not tell how £IOB,OOO was left) in a cab,

or how the Credit of the idank of England and of the nation was saved duririg A panic only seventy years ago by the accidental discovery in the nick of time of a misplaced box of one-pOund notes. Let us conclude with the toast of the ladies. An innovation was made three or four years ago by the employment of female labour in the clerical work of the great institution. Miss J. E. Hogarth was engaged to be the superintendent of the feminine staff, and she soon presided over somo twenty women clerks. It needs no compliment more delicate and convincing than to say that the number has since been doubled.