The National Register.
London, England, 1820-07-16 00:00:00

No. 1,254—V0t. XIII.]

NEW BANK-NOrE-ACT.

The drudgery of an Editor can only bo compen-
sated by the influence he possesses, and this influence
is never so valuable to a well-constituted mind as

when it affords an opportunity to rescue from obli-
vion a Genius worthy of noon-dap-splendour, or to
mark for execration the unworthy attempts of a
leviathan Power to enrich itself by the €gis of
security offered to it by neglected talent. The
Petition presented to the House of Lords on Thurs-
day last by the Earl of Lauderdale, which we insert
by itself hereafter, because it possesses too much of
good to follow the general channel of what is usually
arranged under the head of " Parliamentary Intel-
ligence," may be quoted in proof of the truth of our
position. The Petitioner, Mr. Alexander Tilloch,
rs no commterstenr-bis inventive genius is peculiar
—his ability is not co4ned to the mechanical exhi-
bition of art and excellence, for his literary acquire-
ments are such as to justify his competition with
the first Argumentators of the age ; and what good
he might have rendered to society and to human
nature by the invention in question, we leave to
our readers to deduce from the plain statement of
the feet which appeared on his Petition, that in the
year 1797 be proposed to the Bank of England the
very means for the prevention of Forgeries, which,
in 1820, they are on the eve of adopting. Gracious
God! how many hundred victims have, in the
interim, been offered up to the offended laws of their
country on the shrine of the cool, calculating, saving
cupidity of Threadneedle-street. " The Governor
and Company" have the power of contradicting the
statement, if it be not founded in fact ; if it be true,
we thank most fervently that Supreme Power by
which our influeenee was circumscribed within the
limit beyond which . ovc sedulousness or neglect
"night, during the last 23 years, have saved or sacri-
ficed the lives of thousands of our fellow-creatures.
. The Petition presented by the Earl of Lauderdale
was as follows:--.
" TO THE XT. HON. THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEM*
POTLAL Or THE UNITED KINGDOM Or GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED:

TOZZIMILZ ?LTITIOI OP ALIZIAXDZO TILLOCH, OP
ISLINGTON,
"AtWelk
" That it the year 1797, your Petitioner presented 'to
the Bank of England P Specimen of a .Plan of Engrain,
calcabsted to prevent the forger .of Bank Notes, accom-
panied with a certificate, signed by Messrs. Francis Bar-
toloal, James Heath, Thomas Holloway, William Sharp,
J. Landseer, James Fittler, William Byrne, James Haire,
William Lowry, and other eminent engravers, stain,
each for himself, that May could not maks a copy *fit,' and
that My did not believe that it could be copied by any IT the
known dos of Engraving ;' and recommending it to the
notice of the Bank of England., as an Art of great merit
and ingenuity, calculated not merely to detect, but to
premise-the forgery of Bank Notes.
"That the mild specimen was executed iu consequence
of a written permission of Mr. Giles, then Governor of
the Bank of England, and on a verbal promise from him,
that your Petitioner should be well remunerated by the
Bank if his specimen could not be copied, or possesses'
the advantages which your Petitioner ascribed to his
or!, and at all events that he should be paid fur his troo-
ble and expenses.
" That the Hank Engraver (then a Mr. Terre) said lie
could copy it, and in about three *with thereafter did
produce what he called a copy.
"That on the Ath of July, Mr 7, the said pretended copy
was examined before a Committee of the Rank Directors,
by Messrs. Heath, Piffle'', Byrne, Sharp, Landseer, and
Lowly, all Regrows of the fiat eminence. who all de-
clared that the preteuded copy was no mote like the uri•
Mind, than a brass counter was like a guinea.
"That such of the Engravers as had signed the first
mentioned certificate having, after the said examination,
also compared the said pretended copy with the original,
also gave your Petitioner certificates to the same effect.
"'That the Bank rejected the plan offered by your Pe-
titioner, followed their old plan for upwards of twenty
years longer. to the great corruption of public morsls,aod
sacrifice of human lire, and never paid your l'etitiouer
any remuneration.
That on the appointment of a Royal Commission in
the year Itfltl, to examine and report ou the best nieces
for the prevention of forgery, your Petitioner hid before
the said Cummissiimers another specimen of Iris art, and
exhibiting some improvement ; and stated to them, that,
not being a professional artist, these specimens (notwith-
standing their certified merit) could give but an imperfect
idea of the perfection of which your Petitioner', art was
susceptible; and also that the specimens offered to the
and to the CODilltilaiollCl4 were nut intended as the
form of Note that should be adopted, but only to illus-
trate your Petitioner's art, and the variety of executisin
of which it was susceotible. . • •
.",Tbet your Petitioner itla sine 'mot, and behaves in
fact, that the plan now adopted by the Bank, I. the italfka

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