Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-24


causes the premium on its stock to be SO
great. At the time / have just referred to,
its rate of Discount was two per cent only.
/ One great part of its bushes is the man
agement of the National Debt of England.
That, last Summer, amounted to G769, 541,
900. In the Bank premises there are ten
rooms entirely devoted to this part of the
Banks business, and 40 clerks are con-
stantly employed in keeping and checking
the books. When the dividends are paid
the services of so additional clerks are
called into requisition. The keeping OF
accounts involves the constant employ
ment of about 1, 700 ledgers, transfer books,
dividend books, powers of Attorney cases.
and others. The whole of these are now,
and have been, reGgiously preserved from
the first establishment of the Bank in 1894.
The Stock office Library contains more
than 100, 900 of these curious records of the
past The first book opened by the Direc-
tors of the Bank, and others which include
the names of original subscribers, and the
amounts for which they have subscribed
in every government loan, are in this vast
Library. The thick volumes of these title
deeds are all in excellent condition, and by
reference to their contents the title of
every person who has ever been possessed
of government stock, can be readily
graphs, Kings, Queens, Emperors States
men, Historians, some few fortu-
nate Poets, successful soldiers, great
lawyers, and. men and women of high
renown, and others of great notoriety
are bound up in these volumes, but no
public reference to them is permitted,
save and except by those who are connect
cd with the stock office. Every transaction
that has taken place at any time in the
transfer of any portion of the National
Funds is clearly and distinctly recorded in
these silent volumes. Tie number Of trans
fers Of Government Stock executed in 1866
was 176, 600. Each of these transfers re-
quires two alterations OF existing accounts,
the amount transferred having to be taken
from one account aud placed to new &C
count. The whole of the work, however,
is carried on without b single error, and as
dividend after dividend becomes due, the
stakeholder receives his money with unfail-
ing punctuality, and with an accuracy
which admits of no suspicion or doubt.
Another department Of great interest is
the library of cancelled notes, which covers
an enormous area under the officers of the
Bank. These CatacOmbS are filled with
wooden racks, in which are placed more
than 1000 deal boxes of about one foot
in height and breadth, and Is inches in
length In these boxes or collins, lie care
fully packed bundles of assorted notes,
and on the outside are painted certain let
ters and figures, which, to tho officers of
these gloomy abodes, tell of the date and
rank Of the deceased. These notes arc
kept for seven years before being laid
away in this vault, and SO complete is the
arrangement, that any single note, the date
and number Of which may be known, can
be produced ia five minutes by the person
in charge of this department.. The nominal
value of these buried notes, at the present
time, exceeds 93, 600, 000,000 the actual
number of notes being about ore hundred
millions. Strange and curious instances of
the longevity of some of these fimsy bank
notes are constantly occurring, and their
history, if one could trace them, would af-
ford abundant materials for romance. One
pound notes, which have long since passed |
away from circulation in England and !
which are now mainly associated in the |
minds of the people of that country with |
forgery and capital punishment, present |
themselves for recognition and payment at |
the average of abouttwo permonth. During
the thirty years preceding that of the abo- |
htion of capital punishment for forgery,
there were not less than 1876 convictions |
for this crime, the majority e forgeries
being of one pound notes, and of the per-
sons so convicted 628 were hung in various
parts of the country. Last year a two
pound note, kind of which very small
number were printed at the commence
ment of the present century, presented
itself to claim its long promised two sover-
eigns of gold. Some are worn to almost
rags, the amount of the
note has disappeared, but the date and
signature afford the clue to it's identifica-
tion in the Bank Ledgers The Oldest
note in the possession of the Bank of Eng
land is one of 1893. A twenty-tiv pound .
note of more than century old, was pre-
sented a short time ago, when it was calcu-
lated that the compound interest on its
amount, supposing it to have been recover
able, would have exceeded $4,000.
1t is right to add that [ obtained some of |
these statements at the Bank, and some
from trustworthy papers. T. A.
The CIRCUS The circus is certainly coming
and for further evidence of the fact we refer our
readers to an advertisement in another column
from which can be gathered all the particulars.
The following notice of this "Show" is taken
from the National IateNigepcer d:
Bdr,urn and Van An,b,ugh's Menageyie and
body is asking everybody if everybody is going to !
the great show, and everybody answers &c Yes"
So, we presume, everybody is aware that 1.-THE |
show" is coming. In further evidence of the
fact. refer readers to the advertisement in
another column, from which they will learn all the
particulars. and become acquainted with the
varied attractions offered to please all tastes
n q fulI pf