The Rutland weekly globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-11-14
Especial Correspondence Of the oLoBE.l
FOREIGN LETTER.
Commercial London.


walls of an enormous roman building in
yite the attention and cause the stranger
almost Involuntary to imagine the nature
of the mysteries which they shield. All
the world is at liberty to visit the public
halls and rotunda, but in order to probe
the wonderland behind the grated doors is
required a talisman in the shape of the
Lord Deputys signature upon an official
order.
The bank of England was founded in
1901 and grew out of loan of six million
dollars for the public service, but 1t was not
until the latter part of the last century that
Sir John Soane received the appointment
of architect, when part of the old build
ing was taken down and the bank, much as
it exists to-day, covering an irregular area
of eight acres, was completed. Fol the
sake of security the walls are without win
dows, all light being admitted through
heavily grated sby-lights in the roofs OF
rthe inner courts The entire edifice is in
the antique style, being at an end a copy of
the Temple of Sybil at Tivoli the arch
leading into the bullion yard being an im-
tation of that of Constantine, while roman
Baths contain the stock Offices
The various rooms halls and vaults, are
ranged about an open court in the center
of which is the plash of fountains and the
rustic of foliage keeping novel accompany
ment to the chink of gold and the rattle of
crisp bank notes.
The management of the bank is vested in
Governor with the qualification of TWEEN
ty-thousand dollars in stock, Deputy
Governor, and twenty-four directors, eight
of whom go out of office each year.
The fortunate bearer of ''an order is met
in the grand vestibule by an official in cho-
colate and scarlet broad-cloth, who CON
ducts the way to live drawing-room hung
in purple and mouve tints, termed the
"Blank Parour," where the directors meet
once in every week. In this chamber are
the reports examined and the profits adj
| justed which have accrued from the in
terest on eXchange-bills and on capital lent
to government; from discounts and the
allowance made for managing the public
debt
Near by are the FORCES in which the type
is cast from which the notes, checks and
bills are printed, while a spiral staircase
leads TO the upper regions where is the
crash and din of the presses which turn out
the valid bank notes. Although the vigil
lance in this department of the bank is ex
IRENE, yet, by "A wonderful arrangement,
the printing presses themselves are made to
register the number of each bill or note as
it appears, thus precluding the possibility
of fraud.
The guide leads on through vistas of
rooms and dim passages to an immense
hall in which the notes that have been once
used are returned to the bank, counted and
packed, by hydraulic pressure, into bales
which are placed in the library until the
expiration of seven years, when they are
consigned to the flames of furnace ex-
-pressly constructed for destroying this use
less paper.
Some five hundred clerks are here to be
seen engaged in sorting their several piles
of notes which, according to report, amount
to $4,000 per day.
Out of the rustic of the busy hall
and down the dark stone stairway and the
visitor is received into the sacred charge of
director who, Semper Uigilans, conducts
him into the silent bullion vaults, where
, piles OF coin burn with their own light and
scent the very air with their sickly, sweet
metallic odor
= Benumbed with the enormous display of
wealth one wonders in through the gas-lit
, asles between the closely ranged cars with
their loads of fifty bars, each containing in
its golden heart eight hundred sovereign
until massive door reveals the stacked
. bags Of coin lying in regal idleness await
= ing the touch of charmed hand to call
p, them into use. "Ininite riches in little
room :"
q Back again through the pavement of
gold with guard before and a guard be-
hind, to the dim entrance to the vaults,
where with the fresh air returns the con-
. | u
purse which is worth all the joy of the one
:. who ''heapeth up riches and knoweth not
who shall gather them"
} The amount of bullion in the possession
G of the Bank of England constitutes, to-
;, gcther with its securities, the assets which
d it places against its liabilities on account of
# circulation and deposits and the differ
1t ence about three millions, between the
Y several amounts is called the crest" or
l. guarantee fund, to provide for the contin-
IL gency of possible losses The gold is
o almost entirely obtained by the bank in the
l. bar-form, which is small brick weighing
d sixteen pounds Troy, and valued at eight
Il hundred pounds sterling
t, Separate apartments are devoted to the
/ process of weighing in which number of
+ admirably constructed balances are brought
e into requisition. Upon this hand is one
r which weighs bars of silver from fifty to
l. eighty pounds Troy on the other, gold
e coin is balanced in quantities varying from
IS a few ounces to twenty pounds.
II These instruments are very perfect in
n their action, easy of regulation and most
is durable But the marvle of perfection is
= attained by wonderful little scale, which
e charmed by its precision, the Shah of Per
= sin upon his late visit to England
d 1t consists in balance furnished with
glass weights, and weighs at the rate of 80
soyereigns per minute. The machine APP
7. pears to be a small brass box, within which,
: secure from currents of air, is the machin-
u cry. 1t is so contrived that upon receiving
; the sovelegns from long brass tube, one