Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-06-13
THE BANK or ENGLAND.
A Great Panic-Bank Note Forgerfe

1
! The excitement in financial circles in this
| city during the past few days gives increasing
interest to the panics Of the past, not only in
this metropolis, but in countries abroad.
| There was a great panic in the Bank of Eng
| land in December, 1925, caused by the re-
domption of interest on E215 000 900 Of stock
held b. the public The Bank Of England
was acting as banker for the nation, and Of
fered to advance money to the holders of
stock to pay of their principal Investment.
| This was an Ella os spe"ulStion, and no less
| than G375, 900, 900, or over IL, 600 ZOO, 900,
was invested in all kinds of "bogns' stock
projects. In some ofthese schemes shares
of e100, on which only e5 had been paid,
| rose to premium of G40, yielding a profit
| of eight times the amount of money paid
Everything went merry as q marriage bell for
time, and large sums had been withdrawn
| from the Bank of England. reducing the
| gold IN its vaults from 9S, $50 600 in October,
1894, to G3, G24, $40 in February, 1926.
The panic began on the 9TH of December,
| 1925, when London bank fliled, Mt which
| the agencvtef over forty country banks was
transacted and such a reaction was the nee
| essary result of the previous madness Of
speculation. Lombard street and the vicin-
| itv of tho bank were filed with excited men
| aud women, some frightened ont Of their
wits, others raving like maniacs The scenes
witnessed in New York's financial centre the
| past week were of similar nature. The
| thousands of excited people we're waiting
| eagerly to withdraw their investments Next
| lay several other banks failed. The rush on
| the Bank Of England was terrific, but the
| Jerks kept paying away the gold in bag
containing twenty-five sovereigns each.
From 9 o'clock n. m. until ) p. m each dAr
| twenty-five clerks we're engaged counting ont
| gold, and as it would take that number Of
Jerks to count out ESQ, 600 in soveregns. if
| couu ted by hand plan was adopted by
which the telers counted Twenty-Five sover-
| eiGns into one scale and twenty-five into an.
other, and if the scales balanced they con-
| tnued until there were 200 sovereigns in
| each scale. In this way El 900 were paid
out in few minutes the weiget of 1000
| 'overeipns being twenty-one pounds, while
80 bank notes only weigh ore pound In
this way G3l7,000 in gold was ptiI out in
| upe hours to 'lamorous depositorS,
| Instead of contracting their issues the di
| rectors of the bank boldly extended them. In
one day they discounted 200 bills. On De-
| cember 8 the discounts at the bank amount
ed to CT, 800 900: on the 18th they were
| eli 500, 600. and on the Goth Gl5,GO0, 900 :
| December the circulation of the bank was
| eli, 500 090, and on the dav before Christmas.
| December "a, it was e2j. 500, 900 or the
enormous sum OF Gl27, 100000 Any kin d of
paper that was not absolutely worthless was
| discounted. Tremendous advances on depos-
| its of bills of exchange were made by the
bank, stock was entered as security, and eX-
chequer bills were purchased. The gallant
old institution weathered the storm, and on
the 26 of December gold began to come in
| slowly. During the latter part OF the panic
week forgotten box of one-pound notes
| containing zoo, 00O was discovered, and
| nj ho 4
rectors acknowledged that the forgotten boz
saved the commercial credit of the Bank o
England. There was only eG0l 900 in bul
| lion, and G426, 600 in coin, when the grea
| rush stopped. In February, 1897, when th'
bank suspended cash payments, there wa'
CT, 080, ITO in coin and bullion remaining il
the vaults.
| Fcrgerics on the Bank of England.
| In old times n great many men were hang
ed for forging Bank of England notes. II
one year it seems, about 1920, there wer
over one hundred persons convicted Of for
| gerry. and nearly nine hundred were convict
ee of having forged notes in their pockets
There are many citizens of New York
though well advanced in years-who can re
: member the time--the year 1slS-whel
twenty -four persons were hanged in on
year for forgeries on the bank In the yea
> 1903 there was great forgery committed b
, a man named Astlett, who was one of tn
, chief cashiers CT the bank The amount wa
so large that it frightened everybody. Asst
lett did his work so WELL by re-issuing ez
chequer bills, that he defraudeG the bank Gu
of cI20, 600 before the forgery was detected
One can imagine the general CONSERVATION
The old Governor of the bank nearly wen
} mad.
The biggest forgery, however, was Fauntle
roy's, in 1915, for e36O,O0O Faunteroy wa
t the head partner in bank in Berners street
2 London, that had dealings with the Band O
England As the bank that he belonged t
was in bad state, Fauntleroy, in order t
keep up its credit, went to work and forge
powers of attorney of lot of wealthy depos
tors, and sold out their funds yet, all tn
. time he had was working in this way, he wa
oaying dividends to the men he was robbine
But the crash came at last, and before tn
F )oico broke into Fauntleroys house the
ound n note breathing defiance against th
I lank for having refused to discount his a,
'eptances, and having thus destroyed tn
5 'redit Of his house. Fauntleroy was ..auge
'or his crime, and an eyewitness remark
hat all London was present at the execr
, | ion.
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f. The New SuDDiy oI rim