The advocate., 1891-09-30

government. For long period the bank
had experienced a pressure for money,
owing partly to the demand for gold and
silver, which resulted from the distress OF
commerce, and partly to the great drains
upon the specie of the country, which the
extensive loans to the imperial government
had OCCasiOned. So early as January, 1895,
the influence Of these causes was 80 severely
felt that the bank directors informed the
chancellor Of the eXChequer that it was
their wish that he so arrange the finances
as not to depend on any further assistance
from them; and during the whole of that
and the following year the peril Of the con-
tinued advances for the imperial loans was
strongly and earnestly represented to the
government. The pressure arising from
these causes, severely experienced through
the whole of 1895, was brought to q crisis in
the close of that year by the run upon the
country banks, which arose from the dread
Of invasion and the anxiety of every man
TO convert hispaper into cash in the troubled
times which seemed to be approaching.
These banks, as the only means Of averting
bankruptcy, applied from all quarters to
the Bank Of England, the panic speedily
gained the metropolis, and such was the
run upon the establishment that they were
reduced TO payment in SixpenCeS, and were
on the verge Of insolvency, when an order
in council was interpOsed for their relief
suspending all payments in cash until the
sense Of parliament could be taken upon
the best means Of restoring the circulation
and supporting the public and commercial
credit of the country. This great and mo-
mentous measure, frsught with such lasting
and important consequences to the pros
perity and fabric Of society in Great Britain,
was Immediately made the subject of
anxious and vehement debate in both houses
Of parliament.
y y
A bill for the restriction of payments in
specie was introduced, which provided that
bank notes should be received as q legal
tender by the collectors of sa1es, and have
the effect Of stopping the issuing Of arrest
on mesne process for payment of debt be-
tween man and man. The bill was limited
in it's operation to the oath of June; but it
was afterward renewed from time to time,
and in November, 1877, continued until the
conclusion of general peace; and the obli-
cation on the bank to pay in specie was
never again imposed till Mr.. Peel's act in
1919. Such was the commencement of the
paper spstem in Great Britain, which ulti-
mately produced such astonishing effects,
which enabled the empire TO carry on for 80
long period 30 costly a war and to main
tain for years armaments greater than had
been raised by the Roman people in the
zenith Of their power, and which brought
the Struggle at length TO triumphant issue
and arrayed all the forces of eastern Europe,
in English pay, against France, on the
banks Of the Rhine.
It hwould be to little purpose that the
mighty drama Of the French revolutionary
wars was recorded in history if the main
spring of all the European efforts, the
British finances, were not fully explained.
Il was in their boundless extent that free
dom found q nsvsr-failing stay; in their
elastic power that independence obtained q
permanent support. When surrounded by
the wreck Of other nations, when surviving
alone the fall of 30 many cOnfederacies, it
was in their ineXhaustible resources that
England found the means of resOlutely
maintaining the contest and waiting calmly,
on her citadel amid the waves, the return of