Arizona republican., 1903-02-23

inueeQ the moving spirit Of the scheme, and that Paterson was his official tool and mouthpiece at the weekly meet ings and famous gatherings of finan- ciers known as the Wednesday club Vain was it for the Jacobites of that day to denounce the bank as a revo- luticnary institution through which all the wealth of the nation would go into the hands of the sovereign The only concession that the Tory malcon- tents were able to obtain from the government was a law that remains in force to this day-that the bank should not lend money to the king CT the government except by consent of both houses of parliament.
 Blood-red in the annals of the bank lives the story oi Charles Walter God frey. partner of Paterson Crossing the channel in the teeth of fierce storm and laden with f60,CO0 in drafts for the aid of King William, at that time besieging NaTnur against the forces of the Fourteenth Louis. God frey insisted on his right to deliver the warrant for the money into the hands of the king, who was then in the trenches. under a hot fire. And as, with humble obedience. he handed the paper to his taciturn majesty. saying in response to the kings gruff remon- strance: Am l, then. more exposed to danger than you. sir?'' a cannon ball swept his head away
 Over the massive fireplace in the di- rectors' room stood some years ago three rusty specimens of the old Brown Bess, together with number of roughly shaped bullets. In these relics is embodied a picture of that dreadful night in the November of I7S0 when the mob of Gordon rioters marched down from Newgate and ad- Vanced with a force of five thousand upon the bank. Then it was that the clerks armed with muskets. remem- bered that they were unprovided with shot. Before them lay rows of leaden inkstands, mutely suggesting the pos abilities of new use. In less than half an hour the inktands had been melted and turned into bullets. The muskets were loaded. At every win dow of the bank stood two marksmen. their guns trained on the crowd below Yet the mob came on, never halting never hesitating. until they were with in ten yards of the bank gates. and then, sharp and clear above the pande- n-onium of yelling, was heard the or der u fire. FrCn those windows poured a deadly volley. and when the smoke finally cleared away two hun- dred and fifty rioters lay still or writh- ing in agony of mortal wounds on the open space now covered by the espla- made of the Royal Exchange. The at tacking army wavered. broke line, and fled and the Gordon riots were at an end
 In the early days of George II it was the custom of all banks to give a re- ceipt in payment of deposit. the receipt being passed from hand u hand and serving the same purpose as the cheque of today. The growing power of Childs, a private bank which at that time had the backing or half the English nobility. had become of England whose notes were at a dis count of 10 per cent. And so, little by little. through their agents. the man agers of the Bank of England bought up every receipt bearing the name Of Childs' bank, permitting the collec- tions to accumulate with each succeed ing year until the time should be ripe. during a shortage of gold, to present
 
 ment. It was considered a certaumty that Chllds would not be able to me-: the demand, and would thus be crushed out of existence.
 Happy for Childs' was it that one Of the Bank of England's agents, over the bottle. let slip the secret. And now at Blenheim they tell the story of that famous night one hundred and fifty years ago when the wild changing of the bell at the great gate awakened the people of the village, and of q white-faced, travel-stained man stag gering into the nall and brokenly en- treating an audience Cf her grace the duchess-none other than the famous Sarah Jennings-.or in Ter the bank found it's most powerful friend and patron. Down came the indomitable Sarah in her dressing gown to receive the visitor and demand his excuse for disturbing her peace.
 Your grace" began the messenger. the Bank of England holds your re- ceipts for E620,O0O. Those receipts will be presented for payment at noon to- day: we have not gold enough to meet them. Unless We can answer the de mand in eight hours We are ruined. There IS but one person in this world who can save us-you. cur patron. and to you We turn in our need
 Without a word the duchess sat down at her writing table and wrote out a cheQue and handed it to the banks agent. It was an order on the Bank of England for the payment of 100000
 Take this cheque to the Bank of England. Tell them that ii they hesi tate for one single instant in paying it. I'll proclaim them as defaulters. But you will see they won't refuse. The fS00 may be useful as a margin in case of necessity.
 The hour of noon saw the Bank of England's agent at Childs' counter blardly presenting the big bagful of receipts and deftly suggesting immedi- ate payment. But even at that mo- ment Childs' clerk was in Thread needle street receiving cash on the duchess's cheque. Childs' cashiers dis played all the premonitory symptoms of blindness, for it took them fully half an hour to scrutinize even the first batch of the receipts. and they were 3t the end of the first hundred