Perth Amboy evening news., 1903-04-20
RoMANcE oF Treasure HOUSE
Events In the History of the Bank
OF England Read Like THRILL
ing Fiction.

The Bank of England-that ram
bling, ramshackle, loose-jointed struc-
ture of gray stone, blackened by cen
turtles of London smoke, London CRIME
and SCOT, and forming an almost com
plete square from Threadneedle street
in the south to Coleman street in the
north does not at first sight seem a
likely place for romance and yet its
history teens with stories of love, ha-
tired, ambition, rascality and adven-
ture.
William Paterson, who at one time
of his life had controlled every priva-
teer that ran the Spanish main-a
grim black-muzzled Scotchman-was
the founder of the bank. He laid the
foundation of his fortune in the buy
ing and selling of slaves and the clear
ing of G100,0O0 as his share of the
gold found on a sunken Spanish gall
leon. 1t was with this 100000 and
the profit derived from his buccaneer
expedition that Paterson, banished to
Holland by James II. and the impla-
cable enemy of all the Stuarts, found
part of the money for the prince of
Oranges expedition across the Boyne.
Concurrently with the advent of
William III. on the throne of Eng
land the first plans for the foundation
of national bank were made and
those who know of the inside history
of those times doubt not that William
III. was indeed the moving spirit of
the scheme and that Paterson was his
official tool and mouthpiece at the
weekly meetings or famous gather
ings of financiers known as the
Wednesday club.
Vain was it for the Jacobites of that
day to denounce the bank as revolu-
tionary 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 law that remains in
force to this day-that the bank
should not lend money to the king or
the government except by consent of
both houses of parliament.
lives the story of Charles Walter God
frey, partner. of Paterson. Crossing
the channel in the teeth of a fierce
storm and laden with 100000 ($300, ,OO0)
in drafts for the aid of King William,
at that time besieging Namur against
the forces of the 14th Louis, Godfrey
insisted on his right to deliver the
warrant for the money into the hands
of the king, who was then in the
trenches under hot fire. And as, with
humble obeisance, he handed the pa
per to his taciturn majesty, saying in
response to the kings gruff remon-
STRANGE: "Am then more exposed to
danger than you, sir?" cannon ball
swept his head away.
Over the massive fireplace in the di-
rectors' room stood some years ago
three rusty specimens of old Brown
Bess, together with number of
roughly shaped bullets. In these rel
les is embodied picture of that dread
full night in the November of 1880,
when the mob of Gordon rioters
charged down from Newgate, setting
fire to every Catholic chapel on the
line of march and advancing with a
force of 5000 men upon the bank.
Then it was says the New York
Herald, that the clerks, armed with
muskets, remembered that they were
unprovided with shot. Before them
lay rows of leaden inkstands, mutely
suggesting the possibilities of a new
use. In less than half an hour the ink
stands had been melted and turned
into bullets.
The muskets were loaded. At every
window of the bank stood two marks
men, their guns trained on the crowd
below. Yet the mob came on, never
halting, never hesitating, until they
were within ten yards of the bank
gates and then, sharp and clear above
the pandemonium of yelling, was
heard the order to fire.
From those windows poured a
deadly volley and when the smoke
finally cleared away $50 rioters lay
still or writhing in agony of mortal
wounds on the open space covered by
the esplanade of the royal exchange.
The attacking army wavered,
stopped, broke line and fed and the
Gordon riots were at an end.