Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-05-08
R0MANCES OF A BANK.
Career Of EngIand's Great
Financial Concern,

Financial Concern.
The Bank of England-the rambling,
ramshackle, loose jointed structure of
gray stone, blackened by centuries of
London smoke, London CRIME and
London SCOT, and forming an almost
complete square from Threadneedle
street in the south to Coleman street
in the north-does not at first sight
seem likely place for romance. and
yet its history teens with stories of
love, hatred, ambition, rascality and
| adventure.
| William Paterson, who at one time
of his life had controlled every pri
vdteer 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 aid selling of slaves and the clear
Ing of fl00 600 as his share of the gold
found Oh the sunken Spanish galleon.
1t was with this e100, 900 and the profit
derived from his buccaneering expedi
tion that Paterson, banished to HOl-
land by James II. and the implacable
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 England
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 Ill
was indeed the moving spirit of the
scheme and that Paterson was his of
fetal tool and mouthpiece at the week
ly meetings or famous gatherings of
financiers known as the Wednesday
Club.
Vain was it for the Jacobites of that
day to denounce the bank as revO-
lutionary institution, through which
all the wealth of the nation would go
into the hands of the sovereign. The
only concession that the tory malcon
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.
Blood rcd in the annals of the bank
lives the story of Charles Walter God
frey, partner of Paterson. Crossing the
channel in the teeth of fierce storm
and laden with 100000 ($3OO,OOO in
drafts for the aid of King William, at
that time besieging Namur against the
forces of the fourteenth 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 bot fire. And as.
with humble obedience, he handed the
paper to his taciturn majesty, saying
in response to the Kings gruff remont-
trance. Am l then more exposed to
danger than you, sir p a cannon ball
swept his head away.
Over the massive fireplace in the di-
rectors room stood some years ago
three rustly specimens of the old Brown
Bess, together with a number of rough
ly shaped bullets. In these relics is
embodied picture of that dreadful
night in the November of 1870 when
the mot. of Gordon rioters marched
down from Newgate. setting fire to ev-
cry Catholic chapel on the line of march
and advancing with force of !, 900 up
on the bank.
Then was it that the clerks, armed
with muskets, remembered that they
we're 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 inkstands had been melted and
turned into bullets.
The muskets were loaded. At every
window of the bank stood two markk-
men, their guns trained on the crowd
below. Yet the mob came on, never
halting, never hesitating, until they
were within 10 yards of the bank gates,
and then, sharp and clear above the
pandelnonium of yelling, was heard the
order to fire.
From these windows poured deadly
volley. and when the smoke finally
cleared away 250 rioters lay still or
writhing in the agony of mortal
wounds on the apen space now cover
ed by the esplanade of the Royal Ex
change.
The attacking army wavered, stop
ped, broke line and fled. and the Cor
don riots were at an end.
In the early days of George II it Was
| the custom of all banks to give re.
ceipt in payment of deposit, the re
ceipts being passed from hand to hand
and serving the same purpose as the
check of today.
The growing power of Childs, a
private bank, which at that time had
the backing of half the English nobi-
lily, had become matter of serious
alarm to the Bank of England, whose
notes were at discount of 10 per cent.
And SO little by little, through their
agents, the managers of the Bank of
England bought up every receipt bear
ing the name of Childs' bank, permit
| ting the collections to accumulate with
l nh
should he ripe, during shortage OF
gold, to present the receipts IN one
vast mass for payment. 1t was fgur-
ed to be certainty that ChiIds' would
not be able to meet the demand and
would thus be crushed out of existen-
ce.
Happily for Childs' was it that one of
the Bank of England's agents, over
L. Ia II