The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-02
Events in History Of the Bank of
England.


The Bank of EngIand-that rambling.
ra:nshackle, loose-jointed structure OF
gray stone, blackened by centuries OF
London smoke, London CRIME and Lon
con scot, and forming an almost COM
pleIe 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, hatred. am
5Itlon, rascality and adventure.
William Paterson, who at one time Of
his life had controlled every privateer
that ran the Spanish MAMA grim. black
muZZled Scotchman-was the founder of
the bank. He laid the foundation OF
MS fortune in the buying and selling of
slaves and the clearing of fl00, 900 as his
share of the gold found on a sunken
spanish galleon. 1t was with this flO0,
coo and the profit derived from his buc-
caneering expedition that Paterson, ban
lshed TO Holland by James II, and the
implacable enemy of all the Stuarts,
found part of the money for the Prince
OF Oranges expedition across the BOVne
Conveniently with the advent of VIII
liam III on the throne of England, the
first plans for the foundation of a ma
tlonal bank were made, and those who
know of the inside history of those
times doubt not that William III was in
deed the moving spirit OF the scheme
and that Paterson was his official tool
and mOuthpiece al the weekly meetings
or famous gatherings of financiers known
as the Wednesday club.
IaCOD1TGS
day to denounce the bank as a reVOlu-
uonary institution through which all the
wealth OF the nation would go into the
hands Of the sovereign. The only con-
cession that the Tory malcOntents were
able to obtain from the government was
law that remains in force to this day
that the bank should, not lend money 10
the KING or the government except by
consent os both houses OF parliament.
BlOod-red in the annals of the bank
lives the story % Charles Walter God
fro TD.fa
channel in the teeth OF a fierce storm and
laden with $4,000 tS300.000 in drafts for
the aid Of King William. at that time be
S1eglnS 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
And as, with humble obesiance. he hand
ed the paper to his taciturn majesty
saying, in response to the kings gruff
remOnstrance. Am 1 then more exposed
to danger than you. sir?" a cannon bal
swept his head away
Over the massive fireplace in the d.
rusty specimens of the old Brown Bess,
together with number of roughly
shaped bullets. In these relics is en-
bodied picture of that dreadful night
IN the November Of 1850, when the mob
of Gordon rioters marched down from
NeWgate, setting fire TO every Catholic
chapel on the line of march and al
vancing with a force of $500 upon the
bank.
Then it was that the clerks armed
With n1uskets. remembered that they
were unprovided with shot. Before them
lay lows OF leaden inkstands muteIy
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 marks
men, their guns trained on the crowd be-
low. Yet the mob came on. never halt
ing, never hesitating, until they were
within ten yards of the bank gates, and