Year: 1861

~ SSSAA
the inside as well as out, and to 60 into
the interior Of this remarkable building to
| observe the operations of an institution
that exerts more moral and political pow
er than any sovreign in Europe, you must
have an order from the Governor of the
Bank. The building occupies an irregular
: area of eight acres of ground-an cdifce
Of no architectural beauty, with not one
window towards the street, being lighted
altogether from the roof or the enclosed
area.


was led, on presenting my card ad-
mission, into private room, where, after
a delay of few moments, messenger
came and conducted me through the nigh
ty and mysterious building. Down we
went into a room where the notes of the
bank received the day before, were now
examined, compared with the entries in
the book and stored away.


The Bank of England never issues the
same note second time. 1t receives in
the ordinary course of business, about
100000 or s4,OOO,OOO daily in notes ;
these are put up into parcals according to
their denominations, and are kept ten years
at the expiration of which period they are
taken out and ground up in the mill which
saw running, made again into paper
If, in the course of these ten years, any
dispute in business, or law suit, should
arise, concel ming the payment of any note
the bank can produce the identical bill.


To meet the demand for notes so cen
stantly used up, the bank has its own pa
| per makers, its own printers, its own en-.
gravers, all at work under the same roof,
and it even makes the machinery by which
the most of its own work is done. A COM
plicatcd but beautiful operation is a regis
ter, extending from the printing office to
the banking offices, which makes every
sheet of paper that is struck off from the
press, so that the printers cannot manu-
facture single sheet of bank notes that is
not recorded in the bank. On the same
principle of neatness, a shaft is made tc
pass from one apartment to another, con,
meeting clock in sixteen business wings
of the establishment, and regulating them
with such precision that the whole of them
are always pointing to the same second of
tine. In ano her room was machine ,ex
ceedingly simple for detecting light gold
coin. A row of them arc dropped one by
one upon a spring scale. If the piece of
gold was of the standard weight, the scale
rose to certain height and the coin slid
off upon one side of the box; if less than
tho standard it rose little higher, and the
coin slides off upon the other side. l asked
the weighcr what was the average number
of light coins that came into his hand, and
strangely enough he said it was question
he was not allowed to answer.


The next room / entered was that in
which notes are deposited which are rea-
dy for issue.


owe have thirty-two millions of pounds
sterling in this room, the officer remarked
to me; 'will you take a little of it ?" 1
told him it would be vastly agreeable, and
and he handed me million sterling which
received with many thanks for his liber-
ality, but he insisted on my depositing it
with him again as it would hardly be safe
to carry so much money into the street
very much fear that 1 shall never see
that money again. In the vault beneath
the door, were a director and cashire
counting bags of gold which men were
pitching down to them, each bag contain
ing thousand pounds sterling, just from
the mint This world of money seemed to
realize the fables of eastern wealth, and
gave ME new and strong impression of the
magnitude of the business done here, and
the extent of the relations of this one insti-
tuition to the commerce of the world.





WAS IT PROPHETIC !-On the 5th of