A propitious turn having now taken place in the affairs of the company, they received an annuity of 96,000l. as the interest of 1,200,000l. at 8 per cent. granted to government; and an additional 4000l. per annum being allowed for the management, these several sums made up the sum of 100,000l. They were empowered by an act of parliament passed in the eighth and ninth year of William III. to enlarge their capital stock to 2,201,1717. 10s. It was then enacted also, that Bank stock should be a personal and not a real estate; that no contract, either by word or in writing, for buying or selling Bank stock, should be good in law, unless registered in the books of the Bank within seven, and the stock transferred in fourteen days; and that it should be felony, without benefit of clergy, to counterfeit the common seal of the Bank, or any sealed Bank bill, or any Bank note; or to alter or erase such bills or notes. By another act passed in the seventh year of the reign of queen Anne, the company were empowered to augment their capital to 4,402,3437. and they were enabled to advance 400,000l. towards the exigencies of government; and, during the year 1714, 1,500,000l. for the same purpose. In the third year of the reign of king George I. the interest of their capital stock was reduced to 5 per cent. when the Bank agreed to deliver up as many exchequer bills as amounted to 2,000,000l. and to accept an annuity of 100,000l. and it was declared lawful for the Bank to call from their members, in proportion to their interests in their capital stock, such sums of money as in a general court should be found necessary, If any member should neglect to pay his share of the monies so called for, at the time ap pointed, by notice in the London Gazette, and fixed upon the Royal Exchange, it should be lawful for the Bank, not only to stop the dividend of such a member, and apply it toward payment of the money in question; but also to stop the transfers of the share of such defaulter, and to charge him with the interest of 5 per cent. per annum, for the money so omitted to be paid: and, if the principal and interest should should be three months unpaid, the Bank should then have power to sell so much of the stock belonging to the defaulter as would satisfy the same. After this, the Bank reduced the interest of the 2,000,000l. lent to the government from five to four per cent, and purchased several other annuities, which were afterwards redeemed by the government, and the debt due to the Bank was reduced to 1,600,000l. But in 1742, the company engaged to supply the government with 1,600,000l. at three per cent. which is now called the three per cent, annuities; so that the government was now indebted to the company 3,200,000l. the one half carrying four, the other three per cent, In the year 1746, the company agreed that the sum of 986,8007. due to them in the exchequer bills unsatisfied, on the duties for licences to sell fpirituous liquors by retail, should be cancelled, and in lieu thereof to accept of an annuity of 39,4421. the interest of that sum at four per cent.. The company also agreed to advance the farther sum of 1,000,0007, into the Exchequer, upon the credit of the duties arising by the malt and land tax, at four per cent. for Exchequer bills to be issued for that purpose; in consideration of which, the company were enabled to augment their capital with 986,8007. the interest of which, as well as that of the other annuities, was reduced to three and a half per cent. till the 25th of De, cember, 1757, and from that time to carry only three per cent. And, in order to enable them to circulate the said Exchequer bills, they established what is now called Bank circulation, the nature of which is as follows:-The company of the Bank are obliged to keep cash sufficient to answer not only common, but also any extraordinary demand that may be made upon them; and whatever money they have by them over and above the sum supposed necessary for these purposes, they employ in what may be called the trade of the company; that is to say, in discounting bills of exchange, in buying of gold and silver, and in government securities, &c. But, when the Bank entered into the above-mentioned contract, as they did not keep unemployed a larger sum of money than what they deemed necessary to answer their or dinary and extraordinary demands, they could not conveni ently take out of their current cash so large a sum as a million, with which they were obliged to furnish the government, without either lessening that sum they employed in discounting, buying gold and silver, &c. (which would have been very disadvantageous to them,) or inventing some method that should answer all the purposes of keeping the million in cash. The method which they chose, and which fully answers their end, was as follows:-They opened a subscription, which they renew annually, for a million of money; wherein the subscribers advance ten per cent. and enter into a contract to pay the remainder, or any part thereof, whenever the bank shall call upon them, under the penalty of forfcit ing the ten per cent. fo advanced; in consideration of which, the Bank pays the subscribers four per cent. interest for the money paid in, and one fourth per cent. for the whole sum they agree to furnish; and in case a call should be made upon them for the whole, or any part thereof, the Bank farther agrees to pay them at the rate of five per cent. per annum for such sum till they repay it, which they are under an ob❤ ligation to do at the end of the year. By this means the Bank obtains all the purposes of keeping a million of money by them; and though the subscribers, if no run is made upon them, receive six and a half per cent. for the money they advance, yet the company gains the sum of 23,500l. per ennum by the contract. The charter of the company being about to expire in 1764, an act of parliament was passed in 1763, by the tenth clause of which it is enacted, "That the corporation should pay into the receipt of the Exchequer for his Majesty's use, the sum of 110,000l. on or before the 23d day of April, 1764; and that they should not be entitled to the repayment of the principal, or be allowed any interest for the same;" the eleventh clause of this act declared them "a body corporate and politic for ever, with all the immunities, privileges, &c. &c. granted before to them by all the acts which had passed in the reigns of William and Mary, Anne, and George II. In 1788, the interest upon the capital stock was declared to be at the rate of seven per cent. per annum. This is the rate at which it still continues. During the administration of the late Right Honourable WILLIAM PITT, when the revolutionizing system had thrown the universe into uproar and confusion; the fire-brand of the time, Thomas Paine, after attempting to prove by dogmas equally absurd and impossible, the unconditional equality of mankind, and finding that the opinions he had broached did not accomplish the mischief he had intended against this country in particular, contrived to alarm the vulgar and unthinking with an idea that the finances of Great Britain were at such a low ebb, that their insolvency must consequently follow. With weak minds the bait had its effect, and several individuals withdrew their money from the various banking houses for the purpose of its preservation; but as we have already stated in the instance of the rebellion in 1745, more with a design to involve their country in ruin, than from any patriotic or preservative motive. At such an alarming crisis, the ministry issued the following order of privy council: "At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, Feb. 26th, 1797. By the Lords of His Majesty's Most Hon. Privy Council.Present:-The Lord Chancellor, Lord President, Duke of Portland, Marquis Cornwallis, Earl Spencer, Earl of Liverpool, Lord Grenville, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer. "Upon the representation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, stating, that from the result of the information which he has received, and of the enquiries which it has been his duty to make, respecting the effect of the unusual demands for specie that have been made upon the metropolis, in consequence of ill-founded or exaggerated alarms in different parts of the country, it appears, that, unless some measure is immediately taken, there may be reason to apprehend a want of a sufficient supply of cash to answer the exigencies of the public service: it is the unanimous opinion of the board, that it is indispensably necessary for the public service, that the Directors of the Bank of England should forbear 5 forbear issuing any casli in payment, until the sense of parliament can be taken on that subject, and the proper mea sures adopted thereupon, for maintaining the means of circulation, and supporting the public and commercial credit of the kingdom at this important conjuncture; and it is ordered that a copy of this minute be transmitted to the Directors of the Bank of England; and they are hereby required, on the grounds of the exigency of the case, to conform thereto, until the sense of parliament can be taken as afore said. In consequence of this order, the Bank delivered papers on Monday, February 27th, containing the said minute of council, and also the following address to their proprictors and the public: "Bank of England, Feb. 27th, 1797. "The governor, deputy governor, and directors of the Bank of England, think it their duty to inform the proprietors of Bank stock, as well as the public at large, that the general concerns of the Bank are in the most affluent and prosperous situation, and Such as to preclude every doubt as to the security of its notes. The directors mean to continue their usual discounts for the accommodation of the commercial interest, paying the amount in Bank notes; and the dividend warrants will be paid in the same manner. "FRANCIS MARTIN, Secretary." The circulation of these papers occasioned (as might rea. sonably be expected) a great alarm, equal, if not superior, to what was felt during the rebellion in the year 1745, when the enemy was so near London. Measures were immediately adopted to allay the ferment. A most respectable meeting of the first merchants, bankers, and traders in the metropolis, was held at the Mansion House on the same day, when the following resolution was entered into, and signed by all pre sent: * CASH is the name of the most common Indian coin; which, from its quick circulation has gained it an universal denomination for paya ment: VOL. III. No. 54. ·M "Mansion |