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HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CnAP.

XXII.

icon.

they hated and dreaded. The bank -which had recently begunto exist under such splendid auspices, which had seemed des-tined to make a revolution in commerce and in finance, whichhad been the boast of London and the envy of Amsterdam, wasalready insolvent, ruined, dishonoured. Wretched pasquinadeswere published, the Trial of the Land Bank for murdering theBank of England, the last Will and Testament of the Bank ofEngland, the Epitaph of the Bank of England, the Inquest onthe Bank of England. But, in spite of all this clamour and allthis wit, the correspondents of the States General reported,that the Bank of England had not really suffered in the publicesteem, and that the conduct of the goldsmiths was generallycondemned.*

The Directors soon found it impossible to procure silverenough to meet every claim which w'as made on them in goodfaith. They then bethought them of a new expedient. Theymade a call of twenty per cent on the proprietors, and thusraised a sum which enabled them to give every applicant fifteenper cent in milled money on what was due to him. Theyreturned him his note, after making a minute upon it that parthad been paid.** A few r notes thus marked are still preservedamong the archives of the Bank, as memorials of that terribleyear. The paper of the Corporation continued to circulate:but the value fluctuated violently from day to day, and indeedfrom hour to hour; for the public mind ivas in so excitable astate that the most absurd lie which a stockjobber could inventsufficed to send the price up or down. At one time the discountwas only six per cent, at another time twenty four per cent. Atenpound note, which had been taken in the morning as worth

* LTIermitage to the States General, May ; Paris Gazette, June -, 2 2 .;Trial and Condemnation of the Land Bank at Exeter Change for murderingthe Bank of England at Grocers’ Iiall, 1696. The Will and the Epitaph willbe found in the Trial.

** L’Hermitage, June 1696.