jealously guarded as the entrance to those sacred regions

"The Elysian plains, earth's farthest end,

Where Rhadamanthus dwells."

Rhadamanthus, of Lombard Street, did not open the golden (or paper) gates of the Elysii Campi till the month of June, 1854, after more than twenty years' knocking at the door. An extra bonus of £80,000 to the fortunate shareholders of the London and Westminster proved the final sop to Cerberus.

XVII. A TALE OF FORGERY.

ONE of the chief causes of the immediate success of the London and Westminster Bank, or, in other words, of the principle of joint-stock banking, was the degraded social position of many private bankers, particularly in the country. They availed themselves to the fullest extent of the right, granted to them by the Legislature, of issuing small notes, in not a few instances without the least solid cash foundation. By an extraordinary anomaly, the Bank of England was not allowed to issue a single one-pound note, while country bankers, many of whom were mere retail shop-keepers, deluged the provinces with millions. The repeated failures of these so-called bankers, caused of necessity terrible suffering among the middle and the lower classes, who chiefly held their worthless notes, and gave rise to more or less extensive financial crises. It was in vain that leading papers, such as the Times, lifted their voice against this un

sound state of commercial legislation. "If notes of that kind are to be circulated," argued the latter paper, "the Bank of England ought to do it, not hovels in the country, dignified by the title of 'Bank' being written over a dairy or a cheesemonger's shop." Notwithstanding these and other expressions of public opinion, country banks continued to flourish, not a little owing to the support which they received from Threadneedle Street, where they were looked upon as trusty allies against the threatened invasion of joint-stock. But country bankers alone were not at fault, for among many of the London private bankers there obtained a low state of morality, during the first quarter of the present century. Failures were numerous, and frauds by no means rare. One of the most extraordinary of these, and which created an intense sensation at the time, eclipsing for the moment all other public events, was that of Mr. Henry Fauntleroy, partner in the old banking house of Marsh, Sibbald, and Co., of Berners Street.

The father of Henry Fauntleroy was originally clerk to a City banker, but on account of his thorough knowledge of banking, obtained a partnership in the firm of Marsh, Sibbald, and Co., in 1792. On his death, in 1807, Henry Fauntle

roy became his successor, and before long obtained a complete mastery over his partners, who willingly submitted to what they took for superior wisdom and energy. The business, from the first, was unfortunate. There was want of capital, and, what was worse, want of knowledge of even the first rudiments of banking; and the whole weight. of the establishment fell upon Mr. Henry Fauntleroy, a young man of only twenty-two. No wonder then that, before he had been long at the helm, the bank suffered a loss of £20,000; and after a three years' management, or mismanagement, on his part, the firm was found to have lost near £100,000. Extremely ambitious, and utterly devoid of honesty, Henry Fauntleroy did not for a moment think of making his position known; but, to hide the insolvency of the firm from his partners, as well as the public, he took to falsifying the books. This was so artfully done that it required subsequently the utmost keenness of the accountant, aware as he was of the forgeries, to detect the imposition. The trouble to impose upon his partners, who had the fullest confidence in him, was a comparatively easy one, and they actually took their concern to be in the most prosperous condition, when it had been for years hopelessly bankrupt. The world,

too, fancied Mr. Henry Fauntleroy to be an uncommonly prosperous as well as an honest man; and many were the signs of confidence bestowed upon him by his clients and friends. Among others, he was appointed in 1814-after having been actually insolvent for more than four years -one of three trustees to a family named Young, consisting of eight children. There stood to the account of the family a very large sum in the Three per Cents. in the Bank of England.

Meanwhile, the firm of Marsh, Sibbald, and Co., got involved deeper and deeper. Many an evening, after his partners and his clerks had retired from the bank, Henry Fauntleroy, when sitting down to his accustomed task of altering the balances of the house, felt faint and weary at the work, the fear of detection staring him in the face. But he was not the man to shrink from a labour which he had once undertaken, and having committed his forgeries, he invariably went forth into society, brimful of the spirit of enjoyment, the gayest of the gay. Falsifying the accounts, however, was found to be, after a while, insufficient; Henry Fauntleroy urgently required some cash in hand, not to be had from the bank till. So he went a step further in his career. In May, 1815, a power of attorney was presented at