the sum of £200,000, professedly as a loan, but not only without the consent, but to the extreme indignation of the unfortunate owners. Of course, no more money after that time found its way into the Mint for the sake of security. Not knowing where to hide their cash, in the terrible insecurity of the times, the merchants then, according to the pamphlet, entrusted their funds, distributed in small portions, to their clerks and apprentices, and the latter, not unfrequently, were unable to resist the temptation of appropriating to themselves the contents of their pockets. Consequently, a new and safer mode of giving money in trust became indispensable. It was acted upon for the first time about the year 1640, when the merchants commenced placing their funds in the hands of the goldsmiths, who formed a great and influential corporation by charter of Edward IV. Accepting the trust of the merchants, the goldsmiths now first added this, the essential feature of a bank, to their ordinary occupation of buying and selling plate and foreign and English coins. The wealth and reputation of the corporation at once gave confidence in the new mode of investment, and made it spread very rapidly. "Much about the same time," the pamphlet continues, "the goldsmiths began to

receive the rents of gentlemen's estates remitted to town, and to allow them and others who put cash into their hands some interest for it. This was a great allurement for people to put their money into their hands, which would bear interest till the day they wanted it." The goldsmiths usually gave receipts for the money in notes, which, passing from hand to hand, became a virtual kind of bank notes. So profitable was this business that some of the most enterprising goldsmiths soon gave up their original trade, and became solely bankers. Among the first who did so was Francis Child, the founder of the still-existing banking house under this name, close to Temple Bar. Pennant calls him “the father of the profession."

II. THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

THE stability, as well as conservative character of the trade and commerce of our metropolis, is singularly illustrated by the fact that there should now be in London many occupations continued in the same family, and often, too, in the same dwelling, for two or three centuries. An instance of this occurs in the banking-house of Child and Co. near Temple Bar. Francis Child, the "father of the profession," established the banking business in the old house in Fleet Street, at the accession of Charles II.; but even prior to this time, banking, combined with "goldsmitherie,” was carried on at the same place, probably for a century and more, by a worthy and wealthy race of citizens of the name of Wheeler. The last male descendant of the line, William Wheeler, died in 1663, having previously given his only daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage to his trusty apprentice, Francis Child. The latter, a man of great energy, wisdom, and fore

sight, was not long to perceive that the business of banking was far more important, as well as more lucrative, than the trade of goldsmith, which his father-in-law had carried on as chief occupation. In consequence, Francis Child threw off the trammels of the trade, and thus became the first English banker. Others followed in his steps, founding establishments still existing at the present day. The origin of Hoare's bank, in Fleet Street, is traced back to 1680, and that of Snow's, in the Strand, to 1685. The firm of Stone, Martin, and Stone, of Lombard Street, claim to be the immediate successors of Sir Thomas Gresham, the "royal merchant," the celebrated founder of the Exchange. Francis Child, after a most prosperous career, died on the 4th of October, 1713, full of age and honours, leaving his business to his two sons, James and William. Francis Child became Sheriff of London in 1691, Lord Mayor in 1699, and M.P. for the city in the first of Queen Anne, 1702. The honours of knighthood were the last that fell upon the "father of the profession," who died as Sir Francis Child.

Nothing occurred to mar the quiet progress of the practice of banking till the year 1694, when the establishment of the Bank of England gave

an

The

enormous increase to the business. founder of the Bank of England, Mr. William Paterson, was a very remarkable man, and undoubtedly one of the greatest commercial geniuses produced by this or any country. Of the early history of William Paterson, very little that can be called authentic is known. According to some accounts he studied theology, became subsequently a missionary in the West Indies, and finally a buccaneer in the same regions. All this, however, is tolerably apocryphal. What seems more certain is, that William Paterson was born in the parish of Tinwald, Dumfriesshire, about the year 1660; that he was of respectable if not wealthy parents, and that he more than once sat for Dumfriesshire, in the parliament of Scotland. A great desire for travelling drove him abroad at an early age, and he spent some six or seven years of his life in visiting nearly all the countries of Europe, besides the West Indies and part of the continent of America. There are stories about his having lost his paternal fortune, as outlawed Presbyterian, and of his wandering about as a pedlar for some part of this period through London. and the neighbouring countries; but all this is again mere rumour, founded on no authenticated