In 1745, the alarm occasioned by the advance of the Highlanders, under the Pretender, as far as Derby, led to a run upon the Bank of England; and in order to gain time, the directors, while continuing to pay in specie, adopted the device of paying in shillings and sixpences. But, next to the retreat of the enemy, their best relief was found in a resolution by the merchants and traders of the city, declaring their willingness to receive bank-notes in payment of any sum due, and pledging their utmost endeavors to make all payments in these bank-notes. This proceeding, it is perceived, was prompted by the pressure of civil disturbance. But the most authentic case is that of 1797, when the Bank, under pressure of political events, was prohibited, by Order in Council, _issued on Sunday_, the 26th of February, from paying their notes in cash, until the sense of Parliament should be taken on the subject. At the meeting of Parliament, after much discussion, it was agreed to continue the suspension till six months after the signature of a definitive treaty of peace, _thus positively recognizing the existence of war as a reason for this departure from principle_. A recent English writer vindicates this act as follows. “Much difference of opinion has existed with respect to the policy of the restriction in 1797; but, considering the peculiar circumstances under which it took place, its expediency seems abundantly obvious. The run did not originate in any over-issue of bank paper, _but grew entirely out of political causes. So long as the alarms of invasion continued, it was clear that no bank paper immediately convertible into gold would remain in circulation._ And as the Bank, though possessed of ample funds, was without the means of instantly retiring her notes, she might, but for the interference of Government, have been obliged to stop payments,--an event, which, had it occurred, might have produced consequences fatal to the public interests. The error of the Government did not consist in their coming to the assistance of the Bank, _but in continuing the restriction after the alarm of invasion had ceased_, and there was nothing to hinder the Bank from safely reverting to specie payments.”[194] Unhappily, the definitive treaty of peace, on which the restoration of specie payments depended, was not consummated till 1815, so that throughout this long period there was an inconvertible currency, which even the sanction of Parliament did not save, in 1814, from a discount of twenty-five per cent. But peace did not bring specie at once. The routine of paper had become too strongly fixed, and it was only through the remarkable efforts of Sir Robert Peel, in 1819, that an Act of Parliament was passed requiring the payment of specie at the Bank in 1823. Such is the practical testimony of British experience.