In 1810, an application was made to Parliament for permission to erect and secure to the public the right of admission to an open market for the sale and purchase of national securities, on the ground that the public ought not to be excluded from the room in which business in the public funds is contracted. The bill was introduced by Sir William Curtis, and rejected by the senate. The history of the house of Baring—which, though generally regarded as mercantile, is largely connected with the loans—has been termed an evidence of the power of a few active young men to advance themselves to immense fortune, and to distinguished marks of favor from the sovereign. Various origins are attributed to the members of the firm, and the Herald’s College has been employed to give the dignity of ancestral honors to the family. In 1793, the first baronet of the name was created, and the signal services of Sir Francis to the East India Company, of which he was a director, were greatly appreciated. It has been stated,—but as the writer is uncertain of his authority, he gives it with caution,—that they were originally German weavers, who came over to London, and, being successful in business, were, through the interest of William Bingham, of Philadelphia, appointed agents to the American government. Considering, therefore, the large resources at their command, it is not surprising that, during the loyalty loan in 1797, the head of the house made one hundred thousand pounds for three consecutive days; or that, in 1806, it was sarcastically said, “Sir Francis Baring is extending his purchases so largely in Hampshire, that he soon expects to be able to inclose the country with his own park paling.” In 1805 this gentleman, the first algebraist of the day, retired from business with a princely fortune, and shortly afterwards died, full of years and honors. A green old age, a career closed at the pinnacle of prosperity, and a death-bed surrounded by sons and daughters, whom the descendant of the German weaver had lived to place in splendid independence, was his enviable lot. The great commercial house which he had raised to so proud a position was continued by his sons, and may be considered the most important mercantile establishment in the empire. Freehold estates to the amount of half a million, besides enormous personal property, rewarded his great capacity, and his yet greater integrity. The house of Baring, notwithstanding some periods when doubt and almost dismay hung over it, yet retains the power and position bequeathed by Sir Francis; and, as an instance of the fortune and capacity of its members, it may be mentioned that the late Lord Ashburton, when bearing, as Sir Robert Peel feelingly expressed it, the honored name of Alexander Baring, realized £170,000 in two years by his combinations in French _Rentes_.