extortion prevalent throughout the country undermined—at the expense, it is true, of many so-called bankers, stock-jobbers, and goldsmiths, but to the great gain of the nation, its commerce, and the general public. Of the originator of the Bank of England—Mr. W. Paterson, who remained a director only for a year or two—we know really very little, except that he was equally the founder of the ill-fated Darien Expedition of 1698, that he was an able, honorable, and enthusiastic man, and that he died in Scotland, where, “pitied, respected, but neglected,” he lived for many years. The original capital of the Bank was £1,200,000, which was subscribed in a few days. The whole of this amount was, as a condition of the charter, lent to the Government at eight per cent., the Bank being allowed an additional £4,000 a year for the management of the Government accounts. The necessary capital for carrying on the banking business appears to have been obtained from the public by the issue of bank bills, termed by some flippant writers of the period “Speed’s notes,” from the name of the first chief cashier. These bills were evidently a sort of “deposit receipt,” bearing interest at the rate of twopence per cent. per diem, or at the rate of three per cent. per annum, and they appear to have given sore offence to the goldsmiths. The Bank of England commenced business in the Mercers’ Hall, Cheapside, where the first “General Court of Proprietors” was held. But after a few months, this situation being found inconvenient, an agreement was made with the Grocers’ Company (which appears to have been in difficulties) for the use of their hall in Princes Street. The original working staff of the Bank consisted of fifty-four clerks, whose united salaries amounted to the modest sum of £4,340 a year, averaging a little more than £80 a year each. The chief cashier (Mr. T. Speed), the chief accountant, and the secretary received £250 a year each, and one clerk is scheduled in the pay-sheet as working “gratis.” Addison, in No. 3 of the _Spectator_, gives us the following pleasant little glimpse of the Bank at work in 1710: “In one of my late rambles, or rather speculations, I looked into the great hall where the Bank is kept, and was not a little pleased to see the directors, secretaries, and clerks, with all the other members of that wealthy corporation, ranged in their several stations, according to the parts they act in that just and regular economy.” From which it would seem that the Bank dignitaries of old had a firm belief in the virtues of the “master’s eye,” scorned bank parlors and private rooms, and were content to work with their servants _coram populo_—a good, homely, old-fashioned practice, no doubt, but one scarcely adapted to modern banking requirements. Bank of England directors in those days, however, had a good deal more to do with mere clerical duties than they have at present. They by no means shirked the most practical responsibilities