Th’ expence, agreed by numerous votes, Attending this address of thanks; Was all to be paid out in notes, Of Sir James Duncan’s best of banks. [32] Alluding to the king’s reply to the b----’s address, usual on the first day of the year, expressive of a desponding prediction, truly alarming. _THE ADDRESS_ OF SIR J. DUNCAN, AND CO. _Of the Scale de Cross Bank, to the Ladies, Gentlemen, and Merchants, of Newcastle upon Tyne, and its Environs._ Sir James Duncan and Co. their kind compliments send To the public in general, who so befriend Their laudable endeavour, your gold to exchange, Yet reluctantly confess, they think it most strange Their opening a Bank, shou’d be _impudent_ thought, By those who are strangers to their KERECTER[33], and note, And flatter themselves, the following reasons will prove Their right to _be Bankers_, and objections remove. The title, they presume, will command the esteem Of those who at a distance, from hence, may have seen Their elegant Notes; their clothes--they vow, and declare, In London were made, as you may see by their air; The skin on Sir _James_, is not so fit as his coat, And fine Bristol beer washes his throat. No Newcastle furniture their office degrades, Sir _James Duncan_ employs no such bungling, vile blades, As the paltry workmen, in this smokey town, Whose finery often--has made us Bankers frown. They are not worth an hundred thousand it’s true, But supposing they were, cou’d the public, and you Their friends be assured they wou’d not exceed Their capital _twice_, when their paper you need, And _wisely prefer_ it, to hard silver and gold, Because you don’t _weigh_ it, and it’s much sooner told. The notes of their brethern they will not refuse, Let other bankers less _wise_, do that if they chuse; The public they’ll serve, their cash take, and bills discount, Except at Change hours, to any amount; And when profusion and taxes, and of America the loss, Old England has ruin’d--firm will stand the _Scale Cross_. The critics our doggrels will sneer at, we suppose, But _Strap_, who’s a GENIUS, has measur’d them, and knows, Like a shoe on a last they are fit, and convey Our intention completely, and it’s needless to say, Newcastle, Exchange, Tyne, or Commercial Bank,[34] Must yield to us in writing, as well as in rank, No knight can they boast--and we his majesty thank. _Sir J. Duncan, Hide, Strap, Last, Awl, & Jacob End._ SIR JAMES DUNCAN’s NOTES WERE AS FOLLOWS:-- [Illustration: CRISPIN. No. 89. _I Promise to pay Mr Benj. Bulk, or Bearer on Demand the Sum of_ Two Pence, _Value received_. Seale de Cross Bank, NEWCASTLE, _24 Jany 1784_. _For Sir J. Duncan, Hide, Strap, Last, Awl, & Self, Jacob End._ Two Pence. _Entd Jas Back, No. 89._ _N.B. Our Estates liable, and Copper taken._] [33] We have observed, at a Coffee-house, that one of our brethren pronounces this word thus.