Many are the tales told of the wit and shrewdness of the early country bankers, and the following anecdote, related in Mr. Maberley Phillips’s interesting work on _Banks, Bankers, and Banking in Northumberland, Durham, and North Yorkshire_, is on a par with the well-known tale of the private Irish banker, who became so very unpopular, that to show the contempt in which he was held, the inhabitants of his district gathered together all his notes which they could lay hands on, and made a bonfire of them in front of his house; much to the banker’s amusement and gain. Mr. Phillips’s story is of Jonathan Backhouse, a Quaker, who, though originally a linen and worsted manufacturer in Darlington, founded “Backhouse’s Bank” in 1774, in partnership with his father. This institution only went out of existence in 1896, when it was amalgamated with Messrs. Barclay and Company, Limited. “Before the time of railways, near the beginning of the century, the commercial traveller of that day made his visits to the towns of the county of Durham either by mail coach or other conveyance, and sojourned for some days in each town, where he was an important person, especially at the head hotel or hostelry of the place. It so happened that one of these gentlemen, after having dined freely at the ‘King’s Head,’ Barnard Castle, was boasting to a company present in the commercial room of his own importance and wealth, and exhibiting in proof a sheaf of bank-notes taken on his journey. “Jonathan Backhouse, attired in the usual dress of the Society of Friends, unknown to the rest of the company, was in the room quietly reading his newspaper, when he was attacked by the wealthy commercial, and by a series of sarcastic remarks held up to ridicule as a man out of harmony with the spirit of the time and place. Following up this raillery the commercial, displaying his handful of notes, offered to bet the Quaker £5, or any sum, that he could not produce as much money as he was exhibiting. Mr. Backhouse, after a great deal of banter, said _he did not bet_, but to show his indifference to money offered to put a £5 note in the fire if the commercial would do the same. Suiting the action to the word, Mr. Backhouse took out a £5 note and put it into the fire. The commercial, not wishing to be behind, did the same. Mr. Backhouse offered to repeat the process, but the commercial, considerably cowed, declined; when Mr. Backhouse quietly thanked him for having burned one of his (Mr. Backhouse’s) bank-notes for which he had received £5, while the note he (Mr. Backhouse) had burned was on his own bank, and only cost him the paper.” CHAPTER IV THE BANK CHARTER ACT OF 1844, AND ITS SUSPENSIONS