house is understood to possess documents which prove their existence as a bank as early as 1663; since which they have never moved out of the same premises. The books of Messrs. Hoare, in Fleet Street, are said to go back to 1680; and those of Messrs. Snow, in the Strand, to 1685. Stone, Martins, and Stone, of Lombard Street, claim to represent the house of Sir T. Gresham; but this, I presume, must be more a matter of tradition than of documentary evidence; and is principally noticeable as suggesting views of ancient descent upon the part of our commercial interests which will bear a comparison with the genealogy of many noble houses.

The London banker of the old school—

Bore little resemblance to his modern successor: he was a man of serious manners, plain apparel, the steadiest conduct, and a rigid observer of formalities. As you looked in his face you could read in intelligible characters that the ruling maxim of his life, the one to which he turned all his thoughts, and by which he shaped all his actions, was, that he who would be trusted with the money of other men, should look as if he deserved the trust, and be an ostensible pattern to society of probity, exactness, frugality, and decorum. He lived, if not the whole of the year, at least the greater part of the year, at his banking-house; was punctual to the hours of business, and always to be found at his desk. The fashionable society at the West end of the town, and the amusements of high life, he never dreamed of enjoying; and would have deemed it nothing short of insanity to imagine that such an act was within the compass of human daring as that of a banker's lounging for an evening in Fop's Alley at the Opera, or turning out for the Derby with four greys to his chariot, and a goodly hamper swung behind, and well stuffed with perigord-pics, spring chickens, and iced champagne.

Anecdotes of Mr. Lewis Loyd:

Mr. Lewis Loyd, according to his own account to the Lords' Committee in 1819, began business in 1792, at Manchester: where having spent a year, he removed to London; and has since remained with a partnership in the Manchester firm. According to report, he was originally an Unitarian clergyman, but soon tired of that vocation; finding it, as he is sometimes said to confess after dinner, much more profitable and agreeable to spend his time in turning over bank notes than in turning up the whites of his eyes. This antithesis reminds me that the figure is one to which Mr. Loyd is partial. When Frys and Chapman, the Quaker bankers, failed, a member of the Society took his account to Jones Loyd. "We think thee right, friend," said the senior partner; "it is wiser to place thy money with a rich sinner than a poor saint."

About the best thing a joint-stock bank can have is a good manager, and perhaps the most valuable talent he can possess is the faculty of judging, when a bill is offered to him for discount, whether it is legitimate or not; that is to say, whether it represents a bona fide transaction between the

parties to it. A friend of mine, a bill-broker in the City, tells me, that of all the men he has met in the course of business, the General Manager of the Union Bank possesses this talent in the most extraordinary perfection. The moment a London bill is shown him, he can tell whether a transaction to its amount can have properly passed between the parties; and will give off hand the most minute and extraordinarily correct information regarding the means and credit of the drawer, accepter, and endorsers.

Mr. Denison's decision in support of a great principle:

The present Mr. Denison gave a striking proof of the extent of his resources and the spirit and decision of his character, when the Bank of Manchester, in 1835, proposed to become a bank of issue. That proceeding was highly distasteful to the Bank of England; which had previously enjoyed the exclusive circulation of Lancashire. Accordingly, the Manchester Bank was soon made to feel the displeasure of the Bank Parlour. Its drafts and acceptances became a subject of comment; its London bankers disagreed with the Directors, and closed their account; its London bill-brokers sent them notice that there would be difficulties to encounter in getting cash for their bills in future. A series of adverse circumstances arose in rapid succession to embarrass and distress the Company; they were full of anxiety, and reduced to extremities, when they had the good fortune to obtain an introduction to Mr. Denison. That gentleman, upon a brief statement of their case, and after satisfactory explanations as to their solvency, saw that a great principle was involved; that a cause in every respect national, and which the Government and Parliament had anxiously promoted, stood in jeopardy; and he brought the negotiation quickly to a favourable issue, by stating that he should be prepared with 600,000l. the next day to meet the demands of their agency, which, if necessary, he would increase to a million in the course of the week.

Irish embarrassments and Bank Failures:

Severe as the distress of all classes was at this juncture, it gave rise to some ludicrous incidents. While it lasted, a gentleman in Cork wanted a leg of lamb, and offered a five-pound note for it, which was refused. In Limerick, a country gentleman with 1,500l. a year, had sent invitations out for a dinner-party the week the banks broke, and considered himself most fortunate on finding among his notes one Bank of Ireland note for ten pounds. No one doubted the goodness of the note, but no one could give change for it. Ten pounds, in gold or silver, were not in the county; and as for credit, there was none to be had. In this extremity, with money-which was not money-and without credit, having tried butcher, baker, and confectioner, in vain, the gentleman gave up the idea of his dinner-party in despair, and wrote to his friends to keep the engagement standing until he could procure cash or credit for a ten-pound note.

These extracts belong to the more lively and amusing parts of "Banks and Bankers," Mr. Hardcastle, Junior, appearing to have the run of the City, and to be a thorough-paced gossip, along with

the dogmatism of a political economist of his own narrow-floored school. He is in his own eyes a second Adam Smith, and talks of the precious metals and of bank-notes with more than a Macculloch's assurance. His object is "to explain, in a plain and familiar manner, what money, banking, and currency, properly speaking, are; and how it behoves us to deal with them at present in this country." But, not to trouble our readers at any considerable length with the more thorny and vexed branches of the subjects indicated, we merely have to state that he has a proposition for a system on the expiration of the Bank charter, viz. that gold and silver shall both be legal tenders, and that all paper shall not merely be exchangeable on demand for the amount of metal it promises to pay, but actually represent that amount.

The mixed silver and gold currency of our author is to be represented by mint-notes, which shall only be issued on lodgment of the quantity of metal for the amount of notes required. The following are definite heads of his theory:

To accomplish these important results a few plain enactments would suffice; and I venture to name them.

1. That her Majesty's Mint should be managed by three Commissioners, who, like the Judges of the land, should be well paid, and removable from office only by an address from the House of Commons.

2. In addition to their present function of manufacturing the current coin of the realm according to the standard fixed by law, the authorities of the Mint should be empowered to issue notes payable to bearer on demand upon a sufficient deposit of gold and silver of the standard value.

3. Notes of 51. and 107. should be payable in silver only; notes of 201. and upwards in gold.

4. Power might be given the Commissioners at those extraordinary junctures which will occasionally present themselves, when the superabundance of silver might happen to be very great and the scarcity of gold extreme, to fix an agio to be paid by those who required the scarcer metal.

5. Mint-notes should be the only legal tender; all banks should meet their issues either in specie or Mint-notes.

It would be very easy for us to show that where there is any novelty in this plan, it is either impracticable or dangerous; but instead of fatiguing the reader with details of figures and principles of currency, we at once proceed to a more novel and individually interesting theme, and one which is not far different from that which is involved in the questions, How to get and keep rich? How, upon scientific principles, to make money?

66

The Inquiry" treats of Trade and Speculation, the principles of both being plainly and forcibly set before the reader. Some of the rules require only an enunciation; others, although not less

sound, call for reflection and illustration. For example, in regard to trade, the seller ought to have his views directed rather to steadiness of demand than large and unforeseen transactions. This is clear enough, but the following law is not so obvious, viz., that the safest policy is to sell as well as to buy at the regular market price, no matter what was the price at prime cost. Mr. Corbet shows that this is the wisest as well as the honestest principle; and indeed any other course of conduct becomes speculation instead of fair trade, which most probably will result in ruin, together with loss of character. With respect to profit also our author's lessons are striking and upright. Profit he proves and exemplifies is not something obtained for nothing, but a return for expended attention and knowledge, and the employment of capital. Our first extract carries us forward to another piece of sound doctrine, which is well supported by reference to notorious facts. Business, says Mr. C., is always overdone:

The excess of supply above the demand, may in truth always be remarked in trade, whether as viewed generally or particularly. Thus a ship-owner is obliged to exert himself to procure freights, and thankful when he gets them; a shopkeeper, to advertise his wares; a manufacturer, to send round travellers to sell his goods; in fact, most solicit custom, to puff themselves or articles; to use arts, as well as to incur expense, to obtain their object, and it is seldom that the best employed tradesmen or house ever do as much as they could, or at least would wish to do. All, generally speaking, are anxious to extend their business. Nor is this the whole. There is always in every business or trade a number of aspirants to, or candidates for, the public favour, who do not so much expect to live by it in the first instance, as to get into employment by their industry and patience, or the vacancies which occur in the course of time, and in the meanwhile hang loose upon trade.

Mr. Corbet selects a particular business for closer illustration, taking that of book-publication for his example; and certainly a more striking instance can hardly be found in recent trade, when readers may be safely said to have multiplied tenfold:

:

Yet, (as our author truly observes,) how many excellent or meritorious publications have been obliged to be given up from the want of the due or proper encouragement. And it is not long since the book-trade generally was in a state of unexampled distress,-evidently from having outrun the demand from over-publishing. If, also, we advert to that most popular of all species of literature, a newspaper, we shall find, such is competition and its effects, that a single generation is scarcely sufficient to establish one that shall pay. In short, however great the appetite or desire of the public for anything, the food administered, the supply furnished, goes beyond the demand. Like the Malthusian principle of propagation, the talent in society is always in advance, redundant, superabundant; and

great as are the exertions of the press, there can be no doubt that they are nothing to what they would be were there a correspondent call for them.

To pass on to Speculation :-this is said to be to Trade what the orbit of a comet is to that of a planet. It is more eccentric; still it has its regular, fixed, and uniform rules, and may be reduced to a science. Trade is the reward of industry, speculation of skill and sagacity, combined with patience. It is the present only which concerns trade, and its profits arise in small sums; whereas the gains of speculation are obtained at long intervals, the greatness of which makes up for their unfrequency. Another distinction between the two branches is this, that while the tradesman is careful to preserve his customers, the speculator is perfectly indifferent on this head.

The great principle of speculation is to calculate on the average price of any article during the course of a series of years, and to purchase below it. The profession and practice of the speculator has therefore got into bad odour, although they may be pursued not only with perfect uprightness, but so as to benefit society.

In a comparison between trade and speculation, Mr. Corbet does not for a moment hesitate to give the superiority to the former. Speculation he regards as a mere exception in business, arising out of the derangements of trade, or impossibility of adjusting the supply to the demand; but at the same time so far useful and necessary as respects trade itself, as it has a tendency to produce readjustment, to prevent extremes in price, whether these are extremely high or low. For, says he,

If a person buy when prices are low, this has clearly a tendency to raise price; as if when he brings out a store and sells when prices are high, it has to lower it. With regard to the individual which is to be preferred, there seems to be as little doubt. Trade is steady and uniform, and can be carried on at all times; speculation, on the other hand, only occasionally, or when opportunity offers. There is therefore a peculiar certainty which belongs to the former which does not belong to the latter, and this certainty is the certainty of employment or scope for it. The time also required to mature a speculation is not to be forgotten, during which it may be conceived more money will often be made in the regular course of trade. As in mechanics, so in speculation, what we gain in force or accumulated power, saving of labour, we generally lose in time. Yet without doubt occasionally very large sums are made by opportunities which it requires but a very ordinary share of sagacity to foresee and take advantage of.

Here is an illustrative example,—

Greenland whale-oil within fourteen years, (viz., between 1822 and 1836) has afforded four good opportunities for speculation, low price as