t had contracted L3,000,000 of debt in three years, and the
Ministers even stooped, hat in hand, to borrow L100,000 or L200,000 at a
time of the Common Council of London, on the first payment of the
land-tax, and all payable with the year, the common councillors going
round and soliciting from house to house. The first project was badly
received, as people expected an immediate peace, and disliked a scheme
which had come from Holland--"they had too many Dutch things already."
They also doubted the stability of William's Government. The money, at
this time, was terribly debased, and the national debt increasing
yearly. The ministers preferred ready money by annuities for ninety-nine
years, and by a lottery. At last they ventured to try the Bank, on the
express condition that if a moiety, L1,200,000, was not collected by
August, 1699, there should be no Bank, and the whole L1,200,000 should
be struck in halves for the managers to dispose of at their pleasure. So
great was the opposition, that the very night before, some City men
wagered deeply that one-third of the L1,200,000 would never be
subscribed. Nevertheless, the next day L346,000, with a fourth paid in
at once, was subscribed, and the remainder in a few days after. The
whole subscription was completed in ten days, and paid into the
Exchequer in rather more than ten weeks. Paterson expressly tells us
that the Bank Act would have been quashed in the Privy Council but for
Queen Mary, who, following the wish of her husband, expressed firmly in
a letter from Flanders, pressed the commission forward, after a six
hours' sitting.

The Bank Bill, timidly brought forward, purported only to impose a new
duty on tonnage, for the benefit of such loyal persons as should advance
money towards carrying on the war. The plan was for the Government to
borrow L1,200,000, at the modest interest of eight per cent. To
encourage capitalists, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the
name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Both Tories and
Whigs broke into a fury at the scheme. The goldsmiths and pawnbrokers,
says Macaulay, set up a howl of rage. The Tories declared that banks
were republican institutions; the Whigs predicted ruin and despotism.
The whole wealth of the nation would be in the hands of the "Tonnage
Bank," and the Bank would be in the hands of the Sovereign. It was worse
than the Star Chamber, worse than Oliver's 50,000 soldiers. The power of
the purse w