public securities sank to
about a moiety of their original values, and buyers were hard to be
found even at those prices. No man knew what he was worth; the course of
trade and correspondence almost universally stopped; the poorer sort of
people were plunged into irrepressible distress, and as it were left
perishing, whilst even the richer had hardly wherewith to go to market
for obtaining the common conveniences of life.

The King, in Flanders, was in great want of money. The Land Bank could
not do much. The Bank, at last, generously offered to advance L200,000
in gold and silver to meet the King's necessities. Sir Isaac Newton, the
new Master of the Mint, hastened on the re-coinage. Several of the
ministers, immediately after the Bank meeting (over which Sir John
Houblon presided), purchased stock, as a proof of their gratitude to the
body which had rendered so great a service to the State.

The diminution of the old hammered money continued to increase, and
public credit began to be put to a stand. The opposers of Paterson
wished to alter the denomination of the money, so that 9d. of silver
should pass for 1s., but at last agreed to let sterling silver pass at
5s. 2d. an ounce, being the equivalent of the milled money. The loss of
the re-coinage to the nation was about L3,000,000. Paterson, who was one
of the first Directors of the Bank of England, upon a qualification of
L2,000 stock, disagreed with his colleagues on the question of the
Bank's legitimate operations, and sold out in 1695. In 1701, Paterson
says, after the peace of Ryswick, he had an audience of King William,
and drew his attention to the importance of three great measures--the
union with Scotland, the seizing the principal Spanish ports in the West
Indies, and the holding a commission of inquiry into the conduct of
those who had mismanaged the King's affairs during his absence in
Flanders. Paterson died in 1719, on the eve of the fatal South Sea
Bubble.

When the notes of the Bank were at 20 per cent. discount, the Government
(says Francis) empowered the corporation to add L1,001,171 10s. to their
original stock, and public faith was restored by four-fifths of the
subscriptions being received in tallies and orders, and one-fifth in
bank-notes at their full value, although both were at a heavy discount
in the market.

[Illustration: THE OLD BANK, LOOKING FROM THE MANSION HOUSE. (_From a
Print of 1730._)]

The past services of the Bank were not