ls of the Bank. The loyal Whigs, however, instead of withdrawing
their deposits, helped it with all their available cash. The Dukes of
Marlborough, Newcastle, and Somerset, with others of the nobility,
hurried to the Bank with their coaches brimming with heavy bags of long
hoarded guineas. A private individual, who had but L500, carried it to
the Bank; and on the story being told to the Queen, she sent him L100,
with an obligation on the Treasury to repay the whole L500. Lord
Godolphin, seeing the crisis, astutely persuaded Queen Anne to allow the
Bank for six months an interest of 6 per cent. on their sealed bills.
This, and a call of 20 per cent. on the proprietors, saved the credit of
the Bank.

In 1708 the charter was extended to 1732. This concession was again
vehemently opposed by the enemies of the Bank. Nathaniel Tench, who
wrote a reply for the directors, proved that the Bank had never bought
land, or monopolised any other commodity, and had, on the contrary,
increased and encouraged trade. He asserted that they had never
influenced an elector, and had been the chief cause of lowering the
interest of money, even in war time. The Government wishing to circulate
Exchequer bills, the Bank raised their capital by new subscriptions to
L5,000,000. The new subscriptions were raised in a few hours, and nearly
one million more could have been obtained on the same day.

During the absurd Tory riots of 1709 the Bank was in considerable
danger. A vain, mischievous High Church clergyman named Sacheverell had
been foolishly prosecuted for attacking the Whig Government, and calling
the Lord Treasurer Godolphin "Volpone" (a character in a celebrated play
written by Ben Jonson). A guard of butchers escorted the firebrand to
his trial at Westminster Hall, at which Queen Anne was present. Riots
then broke out, and the High Church mob sacked several Dissenting
chapels, burning the pews and pulpits in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn,
and elsewhere, and even threatened to use a Dissenting preacher as a
holocaust. The rioters at last threatened the Bank. The Queen at once
sent her guards, horse and foot, to the City, and left herself
unprotected. "Am I to preach or fight?" was the first question of
Captain Horsey, who led the cavalry. But the question needed no answer,
for the rioters at once dispersed.

In 1713 the Bank charter was renewed until 1742. The great catastrophe
of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, which we shall sketch fully