etired, and by this bold stratagem the clerks obtained room to proceed
in their business. In this lottery, we read, "Her Majesty presented his
Royal Highness the Duke with ten tickets."

In 1738 the roads were so infested by highwaymen, and mails were so
frequently stopped by the gentlemen in the black masks, that the
post-master made a representation to the Bank upon the subject, and the
directors in consequence advertised an issue of bills payable at "seven
days' sight," that, in case of the mail being robbed, the proprietor of
stolen bills might have time to give notice.

The effect of the arrival, in 1745, of Charles Edward at Derby, upon the
National Bank, was alarming indeed. Its interests were involved in those
of the State, and the creditors flocked in crowds to obtain payment for
their notes. The directors, unprepared for such a casualty, had recourse
to a justifiable stratagem; and it was only by this that they escaped
bankruptcy. Payment was not refused, but the corporation retained its
specie, by employing agents to enter with notes, who, to gain time, were
paid in sixpences; and as those who came first were entitled to priority
of payment, the agents went out at one door with the specie they had
received, and brought it back by another, so that the _bona-fide_
holders of notes could never get near enough to present them. "By this
artifice," says our authority, somewhat quaintly, "the Bank preserved
its credit, and literally faced its creditors."

An extraordinary affair happened about the year 1740. One of the
directors, a very rich man, had occasion for L30,000, which he was to
pay as the price of an estate he had just bought. To facilitate the
matter, he carried the sum with him to the Bank, and obtained for it a
bank-note. On his return home he was suddenly called out upon particular
business; he threw the note carelessly on the chimney, but when he came
back a few minutes afterwards to lock it up, it was not to be found. No
one had entered the room; he could not, therefore, suspect any person.
At last, after much ineffectual search, he was persuaded that it had
fallen from the chimney into the fire. The director went to acquaint his
colleagues with the misfortune that had happened to him; and as he was
known to be a perfectly honourable man, he was readily believed. It was
only about twenty-four hours from the time that he had deposited the
money; they thought, therefore, that it would be hard to refus