of accounts, and scrupulous honesty. I was "not so very high or impracticable Paterson had, in truth, the genius of ground but that a cut might likewise the pioneer, a mind bold, active, and be made were it in these parts of the fertile. His native gifts had been de- world, but considering the present cirveloped by a very varied experience of cumstances of things in those, it would life. After the best education his par- not be so easy." It is a further proof ish school could afford him, his early of his judgment in matters of finance, manhood from the age of eighteen or that he perceived the mischiefs of thereabouts had been spent abroad, an inconvertible paper currency, and first on the Continent and afterwards wrote vigorously against its adoption. in America and the West Indies; and In view of these facts, the theory of his writings, of which many remain, Paterson's career, which has been testify to his close observation of the sometimes accepted, that he was merely trade, finance, resources, and govern-a needy adventurer, first of all a pedlar ments of the countries he visited. in his native country, then a buccaneer From the very first his attention had in the West Indies, and finally an unbeen chiefly directed, as he himself trustworthy financial adviser of govtells us, to "matters of general trade ernments and a promoter of insane and public revenues." In an inci- enterprises, is obviously untenable. dental passage of his works, Paterson All the circumstances of his life equally has written a description of the char-discredit it. Such a theory might be acter of an enlightened merchant, consistent with the fact that all Paterwhich gives us an idea of the kind of son's schemes did not make him a rich man he himself aspired to be, one man, but it is contradicted by the re"whose education, genius, general spect and esteem which he enjoyed not scope of knowledge of the laws, gov-only in the West Indies, where his ernments, polity, and management of influence was great, but through the the several countries of the world, United Kingdom and on the continent allow him sufficient room and opportu- of Europe. It is further disproved by nity not only to understand trade as the confidence which was reposed in abstractly taken but in its greatest ex-him by the shrewd merchants and captent, and who accordingly is a zealous italists of London, whose colleague he promoter of free and open trade, and became on the directorate of the Bank consequently of liberty of conscience, of England, and by the support which general naturalization, unions, and an- was always freely accorded to his projnexions.' Even in his conduct of the ects. Long before he had brought his unhappy Darien scheme a certain men- Darien plan to public notice, he was tal breadth and magnanimity are plainly widely known for his proficiency in discernible. He was a free trader in those subjects which are now included an age when protection reigned su- under the general term of political preme, when almost every great enter- economy. He was not discredited even prise took the form of a monopoly. It by his failure in Darien. In later years showed a still more notable superiority he was elected a member of the United to the prejudices of his time when he Parliament as the representative of the determined that in the colony of Darien Dumfries boroughs, and until the end "differences of race or religion were to of his life he maintained an active adbe made nothing of." Nearly two cen-vocacy of those principles of finance turies before the Panama Canal of M. which observation and experience had Lesseps was projected, Paterson had taught him. considered the possibilities of such an undertaking, and had written concerning it, that three-fourths of the entire distance across the isthmus consisted of land"so level that a canal might easily be cut through," and that the remainder In the year 1694 Paterson published a pamphlet, entitled, "A Brief Account of the Intended Bank of England," in which he writes with authority on the views of its founders. In contravention of the assertions of its opponents, he contended that the interest of died, their annuities were to be divided money would be lowered by it, and trade developed; and it is worthy of notice, that he put very clearly the necessity of an ample metallic reserve, -a point on which discussion has been so lively in recent years. among the survivors, until their number should be reduced to seven, when the remaining annuities as they fell in were to lapse to the government. It may be interesting at the present juncture to note, that in order to secure Paterson became one of the twenty- these annuities, it was found needful to four original directors of the bank, and impose new duties on beer and other held £2,000 in its stock. A year later liquors, a resource which our financiers he sold his stock, and resigned his po- do not yet appear to consider exsition on the board, the account which hausted. The Million Loan was the is generally accepted of the severance starting-point of our national debt. being that, in a difference of opinion Montague was the first chancellor to with his colleagues upon important issue exchequer bills, a convenient points in the bank's operations, he was form of negotiable paper which has outvoted, and considered it necessary held its ground ever since, although to emphasize his protest by with- it is not now issued for the small drawal. The story shows that he was not merely concerned in the first design, but for a time an active sharer in the bank's administration. amounts, varying from £5 upwards, which at that time found favor. They met a great necessity in the years of the re-coinage, when currency of any When the scheme had so far pro- kind was scarcely to be had. The gressed that it could be brought before small exchequer bills, therefore, which the House of Commons, statesmen bore interest at the rate of threepence were fortunately found capable of per- per cent. per day, were eagerly wel ceiving the advantages that might ac- comed, and the monetary pressure was crue from it both to the government much mitigated by means of them. and the community. Undoubtedly the Montague was a young politician, but most obvious point to them was the his youth, coupled with the wonderful benefit which the administration would successes of his parliamentary career, reap in immediate financial assistance. only better fitted him for a bold innoYet this obvious gain, as has been vation. In the course of a very few already said, was in one way a hin-years after his entrance into public life drance to the adoption of the measure he rose to the highest positions which by stimulating and embittering the ef- the House of Commons had to offer, forts of the Opposition. It was by the and the ease and rapidity of his rise skilful tactics of Charles Montague, must have given him the confidence and by the exercise of his then unri- which is so powerful a reinforcement valled authority in Parliament, that to ability. He was an opportunist in these difficulties were surmounted. the best sense of the word. The name of Montague is entitled to man of the highest originality of mind, stand high in the illustrious list of the he was quick to recognize and turn to finance ministers of the country. He good account the ideas and teaching of became chancellor of the exchequer in men of genius. This is the proper April, 1694, and the passage of the work of a statesman. As Macaulay Tonnage Act in that year, containing truly says, "We can scarcely expect clauses which assured a charter to the to find in the same human being the bank, only confirmed a reputation al- talents which are necessary for the ready earned by him for financial in- making of new discoveries in political genuity and astuteness. In 1692, when science, and the talents which obtain a lord of treasury, he had devised the the assent of divided and tumultuous Million Loau, raised by an issue of life assemblies to great practical reforms." annuities to which he added the attrac- In fact, the relation between Montague tion of a tontine. As the annuitants and Paterson, with the other promoters If not a of the bank, is a typical example of the | powerful advocates in high places. It usual course of political reforms in a is to his everlasting credit that, fortified free country. It might not unfairly be by the counsels of such men as Somers, compared to the relation between Cob- Newton, and Locke, Montague could den and Peel in the abolition of the not be drawn into this folly. Corn Laws, with the exception that Montague was not a late and reluctant convert, but a sympathetic coadjutor. The pioneers, the discoverers and advocates of a new or neglected truth, who prepare the public mind for its reception, are entitled to all honor, but not to the exclusion of the statesmen who discern the proper moment for giving it effect in legislation. Both fulfil an indispensable function. In the history of the re-coinage of 1696-8, perhaps even more clearly than in his management of the act establishing the bank, we can see the stuff of which Montague was made. 66 The ultimate success of the bank could not, however, be secured by the approval of Parliament or by the prompt subscription of its stock, but had to depend on the wisdom of those who were charged with its management after the initial difficulties had been overcome. We have the amplest evidence that no great institution was ever happier in the character of those who presided over its birth and directed its earliest years. The original directors were among the leading merchants and the most influential citizens of London. No fewer than seven of the twentyfour were chosen, between the years 1696 and 1719, to fill the office of lord mayor; two others were members of Parliament. There could not have been found anywhere a body of men better qualified to conduct the new institution. They were the moneyed men of the community; they were thoroughly skilled, by daily practice, The re-coinage in William the Third's reign was a heroic business. The currency had fallen into a condition that made it not only a disgrace, but a positive danger to the country. It was worn and clipped to such an extent as to have fallen to less than half its proper value; and its restoration could not be accomplished without an ex-in matters of commerce and finance; penditure that must have seemed in those days appalling. The actual cost exceeded £2,700,000. "Such a sum," says Thorold Rogers, was nearly equivalent to a year and a half's ordinary revenue, and was as serious at the end of the seventeenth century as a public loss of a hundred millions would be at the end of the nineteenth." So soon as the necessity was fully recognized, the problem was faced by Montague with boldness and promptitude. To devise the means of such a provision tasked even his ingenuity, and laid a tremendous burden upon the struggling nation; a burden, how ever, which was cheerfully borne when it became evident that the expenditure would bear fruit in prosperous trade. It was a still greater triumph for Montague, that he defeated the cowardly proposals of the currency fanatics of his day. The debasing of the currency, by lowering the weight while retaining the denomination of the coin, found and they knew, as well as any could His per cent. in the price of bank stock. Sufficient has now been said of those Whatever his practical ability as a concerned in the founding of the bank, banker may have been, it is abundantly to prove that the prosperous issue of evident from his pamphlet, "A Short Account of the Bank of England," that no one better understood the utility of the new institution, the principles by which it ought to be guided, and what answers should be given to those who attacked it. great as have been the advances of commerce and finance in our own time, no other financial institution can properly compare with it. Its capital of £14,553,000, with the addition of its rest, or reserve fund, of £3,000,000, exceeds the united capital of the state banks of France and Germany, and is nearly equal to the entire paid-up capital and reserve of the five largest English joint-stock banks together. The stability conferred by these immense resources has made the Bank of England the bulwark of our commerce in times of disturbance and panic, and earned for it the unshaken confidence both of the government and the nation. their enterprise was no chance success, but a natural result of the well-directed efforts of prudent and discerning men. It might well be matter of surprise to us to find that the merchants of the seventeenth century had so firm a grasp on sound principles of commerce and. He describes the bank as "A soci- banking. Much still remained to be ety consisting of about thirteen hun- learned from experience, but remarkdred persons who, having subscribed ably little had to be unlearned; and, £1,200,000 pursuant to an act of Par- in spite of some serious errors, the liament, are incorporated by the name chief of which (an insufficient proviof the Governor and Company of the sion of ready cash against the notes Bank of England, and have a fund of issued) has been already mentioned, £100,000 per annum granted them, the beginnings of the bank were worthy redeemable after eleven years upon of the illustrious career of two hundred one year's notice, which £1,200,000 years that was to follow. Even now, they have paid into the exchequer by such payments as the public occasion required, and most of it long before the money could have been demanded." In an able argument he confutes the contentions of its enemies, pointing out, by a reference to facts, how it would serve both public and private necessities. Instead of making money dearer, it not only would lower the rate of interest but had already done so, thereby encouraging industry and improvements, and, by a natural consequence, raising the value of land and increasing trade. An economy had, he maintains, already been effected in the currency, for "the bank bills were serving for returns and exchanges to and fro from the remotest part of the kingdom,” and would, it might reasonably be expected, be likewise accepted From The Contemporary Review. in foreign countries, and thus lessen BEATIFICATION IN THE EAST the export of bullion for maintaining IF Joan of Arc had been destined to the army abroad. The scandalous con- fulfil her mission as a native either of dition of the currency had not escaped China or India, she would not have his notice, and he estimates that one had to wait four hundred and sixtyday or other it must cost the nation a three years for her beatification. In million and a half or two millions to all probability within રી very few repair it. The bank, moreover, would months of her death she would have "facilitate the future supplies by mak-been not only beatified but fully canoning the funds which are to be given ized. Europeans even in these enmore useful and ready to answer the lightened days still know very little of public occasions and upon easier terms the manners and customs of Asiatics than what has been done during the to the select few who study such subwar." jects the reasons and methods of beati ; worshipped in his lifetime, though certainly from no feelings of affection on the part of his devotees. The Hindu, as was truly said by Burke, when the fication are among the most interesting | French commander, has been canonquestions which it falls to their lot to ized at Hyderabad; and General Nichinvestigate. In Europe a beatification olson, killed at Delhi in 1857, was occurs not oftener perhaps than once a century; the spirit beatified probably had a great reputation when in the flesh; the process itself is one which has not only religious but political worship of Hastings was alluded to, bearings, and naturally excites a certain amount of attention even in the minds of the most disrespectful and sceptical. But in India and China beatification is of almost weekly occurrence, and in the latter country probably at least a dozen new objects of worship are officially recognized by the State every year. Strange to say, the State occasionally degrades a spirit from its throne of grace, and refuses to allow it to be worshipped any longer. deifies a man and adores him not only There are three principal modes of beatification as practised in the East. The commonest method is by the voice of the people. "He was a saint!" they exclaim on the death of some remarkable man, and the priests acquiesce, for each new saint brings grist to their mills. When the voice of the people is silent, then, in their own interests, the priests proclaim saints and demand shrines for them. These two methods are especially characteristic of Hindustan. A distinguished writer has compared the process of beatification, canonization, or deification-whichever term we like to use to the ascent and descent of Jacob's ladder. The Hindus [he says] construct for themselves Jacob's ladders between earth and heaven; the men are seen ascending until they become gods; they then descend But interesting and important as the again as embodiments of the divinities; Hindu methods of deification are, those insomuch that it may be almost doubted of the Chinese are far more curious. whether any god, except the Vedic divini-In China the emperor claims power, ties and other obvious Nature gods, comes not only over his subjects (and indeed, down the ladder who had not originally for that matter, the whole inhabited gone up as a man, and an authentic man. world), but also over the realms of The Hindu, in a certain stage of en- departed spirits. These he beatifics, lightenment, is inclined to deify any canonizes, decorates with titles, mennotable person, not necessarily waiting tions with approval in the Peking Gafor his death. While Warren Hastings zette when they do anything to deserve was on his trial in England it was stated that honor, and actually degrades and as an argument in his favor that he uncanonizes if he sees just cause. In was being worshipped in his appropri- the latter respect his power over the ate temple in India. M. Raymond, al departed clearly exceeds that even of |