1822.] 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
O* looking into the Repository of 
Arts, &c. for this month, I find a 
long account of what is termed ‘Sir 
William Congreve’s plan for the pre- 
vention of forgery,” with some beauti- 
ful specimens from the blocks that have 
been done. to show the difficulty or im- 
possibility of making an exact imita- 
tion of them. It is not my present 
purpose to lay before you the scheme 
that, L offered to the commissioners for 
the same end, some time ago, nor 
either to praise or blame the conduct of 
that respectable hody of gentlemen ; 
only it strikes me as a thing very sin- 
gular, that nothing has been done by 
the commissioners, or by the Bank of 
England, to put into use either these 
blocks, or any other mode of en- 
graving, which has been laid before 
them by numbers of artists, for the 
purpose of accomplishing so desirable 
an object. 
Instead of doing the borders to the 
notes in the way I recommended, it 
seems a ground-work or filligree-work, 
somewhat similar in effect to the plan 
I laid before them, but executed by 
means of engine-turning, has been pre- 
ferred; and in this way the notes said 
to have been invented by Sir William 
Congreve have been done. How it 
happens that the Bank of England and 
the commissioners, from whom _ so 
much has been anxiously expected, 
and whose laborious examinations one 
should suppose had by this time ena- 
bled them to have made up their minds 
on the business, have not publicly de- 
clared that Sir William Congreve or 
some others have been entitled, if not 
to the rewards which were held out to 
them, at least to the credit due to their 
ingenuity, is a matter of surprize to the 
public; but this, with submission to 
their better judgment, as to the reasons 
which may have guided them, I must 
leave without any comment. | 
It, however, becomes a duty incum- 
bent upon me to notice in a different 
way what the editor of the Repository 
of Arts, &c. has said respecting “the 
great obligation which country bankers, 
and indeed the country at large, owe 
to Sir William Congreve for the intro- 
duction of coloured stamps in lieu of the 
common dry stamp, formerly used in 
stamping bank-notes, &c.”* 
So long ago as March 1818, I im- 
* See the account in the Repository. 
Mr. Bewick on the Prevention of Forgery. 
293 
parted my plan for preventing for- 
gery to Sir M. W. Ridley, bart. u.p. 
and requested he would name it in 
Parliament if necessary; and after- 
wards in another letter, dated May 
1818, (when the commissioners, I be- 
lieve, were appointed,) that he would 
be so good as to lay it before them, and 
in a part of this letter to him I men- 
tioned the business of using borders 
that could not be forged, for the use of 
country-banks. It runs thus, in my 
copy of that letter :—“ But, indeed, im- 
pressions to an incalculable amount 
might be done in this way with borders 
sufficient to serve all the bankers in 
the kingdom, and with more expedi- 
tion than steel dies are done, for the 
purpose of the government duties ; and 
by laying the duty upon the papers 
printed in this way, instead of stamp- 
ing them, they would be done with 
greater facility, and serve a better pur- 
pose.” 
In a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, 
dated September 1818, after pointing 
out the advantages of my scheme, I 
have said of these my blocks, ‘that 
they would print millions without al- 
teration or repair; the number indeed 
might be made great enough to supply 
all the bankers in the kingdom, and 
set aside the inefficient little duty- 
stamp, if government thought proper 
to do so.” 
In another letter to Sir Joseph 
Banks, dated August 1819, I have 
said, “should the Bank of England, 
through the discriminating abilities of 
the commissioners, succeed in stopping 
forgery, as I have no doubt they will, 
then the consideration I named to you 
before of furnishing country-banks with 
similar borders, instead of the govern- 
ment-duty-stamp, will, I think, be ab- 
solutely necessary to prevent the wide- 
spreading depredations which, without 
this check, will certainly follow upon 
the banks all over the kingdom.” 
In answer to these communications 
to the commissioners, their secretary, 
John Crosse, esq. in a letter I received 
from him, dated August 1819, says on 
this head, “ With regard to that part 
of your Jetter which relates to country ; 
banks, it does not appear to come 
within the limits of the commissioners’ 
duties, but rather to belong to the di- 
rectors of the Bank to make such 
arrangements as they may think proper 
with regard to it.” 
Such are some of the circumstances 
relating to this subject, which T have 
taken 
; 
