Prevention of Forgery. 67 



proach nearer to their Originals than Mr. Terry's Imitation to 

 Mr. Tillock's Specimen. 



Yet, as this fact of the resemblance, or want of resemblanpe, 

 /between the Copy and the Original, is not a subject for argu- 

 ment, being determinable only by direct appeal to the organ of 

 vision ; and as each party concerned will therefore determine for 

 himself, I would not be thought to aim at more than simply a 

 statement of the truth, as it appears to me. 



If the distant general resemblance of the Imitation to the 

 Original was admitted, and that persons might be found of 

 perceptions so gross as to mistake one for the other, it would still, 

 as I apprehend, be a proper subject for consideration, whether 

 Mr. Tilloch's Art would not be worthy of the adoption of the 

 Bank ; because, even though it should not remove the possibility 

 of Forgeries, it would at least diminish their practicability, and 

 consequently their number, by rendering extremely difficult what, 

 at present, to an engraver of the most ordinary talents, is very 

 easy. In short, until means are discovered of rendering the 

 Forgery of Bank Notes utterly impracticable, it should seem to 

 be a duty the Bank Directors owe to the Public and to them - 

 selves to render it as difficult as possible. 



That Mr. Tilloch's Art would increase the difficulty of Forging 

 on the Bank, and that to an incalculable degree, has not been, 

 and, I venture to think, cannot be, denied. I therefore considsr 

 him as having tendered to the Bank what must, had it been 

 adopted, have been a benefit to the Community. I am obliged 

 to consider him as the Inventor of a new and distinct species of 

 engraving, if engraving it may be called, and (it is but just to 

 add) to consider the Specimen offered to the Governor and Di- 

 rectors of the Bank of England for their inspection, as a first 

 ictfort in a new Art. A new art it certainly is, and, by a parity 

 of reasoning, capable of extension and improvement j for no art 

 %vas ever carried to its ne plus ultra of perfection in the be- 

 ginning. 



J. Landseer, One of the Six Engravers who attended 

 the Committee of Bank Directors on the 4th instant. 



No. V. 



London, 10th July 1797- 

 I hav<5 seen both the wood-cut and the copperplate attempt 

 at an Imitation of Mr. Tilloch's Specimen, and I hereby declare 

 that neither of them were Copies, and that Mr. Tilloch's Work 

 deserves the commendations which havejieen bestowed upon it 

 by the different Artists who have signed the preceding Declara- 



'^"'* RiCHABD AusTrN. 



I 2 THU 



