vii.] INSTITUTE OF BANKERS. 225 



the Auditor's clerk, who entered it into a book called 

 the bill of the day. A copy of each Teller's bill was 

 written by the Auditor's clerk upon an indented form 

 of receipt (up to 1826 upon the wooden tally, the amount 

 being expressed in notches only), and given upon his 

 application, generally on the following day, to the re- 

 ceiver or other person paying in the money. At the 

 close of the day, when all the Tellers' bills had been 

 sent down and entered, the bill of the day was sent 

 on to the clerk of the cash-book, in which book all the 

 receipts of the day were entered. The Auditor's cash- 

 book was the foundation of all the accounts of the 

 receipt of revenue, weekly, quarterly, and yearly 

 certificates of which were transmitted from the Ex- 

 chequer to the Treasury, from which the annual 

 accounts of revenue were prepared and laid before 

 Parliament. 



In early days our bankers and merchants used to 

 deposit their superfluous cash in the Tower of London 

 for safe keeping. Charles I. seized the money there, 

 amounting to 120,000. A still more serious misfor- 

 tune befell our predecessors however, in 1672, when the 

 Exchequer was closed by Charles II. , at the instance of 

 Lord Ashley and Sir Thomas Clifford, and when the 

 amount seized was no less than 1,328,000. The first 

 "run" on record took place when the Dutch fleet sailed 

 up the Thames, burned Chatham, and destroyed Sheer- 

 ness. I have already alluded to the fact that such 

 references to bankers as appear in ancient literature are 

 far from being always of a complimentary character ; 

 such is also the case even in recent times. Lord Eldon 

 is reported to have selected his bankers by a sort of 



Q 



