VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 309 



In February of this year the Bank published 

 its accounts for the first time. It was the first 

 London private bank to do so, and they received 

 many congratulatory letters, including one from 

 the Governor of the Bank of England. 



Shortly afterwards the Government asked Sir 

 John to be Chairman of a Committee to settle 

 the designs of the coins, those issued at the time 

 of the Jubilee not being popular. The other 

 members were Sir C. Fremantle, Sir John Evans, 

 Sir F. Leighton, and Mr. R. B. Wede, Chair- 

 man of the National Provincial Bank. They 

 invited several distinguished artists to send in 

 designs. Eventually designs by Poynter and 

 Brock were accepted and gave general satisfaction. 

 Sir John was very strongly in favour of retaining 

 the Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle. The Queen 

 assented rather reluctantly, saying humorously 

 that she thought there were " rather too many 

 vegetables." 



Later in the following year, Her Majesty again 

 asked : " Is it likely that the coat - of - arms 

 smothered in vegetables on the half-crown will 

 be preferred to the very pretty coat-of-arms on 

 the half-crown last adopted ? " 



This spring the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 Mr. Goschen, put forward some tentative proposals 

 for an issue of £1 notes. Sir John opposed the 

 suggestion in a speech to the London Chamber of 

 Commerce, and again on March 16 at the Political 

 Economy Club. It was not pressed further. 



The project for the issue of the notes had a 

 certain support from Mr. Gladstone. On April 11 

 of this year Sir John notes that he " dined at 



