PROGRESS BY LAND, 1818-I9IO 189 



Sixties Protestants have far outnumbered Roman Catholics, 



ecclesiastical have ceased to coincide with political factions, 



and these blots upon the history of the colony have been 



removed like so many others by the birth-rate. Except in 



1 88 1, when anti-railway mobs went about wrecking railway 



property, mob law has not broken out ; although groundless 



fears of violence were expressed in 1894-5 when the Banks 



broke. 



An official Savings Bank was established in 1834, with the T/ie Bank 



Colonial Treasurer as its cashier and members of Council and ^q^"^^^ 



1894-5, 



of the Assembly in equal numbers as its directors; and Vo^i produced 

 Office Savings Banks were established in 1882. The first ^/^^^^ 

 Commercial Bank was established in 1836, and in 1894 two many other 

 banks monopolized the banking business in the colony, namely, ^^J^^' 

 the Union Bank and the Commercial Bank, which had been 

 established in 1854 and 1857 respectively. At the close of 

 1894 and in the beginning of 1895 both of these banks 

 suspended payment, and at the time of this suspension the 

 Government owed them £127,000, or 37 per cent, of its 

 revenue, the two banks owed the Savings Bank £208,000, 

 and the Savings Bank owed the Bank of Montreal £20,000. 



Everything was threatened — solvency, revenue, thrift, the ^^^^ ^^^ly 

 entire currency, and perhaps peace. Rumours were rife that transferred 

 Newfoundland was about to become a Province of ^'^ supremacy 

 Dominion of Canada. The Colonial Government telegraphed ^0 Canada. 

 home for a loan of £200,000 and a warship in case of dis- 

 turbances. In response to this demand a civil servant, named 

 Sir H. Murray, was sent out with £20,000. The plague was 

 stayed, and the history of the money affairs of Newfoundland 

 turned over a new leaf. Specie to the extent of £190,000 

 was imported ; the Banks of Montreal, of Nova Scotia, and 

 the Royal Bank of Canada, became the three paramount banks, 

 and the financial sceptre passed to Canada. But Newfound- 

 land remained as far off as she ever was from political union 

 with Canada. Capitalistic enterprises of a terrestrial character 



