180 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



quite sufficient to answer the end intended ; and 

 those afterwards brought forward, under the aus- 

 pices of Sir William Congreve, are nearly of 

 the same character and import. If an engine 

 turner cannot set his lathe, so as to trace or copy 

 the delicate and truly exact curves, lines, &c., 

 which are shown in both, it is not likely that 

 any forgery would ever be attempted upon either 

 of them. If they had been less complex, I should 

 have liked them better ; but, as they are, the best 

 engravers on either copper, steel, or wood, will 

 not attempt an imitation. They may, indeed, gaze 

 at them but that is all. 



It was always surprising to me that none of 

 the ingenious schemes, so long under the con- 

 sideration of the commissioners, were adopted ; 

 but, when I read, in a newspaper, that Mr. Pierce 

 had stood up in the House of Commons, and in 

 answer to a question put to him there, had said, 

 in reply, " that the commissioners were of opinion 

 that nothing better than the old bank note could be 

 devised to prevent forgery 7" then, indeed, I could 

 scarcely believe my own eyes, my astonishment 

 was complete, and my opinion of the whole busi- 

 ness of this " mountain in labour" was fixed.* 



During the time that the business of the com- 

 missioners seemed to me to be hanging in suspense, 

 I wrote a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, in which 

 I endeavoured to press upon his attention, and 

 that of his colleagues, as a means of preventing 

 forgery, the necessity of having the blank paper 

 for country bank notes printed with a new device 



[* In the original MS. there follows at this point a whimsical 

 little pen-sketch of two horsemen and a foot-soldier attacking a 

 mouse.] 



