At JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 
as a theorist, was distinguished from all the merchants of his 
time by the largeness of his views and by his superiority to vulgar 
prejudices, should, in practice, have been distinguished from all 
the merchants of his time by the obstinacy with which he adhered 
to an ancient mode of doing business, long after the dullest and 
most ignorant plodders had abandoned that mode for one better 
suited to a great commercial society. 
No sooner had banking become a separate and important 
trade, than men began to discuss with earnestness the question 
whether it would be expedient to erect a national bank. The 
general opinion seems to have been decidedly in favor of a nation- 
al bank. Two public banks had long been renowned throughout 
Europe, the Bank of St. George at Genoa, and the Bank of 
Amsterdam. The immense wealth which was in the keeping of 
those establishments, the confidence which they inspired, the 
prosperity which they had created, their stability, tried by panies, 
by wars, by revolutions, and found proof against all, were favor- 
ite topics. The bank of Saint George had nearly completed its 
third century. It had begun to receive deposits and to make 
loans before Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, before Gama 
had turned the Cape, when a Christian Emperor was reigning at 
Constantinople, when a Mahommedan Sultan was reigning at 
Grenada, when Florence was a Republic, when Holland obeyed an 
hereditary Prince. All these things had been changed. New 
continents and new oceans had been discovered. The Turk was 
at Constantinople; the Castilian was at Grenada; Florence had 
its hereditary Prince; Holland was a Republic; but the Bank of 
Saint George was still receiving deposits and making loans. The 
Bank of Amsterdam was little more than eighty years old; but 
its solvency had stood severe tests. Even in the terrible crisis 
of 1672, when the whole Delta of the Rhine was overrun by the 
French armies, when the white flags were seen from the top of the 
Stadthouse, there was one place where, amidst the general con- 
sternation and confusion, tranquility and order were still to be 
found; and that place was the Bank. Why should not the Bank 
of London be as great and as durable as the Banks of Genoa and 
of Amsterdam? Before the end of the reign of Charles the 
