1801.] 
firt addrefs to the proprietors, the diffe- 
rent fources of the Bank’s income are enu- 
merated, and upon a moderate eftimate of 
the produce of fuch branches as are not 
precifely known, the total amounts to 
¥,435,1041.3 from this fum is to be de- 
ducted $14,968]. for the dividend on the 
Bank capital, and there remains 620,136]. 
a fum much greater than all the expepces 
of the inftitution, including the income- 
tax, can poflibly amount to, and confe- 
“quently there muft be a very confiderable 
annual furplus, which the proprietors, if 
they think proper, have an undoubted 
right to r.quire fhould be applied in in- 
creafing their dividend. Your Correfpon 
cent does not deny that there exifts fuch 
an annual furplus; he does not deny the 
right of the proprietors to fuch an increafe 
of dividend as the furplus, wouid ‘afford ; 
but he-brings forward a fingular ftatement 
to fhew that the whole ditpofeable canital 
of the Bank does not exceed 2,500,000. ; 
If this is really the cafe, how ds it poMible 
for them to make the uiual advance of 
2,750,000l. on the annual taxes, befides 
very confiderable temporary advances on 
exchequer-bills, oreven to take in the om- 
nium of a large Joan in addition to their 
mercantile-difcounts. 
To the intercft of this difpofeable capi- 
tal of 2,500.0001].. your Correfpondent 
adds, ‘* profits ftated above 1,150,000.” 
and thus makes the total income of the 
Bank 3,275,o00l. I cannot difcover the 
leait traces of the fum of 1,150,000l./in 
any other part of the Jetter, which certain- 
dy contains no explanation how this fum 
arifes ; fuch an acebunt is jarely very im- 
properly fet in oppofition to the difting& 
and intelligible ftatement of Mr. Allar- 
dyce. i 
The fum paid by the Bank for income- 
tax is ftated at 127,50¢1. ; but, if it is pro- 
perly computed, it_ will be found that it 
cannot exceed 50,0001. ; 1 have good rea- 
fon to believe that it is fomewhat below 
this fum.. 
We are told, that © probably one-third 
part of the czepital originally fubfcribed by 
the Bank proprietors, would be fufficient 
to carry on their bufineis to its prefent 
extent.’” The capital that has been fub- 
{fcribed’ by the Bank Proprietors 18. 
11,642,400]. confequently the. Company 
have two-thirds of this fm, or 7,761,60cl. 
more than they have eccafion for ; but the 
next paragraph informs us, that the only 
real efficient capital which the Bank pof- 
fefles is the hoarded furplus of their in- 
» come ; and, that if this accumulation were 
to be divided among the proprietors, their 
On the Spirit of Enquiry. 
283 
annual dividend would be diminifhed, and 
the bufinels of the Company could not he 
conducted with, facility or fecurity. 
In i799, the Bank divided 1,164,201, 
loyalty five per cents. among the proprie- 
tors, and inthe prefent yeara fimilar divifion 
has been made of 582,120}. navy five per 
cents. Ifthe Company prefer this mode 
to an increafe of the segular dividend, it 
is “not liable to any material objection ; 
but that the profits of the inftirurion con- 
fiderably exceed the prefent dividend , of 
feven per cent. and that the. proprietors 
have a right to require a participation of 
fuch pronts, has been fully fhewn by Mr. 
Allardyce, and certainly has not been dif- 
proved by your Correfpondent. 
OG. £25 1801. J. J.G. 
a ° 
/ 
To the Ediior of the Monthly Magazine 
SIR, 
Shall be much obliged to any of your 
{ Correlpondents to.inform me, through 
the medium of your Magazine, who was 
the anthor of a curiousand very entertaining 
book, publithed by Dodfley in the year 
1751, intitled ** The Life and Adventures 
of Peter Wilkins, a Cornith Man, &c.” 
faid to be written “* by R. 8. a Paffenger 
in, the Hector .”” with fuch other particu- 
lars of his life and writings as may be 
thought generally intereftine. 
Qc. §, 1801.. Lam, Sir, 
i Mours, See. 
Curiosus, 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Ought a spirit of ENQUIRY to be encou- 
raged among the COMMON PEOPLE? 
WN my opinion, the moft unpropitious 
title that a paper can make choice _ 
of, under the genius of the prefent day, is 
that of the Enquirer. With a great ma- 
jority of literary men, enquiry is at prefent 
a term, if not altogether fynonimous 
-with, at leaft that favours of, innovation ; 
and nothing therefore can be more unpo- 
pular among the ariftocracy of the learned, 
fo clofely allied with the perions ard prin- 
ciples of the political ariltocracy, as any 
title fympromatic of that inquietude, 
which w fhes to agitate the eftablifhed or- 
der ot things, either in the literary or po- 
litical world. 
quiry is trom vulgar infpection, by filence 
and myftery, fomewhat like a locked-up 
chamber in an ancient calile, which, as the 
report goes among us menials, is haunted 
by the {pirit of our fathers in arms, the 
perturbed Spirit of the Britifh Conftitu- 
tion, 
Guarded as political-en-— 
