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acquaintance ? I got introduced to . one of the Wardles , fondly hoping that at last I had found the man with mo -noneease about Jura . But the illusion quickly vanished . I found him a large man , bald and venfcripotent , loud , in voice , coarse in manner , and Harrow in intdlect . He wore mutton-chop whisk « re , and bad strong opinions . about foreigners , who , he thought , were all dirty and exiles . He had strong views on colitice and statesmanship , without any acquaintance wrtli history or political . economy . He thought birth and blood nonsensical prejudices , and refinement « fieroinaey He never read nereis ; his newspaper sufficed . He despised poetry , and all that stuff He bought pictures aa furniture , but pronounced . the old masters ' all humbug . ' He knew nothing of philosophy or science , but asked for common sense . ••" As long as I have common sense , sir , I don't care a button who has philosophy . He sent his eldest eon to college , and ran into debt to keep him there ; not that he ¦ saw any good in Greek and Latin , but be was as proud of ' my son ' s friend , LordFid-. dlefaddle , ' as if he had a great deal of nonsense about him . In tie domestic circle he -was at once harsh , and feeble , self-willed and vacillating . He ate , drank , slept , and snored with robust energy ; but , on the whole , he did not strike me as being wholly without nonseus * . Other people besides Wardle I have met , who bore the same proud character , but 1 found them all belonging to one of two classes—either they were free-and-easy people , who conceived that taking every possible liberty with you , your name , your books , your horses , and your friends , was proof of their having no nonsense about them ; or else they were coarse , rude people who jarred upon yo « r sensibilities , . and made virtues of their very deficiencies . The best men I have known have been more generous than prudent , more imaginative tlian Bentham , less virtuous that Cato . They have been fond of children , of animals , of poetry , of art , of sentiment , of joking , of buffoonery ^ of extravagance , of o-ood society , of honours , of picnics , of dances , of private threatricals—in short , men with no inconsiderable amount of nonsense mingled in their daily lives ; but one form of nonsense they were entirely free from , and that is the pretension of having no nonsense abont them . The most readable and vividly interesting paper in the present number is a journal sent to Ebony , by Colonel Buhton , from the very confines of civilization , just as he was on the point of plunging into the depths of Central Africa . It is entitled ' Zanzibar ; and Two Months in East Africa ; ' and contains some admirable sketches of primitive Arab life and manners in that island metropolis of the Imaum of Muscat ' s possessions . Here is a sketch of the late rider : — Our error in dealing with Orientals is always one and the same . If a man evinces signs of superiority , we push him hopelessly before and beyond his age . The late ruler of Zanzibar was probably as shrewd and enlightened a prince as Arabia ever produced , yet we overrated his powers . A beautiful model of a steam-engine was sent out from England ; it was allowed to rust unopened in his stores . Like all Orientals , he was ever surrounded by an odious entourage , whom lie consulted , trusted , and apparently preferred to his friends and well-wishers . He believed firmly in the African fetiss , and in the Arabian Sahin ' s power of metamorphosis ; he would never flog a Mganga , or medicine-man , nor cut down a ' devil ' s tree . ' He sent for a Sfaaykh whose characts were celebrated , and fastened the paper with a silver nail to the doorway of Colonel Hamerton ' s sick-room , thereby excluding evil spirits and the ghost of Mr . Napier , who had died in the Consulate . He refused to sit for his portrait ; even Colonel Smyth ' s Histoi-y ofKnight-errantry and Chivalrous Characters failed to tempt him for the European peasant ' s reason , it would take away part of his life . When ' chivalry' was explained to him , he remarked that only the SLttah ( low fellows ) interfere between husband and wife . His favourite axiom— si fair test of man's mmcl was , that ' Mullahs , women , and horses , never can be called good till death ;' meaning , there is no knowing when they deceive . The SociiSttf lioyale des Antiquaires du Nordsent him their diploma ; he refused to belong to a body of gentlemen who robbed graves and snatched corpses . The census of Zanzibar , being proposed to him , he took refuge with Allah from the sin of numbering his people . When tidegauges were sent by the Geographical Society of Bombay , he observed that the Creator had hidden the ocean to ebb and now—what else did man want to know about it ? Such was his incapability of understanding European affairs , that until death-day he believed Louis Philippe to have carried into exile , as he himself would have done , all the fleets and the public treasury of the realm . And , finally , ho could never comprehend a republic— ' who administered the stick ? ' Yet , peace to his soul ! he was the model of Arab princes ; a lirm friend to the English nation , and a great admirer of the ' Dlalikat el Aazaineh , ' our most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria . Frascr contains this month a curious specimen of the modern antique—a Canterbury Talc , ' attempted in the muuncr of Cijaucek , ' by Mr . Lkiqii Hunt . One cannot help admiring the fresh , vigorous , uiul versatile activity of this literary veteran . "While a new drama from his pen is nightly acted at the Lyceum , he attempts u continuation of the Canterbury Tulcs in Frascr . The talc—that of the Tapiser , or upholsterer , he being one of the five pilgrims whoso talcs are not reported by CiiAUtJi . it—is the exqui&itc story of the origin of white and red roses given by Sir John Mandi : yille , versilicd hi antique phrase and metre . The imitation of the old style is well clone , but in our opinion not worth doing . We would ratlier have had a poetic version of the story in Mr . Hunt ' s own style . ' False Views of Meanness , hy a Grumbler , ' points out some familiar illustrations of the two opposite meannesses of wealthworship and extravagance . ' A Hide in Mexico' is a fresh und vivid sketch of travel , and ' Cliarles Jamc-B Napier' a line study of character . The Dublin University Magazine has a number of good articles this month , . amongst the best of which are a biographical sketch of the late General Havklock , und a pnper on ' The Sanitary Condition of the Army . '
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THE FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND . William Pattirson , ( ho Merchant State * man , ami Founder of ( ha Bank of England , liy S . Bannister , M . A . Edinburgh ;| Nimmo , " WiEtSXiMrPJCTEHSON- 'was -among the-wiaoBtinen-of-lusaigora » , ( i 4 lwsJ ^ AOgrxipljv _ is a fitting memorial of his patriotism und genius . Mr . JJunniater , formerly Attorney-Genorul of Now South Wales , has devoted great labour und critical sagacity to the search for inaterinla , nnd to ttio analysis of the merchant statesman ' s opinions , us well us of the claims ho established to the veneration of his countrymen . Patorson , though he founded tho Bank of England , originated the Winking Fund , advocated many lii-jh- principles of morals and economy when such advocacy was misunderstood and suspected , and projected vast designs of peaceful civilization m tho JN " ew World , iigurow
but dimly in history . Within a century alter the date of his birth his story had become a vague tradition , even in Scotland ; by many he lias been confounded with J <* bn Law , whose principles he steadily opposed for thirty years ; indeed , some of the soundest maxims now acknowledged with reference to finance , banking , and mercantile speculation are to be found in the -writings of William Paterson . Several persons have proposed to become his biographer . Twice exiled , a traveller in Europe and America , reviving the ardour of the freebooting epoch -without its rapacity , a philanthropist , an adventurer , economist , and a politician , his career was"full of interest , although portions of it are obscure . Thus , little is known of him with certainty during the fifteen years of his banishment from Scotland ; the details of bis early life are so hopelessly beyond reach that Air- Bannister resorts to the legendary p latitude inevitable in such cases , that William Paterson , according to report , owed much to the influence of a remarkable mother . He has succeeded , however , in producing a very creditable and attractive book , and , as we are grati fied to learn , he will complete his task by republishing the works of the merchant statesman who established -the Bank of England . An examination of the authorities quoted leaves no doubt that the present volume has been conscientiously and laboriously composed . . The obscurities of Paterson ' s career commence at the outset . It is undetermined whether he was born in Dumfriesshire or elsewhere ; his birth took place , apparently , in March or April , 1665 ; his parents were tenants of competent fortune , as well as proprietors . How or where he was educated is unknown , but there seems no doubt that he was intended for the ministry of the Kirk ; before attaining his majority , however , he seems to have been warned out of Scotland by the Council warrants against suspected confederates of the outlawed Presbyterians , and to have sought refuge in the house of a relative at Bristol . In the list of London merchants belon ^ in" to the reign of Charles II . the name of Paterson occurs , and it is certaii ? that during this period he was not only engaged to an important extent in commerce , but was already laying in his mind those plans -which afterwards constituted the objects of his single-hearted life . The Darren scheme was early fostered , and it was not long before sundry maljffnants beo-an to calumniate the Scottish buccaneer ; but their charges rest neither upon evidence nor upon probability . Paterson knew Henry Morgan personally , it is true , but so did Sir Hans Sloane ; moreover , he was in all likelihood acquainted with the freebooting chiefs who led so many expeditions to the Eastern Archipelago , to the ultimate advantage of legitimate commerce , but his first actual visit to Central America was when lie went with the Darien fleet in 1698 . Doggrel poets , who celebrated his achievements in a style similar to that in which they related the enterprises of John bniitu amon < r the ' salvages' of Virginia , testified to the good character of judicious Paterson , ' ap preciated the j ingled axiom , " Trade lias a secret nature none can see , tho' ' er so wise , except they trauers be lne arguments expounded in his grand proposal of a Council of Trade ( assuming ' the work to be his ) relieve him from the accusation of complicity m the theories of the ocean outlaws . In 1691 , indeed , we find hiiii occupying a hio-h social position , the friend of Fletcher of Saltoun , Baillie of Jerviswood , and Sir Theodore Jansen ; he promoted the organization of the Hampstead Waterworks Company , and Sir John Trenehard , afterwards Secretary of State , and Sir Dalby Thomas , were his colleagues in the direction Public writers held him up as an example of commercial probity , and nobly-acquired fortune , so that , as Mr . Bannister very conclusively shows , the romance of his friendless wanderings is exploded . Then came a proposal to found a Royal Bank of England , and of course official opposition encountered the projector , whose principle of the absolute necessity of being able to pay all bills in cash on demand ' was fatal to the schemes of the Chainberlens , the Bnscoes , the Murraye , the Porters , and scores of other ingenious projectors oi" forced pnper money . Shares were immediately taken to the amount of 1 , 200 , 000 / . ; the list was filled within ten days . However , ' the funds of the Bank of Kngland and its plan did not extend wide enough for the needs of . London , ' according to the views of Paterson , who proposed to develop still further the principle of Joint-Stock Banking . But the directors of tliu Stale Bank , when ho announced the Orphan Bank , objected , and lie resigned Ins seat , receiving no recompense for his conspicuous services . Nor did he cease from his efforts to promote the general commerce of the country . 03 y Uis hand was drawn up the Special Act of 1 G 95 for regulating the trade to Africa , America the East Indies , and the North ; at the samu time hid own fortune amounted to no more th an ten thousand p ounds ; he had sold out of the Bank of England , and his inv estments w ere in the Orphan 1 < und , the Hmupsteud Waterwork Company , and the Duricn Stock ; his vue had property at Pimlico , and he himself possessed a house in bt . Ulos a hi Uie fields At this moment he encountered one of the principal obstacles of his Hie ; the members of tho Scottish Company , accused of levying money , and acting as a corporation without legislative sanction , wero ordered by tho House of Commons to be impeached , and Paterson was uinon" the inculpated persons , with two merchants ) nuinud Cohen and Coutts . Another misfortune was the accidental miscarrwye of a largo amount of tho Durien Company ' s capital entrusted to hi . s care . He passed through the ordeal of a close inquiry with unblemished honour , but tUo incident was the source of extreme dillicultios to him during tlio remainder ° In lSsTthe Darien ileet sailed from Lei th ; twelve hundred men embarked in five stout ships ; many who wero not permitted to accompany them wept and clung to the ropes and timbers . But Putorson was not in command , no 7 MYT ) Then 3 vel ^^ council of seven superseded tho grout originator ami champion vt tho enterprise . Poetical justice was visited upon tho ouviouh comply , ana tue settlement became u ruin . Instead of despairing or ™* wllu *™* ^ ii ?™ tn munt of himself , Patorson began to frame a uoZBuUo"T v . !^< Mn&lnF Mr . Banniater , he wrote at this time the famous Proposal * for u Council ot SdeVaCbuted generally , and by Dugald Stewart , ... Pf ^ utar , to the erratic financier John Law . The argument occupies a chapter , aud appears
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Ko . 411 , BsaMij , 1858 J THE LBADEK . 139
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 6, 1858, page 139, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2229/page/19/
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