at this important conjuncture, we might expect that the merchants of London would assemble as they did at the London Tavern in March 1799, and again resolve,

That, if the Bank of England be incompetent to afford the necessary and reasonable aid which the mercantile interests of this country require, it will be requisite that some other public • establishment be erected to supply the deficiency.'

The resumption of cash payments was, by the authority of Parliament, made contingent on the duration of the war; and, if the wisdom of Parliament do not otherwise direct, the day for recommencing our payments in cash is now very near. The contemplation of that event has, no doubt, very frequently received the degree of attention, in the Court of Directors, which was indispensably due to the magnitude of the subject: for one of greater importance has probably never been presented to the consideration of Parliament; and certainly never to the Court of Directors, or to the General Court of Bank Proprietors.

May we not then extract a beneficial idea from the transactions of former periods, in the history of the Bank of England? Instead of, demanding from the Court of Directors a distribution of our trading capital in the shape of annual bonuses, would it not be wiser and better to make an application to Parliament for power to create a formal and regular augmentation of our capital by new subscriptions (in the manner accomplished by the 7th of Anne, chap. 7) By such an arrangement our acknowledged capital might be rendered commensurate with the visible exigencies of the present times; and the fallacy attending our usual mode of declaring dividends might be completely avoided. It would enable us to merge the sum of the trading capital in the new subscriptions; and, by consolidating the whole with the sum of the permanent loan to Government, the dividends might afterwards be declared on the aggregate amount; and, of course, distributed according to the respective interests of every Proprietor in the grand capital so to be created. The declaration of our dividends would then approximate the truth: and we should not have the mere appearance of dividing annually ten pounds per cent. on our stock, when, in point of fact, it is only seven pounds and ten shillings per cent. For you will find that a dividend, at this latter rate, on our actual capital, as it appeared to Parliament, in the Reports of the respective Committees of the two Houses in 1797, is nearly the same as a dividend of ten pounds per cent. on the sum of our stock advanced on permanent loan, as aforesaid, to the Government. But if the formal addition to the recorded capital were to be accomplished by the cancelling of Exchequer bills (as in the 7th of Anne), the Governor and Directors would probably think it

advisable not to deviate from the precedent in that Act; but, remembering the possible wants of our establishment, to keep the new capital, if possible, redeemable in the same manner as it would be if it were to continue in the shape of Exchequer bills; and also, in the event of the capital, so much enlarged, appearing, at any future period, to be more than the business of the Bank and the public exigencies may then require, to have it, in such case, legally divisible, under the resolution of a General Court, among the several Proprietors, " in their private and personal capacities,' according to their respective parts, shares, and interests therein. But this matter is fit for discussion only in the Court of Directors, whose "skill and understanding" entitle them to our implicit confidence, and with whose management, I am persuaded, we ought all to be abundantly satisfied; for it has exalted our establishment to the highest degree of credit, and given us to believe in its permanent prosperity.

I have the honour to be

A Proprietor of the Bank of England,

Landon, Feb. 5, 1816.

D. B. PAYNE.

THE

INAUGURAL ORATION,

SPOKEN

ON THE 4TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 1815,

AT THE

CEREMONY OF LAYING THE FIRST STONE

OF THE

London Institution,

FOR THE DIFFUSION OF

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

BY

CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.

BARRISTER AT LAW,

AND COUNSEL TO THE INSTITUTION.

LONDON.

AT THE CEREMONY OF LAYING THE FIRST STONE OF THE

LONDON INSTITUTION,

FOR THE DIFFUSION OF SCIENCE AND LITERAture,

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY

CHARLES BUTLER,

COUNSEL TO THE INSTITUTION.

INTRODUCTION.

It was the wish of the person, who spoke the Oration, at the ceremony of laying the first stone of the London Institution, for the diffusion of science and literature, to prefix to this publication of it, a succinct Historical Account of Commerce, from the Macedonian conquest, to the present time; and to shew the constant exchange of services, between commerce and literature, during this period. The present accomplishment of this design, being incompatible with his professional duties, he begs leave to supply it in a very limited degree, by the following Extracts, principally taken from his work entitled "A Succinct History of the Geographical and Political Revolutions of the Empire of Germany, or the Principal States, which composed the Empire of Charlemagne, from his Coronation in 800, te its Dissolution in 1806, with some account of the Genealogies of the Imperial House of Hapsburgh, and of the Six Secular Electors of Germany; and of Roman, German, French and English Nobility, 1 Vol. 8vo.