the monetary sky. Under these re-assuring
circumstances the panic soon subsided, but it left its blighting
legacy of misery, ruin, diminished credit, and general embarrassment.

The banking laws were soon after altered. The Bank of England was
induced to forego its exclusive monopoly of having more than six
proprietors, and the formation of joint stock banks consequently
became possible. A new era in banking commenced, which, modified from
time to time, has existed down to the present time.

It will be seen that the close of the war, in 1814, was the
commencement of the great and violent monetary changes I have
attempted to describe. There were then six banks in Birmingham. Two of
these are altogether extinct; the other four have merged into existing
banks. For convenience sake, I will sketch the extinct banks first,
and afterwards show the processes by which the others have been
incorporated with existing institutions.

At the period mentioned, the firm of Smith, Gray, Cooper, and Co.
had the largest banking business in the town. They carried on their
operations in the premises in Union Street now occupied by the
Corporation as offices for their gas department. This bank did a large
business with merchants and wholesale traders, and it "was a very
useful bank." After several changes, the firm became Gibbins, Smith,
and Goode. In the great panic of 1825, one of their customers, a
merchant named Wallace, failed, owing them L70,000. This, with other
severe losses, brought them down. They failed for a very large amount.
Such, however, had been their actual stability, that, after all
their losses, and after payment of the costs of their bankruptcy, the
creditors received a dividend of nineteen shillings and eightpence in
the pound. Mr. Smith, of this firm, was a man of great shrewdness and
probity, and was greatly esteemed by his friends. The late Mr. Thomas
Upfill had, in his dining-room, an excellent life-size portrait of Mr.
Smith, taken, probably, about the year 1820. This portrait is now
in the possession of a lady at Harborne. The face is a shrewd and
observant one, and it always struck me as having a remarkable likeness
to the great James Watt, the engineer. Of Mr. Gibbins and Mr. Goode we
shall hear more as we go on, but "Smith's Bank" became extinct.

The firm of Galton, Galton, and James had their offices in the tall
building in Steelhouse Lane, opposite the Children's Hospital. They
weathered the storm of 182