enerous to people for whom he had a liking. He
has assisted many scores of struggling men with heavy sums, on loan,
merely out of friendship. I happen to know of one case where he, for
fifteen or twenty years, continuously assisted a brother merchant, to
the tune of L10,000 to L15,000, on merely nominal security, for which
assistance he, for the most part, charged nothing whatever.

In the great panic of 1837, Mr. Shaw, singly, saved the country from
ruin and disaster. At the time when the panic was at its height, and
the tension was as great as the country could bear, it became known
to a few that one of the great financial houses in Liverpool was
in extremities. They had accepted on American account to enormous
amounts, and no remittances were forthcoming. One Birmingham bank
alone held L90,000 worth of their paper, and acceptances to enormous
amounts were held in London, and in every manufacturing centre in
England, Ireland, and Scotland. Application had been made to the Bank
of England for assistance, to the amount of a million and a quarter,
and had been refused. Ruin seemed imminent, not only to the house
itself, but to the whole country. The calamities of 1825 seemed about
to be repeated, and alarm was universal. Mr. Shaw took up the matter
with his usual skill and wonderful energy. He went to London, and
had three interviews with the Governor of the Bank of England and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer--Mr. Francis Baring--in one day. He told
them that they had no choice; that they _must_ grant the required
relief; that to refuse would be equivalent to a revolution, and would
involve national loss to probably fifty times the amount now required.
He undertook to obtain security to a large amount in Birmingham alone.
Only the other day I had in my hand a bill for L8,000, given by one
Birmingham merchant, as a portion of this security. He succeeded. The
relief was granted. The house recovered its position, and still holds
on its prosperous way; but, except the consciousness of well-doing,
Mr. Shaw had no reward. The pecuniary value of his services to his
country in this extremity it is impossible to estimate; it is enough
to say here that they out-weighed, and cast into the shade, his many
personal faults and weaknesses. I have always thought, and still
think, that the Government ought at least to have knighted him, as
only a very slight acknowledgment of the invaluable and peculiar
service he had rendered to the nat