is associates upon the bench. Judge
Hopkinson was from Lowell, where he had been a favorite of the ruling
class in that city. He was a man of moderate ability. The work of the
commission continued through several months, and some of its
recommendations were adopted by the Legislature.

As the charters of all the banks in the State were to expire in 1850 or
1851, in the latter year, I think, the Legislature authorized the
appointment of a board of commissioners for the examination of the
banks. The Governor and Council appointed Solomon Lincoln, of Hingham,
Joseph S. Cabot of Salem, and myself.

Mr. Lincoln was a kind, capable man of considerable learning,
especially in Old Colony history and genealogy. His first question to
bank officers often related to them personally, and when he found a man
who traced his line to the Old Colony, he pressed him with questions
until his whole history was disclosed. Mr. Cabot sometimes anticipated
Mr. Lincoln, by saying at once, when we entered a bank, "Is there
anybody here from the Old Colony?"

Mr. Cabot was a bachelor of fifty, and his ways were often odd, and
occasionally they were disagreeable. He had a custom of never locking
his sleeping-room door. Of this he often boasted. When we were at the
American House, Worcester, Mr. Cabot said upon his appearance in the
morning: "A very queer thing happened to me last night. When I got up
my clothes were missing. At last I opened the door, and there they
were in the hall. I supposed that I had been robbed. But I am all
right," taking his wallet from his pocket. I said: "Have you looked
in your wallet?" He opened it to find that the money had disappeared.
We ventured to suggest that for a bank commissioner, he had not shown
a great amount of shrewdness.

In the years 1849 and 1850 the commission examined all the banks in the
State. Only one was found insolvent, a bank at Pawtucket on the
Rhode Island line. The cashier, named Tillinghast, had been persuaded
by a man named Marchant, of Rhode Island, to loan money without the
knowledge of the officers of the bank. The loan, at the time of the
discovery, amounted to sixty thousand dollars.

Upon the examination it appeared that there was a slight surplus of
funds over the amount required by the statement. We insisted upon
another examination. The cashier then reduced the balance by the
statement that certain notes sent forward for collection had been
discounted.