for by the
called bonds and coupons or secured by deposit of other bonds; but on
the second day of that month nearly two and a half millions of dollars
cash were paid to me; then on the fourth, nearly five millions of
dollars more; and on the fifth, above three millions, and so on in
different sums till the present time.

Of course it was wholly impracticable to receive, handle, count and
keep on hand such large amounts of gold coin, weighing between a ton
and three quarters and two tons to each million of dollars. At one
time my account showed more than sixteen millions of dollars on hand,
and to have withdrawn from circulation that amount of coin would have
produced a panic in the London market; and the risk in having it
hoarded in any place within my reach would have been immense,
especially as it would have soon been known where it was.

I ascertained that there would be some difficulty in keeping an
official Government account in the Bank of England, and I did not feel
authorized, or justified in my own judgment, in entrusting so much
money to any other banking institution in this city. I found, also,
that the Bank of England never issues certificates of deposit, as do
our banks in the United States. But it issues "post notes," which are
very nearly like its ordinary demand notes, but _payable to order,_ and
on seven days' time, thus differing only in the matter of time from
certificates of deposit. Availing myself of this custom of the Bank
of England, I put all the money into post notes, and locked them up in
one of the safes from which the bonds had been taken. This I regarded
as a safe method of keeping the funds, and I anticipated no further
difficulty.

But when the Bank made its next monthly or weekly return of its
condition, and published it in all of the newspapers as usual, the
attention of all the financial agents, bankers, and financial writers
of the daily money articles in the journals was immediately attracted
to the sudden increase of the "post notes" outstanding, and the
unusually large amount of them, so many times greater than had ever
been known before. They were immensely alarmed lest the notes should
come in for redemption in a few days, and the coin therefor should be
withdrawn from London and taken to a foreign country; and lest there
should be a panic on account thereof. Some of the financial writers
said they belonged to Germany, and that they represented coin which
must soon b