into the
Bank than lend it on mortgage at moderate interest. Caermarthen said
little or nothing in defence of what was, in truth, the work of his
rivals and enemies. He owned that there were grave objections to the
mode in which the Commons had provided for the public service of the
year. But would their Lordships amend a money bill? Would they engage in
a contest of which the end must be that they must either yield, or incur
the grave responsibility of leaving the Channel without a fleet during
the summer? This argument prevailed; and, on a division, the amendment
was rejected by forty-three votes to thirty-one. A few hours later the
bill received the royal assent, and the Parliament was prorogued. [523]
In the City the success of Montague's plan was complete. It was then at
least as difficult to raise a million at eight per cent. as it would now
be to raise thirty millions at four per cent. It had been supposed that
contributions would drop in very slowly; and a considerable time had
therefore been allowed by the Act. This indulgence was not needed. So
popular was the new investment that on the day on which the books were
opened three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed; three hundred
thousand more were subscribed during the next forty-eight hours; and,
in ten days, to the delight of all the friends of the government, it was
announced that the list was full. The whole sum which the Corporation
was bound to lend to the State was paid into the Exchequer before the
first instalment was due. [524] Somers gladly put the Great Seal to a
charter framed in conformity with the terms prescribed by Parliament;
and the Bank of England commenced its operations in the house of the
Company of Grocers. There, during many years, directors, secretaries and
clerks might be seen labouring in different parts of one spacious hall.
The persons employed by the bank were originally only fifty-four. They
are now nine hundred. The sum paid yearly in salaries amounted at first
to only four thousand three hundred and fifty pounds. It now exceeds two
hundred and ten thousand pounds. We may therefore fairly infer that the
incomes of commercial clerks are, on an average, about three times as
large in the reign of Victoria as they were in the reign of William the
Third. [525]

It soon appeared that Montague had, by skilfully availing himself of the
financial difficulties of the country, rendered an inestimable service
to his party. During severa