utmost; and these persons being unable to
meet their engagements became bankrupts. The distress soon reached
the bankers themselves. Some of the country banks stopped payment; and
apprehensions springing up from thence with respect to the stability of
the London banks, caused such a run upon them, that many failed. In the
month of December all the usual channels of credit were stopped, and the
circulation of the country completely deranged. In this state of
affairs several cabinet deliberations took place; and it was at length
determined that one and two pound bank notes should be issued for
country circulation. This measure was carried into effect on the 16th
of December; and an order was also issued to the officers of the Mint
to expedite an extraordinary coinage of sovereigns. For one week one
hundred and fifty thousand were coined daily. In the meantime meetings
were held in London and the great trading towns, in which resolutions
were adopted for the support of commercial credit and these had the
effect of restoring mutual confidence to a considerable extent. Such
was the contrast between the commencement and the close of the present
year: it began in visions of prosperity, it closed with a certainty of
adversity. The derangement of commercial affairs doubtless arose from
the dangerous mania of speculation, aided by a vicious system of
making paper money, which increased the currency, drove gold out of the
country, and then caused a demand for it in exchange for paper, which
it was impossible to meet. The natural consequence was an almost general
breaking up of those who depended on paper money, and an approach to its
utter annihilation.

THE BURMESE WAR.

{GEORGE IV. 1825--1826.}

During this year the hostilities against the Burmese were prosecuted
actively and successfully, but yet without producing any decisive
result. After the successes gained by Sir Archibald Campbell, towards
the end of the previous year, he remained unmolested at Rangoon; and the
only military operations in that quarter in the month of January were
some unimportant skirmishes. During that month it was discovered that
the Burmese generalissimo had stationed himself at Donoobew, about fifty
miles up the river, where, having drawn to his army all the resources of
the Pegu vice-royalty, he prepared himself to sustain an attack. It was
now determined by Sir Archibald Campbell, though his invading force was
small, and his Siamese allies