suspension which lasted twenty-two years—all traditions as to a cash reserve had died away. After 1819 the Bank directors had to discharge the duty of keeping a banking reserve, and (as the law then stood) a currency reserve also, without the guidance either of keen interests, or good principles, or wise traditions.
Under such circumstances, the Bank directors inevitably made mistakes of the gravest magnitude. The first time of trial came in 1825. In that year the Bank directors allowed their stock of bullion to fall in the most alarming manner—
| £ | |
| On Dec. 24, 1824, the coin and bullion in the Bank was: | 10,721,000 |
| On Dec 25, 1825, it was reduced to | 1,260,000 |
—and the consequence was a panic so tremendous that its results are well remembered after nearly fifty years. In the next period of extreme trial—1837–9—the Bank was compelled to draw for £2,000,000 on the Bank of France; and even after that aid the directors permitted their bullion, which was still the currency reserve as well as the banking reserve, to be reduced to £2,404,000: a great alarm pervaded society, and generated an eager controversy, out of which ultimately emerged the Act of 1844. The next trial came in 1847, and then the Bank permitted its banking reserve (which the law had now distinctly separated) to fall to £1,176,000; and so intense was the alarm, that
