1834-7. Jackson vs. Biddle in America produces considerable derangements
in England,--drain of gold,--great alternate contractions and
expansions,--severe mercantile distress.

1844. Renewal of the Bank Charter, limiting its issues,--great
speculations in railroad shares, to the amount of £500,000,000.

1845. Recoil of the speculations,--immense sacrifice of property.

1846. Drain of gold,--large importations of corn,--alarm.

1847. Drain of gold continues,--panic and universal mercantile
depression,--Bank refuses discounts,--forced sales of all kinds of
property,--the Bank Charter suspended.

1857. The experiences of 1847 repeated on a more injurious scale, with
another suspension of the Bank Charter Act.

Now this record does not show a brilliant success in banking; it does
not encourage the hopes of those who place great hopes in a national
institution; for the Bank of England is the highest result of the
financial sagacity and political wisdom of the first commercial nation
of the globe. A recognized ally of the government,--at the very centre
of the world's trade,--enjoying a large freedom of movement within its
sphere,--conducted by the most eminent merchants of the metropolis,
assisted by the advice of the most accomplished political
economists,--sanctioned and amended, from time to time, by the greatest
ministers, from Walpole to Peel,--it has had, from its position, its
power, and the talent at its command, every opportunity for doing