Old Mr. Fuller and the pint of porter - Messrs. Denison, father and son - Spirit and wealth displayed by the latter in the case of the Bank of Manchester - Messrs. Jones Lloyd, father and son - Barclays - Smith, Payne, & Smiths - Sir R. Arkwright, the richest man in the kingdom - Coutts - Glyns - The peeress Bankers - Duchess of St. Alban's and Countess of Jersey - Gradual decline of private Bankers, and increase of joint-stock companies.

The first Bankers of whom we have an account in England, appear to have been neither a prized nor respected race of men. Jews, Lombards, usurers, and extortioners, were our primitive traffickers in money, and made the trade universally hateful and oppressive, while they earned - somewhat laboriously - for themselves a character little short of infamous. The foreigners who, from the earliest period, usurped the principal share of this business, were gradually joined by London goldsmiths, who rivalled, as a body, the vices of their predecessors, while following in the wake of their mercenary career. Some few men, it is true, may have stood out from time to time, and distinguished themselves above the common herd of rapacious money-merchants, by their probity and moderation; but, as a body, it must be confessed that our primitive Bankers can only be described as decidedly a very bad set, - they were griping usurers, iron-hearted extortioners. At the same time, the reader of general history will not fail to bear in mind that eminent mercantile men were frequently in the habit of discharging some of the most important of the duties of our modern Bankers, such as furnishing pecuniary aid to the Crown at moments of public emergency, and this in a style of generous devotion above all praise. Such a merchant, for instance, was Sir T. Gresham, the munificent founder of the Royal Exchange; and such, though less distinguished, was Sir Josiah Child, in the profligate age of Charles II.

Apropos of Sir J. Child, I have to remark that he founded the firm which still retains his name at Temple-bar, and which, with the house of Willis, Percival, & Co., is considered to be about the oldest in London. Child's house is understood to possess documents which prove their existence as a Bank as early as 1663; since which they have never moved out of the same premises. The books of Messrs. Hoare, in Fleet-street, are said to go back to 1680; and those of Messrs. Snow, in the Strand, to 1685. Stone, Martins, and Stone, of Lombard-street, claim to represent the house of Sir T. Gresham; but this, I presume, must be more a matter of tradition than of documentary evidence, and is principally noticeable as suggesting views of ancient descent upon the part of our commercial interests which will bear a comparison with the genealogy of many noble houses.

Fifty years ago there were fifty-six Banks in London, at present there are upwards of a hundred. But fifty years ago all the Banks in London were private Banks, with the single exception of the Bank of England; while at present the joint-stock Banks, home and colonial, form a considerable portion of our metropolitan monetary establishments. Of the fifty-six Banks in business fifty years ago, only twenty-four are now in existence; and yet the principal Banks, those possessing the largest property and transacting the greatest business, belong to private Bankers. The joint-stock Banks are increasing in number and solidity, but as yet they are, as to means, credit, and extent of operations, considerably removed from the elevated position occupied by their seniors and great competitors, the private Bankers.

The London Banker of the old school bore little resemblance to his modern successor: he was a man of serious manners, plain apparel, the steadiest conduct, and a rigid observer of formalities. As you looked in his face you could read, in intelligible characters, that the ruling maxim of his life, the one to which he turned all his thoughts, and by which he shaped all his actions, was, that he who would be trusted with the money of other men, should look as if he deserved the trust, and be an ostensible pattern to society of probity, exactness, frugality, and decorum. He lived - if not the whole of the year, at least the greater part of the year - at his banking-house; was punctual to the hours of business, and always to be found at his desk. The fashionable society at the west end of the town, and the amusements of high life, he never dreamed of enjoying; and would have deemed it nothing short of insanity to imagine that such an act was within the compass of human daring, as that of a Banker's lounging for an evening in Fop's-alley at the Opera, or turning out for the Derby with four greys to his chariot, and a goodly hamper swung behind, and well stuffed with perigord-pies, spring chickens, and iced Champagne.

They tell a story of old Mr. Fuller of Cornhill - the firm is now in one of the new Bank palaces in Moorgate-street, shining with plate-glass, polished mahogany, brass railings, and bronze lamps, a glance at which would have half-driven its head and founder into Bedlam - a story, I repeat, of old Mr. Fuller, which shows the extent to which economy was studied in the by-gone times of Banking. Mr. Fuller not only lived at his Bank, but, horresco referens, had his washing done at home. On such days, for many a revolving year, every one who passed his door at or about noon might have seen a single pint of porter placed at the foot of the staircase: that was the washer-woman's allowance. In process of time this constant pint, so long a pint, and only a pint, became a pot; and forthwith there was a sensation at the Bank, in Cornhill, and all along Lombard-street ! The 12 o'clock pint of beer that had stood so long once a-week at Fuller's Bank had been increased to a pot ! Every one talked of the event; and at last one customer - whether a dull, hard-headed, unhappy miser, or some solemn mocker, pleased to trifle seriously with the infirmities of poor human nature, it may now be difficult to distinguish, - drew the senior partner's attention to the circumstance in this formal manner. Entering the Bank one morning, and finding the old gentleman fixed as usual, woodwork-like to his desk, as if he was a component part of the article, he drew near and began: "I have banked with you now, Mr. Fuller, for a good many years." Mr. Fuller bowed, not his head, but head, shoulders, and half his body, smirked, and replied, "Yes, many thanks for your favours; you have, Sir." "I have, Mr. Fuller," continued the other, "and have always felt great satisfaction in keeping my account with you until lately"