killing of it, however, shows us what was the opinion in those days of the new species of "vested rights;" and formed, as the bank lawyers would say, if it suited their purpose to do so, a precedent to show us, if we are so ignorant as to want showing, how the whole litter may be destroyed. It should be particularly noticed, that the banking company did not contest the question, in law or equity, respecting their "vested right" in the charter; they, like Falstaff, considered the better part of valour is discretion, so they quietly submitted to their sovereigns' will; and the very next year, by means that needs no naming, obtained another charter; they call it the old one "revived;" but that's a fib, a mere hoax to gull the credulous; the first was to last for ever!! and the second for fourteen years only; besides, it states, within itself, that it was made to be less objectionable to the people than was the former one.

I have now explained to you the sort of paper-money alluded to by the petitioners; and all the rest that you read in the petitions or in the reports you will understand, and be surprised at the exact correctness of the things therein predicted, and at the wonderful ignorance or villany of the author of Common Sense, who could not or would not see the contrivances by which these banks would rob us. In answer to the committee, who state " that the bank would collect into the hands of the stockholders almost the whole of the money," he says, "How, or by what means the bank is to accomplish this wonderful feat, the committee have not informed us. Whether people are to give their money to the bank for nothing, or whether the bank is to charm it from them as a rattle-snake charms a squrrel from a tree." If he were among us now he would be at no less for this information. The exposé of the "Lumberman's bank," the "Franklin bank," and a host of others that are, or soon will be, shown up, would, if he was as blind as a bat, open his eyes as to the means. Really this pamphlet would not be worth a moment's consideration had it not been written by a man that made such a noise in the world. See how superior to Paine's was the judgment of the people generally of Pennsylvania: at that time they said, "We see nothing which, in the course of a few years, can prevent the directors of the bank from governing Pennsylvania." The banks now govern Pennsylvania, and have done for some years to all intents and purposes; that there can be no question about. The committee appointed in 1820 by the senate of Pennsylvania, to inquire into the causes of the distressed state of the commonwealth, reported that it was the banking system, and traced the evils from that very bank. But, to go on with the pamphlet, we are asked, "Is it possible the committee should know so very little of the matter as not to know that no part of the money, which at any time may be in the bank, belonging to the stockholders, not even the original

capital which they put in, is any part of it their own, until every person who has a demand upon the bank is paid, and, if there is not a sufficiency for this purpose on the balance of loss and gain, the original money of the stockholders must make up the deficiency.to jet tubɔm di bas

The money, which at any time may be in the bank, is the property of every man who holds a bank-note, or deposits cash there, or who has a just demand upon it from the city of Philadelphia up to Fort Pitt, or to any part of the United States, and he can draw the money from it when he pleases; its being in the bank does not in the least make it the pro perty of the stockholders: they are only stewards over it for those who please to put it or let it remain there, and therefore the second part of the assertion is somewhat ridiculous :" to wit, that the bankers would collect into their hands almost the whole of the money which remains among us.

No, no, Mr. Paine; the committee knew very well that the people's money did not belong to the stockholders; but they knew as well that, in case of a failure, the money would all vanish away and be no more seen by those to whom it did belong. "The bank-note holders and deposit ors have just demands on the bank”-wonderful information !!! Yės; and, if I demand a return of my purse from a highwayman, the demand would be just; but, if he were the strongest, no attention, I expect, would be paid to the demand. Just so it is with these bankers; goi you who "hold their notes," or have with them "deposited your mo ney”—ay, go even to the highest of them, to the one that has the impu dence to call itself "the Bank of the United States," and, though surrounded by all that magnificence and grandeur, the spoil of the people, they will refuse to pay you even a cent of your demands; and, if you talk about suing them, they will, with all the insolence of the highwayman, laugh at the idea of your attempting to contend against their superior strength.

If Paine were now living I would say to him, " Go, thou fool, go' to 'the Lumberman's bank,' or indeed to any other of the banks, and see if you can draw out your money when you please? Go to the bank and talk of your just demands, your deposits and the like; tell the officers that your money being in their bank does not, in the least, make it the property of the stockholders; that they were only stewards over it while you pleased to let it remain in their hands." To which Mr. Paine would, I expect, get some such an answer as this: "Ah! this may be all very true, but we can't pay you, and there is an end of it." He might, to be sure, demand a view of the exposé, wherein he would find, in addition to what I stated in my last letter, the following account from the New York Evening Post:

THE LUMBERMAN'S BANKA late meeting at Jamestown, in this State, passed resolutions declaring that "fraud, corruption, and perjury, on the part of individuals," were the "prominent" causes of its failure, and the meeting found themselves called upon, by the duty owed to themselves, their country, and their God, to condemn and expose so vile an attempt to defraud and plunder the community of their property and their rights." I ↑ que sillyblal,f

The circumstances leading to this expression of opinion on the part of the people of Jamestown are briefly these, as we gather from the report of the committee. Ten thousand dollars of the capital stock had never been paid in, and the cashier still owes 5000 dollars on the stock standing in his name. With these facts before him, the president swore that the whole capital had been paid in, according to the books of the bank. It appears also that 60,000 dollars of the assets of the bank are véry doubtful that the issues are 345,000 dollars of bills-the circulation 270,000 dollars. Certificates of deposit are out to the amount of 20,000 dollars, and the debt due to the Chatauque County Bank is 20,000 dollars, making a total liability of 310,000 dollars.

¿¿Among the various transactions of the bank which appear to be irregular and fraudulent, was one in which Guy C. Irvine gave a mortgage without a bond for 200,000 dollars on about forty thousand acres of land in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., and the cashier afterwards gave up the notes on which this indebtedness was founded, on receiving Irvine's check for the amount. The mortgage was subsequently rescinded, and the notes returned.

Another charge made by the meeting is, that a resolution of the directors, authorizing the officers of the bank, or any person acting as an agent under them, to take real estate as security for debts due, was altered, so as to read "or any agent," thereby authorizing any agent of the bank to take security on real estate.

7

In pursuance of this clandestine proceeding, a director gave the teller of the bank a mortgage for 60,000 dollars without a bond, on an undivided half of sixty lots in Dunkirk and other land in that vicinity-the debt to be payable in instalments, the last in five years, and the instrument to be foreclosed according to the laws of Pennsylvania. It now appears that it could not have been foreclosed in less than one year after the payment became due, and the director, on the strength of the security, withdrew a large amount of his individual as well as joint liability to the bank, in notes of hand, &c., with the concurrence of the teller; the other officers being ignorant of the circumstances.

In specie this bank had 25 dollars in silver and 100 dollars in centpieces!!!

Last December the president or cashier made a report to the legis

lature under oath that said bank had 270,000 dollars in cash items on hand, which included said mortgage of 200,000 dollars.

A year ago last fall a report was made that the bank had on hand 40,000 dollars in specie, but before the committee it was not pretended that they had half that amount at that time.

The author of "Common Sense" repeats, three times in one page, the fact," that whatever wealth there may be in the bank, it is the property of those who have demands upon it, and not of the stockholders. A mighty matter of importance, to be sure, when the day of exposure comes, as to who shall divide the twenty-five dollars in silver! and the hundred dollars in cents!! Better quarrel no more about it, but give it at once to the poor of the township, as neither party could find a coin sufficiently small to divide the amount, and give to each creditor a piece for his share.

And here is yet another little exposé, come to hand :

"The Commonwealth and Kilby Bank reports made to the Senate yesterday," says the Boston Advocate," presented a rare specimen of banking institutions. The over drafts and memorandum checks at the former were enormous, absorbing the whole capital; and as for the latter, it appeared they never had any capital to absorb, as 4500 shares out of 5000 were subscribed for by five persons, whose notes were immediately discounted for the whole amount, and more recently converted into East Boston bonds and notes."

What a pity it is that Mr. Paine did not live to learn the means by which the bankers could get enormous sums of the people's money into their hands!

"To

The committee accused the bankers of having banished a great deal of specie, and of having enormous sums still in their hands. reconcile this contradiction," said Paine," the committee should have added to their report that they suspected the bank had found out the philosopher's stone, and kept it in secret."

Without any kind of joking, one would think, that they must have found out some magic power to blunt the senses of the community with, or their system never could have thus succeeded. The deeds of these unequalled villains are suffered to go on, while the purloining of an old coat or an old hat from a lobby causes a hue-and-cry from one end of the city to the other; the ever-faithful and ever-watchful press bids us to beware of the scoundrels, and recommends all vigilance to be used to ferret out and bring them to justice.

In answer to that part of the report which complains " that the bank, according to the tenor of the present charter, is to exist for ever,' "Here," says Mr. Paine, "I agree with the committee, and am glad

to find that among such a list of errors and contradictions there is one idea which is not wrong, although the committee have made a wrong use of it.

"As we are not to live for ever ourselves, and other generations are to follow us, we have neither the power nor the right to govern them, nor to say how they shall govern themselves. It is the summit of human vanity, and shows a covetousness of power beyond the grave, to be dictating to the world to come. It is sufficient that we do that which is right in our own day, and leave them with the advantage of good examples.

"As the generations of the world are every day both commencing and expiring, therefore, when any public act of this sort is done, it naturally supposes the age of that generation to be then beginning; and the time contained between coming of age and the natural end of life is the extent of time it has a right to go to, which may be about thirty years; for, though many may die before, others will live beyond; and the mean is equally fair for all generations."

This I consider to be the most absurd doctrine that can be put forth. Jefferson used frequently to be bewildering himself about the natural end of life. Sometimes it was one thing and sometimes another; one time he had it up as high as thirty-four years, but, at last, he left it at nineteen years. The fact is, these men seeing that the government to which they belonged had contracted and were then contracting debts and granting charters, that is, oppressing the people, they puzzled their heads to find some sort of a justification for such conduct. A just government would never contract debts beyond the amount that was in, or due to the treasury; this it would have a right to do, but no further. "I hold it," says Mr. Calhoun," an unquestionable principle, that the government has no right to take a cent from the people beyond what is necessary to meet its legitimate and constitutional wants; to take more, intentionally, would be robbery." Nor should it grant charters or favours of any kind whatever. The business of government is to take care that we live peaceably, and hurt not one another, to look after foreign nations, and see that they do not impose upon us, or prepare for war against us without our knowledge. When it is necessary for us to prepare for defending ourselves, it is the duty of our government to inform us of it, and it is our duty to find men and money, even if it should require every man and every dollar we have. We should then take care how we entered into a war; but, being in, we should bear it, and make our opposers beware of us.' See how the brave and noble Indians fight. I read in this very day's paper that there are 700 of them defending their country against 10,000 Americans, and that they cannot be subdued. Yet they never contract public debts to carry on