the session would end with a quarrel between the Houses, that the Tonnage Bill would be lost, and that William would enter on the campaign without money.  It was already May, according to the New Style.  The London season was over; and many noble families had left Covent Garden and Soho Square for their woods and hayfields.  But summonses were sent out.  There was a violent rush back to town.  The benches which had lately been deserted were crowded.  The sittings began at an hour unusually early, and were prolonged to an hour unusually late.  On the day on which the bill was committed the contest lasted without intermission from nine in the morning till six in the evening.  Godolphin was in the chair.  Nottingham and Rochester proposed to strike out all the clauses which related to the Bank.  Something was said about the danger of setting up a gigantic corporation which might soon give law to the King and the three Estates of the Realm.  But the Peers seemed to be most moved by the appeal which was made to them as landlords.  The whole scheme, it was asserted, was intended to enrich usurers at the expense of the nobility and gentry.  Persons who had laid by money would rather put it into the Bank than lend it on mortgage at moderate interest.  Caermarthen said little or nothing in defence of what was, in truth, the work of his rivals and enemies.  He owned that there were grave objections to the mode in which the Commons had provided for the public service of the year.  But would their Lordships amend a money bill?  Would they engage in a contest of which the end must be that they must either yield, or incur the grave responsibility of leaving the Channel without a fleet during the summer?  This argument prevailed; and, on a division, the amendment was rejected by forty-three votes to thirty-one.  A few hours later the bill received the royal assent, and the Parliament was prorogued.523 In the City the success of Montague’s plan was complete.  It was then at least as difficult to raise a million at eight per cent. as it would now be to raise thirty millions at four per cent.  It had been supposed that contributions would drop in very slowly; and a considerable time had therefore been allowed by the Act.  This indulgence was not needed.  So popular was the new investment that on the day on which the books were opened three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed; three hundred thousand more were subscribed during the next forty-eight hours; and, in ten days, to the delight of all the friends of the government, it was announced that the list was full.  The whole sum which the Corporation was bound to lend to the State was paid into the Exchequer before the first instalment was due.524 Somers gladly put the Great Seal to a charter framed in conformity with the terms prescribed by Parliament; and the Bank of England commenced its operations in the house of the Company of Grocers.  There, during many years, directors, secretaries and clerks might be seen labouring