Exchequer bills went down to 60s. discount, and the funds rose and fell like waves in a storm.

London bankers were called out of church to answer dispatches from their country correspondents.

The Mint worked day and night, and coined a hundred and fifty thousand sovereigns per diem for the Bank of England; but this large supply went but a little way, since that firm had in reality to cash nearly all the country notes that were cashed.

Post-chaises and four stood like hackney-coaches in Lombard Street, and every now and then went rattling off at a gallop into the country with their golden freight.  In London, at the end of a single week, not an old sovereign was to be seen, so fiercely was the old coinage swept into the provinces, so active were the Mint and the smashers; these last drove a roaring trade; for paper now was all suspected, and anything that looked like gold was taken recklessly in exchange.

Soon the storm burst on the London banks.  A firm known to possess half a million in undeniable securities could not cash them fast enough to meet the checks drawn on their counter, and fell.  Next day, a house whose very name was a rock suspended for four days.  An hour or two later two more went hopelessly to destruction.  The panic rose to madness.  Confidence had no longer a clue, nor names a distinction.  A man’s enemies collected three or four vagabonds round his door, and in another hour there was a run upon him, that never ceased till he was emptied or broken.  At last, as, in the ancient battles, armies rested on their arms to watch a duel in which both sides were represented, the whole town watched a run upon the great house of Pole, Thornton & Co.  The Bank of England, from public motives, spiced of course with private interest, had determined to support Pole, Thornton & Co., and so perhaps stem the general fury, for all things have their turning-point.  Three hundred thousand pounds were advanced to Pole & Co., who with this aid and their own resources battled through the week, but on Saturday night were drained so low that their fate once more depended on the Bank of England.  Another large sum was advanced them.  They went on; but, ere the next week ended, they succumbed, and universal panic gained the day.

Climax of all, the Bank of England notes lost the confidence of the public, and a frightful run was made on it.  The struggle had been prepared for, and was gigantic on both sides.  Here the great hall of the bank, full of panic-stricken citizens jostling one another to get gold for the notes of the bank; there, foreign nations sending over ingots and coin to the bank, and the Mint working night and day, Sunday and week-day, to turn them into sovereigns to meet the run.  Sovereigns or else half-sovereigns were promptly delivered on demand.  No hesitation or sign of weakness peeped out; but under this bold and prudent surface, dismay, sickness of heart, and the dread of a great humiliation.  At last, one