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Article REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Page 1 of 3 →
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Reviews Of New Books.
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IJie Life aiid . ' . Writings of William Paterson , Founder of the Bank of England " ; until Biographical Notices of the Auilwr , Ms Contemporaries and Ids Race . Edited by S . BANNiSTEK , M . A ., of Queen ' s College , Oxford , formerly Attorney-general of New South Wales . In 2 vols . London : Effingham Wilson , 1 . 858 . — Scanty as are the materials for the composition of a biography of William Paterson , a life of him presented in any shape must possess a great degree of interest to tlie general public , and more
particularly to the financial world One of the ablest financiers of his ^ he was the original founder of our noblest commercial institution---the Bank of England . Apart , however , froin the interest which could naturally attach itself to . him in this respect ^ his life , were it fuUy ascertained , would present features of romantic adventure vdiich would scarcely be imagined to have happened to a man whose object in life was apparently to make money . We know nothing , however , of the feelings of his youth and his manhood , or of his adventures in America , where he was said to have been
a participator in the enterprises of the buccaneers . In fact , we know less of his inner life than of his political and commercial successes and reverses , his financial schemes , and his reception at the courts of various sovereigns . Mr . Bannister has , therefore , a very slender basis upon which to found Paterson ' s biography ; and very properly calls this portionof his vporkby its proper name—¦" a biographical notice . " The hero of this agreeable book , William Paterson , was born in 1658 , in Lochmaber , in Imwold , Dumfriesshire , and received , in a school in the south of Scotland , a very superior
education . From this time till the year 1684 we hear little of his thoughts or his enterprises . He was engaged in several branches of commerce , however ; and when he returned from America to England , he left behind liini many friends , and carried with him an extensive knowledge of the country . His influence throughout the whole of the West Indies w as very great , the people thronging to see him wherever he staid for any length of
time ; but it is easily accounted for in his active trade with these colonies , and his unbounded kindliness of heart , which secured him a friend in every one with whom he came in contact . We have not space in this brief notice to recapitulate facts in connection with the colonization of the Isthmus of Darien—a scheme which Paterson . conceived in 1684 , and which failed only in consequence of the incapability , of those to whom the command of the
expedition was entrusted . The formation of the settlement , and its eventual destruction , are facts which are now matter of history ; and the incidents which characterised the whole enterprise , show how grossly and shamefully it was mismanaged . Pater son ' s report of the proceedings of the seven councillors to whose command the colony was entrusted , which has been published by the Bannatyne Club , fully accounts for the occurrence of all the disasters . If Paterson had received the chief command , it is not
to be doubted that a great ultimate success would have been achieved . The great merit of having founded the Bank of England has been universally attributed to William Paterson ; and in the volumes before us , Mr . Bannister has brought forward unquestionable proofs of the truth of the supposition—proofs which are to be [ found in the writings of Paterson himself , and in the editor ' s notes . For more than forty years previously .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews Of New Books.
EE ¥ IEWS ; 0 F : HEW BG 0 K &
IJie Life aiid . ' . Writings of William Paterson , Founder of the Bank of England " ; until Biographical Notices of the Auilwr , Ms Contemporaries and Ids Race . Edited by S . BANNiSTEK , M . A ., of Queen ' s College , Oxford , formerly Attorney-general of New South Wales . In 2 vols . London : Effingham Wilson , 1 . 858 . — Scanty as are the materials for the composition of a biography of William Paterson , a life of him presented in any shape must possess a great degree of interest to tlie general public , and more
particularly to the financial world One of the ablest financiers of his ^ he was the original founder of our noblest commercial institution---the Bank of England . Apart , however , froin the interest which could naturally attach itself to . him in this respect ^ his life , were it fuUy ascertained , would present features of romantic adventure vdiich would scarcely be imagined to have happened to a man whose object in life was apparently to make money . We know nothing , however , of the feelings of his youth and his manhood , or of his adventures in America , where he was said to have been
a participator in the enterprises of the buccaneers . In fact , we know less of his inner life than of his political and commercial successes and reverses , his financial schemes , and his reception at the courts of various sovereigns . Mr . Bannister has , therefore , a very slender basis upon which to found Paterson ' s biography ; and very properly calls this portionof his vporkby its proper name—¦" a biographical notice . " The hero of this agreeable book , William Paterson , was born in 1658 , in Lochmaber , in Imwold , Dumfriesshire , and received , in a school in the south of Scotland , a very superior
education . From this time till the year 1684 we hear little of his thoughts or his enterprises . He was engaged in several branches of commerce , however ; and when he returned from America to England , he left behind liini many friends , and carried with him an extensive knowledge of the country . His influence throughout the whole of the West Indies w as very great , the people thronging to see him wherever he staid for any length of
time ; but it is easily accounted for in his active trade with these colonies , and his unbounded kindliness of heart , which secured him a friend in every one with whom he came in contact . We have not space in this brief notice to recapitulate facts in connection with the colonization of the Isthmus of Darien—a scheme which Paterson . conceived in 1684 , and which failed only in consequence of the incapability , of those to whom the command of the
expedition was entrusted . The formation of the settlement , and its eventual destruction , are facts which are now matter of history ; and the incidents which characterised the whole enterprise , show how grossly and shamefully it was mismanaged . Pater son ' s report of the proceedings of the seven councillors to whose command the colony was entrusted , which has been published by the Bannatyne Club , fully accounts for the occurrence of all the disasters . If Paterson had received the chief command , it is not
to be doubted that a great ultimate success would have been achieved . The great merit of having founded the Bank of England has been universally attributed to William Paterson ; and in the volumes before us , Mr . Bannister has brought forward unquestionable proofs of the truth of the supposition—proofs which are to be [ found in the writings of Paterson himself , and in the editor ' s notes . For more than forty years previously .