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The difficulties, accordingly, which the Bank of England, which

the principal bankers in London, and which even the more prudent

Scotch banks began, after a certain time, and when all of them

had already gone too far, to make about discounting, not only

alarmed, but enraged, in the highest degree, those projectors.

Their own distress, of which this prudent and necessary reserve

of the banks was, no doubt, the immediate occasion, they called

the distress of the country; and this distress of the country,

they said, was altogether owing to the ignorance, pusillanimity,

and bad conduct of the banks, which did not give a sufficiently

liberal aid to the spirited undertakings of those who exerted

themselves in order to beautify, improve, and enrich the country.

It was the duty of the banks, they seemed to think, to lend for

as long a time, and to as great an extent, as they might wish to

borrow.