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The banks, however, by refusing in this manner to give more

credit to those to whom they had already given a great deal too

much, took the only method by which it was now possible to save

either their own credit, or the public credit of the country.

In the midst of this clamour and distress, a new bank was

established in Scotland, for the express purpose of relieving the

distress of the country. The design was generous; but the

execution was imprudent, and the nature and causes of the

distress which it meant to relieve, were not, perhaps, well

understood. This bank was more liberal than any other had ever

been, both in granting cash-accounts, and in discounting bills of

exchange. With regard to the latter, it seems to have made scarce

any distinction between real and circulating bills, but to have

discounted all equally. It was the avowed principle of this bank

to advance upon any reasonable security, the whole capital which

was to be employed in those improvements of which the returns are

the most slow and distant, such as the improvements of land. To

promote such improvements was even said to be the chief of the

public-spirited purposes for which it was instituted.