the public, had gone on increasing, till at the close of the present period it had risen to be nearly eleven millions. The establishment of the Bank of England was immediately followed by that of a similar institution in Scotland, also mainly through the exertions of the public-spirited and indefatigable Paterson. But, while the great corporation in Threadneedle-street remained the only privileged banking association in England, the Bank of Scotland was compelled within the present period to submit to the intrusion, first of one chartered rival, the Royal Bank, in 1727, and then of a second, the British Linen Company, in 1746.
Of the old incorporated trading associations, the only one the history of which offers much matter of interest during the present period, is the East India Company. This Company underwent a complete re-organisation in consequence of measures that were taken respecting it in the reign of William. We have seen that for some time previous to the Revolution the exclusive privilege of the Company had been extensively invaded by numbers of private traders. These interlopers, as they were styled, taking advantage of the natural invidiousness of a monopoly, seem to have at length succeeded in exciting a very general feeling of hostility to the Company; to which were imputed various delinquencies and acts of mismanagement most injurious to the national interests; so that in January, 1692, the House of Commons, carried along by the prevailing clamour, sent up an address to his majesty requesting him at once to dissolve a body that had so misconducted itself, and incorporate a new company. This was the commencement of a long series of proceedings, of which we can here notice little more than the results. On the question being submitted to the privy council, they proposed that a new company should be incorporated for twenty-one years, to consist of the members of the old company, and as many new subscribers as should make up a capital of from 1,500,000l. to 2,000,000l., of which the existing company's capital should be considered as making 740,000l. But the Company maintained that, reckoning everything they pos-
