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Wall" and chancing to pass near the Fleet Prifon, perceived with fome furprise a "Friend at Hand."Over a house kept by "Nic. Coward" I faw the "Fighting Cocks ;" and at a crimping rendezvous I remarked the "Tree of Liberty."" The jolly Gardeners" were stuck up at a purl-boufe; and it was with much mortification I detected the "Three Graces" at a gin-fbop. Paffing by a public-house, the landlady of which was exercifing the most clamorous volubility, I could fcarcely credit my eyes on viewing "the Good Woman;" or, in other words, "a woman without a bead."-Entering a house for refreshment, I was told, after calling the waiter for an hour, that I was at the fign of the "Bell;" and upon defiring the mafter of "the Hen and Chickens" to fend me home a fine capon, he fhewed me fome cambric, and affured me it was under prime coft. The most ominous fign for the customer, I thought was the "Three Pigeons;" and I own it was with confiderable aftonishment, when, after ordering a bed at the "Feathers," I was compelled to pafs the night on a straw mattrafs. I breakfasted at the " Red Cow," where there was no milk to be had; nor could I procure a fingle rasher of bacon at the " Sow and Pigs." It would militate, Mr. Editor, against the fentiments of your loyal paper, were I to particularize the different degradations of crowned heads, though I cannot help mentioning, that under the Crown and Sceptre" I was almoft petrified at obferving, in large letters, "Spirits and Compounds by Thomas Paine;" and the hostile name of "Peter" under the fign of "Charles the Twelfth of Sweden." Many other incongruitics I witneffed during my walk, fuch as "the Royal Oak" in Broad St. Giles's; a " Ship" full fail up Holborn Hill; a" Caftle" over a hovel; the "Prince of Orange" booted, on one fide of the ftrect, and the "Saracen's Head," grinning, on the other; the fign of the "Bull," kept by a Frenchman; and the White Swan," by a Blackamoor; independent of

" Red

"Red Lions," Blue Boars," and all the perverted monfters of the foreft.

Were figns, Mr. Editor, properly analogous to the difpofitions and profeffions of men, much good would refult from fuch a Pharos to warn the unwary; I therefore, through the extenfive circulation of your valuable paper, recommend that

A Courtier be reprefented by a Jackal;

A Prieft,

A Sailor,

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Wolf;
Bulldog;
Vulture;
Afs;

The eye of an
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A Lion.

Yours,

TOM TRUEPENNY.

A Fox;

ON THE FIRMS OF BANKING-HOUSES.

[From the Morning Poft.]

To the Governor and Company of the Bank of England.

GENTLEMEN,

IPERCEIVE by the provincial papers, that no fewer

than fix new country banks make their debut in the monied world in the courfe of this week. When the number of these establishments was very fmall, a defect in the fyftem was of little moment; but now that they cover the whole furface of the kingdom, the flightest imperfection is become a public evil. Gentlemen, the one to which I would particularly draw your attention is the prefent mode of defcribing the firm;-for example, Forfter, Lubbock, and Co.; Cox, Merle, and Co.; Taylor, Lloyd, Bowman, Hanbury, and Co. This is the general ftyle of defignation, and one more defective cannot easily be conceived. It is an attempt to defcribe the firm by a lift of the furnames of the various partners;

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partners; but no fooner are two or three of them enumerated, than the impracticability of the undertaking is difcovered, and all the reft, of whom, for any thing that appears, there may be thoufands, active, fleeping, capitalifts, and others, are lumped together under a fweeping and Co.-Here, then, the very fubject itself furnithes prima facie evidence of its infufficiency. What artilt would prefume to fay, he had given even an outline or sketch of a face, when he had only touched off the nofe and chin, leaving a blank for all the other features? There is another defect in this particular, as in the cafe of Child and Co." and feveral others. Here, not only the names of the majority of the partners are covered with an and Co. but even the fingle partner announced is not in being. I will not call this ufe of a man's name after his death, and confequently without his knowledge or confent, a pofthumous forgery but certainly it is not a true defcription. Now, Gentlemen, I am perfectly aware, that giving advice is an ungrateful office; but your late idol, Mr. Fitt, does not think it at prefent unworthy of him to bestow, or your prefent idol, Mr. Addington, unworthy of him to accept; and knowing how much you fympathize in minifterial manners, I fhall venture to give you my advice refpecting these abufes. I find then in the Paris papers that four diftinguished bankers of Vienna, with whom, no doubt, you are perfectly well acquainted, have fet up a grand national bank at Hamburgh, under the name of Foga and Co.; a title compofed of the initials of their four names. Here then is a precedent established to our hand, in the very teeth of the old clumfy way of making firms, and which you, as alfo all private banks, may fafely accept upon the credit of fo good a houfe. Should this happy reform take place, inftead of the tedious enumeration of the firm of Bowles, Brown, Ogden, Cobb, and Co.” the initials put together would make fimply "Cobb and Co." Same way, "Coutts, Trotter, Antrobus, and Co."

would

would conftitute "Cat and Co." a denomination fingularly happy, for a bank which will always ftand; it being the nature of a cat, according to the late Sir Robert Clayton in his obfervations on the Premier, that, throw it as you will, it always comes on its legs. Could this plan be univerfally adopted, though we cannot expect the fame felicity in all cafes as Foga and Co. nobody could difpute its utility; but it fo happens, that there is not one in twenty banker's names, that begins with a vowel, as if there was fomething in their nature at variance with the whole fyftem of I O U; a circumftance the more extraordinary when we confider the wonderful coincidence in other fimilar avocations, as, for inftance, the fympathy between a lot tery-office and fuch names as Cash, Goodluck, Hazard, and various others. With fuch a fcarcity of initial vowels, and fuch a heap of confonants, it is to be feared few names could be made, that would not favour of the hard Ruffian caft, and be infinitely too difficult for cockney pronunciation. So far, however, as the plan is practicable, as in the cafes I have mentioned, and feveral others, not now neceffary to ftate, I fee no reason, upon the authority of Foga and Co. why it fhould not be adopted. In fome cafes, we do not find even one initial vowel, as for inftance," Curties, Croughton, and Curties." Here, of courfe, we cannot form a word of any kind, but the three C's make a good toaft; and furely a good toaft is as good a defignation of a bank as a good word, particularly where Claret and Cafh are two of the partners. Same way feveral firms with the initial confonants L. S. D. will not admit of a deferiptive word; but while L. S. D. ftands for Pounds, Shillings, and Pence, what name can better announce a place where the world may be furnished with money? Notwithstanding thefe difficulties, I have no doubt but a little ingenuity would make the materials fuffice in all cafes; but, fhould it not, I fee no reafon why we fhould confine ourselves to the initials. Cadmus was

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the reputed father of the Alphabet family, and the letter A is allowed to have been his first-born, but I do not find that he established the right of primogeniture.A fuperior right might as well be pleaded for Z, the laftborn letter, upon the authority of Borough-English; a custom, by which it was lately decided at Chelmsford, that the youngeft, inftead of the eldest fon, fhall inherit. As, then, letters are now mixed and intermixed, the farreft way is to confider them as all holding by the fame title. According then to this rule, all the letters in a name are alike tenants in common; the third has as good a right to ftand for the whole as the fecond, and the last as the first. This point once established, all difficulty is at an end; for with fuch a field to pick and choose, even in the names of the moft barren firm, we fhall find Faugh, Pho, Flam, Fudge, Pfba, and a thousand other firnis, equal, if not fuperior to Foga and Co. The advantages of this improvement, particularly to new Bank Projectors, and Partnership Advertisers, would be incalculable. Secrecy induces fufpicion, and feveral of these anonymous gentlemen are notorious for the anxiety with which they ftudy it; but by thus making the name of the firm a logogyphe, they would have all the benefit of an open avowed firm, without the inconvenience of individual publicity. The brevity of this mode would alfo be attended with a great faving of ink and paper; and as in the cafe of a man's plate, and other perfonal property, though worth thousands, a fingle letter of the name is confidered a fufficient mark, I fee no reason why it fhould not be enough for a One Pound Notc.

1 am, Gentlemen, with great refpect,
Your humble fervant,

TIMOTHY DISCOUNT. P. S. Why fhould not banks have appropriate figus, like other trades? Thofe which iffue notes for value received only, might juftly adopt the pawnbroker's infignia of three blue balls; those which deal in accommo

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