referred to; and who is no other than the chief of the Engraving and Engineering department of the Bank of England: "I promise," secondly, on the words, "or bearer." Sometimes the figures cover the whole of those words; sometimes they only partly obscure them. No. 99066 now lies Some years ago-in the days of the thirtybefore us. Suppose we wished to substitute shilling notes-a certain Irishman saved up the "0" of another note for the first "9" of the sum of eighty-seven pounds ten, in notes the one now under our eye; we see that the of the Bank of Ireland. As a sure means of "9" covers a little bit of the "P," and in-securing this valuable property, he put it in tersects in three places the "r," in "Promise." the foot of an old stocking, and buried it in his Now, to give this alteration the smallest garden, where Bank note paper couldn't fail chance, we must look through hundreds of to keep dry, and to come out, when wanted, other notes till we find an "0" which not in the best preservation. only covers a part of the "P" and inter- After leaving his treasure in this excellent sects the "r" in three places, but in pre-place of deposit for some months, it occurred cisely the same places as the "9" on our to the depositor to take a look at it, and see note does; else the strokes of those letters how it was getting on. He found the stockwould not meet when the "0" was let in, and ing-foot apparently full of the fragments of instant detection would ensue. But even then mildewed and broken mushrooms. No other the job would only be half done. The second shadow of a shade of eighty-seven pounds ten. initial "9" stands upon the "or" in "or In the midst of his despair, the man had bearer," and we should have to investigate the sense not to disturb the ashes of his proseveral hundred more notes, to find an "0" perty. He took the stocking-foot in his hand, that intersected that little word exactly in posted off to the Bank in Dublin, entered it the same manner, and then let it in with one morning as soon as it was opened, and, such mathematical nicety, that not the hun-staring at the clerk with a most extraordinary dredth part of a hair's breadth of the trans- absence of all expression in his face, said: ferred paper should fail to range with the "Ah, look at that, Sir! Can ye do anyrest of the letters and figures on the altered thing for me?" note; to say nothing of hiding the joins in the paper. This is the triumph of ambidexterity; it is a species of patch-work far beyond the most sublime achievements of "Old Patch" himself. "What do you call this?" said the clerk. "Eighty-sivin pound ten, praise the Lord, as I'm a sinner! Ohone! There was а twenty as was paid to me by Mr. Phalim O'Dowd, Sir, and a ten as was changed by Pat Reilly, and a five as was owen by Tim; and Ted Connor, ses he to ould Phillips-" "Well! Never mind old Phillips. You have done it, my friend!" "Oh Lord, Sir, and it's done it I have, most com-plate! Oh, good luck to you, Sir, can you do nothing for me?" "I don't know what's to be done with such "Oh yes, Sir, and tell you true as if it was the last word I had to spake entirely, and the Lord be good to you, and Ted Connor ses he to ould Phillips, regarden the five as was owen by Tim, and not includen of the ten which was changed by Pat Reilly-" Time has proved that the steady perseverance of the Bank-despite the most furious clamour-in gradually improving their original note and thus preserving those most essential qualities, simplicity and uniformity--has been a better preventive to forgery than any one of the hundreds of plans, pictures, complications, chemicals, and colours, which have, been forced upon the Directors' notice, a mess as this. Tell me, first of all, what you Whole-note forgery is nearly extinct. The put in the stocking, you unfortunate blunlives of Eminent Forgers need only wait for derer?" a single addendum; for only one man is left who can claim superiority over Mathieson, and he was, unfortunately for the Bank of England, born a little too late, to trip up his heels, or those of the late Mr. Charles Price. He can do everything with a note that the patchers, and alterers, and simulators, can do, and a great deal more. Flimsy as a Bank note is to a proverb, he can split it into three perfect continuous, flat, and even leaves. He has forged more than one design sent into the Bank as an infallible preventive to forgery. You may, if you like, lend him a hundred pound note: he will undertake to discharge every trace of ink from it, and return it to you perfectly uninjured and a perfect blank. We are not quite sure that if you were to burn a Bank note and hand him the black cinders, that he would not bleach it, and join it, and conjure it back again into a very good-looking, payable piece of currency. But we are sure of the truth of the following story, which we have from our friend the transcendant forger "You didn't put Pat Reilly, or ould Phillips into the stocking, did you?” "Is it Pat or ould Phillips as was ever the valy of eighty-sivin pound ten, lost and gone, and includen the five as was owen by Tim, and Ted Connor-" "Then tell me what you did put in the stocking, and let me take it down. And then hold your tongue, if you can, and go your way, and come back to-morrow." The particulars of the notes were taken, without any reference to ould Phillips: who could not, however, by any means be kept out of the story; and the man departed. When he was gone, the stocking-foot was shown to the then Chief Engraver of the notes, who said that if anybody could settle the busi ness, his son could. And he proposed that the much ostentatious rustling of the crisp paper, particulars of the notes should not be commu- produced a new twenty, and then the other nicated to his son, who was then employed in twenty, and then a ten, and then a five, and his department of the Bank, but should be so forth. Meanwhile, the man, occasionally put away under lock and key; and that if murmuring an exclamation of surprise, or a his son's ingenuity should enable him to dis- protestation of gratitude, but gradually becover from these ashes what notes had really coming vague and remote in the latter as been put in the stocking, and the two lists the notes re-appeared, looked on, staring, should tally, the man should be paid the lost evidently inclined to believe that they were amount. To this prudent proposal the Bank the real lost notes, reproduced in that state of Ireland readily assented; being extremely by some chemical process. At last they anxious that the man should not be a loser; were all told out, and in his pocket, and he but, of course, deeming it essential to be still stood staring and muttering, "Oh holy protected from imposition. Mother, only to think of it! Sir, it's bound to you for ever that I am!"—but more vaguely and remotely now than ever. The son readily undertook the delicate commission proposed to him. He detached the fragments from the stocking with the utmost care, on the fine point of a penknife; laid the whole gently in a basin of warm water; and presently saw them, to his delight, begin to unfold and expand like flowers. By and by, he began to "teaze them" with very light touches of the ends of a camel's-hair pencil, and so, by little and little, and by the most delicate use of the warm water, the camel'shair pencil, and the penknife, got the various morsels separate before him, and began to piece them together. The first piece laid down was faintly recognisable by a practised eye as a bit of the left-hand bottom corner of a twenty pound note; then came a bit of a five; then of a ten; then more bits of a twenty; then more bits of a five and ten; then, another left-hand bottom corner of a twenty-so there were two twenties !-and so on, until, to the admiration and astonishment of the whole Bank, he noted down the exact amount deposited in the stocking, and the exact notes of which it had been composed. Upon this-as he wished to see and divert himself with the man on his return-he provided himself with a bundle of corresponding new, clean, rustling notes, and awaited his arrival. He came exactly as before, with the same blank staring face, and the same inquiry, "Can you do anything for me, Sir ! " "Well," said our friend, "I don't know. Maybe I can do something. But I have taken a great deal of pains, and lost a great deal of time, and I want to know what you mean to give me! "Is it give, Sir? Thin, is there anything I wouldn't give for my eighty-sivin pound tin, Sir; and it's murdered I am by ould Phillips." "Never mind him; there were two twenties, were there not?" "Oh, holy mother, Sir, there was! Two most illigant twenties! and Ted Conner-and Phalim-which Reilly-" He faltered, and stopped as our friend, with Well," said our friend, "what do you propose to give me for this?" After staring and rubbing his chin for some time longer, he replied with the unexpected question: "Do you like bacon?" "Very much," said our friend. "Thin it's a side as I'll bring your honor to-morrow morning, and a bucket of new milk-and ould Phillips—” "Come," said our friend, glancing at a notable shillelah the man had under his arm, "let me undeceive you. I don't want anything of you, and I am very glad you have got your money back. But I suppose you stand by me, now, if I wanted a boy to help me in any little skirmish?" 'd They were standing by a window on the top storey of the Bank, commanding a courtyard, where a sentry was on duty. To our friend's amazement, the man dashed out of the room without speaking one word, suddenly appeared in the courtyard, performed a wardance round this astonished soldier-who was a modest young recruit-made the shillelah flutter, like a wooden butterfly, round his musket, round his bayonet, round his head, round his body, round his arms, inside and outside his legs, advanced and retired, rattled it all round him like a firework, looked up at the window, cried out with a high leap in the air, "Whooroo! Thry me!"-vanished-and never was beheld at the Bank again from that time forth. This day is Published, Price 5s. 6d., neatly Bound in Cloth, OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS. Publishing Monthly, Price 2d., Stamped, 3d., THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE OF CURRENT EVENTS. This Monthly Supplement of Household Words, containing a history of the previous month, is issued regularly with the Magazines. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Published at the Office, No 16, Wellington Street North, Strand. 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