a most mysterious old gentleman, My Uncle's
mystery really consists in the art of keeping
his eye steadily fixed on the main chance.

In London alone My Uncle conducts
upwards of four hundred establishments, each
trading on a capital varying from two thousand
to fourteen thousand pounds. His gross
metropolitan principal is two millions and a
quarter sterling; not to mention an
everflowing and constantly-accumulating interest,
averaging from fifteen to twenty per cent,
per annum. Without taking into the present
calculation his provincial business, the aggregate
of My Uncle's immense variety of separate
transactions in London alone during the
year 1849 was twenty-four millions; the
average at each of his places of business,
sixty thousand. My Uncle's affairs are
publicly recognised as of the most important
description. Acts of Parliament have been
passed, expressly for his guidance and protection.
He has a Fire and Life Assurance
office of his own; and a weekly newspaper
solely devoted to his business. This
commercial point of greatness is the moreextraordinary, from its having been obtained by
means of a description of dealing by which
almost every other man but My Uncle is
certain to lose. To buy, and to sell, and to
live by the profit, generally requires no
uncommon capacity; but it demands a superior
order of talents to live, as My Uncle lives, by
lending.

Although my Uncle is, in a small way, on a
large scale, a banker; yet he is a banker whose
operations are of a much more complicated
character than those now carried on in
Lombard Street. The deposits upon which he issues
his paper are more varied, and demand a wider
range of judgment than the ordinary banker
needs to exercise. He is obliged to possess an
expanded practical knowledge of the value of
securities, ranging over every portable article
in existence. Here is one of My Uncle's
notes:

{IMAGE}

This document, which is partly a voucher,
partly a deposit note (and, like all deposit
notes, negotiable only to a limited extent), is
the result of a transaction by which a portion
of the passive capital of Mr. Charles de
Montague has been temporarily turned into
active capital. Some demand for money has
been made upon Mr. de Montague, which he
has been unable to meet in money. He
therefore has recourse to My Uncle, who
takes his watch and appendages as security
for an advance of forty shillings; on condition
that Mr. de Montague shall, before the
expiration of twelve months, return the said
forty shillings together with interest at the
rate of eight-pence per month, during the
time he shall have allowed the loan to
remain unpaid. Should Mr. de Montague
not redeem his pledge before the specified
period of twelve months is completed, then
it is competent for My Uncle (after a further
delay of three months) to sell the pledge
by public auction, and to abstract from
the proceeds, the principal and interest;
but, supposing the amount realised by such
sale, to be greater than the principal and
interest, then it is in the power of Mr. de
Montague to demand the balance from My
Uncle. Should, on the other hand, Mr. de
Montague's watch and appendages fetch less
than the principal and interest, My Uncle
must abide by the loss.

This transaction is the model of every other
in which My Uncle engages. It is essentially
a banking transaction. The deposit branch
of his establishments, instead of receiving
money on customers' account, takes in
property: the issue department is solely
conducted by means of specie. My Uncle's
bills are, as I have said, merely deposit notes,
redeemable within twelve months after date.
What the Bank of England is to Her
Majesty's Government; what Smith Payne,
and Jones Lloyd, are to the City magnates;
what Coutts and Company, and Drummonds,
are to the nobility and gentry of Westminster;
that My Uncle is to the De Montagues, the
artisans, the labourers, and the poor of
London and the suburbs generally. It is not
difficult to illustrate the working of this kind
of banking transaction by numerous examples,
similar to that already furnished by Mr. de
Montague. Take the case of Phelim O'Shea,
bricklayer's labourer. A wet week or a
defaulting brick-maker has thrown Phelim
O'Shea temporarily out of employment, and
his stock of cash is inadequate to meet
his current expenses. Yet, although without
money, he is not without means. He
has a coat—a loose blue coat, long in the
cuffs, with a swallow-tail, and brass-buttons
rubbed black in the centre. He converts
that coat into a bank deposit, and My
Uncle advances him a sum of money, which
enables him to meet contingent demands,
until fine weather or plenty of bricks shall
set him up again. In like manner, Mrs.
Lavers, the char-woman, is short of shillings;
but she has a fender; so, her neighbour the