In truth that name is associated with calamities so cruel that the recollection of them may not unnaturally disturb the equipoise even of a fair and sedate mind.
The man who brought these calamities on his country was not a mere visionary or a mere swindler.

He was that William Paterson whose name is honourably associated with the auspicious commencement of a new era in English commerce and in English finance.

His plan of a national bank, having been examined and approved by the most eminent statesmen who sate in the Parliament house at Westminster and by the most eminent merchants who walked the Exchange of London, had been carried into execution with signal success.

He thought, and perhaps thought with reason, that his services had been ill requited.

He was, indeed, one of the original Directors of the great corporation which owed its existence to him; but he was not reelected.