bills from the government to any of the inhabitants who would mortgage their estates as a security for the repayment of the bills with interest in a term of years: the interest to be paid annually, and applied to the support of government. This was an easy way of paying public charges, which, no doubt, they wondered that in so many ages the wisdom of other governments had never discovered. The principal men of the Council were in favor of it; and, it being thought by the first party the least of two evils, they fell in with the scheme; and, after that, the country was divided between the public and private bank. The House of Representatives was nearly equally divided, but rather favorers of the private bank,from the great influence of the Boston members in the House, and a great number of persons of the town out of it. The controversy had a universal spread, and divided towns, parishes, and particular families. "At length, after a long struggle, the party for the public bank prevailed in the general court for a loan of £50, 000 in bills of credit, which were put into the hands of trustees, and lent for five years only, to any of the inhabitants, at five per cent interest, one-fifth part of the principal to be paid annually. This lessened the number of the party for the private bank; but it increased the zeal, and raised a strong resentment in those that remained." - (Thomas Hutchinson: History of Massachusetts, vol.