deficiency in this respect may be an insuperable bar to promotion. Without this attainment a clerk cannot be put to write up the customers' books, nor to make out the country accounts, nor to write the letters, nor to fill the office of secretary. "You ought to be careful to write a plain hand. You impose upon your correspondents a very unnecessary and a very unpleasant tax if you require them to go over your letters two or three times in order to decipher your writing. A business hand is equally opposed to a very fine hand. A letter written in fine elegant writing, adorned with a variety of flourishes, will give your correspondent no very high opinion of you as a man of business." 99 1

The plan of writing-masters who advertise to teach good and expeditious writing in a few lessons is as follows:The pupil rests his hand upon the paper without touching it with his little finger. All the motion is then made from the wrist. Those who have to write their names many times in succession, such as in signing bank notes or in accepting bills, will find that on this plan they can get through their work in much less time than if they bend their fingers with every stroke of the pen.

The young clerk should also be taught to make his figures clear and plain, so that a 2 cannot be mistaken for a 3, nor a 3 for a 5. He should also take care that the tail of his 7 or his 9 does not run into the line below, and thus turn a O into a 6, and also that the top of his 4 does not reach so high as to turn a 0 in the line above it into a 9. He should be careful, too, in putting his figures under one another, so that the units shall be under the units, the tens under the tens, the hundreds under the hundreds, and the thousands under the thousands. Otherwise, when he adds

"Lectures on the History and Principles of Ancient Commerce," by J. W. Gilbart.

up the columns together, he will be in danger of making a wrong cast."

66

He will also learn to use both hands at the same time. In counting gold or silver coin, he will count with two hands instead of one, and thus do double the work. In entering a number of cheques or bills, while he holds the pen in one hand he will hold a cheque in the other, and then turn over the cheques as quickly as he enters them. He will always turn them over one on the back of the other, so that they will be in the same order after he has entered them as before, and when they are called over they will come in the same order in which they are entered.

He must also learn to "cast" quickly and accurately. The two main qualifications in this operation are accuracy and quickness. To insure accuracy a clerk will cast everything twice over. The first time he will begin at the bottom of the column, and the second time at the top. If he begin both times at the bottom of the column, the association of figures will be the same; and if he has fallen into an error the first time, he will be apt to fall into the same error the second time: but if he changes the order, the association of the figures will be different, and he will not be likely to fall into the same error. Quickness can be acquired only by practice. But he will accelerate his speed by making his figures plain, and placing them strictly in a line under one another. He should also learn to cast without speaking, for the eye and the head will go faster than the lips.

He must also be taught to " call over." When he first comes into the bank he will call this sum, £315 10s. 6d., three hundred and fifteen pounds ten shillings and six pence; but he will soon learn that more than half these words may be suppressed, and he will say, three, fifteen, ten, six.

And so in the larger amount, £4,785 13s. 4d., instead of saying, four thousand seven hundred and eighty-five pounds thirteen shillings and four pence, he will call, forty-seven, eighty-five, thirteen, four. By proceeding in this way, and speaking quickly and yet distinctly, a column of figures may be called over and checked in a very short space of time. He will, however, take care to avoid ambiguity. Thus, if the sum be £40 58. 6d., he will not say forty, five, six, as that would mean forty-five pounds six shillings; but he will say, in this case, forty pounds, five, and six. In cases where the pounds consist of five figures, the two first denoting the thousands are expressed separately; thus, £25,347 88. 6d. is called over twenty-five, three, forty-seven, eight, six; and six figures, say £468,379 8s. 6d., is called over, four sixty-eight, three seventy-nine, eight, six.

He will also be taught to balance; that is, to find the difference between two sums by addition instead of subtraction. Thus, if the two sums be £1,347 16s. 3d. and £4,834 198. 8d., he will be apt at first to put one under the other and subtract, in this way :

But he must be taught to proceed by a mental process, and will add the difference to the smaller number,

He performs this operation by beginning with the pence, saying, or rather, thinking, "three and five make eight,"

and so on. And thus the two sides of an account are made to balance; that is, both sides are of the same amount.

The principle of balancing pervades the whole system of book-keeping. For example, we know that if to the amount of cash in the bank last night we add the amount received to-day, and deduct the amount paid to-day, the remainder will show the amount on hand to-night; and a novice would very naturally put it down in this form :

£

100,000

60,000

160,000

80,000

80,000

But an accountant would arrange these four items in such a way as to form a balance, thus:—

In keeping the Progressive Ledger, the principle of balancing is of constant occurrence. The ledger-keeper brings out a new balance every time he turns to an account. But he never deducts-always adds. And if he posts several articles at the same time, the method is the same, thus :

he will add up these items, and mentally add a sum that will make the whole equal to £1,214 38. 7d., bringing out this sum as a new balance, and placing it under the former one as he goes on. Thus he will say, or rather think," 4 and 6 are 10, and 11 are 21, and 2 are 23, and (here he must supply the figure) 8 are 317 and carry 2;" and he puts down the 8 in the pence division of the balance column; and goes on in the same way to the shillings, and afterwards to the pounds. When he has placed this sum, £710 58. 8d., he adds up the whole, including this sum, in order to check the operation, and to be sure that he is right.

.

He will then acquire a knowledge of the names and functions of the different books, and of the terms and phraseology used in book-keeping. The same book is sometimes called by different names in different banks, and different terms are employed to describe the same operations. But every clerk should use the language of the office in which he is placed. He should call every book by its proper name, and employ the phrases which are used by others. For instance, if the word "money" is used to denote coin, he must always use it in that sense; and not say "money" when he means bank notes.

It will be of great advantage to a sensible youngster, if one of the senior clerks should take the trouble to give him a general notion of the system of book-keeping, and show him the connection that exists between the books that he keeps and the other books of the office.

II. We shall now describe the system of Banking Book-keeping, as published in the former editions of this work.

Every person, on opening an account with a London banking-house, enters his name in a book called the Signature-Book, and this book is referred to whenever a