not reprove a clerk in the presence of the other clerks. By following this rule, he can adapt his reproofs to the character and position of the party; for a valuable clerk, even when really culpable, is not to be treated in precisely the same way as another whose services are of less importance. Nor is it any violation of justice, that those faults which arise from inadvertence should be viewed differently from those that arise from bad habits. Nor will it tend to impair the discipline of the office should it be known that a good character will sometimes get a young man out of a scrape, while he who had not that good character would be punished more severely for a less important offence. Another rule to be observed in administering reproof is,-in reminding a clerk of his defects, to commence with telling him of his good qualities. There is a credit as well as a debit side in every man's character; and it seems hardly fair to run over all the debit items, and say nothing of the other side of the account. This plan, too, increases, instead of diminishing, the pungency of the reproof, while it removes from the mind of the party any impression that the banker is influenced by motives of personal dislike. SECTION XIII. BANKING BOOK-KEEPING. "ALTHOUGH the business of keeping books is extremely easy when once the accounts are properly arranged, yet the adaptation of the principle of Double-entry to extensive and complicated transactions, so as to receive the full benefit of the system, is a process which requires the most complete knowledge, not only of the practice, but also of the science, of book-keeping." "Book-keeping, like all other arts, can only be mastered by industry, perseverance, and attention. The learner must think for himself, and endeavour to understand the why and wherefore of all that he does, instead of resting satisfied with vague notions and words devoid of sense." "The study of book-keeping affords an excellent means of intellectual discipline; that is, when its principles are exhibited as well as their application. When the reasoning powers are called into exercise as well as the memory, the student who has carefully attended to the instructions, and who is the master and not the slave of rules, will experience no difficulty in unravelling or adjusting any set of accounts, however complicated or diversified."* We have commenced this section with these quotations in order to quicken the attention of the reader to a subject which by those who do not understand it is considered complicated, and by those who do understand it is considered dull. It is, in fact, neither the one nor the other. But still it is a subject on which it is difficult to write in such a way as to avoid the possibility of being misunderstood. We purpose in this section I. To notice those Preliminary Operations with which a III. To state those Improvements of which this system has been found to be susceptible. IV. To trace the Resemblance between Banking Book-keeping and Mercantile Book-keeping. I. Preliminary Operations. When a young man enters a bank as a clerk, he should be instructed to be careful with regard to his handwriting, or, in his anxiety to write fast, he may forget to write well. If he write a bad hand, he should not be above taking a few lessons from a professor of penmanship, who will teach him to write fast and well at the same time. But, however badly he may write, he should try to write plainly. Plainness is of more consequence than neatness or elegance. He should be very careful in writing the names of the customers of the bank. If he write them illegibly, there will be a loss of time in making them out, or they may be misunderstood, so that money may be posted to the wrong account, and thereby loss arise to the bank. On this account also, when two or more customers have the same surname, he should be very careful to write the Christian names fully and distinctly. The necessity for writing quickly, and the want of carefulness at first, are the causes why so few bankers' clerks comparatively write a good hand. But they should remember, that this is a most important qualification, and a deficiency in this respect may be an insuperable bar to promotion. Without this attain * Double-Entry Elucidated, by B. F. Foster, ment 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."* 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 0 into a 6, and 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 up the columns together, he will be in danger of making a "wrong cast." 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 numpen in one hand he ber of cheques or bills, while he holds the 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. Lectures on the History and Principles of Ancient Commerce, hy J. W. Gilbart. 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, 3157. 108. 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, 4,7851. 138. 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 407. 5s. 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, 25,3477. 8s. 6d. is called over twentyfive, three, forty-seven, eight, six; and six figures, say 468,3797. 8s. 6d., is called over, forty-six, 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 1,3477. 16s. 3d. and 4,834l. 19s. 8d., he will be apt at first to put one under the other and subtract, in this way : £4,834 19 8 But he must be taught to proceed by a mental process, and will add the difference to the smaller number, thus: 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 : 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 post several articles at the same time, the method is the same, thus: If the credit balance is. And he posts the following sums to the debit of the account £141 2 4 8 7 6 49 3 11 305 4 2 £1214 3 7 £710 5 8 |