cents., showing that gold is 0-30 per cent. dearer in Paris than in London. Tables have been constructed to show the results of each fluctuation in the premium of gold in Paris, Amsterdam, &c. &c.

It is useful sometimes to know how many persons enter a bank in the course of a day, and during what hours the greater number arrive. To do this, set a person in the hall, with a paper marked 9 to 10, 10 to 11, and so on. Then, when a person enters a bank between the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock, he will make a mark like a figure 1. This mark he will repeat as every additional person enters. He will go on in this way all through the day. When the bank closes, he will ascertain by counting the marks how many persons have entered the bank during each hour, and how many altogether. The cashiers should go to dinner during the hour in which the fewest people come to the counter. And if a clerk wants a day's holiday he should fix on the day in which the fewest people enter the bank. It is in this way that a man standing in the street is able to keep a register of the number of omnibuses that may pass him during the day.

"If you are a clerk in a public office, and are behind your time a quarter of an hour every morning, in three hundred days that will amount to seventy-five hours; more than equal at six hours a-day to a holiday of twelve days in the course of the year. A large number of small parts will make a great whole.

"The following anecdote proves, by multiplication, the importance of punctuality :

'A member of the Committee being a quarter of an hour behind the time, made an apology, saying, the time passed away without his being aware of it. A Quaker present said-"Friend, I am not sure that we should admit thy apology. It were matter of deep regret that thou shouldest have wasted thine own quarter of an hour; but there are seven besides thyself, whose time thou hast also consumed, amounting in the whole to two hours-and one-eighth of it only was thine own property.'"

Banking Documents.--By banking documents, I mean reports, bonds, deeds, letters, or other writings, used in connexion with banking such as prospectuses, applications for shares, deeds of settlement, bonds of security by managers and clerks, declarations of secrecy by the same, agreements with reference to lodgment of deeds as securities, cash credit, bonds, certificates of shareholders, deeds of transfers, notices of calls for

further payment on shares, &c. &c. The forms in which these and the like documents may be drawn up are as easily procurable as forms of wills, indentures, and bonds; but vary at the discretion of directors, secretaries, managers, and solicitors.

When any persons propose to form a joint-stock bank in any district, they procure the statistical returns of the district; such as the tables of the population-the exports and imports -the duties paid-the returns of the sales in the various markets and every other information respecting the trade and wealth of the district. If these prove satisfactory, they take notice of the banks already established there, and observe whether they are joint-stock banks, or private banks-whether strong or weak-and whether likely to oppose or to join any new establishment. If the existing banks be joint-stock banks, the projectors procure from the stamp-office a list of the shareholders, in order to observe the strength of their proprietary, and whether they reside chiefly in the district.

Having satisfied themselves that a new bank would be successful, the first document drawn up is a prospectus. This document usually sets forth the great advantage of joint-stock banking to both the public and the shareholders, and then points out the facilities of the district in which the bank is proposed to be established.

Previous to issuing the prospectus, some leading persons in the district are requested to become members of a provisional committee for the formation of the bank, and they obtain the assistance of an influential solicitor, to whose office the applications for shares are usually addressed. The committee then appoint a secretary, or sometimes the office of secretary is filled by the solicitor.

Attached to the prospectus is the form of an application for shares.

As the applications come in, they are entered in a book prepared for the purpose. In the first column is entered the date of the application; then follow the name, profession, and residence of the applicant; then the number of shares applied for, and in a farther column the number of shares granted. After the committee have determined what number of shares to allot to each applicant, letters are addressed to the respective parties.

After the sums to be paid up have been received, a general

meeting of the shareholders is called, when the provisional committee make a report of their proceedings. Resolutions are then passed-1. That the report be received and printed;2. That certain shareholders then named be appointed directors; -3. That the thanks of the meeting be given to the provisional committee. The bank is now formed, and the government is assumed by the directors. They appoint the manager and other officers; they prepare the deed of settlement; and they adopt the measures necessary for the commencement of business.

THE PRACTICE OF BANKING.

PART II.-OF BANKING INSTITUTIONS.

SECTION I.

THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

*

THE history, constitution, and administration of the Bank of England up to the year 1828 have been traced in an early chapter of the present edition, and, later on, are continued to several years after the passing of the all-important Bank Charter Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 32), the principal provisions of which are as follows:

"That from and after the 31st of August, 1844, the issue of promissory notes of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, payable on demand, shall be kept wholly distinct from the general banking business of the said governor and company; and the business of such issue shall be thenceforth conducted and carried on by the said governor and company in a separate department, to be called "the issue department of the Bank of England;" and it shall be lawful for the court of directors to appoint a committee or committees of directors for the conduct and management of such issue department.

"II. That upon the same day there shall be transferred, appropriated, and set apart by the said governor and company to the issue department securities to the value of fourteen million pounds, whereof the debt due by the public to the said governor and company shall be a part; and at the same time so much of the gold coin and gold and silver bullion as shall not be required by the banking department; and thereupon there shall be delivered out of the issue department into the banking department such an amount of notes as, together with the notes then in circulation, shall be equal to the aggregate amount of the securities, coin, and bullion so transferred to the issue department; and it shall not be lawful for the governor and company to increase the amount of securities for the time being in the issue department, save as hereinafter is mentioned, but it * Section III.-History and Principles of Banking.

† Pages 226 to 227.

shall be lawful for them to diminish the amount of such securities, and again to increase the same to any sum not exceeding in the whole the sum of fourteen million pounds, and so from time to time as they shall see occasion; and from and after such transfer and appropriation to the issue department it shall not be lawful for the governor and company to issue bank notes, either into the banking department, or to any persons or person whatsoever, save in exchange for other Bank of England notes, or for gold coin or for gold or silver bullion received or purchased for the issue department under the provisions of this Act, or in exchange for securities acquired and taken in the issue department under its provisions: Provided always, that it shall be lawful for them in their banking department to issue all such notes as they shall at any time receive from the issue department.

"III. That it shall not be lawful for the bank to retain in the issue department at any one time an amount of silver bullion exceeding onefourth part of the gold coin and bullion at such time held in the issue department.

"IV. That all persons shall be entitled to demand from the issue department bank notes in exchange for gold bullion, at the rate of three pounds seventeen shillings and ninepence per ounce of standard gold.

"V. That if any banker who on the 6th of May, 1844, was issuing his own bank notes shall cease such issue, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council to authorize the governor and company to increase the amount of securities in the issue department to an amount not exceeding two-thirds the amount of bank notes which the banker so ceasing to issue may have been authorized to issue; and every such Order in Council shall be published in the next succeeding' London Gazette.'

"VI. That an account of the amount of notes issued by the issue department, and of gold coin and of gold and silver bullion respectively, and of securities in the issue department, and also an account of the capital stock, and the deposits, and of the money and securities belonging to the said governor and company in the banking department, on some day in every week to be fixed by the commissioners of stamps and taxes, shall be transmitted weekly to the said commissioners, and shall be published by them in the 'London Gazette.'

"VII. That from the same date the bank shall be released from payment of any stamp duty upon their notes.

“VIII. That from the same date the payment of the annual sum of 120,000. made by the bank under the provisions of the Act passed in the fourth year of the reign of his late Majesty King William the Fourth, out of the sums payable to them for the charges of management of the public unredeemed debt, shall cease, and in lieu thereof, in consideration of the privileges of exclusive banking, and the exemption from stamp duties, given to them by this Act, they shall, during the continuance of such privileges and such exemption, allow to the public the annual sum of 180,000l. "IX. That all profits derived by the bank from the increase of their issues beyond the 14,000,000. prescribed by the Act shall go to the public.

"X. That from and after the passing of this Act no person other than a