3. Modern Banks.

4. Bank of Venice, established in 1157 or 1171. Continued to prosper until destroyed by the French in 1798. It was a bank of deposit only-not of issue or discount.

5. Barcelona, 1401. Called "Table of Exchange." 6. Genoa, 1407.

7. Amsterdam, 1609.

8. Hamburgh, 1619. Plundered by Davoust, 1813. 9. General character and uses of Banks of Deposit. 10. Bank of England, 1693 or 1694. Suspended cash payments from 1797 to 1823, or 26 years. This was the first bank of issue, discount, circulation, etc., upon the modern plan.

11. Scotland, 1695. "Bank of Scotland." Another called the "Royal Bank of Scotland," 1727. Still another, called "The British Linen Company," 1746. All other banks in Scotland are private copartnerships, existing under a general law, and managed with great ability.

12. Bank of Vienna, created in 1703, as a bank of deposit and circulation. Became a bank of issue in

1791.

13. Law's famous Bank, 1716. Its true character at the outset. Became the "Royal Bank," 1718. The precise nature of the fatal change-both of name and character.

14. North America, 1781. Commenced operations in January, 1782. This was the first bank in America. Chartered at first by Congress; afterwards by Pennsylvania.-Expired in 1813. Rechartered.

15. First United States Bank, 1791. Expired, March 3, 1811.

16. Second United States Bank, 1816. Expired March 3, 1836. Rechartered, as a State bank, by Pennsyl vania. Stock or shares owned by women and orphans and benevolent institutions to the amount of $5,223,800, at the time of its utter failure.

17. Bank of France, 1803.

18. Money.

Precious metals. Gold and silver, coin and bullion-neither signs or representatives nor measures of value. Mere commodities, etc.

19. Exchanges. How affected by a mere metallic currency. How by bills, etc. How by banks and bankers. The broker's appropriate vocation.-Useful and necessary

20. Benefits resulting from banks. Evils, do.

21. Public and private banks. In Europe and America. The history, and existing facts.

22. Incorporations. What is a corporation? A body or a number of persons associated, according to law, to do precisely what any individual might do without legal or special grant from the government.

23. Are banks monopolies? Who created them? Who is responsible for their action? Who is blameworthy, if they do wrong? The legislature-the government-the sovereign people—to be sure.

24. Are banks-incorporated banks-to be regarded as contracts? If so, ought they not to be fulfilled, according to the letter and spirit of the bond, even if they prove bad bargains to the people who made them?

25. How is a bank got up and established in our country? Some curious facts-illustrative, etc.

26. Who are the stockholders-the permanent bona fide stock or shareholders—after speculators have sold out? Ought their rights to be protected? What voice have they usually in the management? or what do they know about the concern?

27. The directors. In order to the safety of a properly organized bank, the directors ought to manage its affairs as the mere agents of the stockholders; and to be held responsible for every violation of the charter or perversion of its funds. They ought never to become borrowers-directly or indirectly. Their business is to lendnot to borrow. Pay them for their services-reduce their number-anything, rather than allow them stealings, under any name, form, guise or usage.

28. Secrets. No oaths of secrecy. There ought to be no concealment-no mystery-no favouritism.

29. Government preferences-inexpedient and unjust -as in cases of insolvent or bankrupt debtors. Why should the claims of government be satisfied in preference to those of the widow and the orphan?

30. It is just as right and proper for a man to lend money as to borrow; and it ought to be just as honourable. There can be no borrowers without lenders.

31. Advantages to the labouring classes, afforded by banks

both as borrowers and lenders. How shall they

best dispose of their small earnings? adequate aid when most needed? Scotch savings banks.

Whence procure

Savings banks —

32. The free-banking system-so-called-now very popular and prevalent in many States. Based on National or State debts-as if the bonds or evidences of such debts could be sold for cash, at any moment, in the market, at rates to satisfy all demands, etc. Such banks must fail, sooner or later.

33. The only legitimate material for a bank is gold and silver-i.e. cash, or current money, or bullion-so that every promissory note, payable at sight to bearer, should truly represent the sum specified on its face. Thus, a bank, with a million dollars in its vaults, might issue paper to that amount, and no more. Of course, such a bank would not increase the real or nominal capital of the country- and might therefore be denounced as worthless. Not so, however. A paper

substitute for specie would afford many advantages, even though it did not augment the actual or nominal amount of capital or current money by a single dollar. 1. It would be safer. It could be more easily and cheaply transferred from place to place-as by mails, etc.-almost without cost. The transportation of gold and silver is not only expensive, but always hazardous, whether by land or water. 2. The loss of paper, by fire or other accident, would be no loss to the public-but only to the individual holder or owner of such paper. Bills of exchange and bank bills are not property-but only evidences of property-like the title-deeds of landed estates, which may be lost or destroyed-while the lands remain intact, etc. 3. When gold and silver are lost in the ocean or lake or river or by fire, it is a dead loss, not

only to the actual owner, but to the public, to the community, to the world. It is the absolute destruction or annihilation of positive value-of actual wealth—and the nation is so much the poorer by every such disaster. If twenty millions of American gold were lost, on their way to Liverpool, we, as a nation, would be the poorer by that amount. If insured in Europe, the loss would fall upon Europe. In either case, the whole world will have lost twenty millions. Individuals are the immediate and ostensible sufferers, it is true; but as national or universal wealth is but the aggregate of individual wealth, so whatever diminishes the one must equally affect the other. Were twenty millions of paper orders or promises thus lost, the value thus represented or pledged would remain in statu quo-just as before. 4. Metallic money or coin is not only liable to loss in a thousand ways, but is subjected to constant wear and tear in passing from hand to hand. Thus, by friction alone, the coined pieces are gradually worn out, or greatly diminished in value. If paper were substituted for a currency, in any State, exactly equal to the cash or bullion locked up in the State's strong box for its redemption on demand, what benefits might not be conferred on all the parties concerned? 5. Besides the above and many other considerations-why should there ever be factitious money or fictitious capital? Why should anything pass as money, which is not money, and which does not represent money? [I do not object to bank bills which actually represent, or pass in lieu of, the specie always on hand.] Most of the commercial difficulties, embarrassments, convulsions and revolutions,