Proprietors' capital 14,553,000 L| Government Securities 13,811,953 L Rest 3,103,301 L| Other securities 19,781,988 L Public deposits, | Notes 10,389,690 L including Exchequer, | Gold and silver coins 907,982 L Savings' Banks, | Commissioners of | National Debt, | and dividend | accounts 8,585,215 L| Other deposits 18,204,607 L| Seven-day and other | bills 445,490 L| 44,891,613 L| 44,891,613 L GEO. FORBES, Chief Cashier. Dated the 30th December, 1869. There are here 15,000,000 L. bank notes issued on securities, and 18,288,640 L. represented by bullion. The Bank of England has no power by law to increase the currency in any other manner. It holds the stipulated amount of securities, and for all the rest it must have bullion. This is the 'cast iron' system--the 'hard and fast' line which the opponents of the Act say ruins us, and which the partizans of the Act say saves us. But I have nothing to do with its expediency here. All which is to my purpose is that our paper 'legal tender,' our bank notes, can only be obtained in this manner. If, therefore, an English banker retains a sum of Bank of England notes or coin in due proportion to his liabilities, he has a sufficient amount of the legal tender of this country, and he need not think of anything more. But here a distinction must be made. It is to be observed that properly speaking we should not include in the 'reserve' of a bank 'legal tenders,' or cash, which the Bank keeps to transact its daily business. That is as much a part of its daily stock-in-trade as its desks or offices; or at any rate, whatever words we may choose to use, we must carefully distinguish between this cash in the till which is wanted every day, and the safety-fund, as we may call it, the special reserve held by the bank to meet extraordinary and unfrequent demands. What then, subject to this preliminary explanation, is the amount of legal tender held by our bankers against their liabilities? The answer is remarkable, and is the key to our whole system. It may be broadly said that no bank in London or out of it holds any considerable sum in hard cash or legal tender (above what is wanted for its daily business) except the Banking Department of the Bank of England. That department had on the 29th day of December, 1869, liabilities as follows: Public deposits 8,585,000 L Private deposits 18,205,000 L Seven-day and other bills 445,000 L ------------ Total 27,235,000 L