The reduction, and now the current purchase, of government bonds, which serve as a basis of circulation for National Bank notes, have driven the bonds to such a high premium that the banks some years ago began to surrender their circulation at such a rate as to seriously contract the currency and excite apprehension as to the result. But for the issue of silver certificates, which have largely taken their place, a crisis would, in the opinion of many financiers, have been reached long ago. The profit on circulation was so seriously reduced by the high price of the bonds, on which it is based, that a number of banks in New York city and elsewhere surrendered their charters as National Banks and organized under the law as State institutions. They were largely impelled to do this by a desire to escape the restrictions imposed by the National Banking laws and the scrutiny of the Comptroller of the Currency and the officials of his department. The passage of the law forbidding over-certification compelled a number of them to take this course. In August, 1883, the Wall Street National Bank was forced to suspend. An examination by the government officials showed that it had certified checks of a firm $200,000 in excess of their balance in cash and that this was the principal cause of the bank’s failure. The cashier was indicted, but the bank was wound up, went out of existence, and the intention of making a terrible example of the delinquent official, who, however, acted with the approval of the president and directors, appears to have been abandoned. Touching the opposition shown in Congress and elsewhere to National Banking systems, ex-United States Comptroller of the Currency John Jay Knox says: