“At periods when confidence is shaken, it is necessary for a public bank to restrict its operations. The directors of such an establishment would be very imprudent, or even culpable, if, instead of resigning themselves to bear their portion of the misfortunes of the times, they were to persist, contrary to the natural course of things, in giving always an equal extension to their operations, at the risk of being at length compelled to come to a stop. “The _Caisse d’Escompte_ seems to have fallen into some of these difficulties, and to have failed to recognise the fundamental principle of all banks, which consists in never failing to meet engagements.” * * * * * “The _Caisse d’Escompte_ has undoubtedly transgressed the rules prescribed to it; and yet it is, perhaps, allowable not to weigh its conduct in an ordinary balance. It had furnished money which, doubtless, it had not the right to furnish, because it did not belong to it; but it has given that assistance in a crisis which has baffled all human foresight, and out of deference to a minister in whom the nation has so justly placed confidence. It is not necessary that the Assembly should convert the _Caisse d’Escompte_ into a national bank, but it is unquestionably necessary that it should keep account of its advances with the _Caisse_.” “M. Necker’s suggestion on this point does not, I must confess, appear to me to attain the object desired. I can recognise no real payment in paper-money, or, if there is a real payment, I see in it a preference accorded to the _Caisse d’Escompte_, which may have the appearance of an injustice to the other creditors of the state. Why create a paper-money specially in favour of the _Caisse d’Escompte_, and leave other parties to suffer whose claims upon the nation are at least as sacred?” * * * * *