This bank was prohibited from paying interest upon deposits. The parent bank was not a bank of issue or of deposit. It transacted no business, except with and for the branches. Certainly there is no bank in the United States today with so good a charter as that of the State Bank of Iowa. By an act approved in February, 1862, County Treasurers and the State Treasurer were authorized to accept the notes of these branches in payment of taxes, and by an Act approved March 10, 1864, payment of taxes and the interest and principal on the school fund might be paid in United States Treasury Notes, National Bank Notes, or _Notes of the State Bank of Iowa_, thus showing the unquestionable value of the State Bank Circulating Notes. When the National Banking System was established in 1865, and the 10 per cent tax on circulation was imposed, the life was choked out of one of the most perfect banking systems that had ever existed; and every note of the $1,439,000 outstanding on Jan. 2, 1865, was redeemed without the loss of a single cent to the holders. The capital was $1,048,000; specie, $389,800; circulation, $1,439,000; deposits, $2,851,000. MR. LAWYER: In 1898 I heard an attorney from Richmond speak upon the State Banks of Virginia so boastfully, that out of pure suspicion I investigated them, not believing anything he said at the time. About 1800 there sprung into life in Virginia a system of state banks based on the old Scotch system under which a half dozen banks of issue were authorized, with numerous branch banks in every part of the state. The charter provisions of these banks were the basis of the few laws that have been enacted in relation to banking since that day. The first of the banks to be established under state control was the Bank of Virginia, incorporated by the General Assembly, Jan. 13, 1804, with a capital stock of $1,500,000 in shares of $100 apportioned; three thousand seven hundred and fifty shares to Richmond, three thousand to Norfolk, two thousand two hundred and fifty to Petersburg, one thousand to Fredericksburg, five hundred and twenty-five to Winchester, four hundred and fifty to Staunton and five hundred and twenty-five to Lynchburg. The Charter provided that the banks should hold real estate and other effects to the value of $3,500,000, including the capital stock. The cashier was required to give bond for $50,000; the total amount of notes to be put into circulation by the banks, together with the debts, were restricted to $4,500,000, over and above the money actually deposited in the bank; that is, the issue could be three for one on its cash capital, and this was the established rate for this class of banks. The bank was well managed and was highly successful. Its notes, all payable in gold, had a wide circulation and were at only one-fourth of 1 per cent discount in New York.