On the back of each counterfoil some people are in the habit of writing the balance they have at the moment in the bank. This has some advantages, and is certainly a check to extravagance. Though cheques are usually made out on engraved forms, you may write a cheque on a sheet of note-paper should a cheque-book not be at hand. In that case, remember to put a penny stamp on it, and to cancel the stamp by writing on it the date and your initials. Keep your cheque-book always under lock and key. If you leave it about, it only puts temptation in the way of people to abstract a blank form and make free with your signature. Should your book ever be lost or stolen, give notice at once to the bank. Lodging money is one of the easiest of business operations. You go to the bank, and fill up a slip, headed, say— THE COSMOPOLITAN BANK, 14, Marketjew-street. ............18... CREDIT........................... _Paid in by_..................... Below this heading you enter the particulars of the sum you are going to lodge:—Bank-notes, so much; coin, so much; cheques and bills (mentioned separately), so much; total, so much. You hand this slip over to the teller with the money, and the whole thing is done. No receipt is given, and it says a great deal for the perfect machinery by which banking is conducted that one never hears of a mistake, or that any customer ever thought his confidence taken advantage of. We speak here of the method in the best London banks. In the provinces and in some London establishments the form of procedure varies a little. When you send money to your banker by post, you should write with it somewhat as follows:— _Brackenhurst, 24th November, 1886._ _Dear Sir_, _I enclose cheque for £34 12/—Messrs. Bagwell and Sackit on the Welsh Counties Bank—which kindly place to my credit._ _I remain, Dear Sir, Yours truly, SILVANINHA HAMILTON._ _The Manager_, THE COSMOPOLITAN BANK. Receipt of this will be acknowledged by the manager, thus:— _Dear Madam_, _I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of 24th inst., with enclosure, value £34 12/, for your credit._ _Yours, etc., JACOB BIRCHENOUGH, Manager._ To every person keeping an account the bank supplies a book, generally known as a _pass-book_. On the Dr. or left-hand side of this book, will appear the sums received on behalf of the owner of the book; whilst all the cheques paid on her account by the bank will appear on the Cr. or right-hand side. Here is an example in which, for convenience, we have printed the Cr. side under the Dr., instead of side by side: THE COSMOPOLITAN BANK. _in Account with_ MISS ESMERALDA BEATRICE BONES.