“There is another phase of competition which should be touched upon. This phase I do not remember to have seen specifically dealt with in treatises on banking. I refer to the growing tendency on the part of banks to ear-mark, for the benefit of particular depositors, securities which should form a free asset; a security to the general body of its depositors. You will find now in some balance sheets, either in the investment column or as a footnote, that a certain portion of the bank’s investments are held for public bodies, such as county councils, borough councils, corporations, etc. In order to secure the accounts of these bodies the banker hypothecates to them certain securities, such as Consols, which would otherwise be held for the benefit of its depositors in general. This tendency to tie up assets which should be free should be narrowly watched by the public, and carefully controlled by bankers. That it should be resorted to in some cases seems inevitable. It is done by some of the best and soundest banks. But it is a course which should be resorted to as little as possible.” In conclusion, we will turn from the question of the Money Market itself to the army of individuals who spend their lives in the service of the various institutions forming the Money Market. By far the largest number of these individuals are connected with our various joint-stock and private banks. It is commonly thought that the life of a bank clerk is an easy one. Jerome K. Jerome, in his amusing book _Three Men in a Boat_, in referring to the occupation of his friend George, says, “He sleeps in a bank from nine till four, when they wake him up and put him outside.” Common ideas, however, are frequently not quite correct, and though certain members of the fraternity, who happen to be situated in country and suburban districts, do not suffer from overwork, yet as regards those connected with London and the large centres of industry, their life is an arduous one,—often tedious in its sameness,—the hours of work are not short, and the remuneration, although adequate, is not generally on the scale that some time ago was popularly believed to be the happy lot of the bank clerk. Still, one’s life is what he makes it, and the idea embodied in Napoleon’s saying—that every soldier carried in his knapsack a marshal’s bâton—is equally true of the banking profession. Every junior on entering the service of a bank has before him the prospect of ultimately rising to occupy a position of importance and respect, even to the position of general manager of his bank, if he so equips and conducts himself as to be fit for and worthy of such promotion.