In this respect, as in the preceding, the English monetary system presents the spectacle of a very wide departure from principle. For not only are the profits derivable from the issue of paper money, almost entirely appropriated by private individuals, but that appropriation has been made upon a most capricious method of selection. The case of the Bank of England is indeed a partial exception to this statement. It must not be overlooked, that, as the Government bank, it has always rendered considerable service to the State, in return for the privilege of trading upon £14,000,000 of fictitious capital. This service is two-fold. In the first place, it has permanently lent the Government £11,000,000 of its capital at 3 per cent. As this, however, is the usual rate of interest paid by Government on its loans, the value of the accommodation conferred by this advance, especially when the security of the investment is taken into account, must not be estimated as extremely high. But secondly, the Bank transacts the banking business of the State, including that of the National Debt, and for this service it may, perhaps, be thought that the £70,000 per annum now allowed by Government, is an insufficient recompense. According to the arrangement made in 1808 the Bank was to receive £340 per million, on the first £600,000,000 of the debt, and £300 per million on the remainder; or in all about £250,000. This was obviously so exorbitant an allowance for the service rendered, that at each of the recent renewals of the charter, the Government have stipulated for a deduction; and in 1844 the abatement mutually agreed on was £180,000. If this deduction should be considered too great, it must be borne in mind, that as the Bank pays no interest on the Government deposits, and as they frequently amount to several millions sterling, the profit which it realizes from their loan, forms no insignificant item to be added to the £70,000.[B] It is also deserving of mention, that by an improved system of accounts, introduced into the Bank some few years since, the expense and trouble entailed by the management of this department, have been reduced to about one half; so that it is not altogether impossible that the £70,000, together with the employment of the deposits, may amount to an equitable recompense for the present value of the service. But whether this be so or not, it is undeniable that neither in this respect, nor in the preceding, nor yet in the two combined, does the Government receive an adequate equivalent for the privilege of issuing £14,000,000 of notes unrepresented by bullion. For a very slight calculation will suffice to show, that those £14,000,000, if advanced in loans or under discount, at the rate of 4 per cent., which is about the average, would return a profit of more than half a million annually; and although the Bank can never retain the whole of those notes in circulation, yet this produces no essential difference