We have just seen that the amount of gold employed in the currency, cannot be estimated under £40,000,000. Now the average portion of this gold which is retained in the Bank, and on which bullion notes are issued, is not more than from £12,000,000 to £14,000,000. It would follow therefore from the preceding, that this might safely and profitably be increased to £20,000,000, £30,000,000, or even £40,000,000. The possibility of effecting such an increase, however, does not depend immediately upon the Bank of England, but upon the public generally, as the Bank can only issue bullion notes on the amount of gold that is presented in exchange for such notes. But it may well be doubted whether any permanent increase can be effected so long as the Bank is prohibited from issuing notes of a smaller denomination than five pounds sterling. The principal reason why so large an amount of treasure remains in the hands of the public, consists in the fact that all small payments, including wages, varying from twenty shillings to five pounds, must be made in gold, and that as a necessary consequence, a very large proportion of the money that is held in the possession of the working classes cannot possibly consist of any other medium. Any considerable increase of bullion notes, therefore, would require that that increase should be effected by means of paper of a smaller denomination than five pounds. And accordingly we deem it a matter of high expediency that the legal restriction upon such issues should be at once removed.