so that at the expiration of the ten years the country issues would be entirely replaced, and we should have an authorized issue of £11,000,000 upon the Government debt, to be issued at a moderate charge, and a second £11,000,000, either issued or allowed to be issued at an equitable charge. These £22,000,000 are the maximum amount of unrepresented notes, which can be issued in any circumstances under the operation of the Act of 1844; they may therefore be assumed to constitute the present normal requirements of the country, and any issue of unrepresented notes in excess of these, might very fairly be charged with so high a rate as would render the recourse to them an extremely exceptional case, to be resorted to exclusively in periods of grave necessity. This plan therefore would provide a gradation of three advancing rates of charges: a minimum rate upon the £11,000,000 of unrepresented notes, allowed to be issued in consideration of the loan to Government; a medium rate on the amount of notes required for completing the total normal issues of £22,000,000; and a maximum rate on whatever notes might at any time be required in excess of those £22,000,000. Now to this plan of regulating the issues of the Bank of England we are altogether unable to foresee any valid objection, practical or theoretical. There are certainly very conclusive reasons why the Bank of England should be allowed to issue £11,000,000 of unrepresented notes on the £11,000,000 lent to Government at a lower rate than the second £11,000,000, for which otherwise the Bank would render no equivalent; and there are no less forcible considerations why the Bank should be charged a lower rate upon the second £11,000,000 which form a part of the normal requirements of the public, than upon the notes which might at any time be issued in excess of the total £22,000,000. Nor can there be any difficulty in the practical application of such a principle. For, if an account be kept from day to day, or from week to week, of the total number of notes, both represented and unrepresented, in actual circulation, and if the number of bullion notes in circulation be deducted from this gross amount, the remainder will be the total amount of unrepresented notes; and whatever may be the number of these, the first £11,000,000 will be charged with the minimum rate, the second £11,000,000 with the medium rate, and the remainder, if any such there be, will be subject to the maximum rate. Thus, supposing the gross circulation to consist of £30,000,000, and the bullion notes to comprise £14,000,000 of these, the rates would be imposed as follows: Issued on bullion, £14,000,000 ” at the minimum rate, 11,000,000 ” at the medium rate, 5,000,000 ----------- £30,000,000 or, supposing the gross circulation to be £40,000,000, the bullion notes remaining as before, there would be