limits, except in cases of undoubted necessity, and for this purpose less than 4 per cent. could not be considered adequate. Indeed the Bank rate of interest so frequently rises higher than 4 per cent. that the imposition of any lower rate would present little barrier to the issue in excess of £22,000,000. The three rates therefore, the minimum, the medium, and the maximum, might very reasonably be fixed at 1, 2, and 4 per cent. respectively; in other words, the Bank should be authorized to issue the first £11,000,000 of its unrepresented notes at 1 per cent. the second £11,000,000 at 2 per cent. and any notes issued in excess of those £22,000,000 at 4 per cent. There is one explanation, however, that must be made as to the method in which these rates should be imposed. We have said that the respective rates should be levied on the amount of notes that might be actually in the hands of the public. To this plan it may, perhaps, be objected, that inasmuch as a very considerable portion of the deposits in the Bank of England are well known to be as profitable to the Bank, and to operate as currency just as much as if they continued in the hands of the public; and that, as under our proposed system, the Bank will be enabled to re-loan their whole amount, and thereby derive a two-fold profit upon a large proportion of the notes in actual circulation--that, therefore, consistency would require that the notes in deposit should be considered chargeable just the same as if they had never been deposited. Now, it must be conceded, that this objection is not altogether void of force; but there is an overruling consideration on the other side of the question. For it must not be forgotten that the Bank of England, in common with other banks, is necessarily a bank of deposit, and has its legitimate functions as such; a very considerable part of the profit, therefore, derived from the re-issue of the notes deposited, is exclusively the result of the constitutional exercise of its functions, and lies entirely beyond the sphere of Governmental jurisdiction. It might not, perhaps, be impossible to devise a test for distinguishing between these profits and those arising more directly out of the privilege of issue; but such a distinction would be far too minute to serve as a basis for legislation; and on the other hand, any indiscriminate charge upon the deposits, as a whole, would not only be extremely vexatious, but would even place the Bank of England at a serious disadvantage as compared with every other bank of deposit. It follows, therefore, that while the rule already laid down, of confining the operation of the rates to the actual amount of notes in the hands of the public, may not attain to absolute theoretical perfection, yet in practice it is clearly preferable to any regulation that would either discriminate between two classes of profits derived from the deposits, or impose the rates upon their total amount.