the rate at which the Bank of England should grant accommodation, we strenuously maintain that it has the right to impose an equitable rate of interest on the amount of unrepresented notes which it allows the Bank to issue, and that it has an equal right to adopt the ascending principle, as a means of inducing the Bank to adhere to a similar rule in making its advances to the public. There is one conclusion, however, as we have already observed, on which a large majority of the highest authorities, scientific and practical, are fully agreed, viz., that the present system of currency is extremely defective, and ought to be amended in the ensuing session of Parliament. The restrictive clauses of the Act of 1844 are, we think, likely to be repealed whenever the subject is presented for reconsideration. But if the remedial measures are confined to the mere repeal of those provisions; there will be little practical difference between the new system and that established by the law of 1819. We must once more repeat, that neither experience nor sound principle would justify the placing so serious a responsibility as the unrestricted issue of notes unrepresented by bullion, under the uncontrolled direction of the Bank of England. And if this be admitted, the question at once presents itself what is the nature of the control which the State ought to exercise over such issue. It must not consist of the simple limitation of the number of notes issued; for either that would be ineffectual, or would repeat the error of the Act of 1844. Nor must it consist of the legislative enactment of certain rates of interest at which the Bank should accommodate the public; for that would be an unwarrantable interference with the functions of the Bank. We know of no other legitimate course, therefore, save that already propounded, viz. the imposition of certain rates of interest on the amount of notes which the State may authorize the Bank to issue, and which the latter would not issue unless it derived a profit from the transaction. The adoption of this course would not involve the assumption of any undue prerogatives on the part of the Government; for if the State consents to transfer the privilege of issuing paper money from itself to any banking company, it unquestionably possesses the right to require an adequate equivalent for the exercise of the privilege thus transferred. And if the principle be once admitted, that the State has the right to impose certain equitable rates of interest upon the unrepresented issues of the Bank of England, we think it follows indisputably, on grounds which we need not here repeat, that the mode in which those rates should be assigned, should be that of an ascending principle.