If a person held one hundred pounds in bank notes, it could not but occur to him that he was in reality lending the issuer one hundred pounds entirely free of interest; and as he possessed sufficient confidence in the banker to lock up the notes in his cash box, it was only going one step farther to deposit his money at his bank and draw out the cash as he required it. Obviously, too, if he exchanged the notes for a deposit receipt, he would receive some interest upon his money; and as the receipt could be held equally as safely as the notes, he naturally adopted the plan that was the more profitable to himself. So, although in 1826 the joint stock banks in the country attached great importance to their circulation, their notes rather took the form of an advertising medium for attracting deposits, or, at least, became a means to that end, for the progressive banks did not hesitate to sacrifice their note issues in order that they might open branches in London. We find, then, that the joint stock banks at first attempted to place as many of their notes as possible among the public, and that, by the process already explained, the holders of their notes gradually began to deposit with them, until, by degrees, our present system of deposit banking obtained a firm hold upon the habits of the people. As the trade of the country expanded, the cheque rapidly drove out a large proportion of the bank notes in circulation; and though the issue of notes certainly introduced deposit banking in this country, modern requirements have made cheques and bills of exchange the media for the transference of credit. Such being the case, the note issues of the larger joint stock banks became of secondary importance to them; and, rather than remain outside the Metropolis, we have seen that they sacrificed their notes to the monopoly of the Bank of England. From 1708 to 1826 the Bank of England owed its predominant position entirely to monopoly, and enough has been written to show that its sway was not an unmixed blessing to the country. The private banker, without a shadow of doubt, can trace his lack of progress to the restrictions placed upon his business by the Bank charter; and the joint stock companies may certainly be said to have succeeded in spite of the Bank; yet no greater compliment can be paid to any institution than to assert that it has earned the respect, if not the love, of its enemies; and such undoubtedly may be truthfully affirmed of the "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," even when her rule was autocratic and her rivals' dislike of her intense. CHAPTER II. Before and After the Act of 1844.