The next entry on the Assets side, "Other Securities," is extremely misleading, or, at least, it embraces such a wide variety of assets as to make the entry practically useless to all who wish to ascertain the real position of the Bank. Included therein are (1) All the investments of the Bank other than Government securities; (2) Loans to customers and to the Stock Exchange, and bills of exchange discounted for customers and for the bill brokers; (3) The book value of its various premises, unless, of course, its head office and branches have been paid for out of the profits of previous years, on which subject the return does not enlighten us. The balance sheets of some of the minor joint stock banks are disgracefully compiled, but, with respect to this one entry, the Bank of England return runs them very close, and it seems a pity that so powerful a corporation does not set a better example. The Bank, because it holds the bankers' reserves and keeps the Government accounts, is often able to corner the outside market; therefore the least it can do is to issue a plain statement, which will enable the public to see the exact situation created by the unique position it occupies. The return is badly worded, and essential information is certainly withheld, while distinctness is not by any means one of its good points, for nobody, unless he studied the statement with the greatest care, could possibly divine the meaning of some of its quaint, old-world phraseology. But, as we all know, "great men and great things are never in a 'urry"; and the Bank of England, which is great in the best sense of the word, like the Government whose account it keeps, has never been known to anticipate a new development. A pedigree person always swears by the old. But the time has surely arrived when public opinion should compel the directors to issue a fuller and less ambiguous weekly statement. The present form was no doubt a model of lucidity in 1844; but it is woefully behind the times in 1902.