But, practically, there is small likelihood of the Bank of England being drained of specie by its notes, which have always been accepted without demur, even during the most troublous years of its history; and, while remembering that the notes in circulation are secured in the manner aforesaid, we may safely consider the Bank's state of preparedness to meet its total public indebtedness from the point of view that its liquid assets would be more than sufficient to discharge all probable demands made by both holders of notes and depositors. On the 1st October last the Bank owed on its Notes in Circulation, Public and Other Deposits, and Bills, the huge sum of £83,311,274, which we will call its "Liabilities to the Public." Against this it held £35,842,414 in specie and bullion, which, a glance at the table shows, works out at a ratio per cent. of 43·02. The Bank had, then, £43·02 of the precious metals in hand to meet each £100 it owed to its customers. There is not another bank in the kingdom able to publish a balance sheet showing such a splendid proportion of cash in hand to liabilities--but we must also remember that there is not another bank in the country whose responsibilities are so great and so multifarious. In the previous chapter it was shown that the Banking Department possessed £44·6 in notes and coin to meet each £100 of the public liabilities included therein, and, moreover, this would be the ratio given by the critics; but we now see that, when the two departments are united, the ratio only works out at £43·02. Strictly speaking, the larger ratio is correct; yet the smaller gives a much truer idea of the Bank's ability to pay off its creditors in cash on demand. Further, as the Bank cannot compel its customers to accept its own notes in discharge of a debt, the ratio £43·02 certainly gives one a more accurate impression of the Bank's position in relation to all its creditors. The Government Debt, Other Securities, and Government Securities amount to £34,001,080, which works out at a ratio per cent. to liabilities of £40·81, making the ratio of total liquid assets £83·83. A debt owing by the British Government is rightly included with the liquid assets of the Bank, for when the credit of the Government ebbs our banking companies, which hold huge amounts of Consols, will no longer be solvent institutions; but no reasonable man imagines that an edifice which has been centuries in building, and which is still far from being either complete or perfect, will "go under" in a day, though all know that it cannot last for ever in its present form. We, however, only live sixty years or so, and therefore each generation of business men considers what will last out its time, and troubles itself but little about what the state of commerce will be fifty years later, as though dimly conscious that, in the end, man will have to go back to the land.