But the origins are unimportant. The Bank of England, let us say, stands in an unique position, and it is a banking institution that possesses great, but not absolute, autocratic powers. The public attribute to it greater powers, and surround it with a greater glory and majesty than it probably possesses. This is a psychological fact of significance. It is the Bank _of England_. That is _the_ Bank; the Bank that props up the nation, and which the nation in its turn props up. It is a mutual propping up. The one cannot fall headlong and leave the other standing erect. Both must stand or fall together. As, however, in the consciousness of the community the nation is unshakable--then it follows that the Bank of England is in the nation’s view unshakable. Let me say, before I proceed further, that there is no delusion in this. It is a fact of tremendous import. Where a delusion does exist is in the belief or consciousness that the Bank of England is a State bank and not a private bank like other banks. It is, however, a private bank, like other banks, performs similar functions, earns its profits in the same way and distributes its dividends to its shareholders in the same fashion. It is a proprietary establishment, run by the directors for the benefit primarily of its shareholders. It is only a State Bank in that the Government deposits its funds with it alone, borrows from it now and then, and employs the Bank as its medium for issuing loans, paying interest on the funds and performing many other functions on its behalf. These functions, it need scarcely be said, are not performed gratuitously. They provide a source of income for the Bank. The Bank of England is also a banker for the private individual in the same way as an ordinary joint stock bank is. It is also the banker’s bank. It may seem strange to some people to learn that the banks themselves have a common bank. This common bank is the Bank of England. But they bank with it in a strictly limited way. They do not borrow from it, nor discount or, rather, re-discount bills of exchange there. The Bank of England is to the joint stock banks a limited convenience. They deposit what is called their reserve funds there. In the balance sheet we have examined we see that that particular joint stock bank possessed in coin in hand and at the Bank of England a sum aggregating £5,996,668. How much it had in its own safes and how much at the Bank of England, no outsider can divine. At any rate, we learn that a portion of it was in the keeping of the Bank of England. This reserve performs two functions. It acts as a part reserve against deposits, or liabilities, and it helps in adjusting the balances between the various banks, the adjustment being made in the books of the Bank of England.