bank has far greater facilities of ascertaining the
character, habits, and pursuits of those persons who may have received
the advantage of a cash-credit accommodation, and can immediately
report to his superiors any circumstances which may render it
advisable that the credit should be contracted or withdrawn. So far
are we from holding that the multiplication of branch banks is any
evil or incumbrance, that we look upon it as an increased security not
only to the banker but the dealer. The latter, in fact, is the
principal gainer; because a competition among the banks has always the
effect of heightening the rate of interest given upon deposits, and of
lowering the rates charged upon advances. Nor does this give any
impetus to rash speculation on the part of the dealer, but directly
the reverse. The deposits always increase with the advancing rate of
interest; and experience has shown, that it is not until that rate
declines to two per cent that deposited money is usually withdrawn,
which is the signal of commencing speculation. To the mere speculator
the banks afford no facilities, but the reverse. Their cash credits
are only granted for the daily operations of persons actively engaged
in trade, business, or commerce. So soon as that credit appears to be
converted into a different channel, it is withdrawn, as alike
dangerous to the user and unprofitable to the bank which has given it.

Of thirty-one banks in Scotland which issue notes, five only are
_chartered_--that is, the responsibility of the proprietors in those
established is confined to the amount of their subscribed capital. The
remaining twenty-six are, with one or two exceptions, joint-stock
banks, and the proprietors are liable to the public for the whole of
the bank responsibilities to the last shilling of their private
fortunes. The number of persons connected with these banks as
shareholders is very great, almost every man of opulence in the
country being a holder of stock to a greater or a less amount. That
some jealousy must exist among so many competitors in a limited field,
is an obvious matter of inference. Such jealousy, however, has only
operated for the advantage of the public, by the maintenance of a
common and vigilant watch upon the manner in which the affairs of each
establishment are conducted, and against the intrusion of any new
parties into the circle whose capital does not seem to warrant the
likelihood of their ultimate stability. Acco