542 JOINT-STOCK BANKING SYSTEM. 



We DOW proceed to the last point, and one insisted on by Mr. Clay 

 with considerable tenaciousness, the perfect publicity of accounts. If 

 the honourable Member has clearly expressed his meaning, we must 

 say that nothing can be more absurd or unfair than to expect that 

 the general accounts of a banking concern should be open to the pry- 

 ing curiosity of two hundred partners, any of whom might avail 

 themselves of their knowledge in their own respective businesses. 

 It is absurd to suppose that people would bank with such establish- 

 ments, if liable to such unfair exposure. But supposing Mr. Clay 

 to mean merely the periodical exhibition of a balance sheet, what 

 else but confusion of ideas to persons not behind the scenes can result 

 from the most diligent examination of so general a statement of 

 assets and liabilities, and what idea can a mere shareholder form from 

 it of the real prospect of such a concern as a bank ? And again, 

 what facilities and temptations are offered for fraud and imposition 

 to present an untrue statement, to deceive and lull the partners into 

 security when even on the brink of a precipice ? To what then 

 serves publicity ? As a regulation it is decent ; but its utility other- 

 wise is wholly questionable. But supposing such a regulation to be 

 made with reference to Joint-Stock banks, it is quite certain that it 

 would be made to apply equally to private bankers, and so give pub- 

 licity to accounts with which the nation have no concern. Mr. 

 Joplin's remarks on this point are not unworthy of notice : 



" Publicity of accounts is the least exceptionable proposition of any import- 

 ance we have examined. But banking, as has been already observed, is an 

 irrational business. Every banker enters into obligations which on the face 

 of them are altogether absurd, and the rules of prudence in banking are de- 

 rived not from reason, but experience. We are now in the progress of a gra- 

 dual change from a system of perfect secrecy, which is the parent of ignorance 

 and prejudice, to one of greater publicity, and the question is, would it be 

 prudent to tear the veil from the mysteries of banking too suddenly ? Would 

 it not be better to allow the new system, in which a certain degree of publi- 

 city is necessarily involved, to take deeper root before the principle of publicity 

 be pushed to so great an extreme as appears to be contemplated ? for private 

 bankers must make up their minds that it cannot, for any length of time, be 

 applied to Joint Stock Banks and be withheld from them. If the principle 

 be once admitted, and the example be set of an interference with the private 

 affairs of a safe system to make it safer, it will soon follow that a similar in- 

 terference must take place with an unsafe system to make it safe. Besides^ 

 the principle upon which such interference takes place, applies more strongly 

 to private banks than to joint stock companies. The public are entitled to in- 

 terfere with the private affairs of individuals only when they interfere with 



