540 JOINT'STOCK BANKING SYSTEM. * 



their own interest will narrowly watch the management of the con- 

 cern, and in the hour of need will come forward with the funds 

 requisite to meet the Company's engagements. Without the co- 

 partnership of such men a Joint-Stock bank could not maintain 

 itself for a twelvemonth. That all the ninety-eight banks are re- 

 spectable and solvent, we will not venture to say : but there is no 

 reason a priori for supposing them otherwise. What we wish, then, 

 to impress on our readers' minds with respect to liability is this, that 

 to lessen it would be madness, and that we skould seek to increase 

 rather than to diminish the responsibility. The evils apprehended by 

 Mr. Clay are at any rate more prospective than real ; and we have 

 good reason to believe them visionary. At any rate the experience 

 of parties entitled to an opinion on the matter leads us to draw a very 

 different conclusion from that of Mr. Clay on the credit and ultimate 

 solvency of these banking companies.* 



Can the honourable Member be really serious in making this 

 statement, knowing, as he must, that it is the ultimate solvency or 

 the credit of an ultimate solvency, that constitutes the general sta- 

 bility of every Bank from the Bank of England downward to the 

 smallest banking concern in these kingdoms ? It is not necessary 

 further to discuss such a question. 



We advert, in the second place, to the necessity of the capital in 

 Joint-stock banks being not merely nominal but bon& fide paid up 

 and invested as stock in trade. In this respect we are happy to say 

 that we perfectly agree with Mr. Clay: for we know quite enough 

 of Joint-stock banking, mining, and rail-road companies to be per- 

 fectly well aware that the nominal capital bears no proportion worth 

 mentioning to that actually paid up by the bon& fide subscribers. To 

 our city readers such statements are stale and without interest ; but 

 to others they may let some light into the dark intrigues of the bub- 

 ble schemes in the purlieus of the Stock-Exchange. Instances might 

 be cited of companies boasting of a MILLION as a capital, having 



* Here by the way we may advert to a very extraordinary assertion of the Member 

 for the Tower Hamlets namely, that the ultimate solvency of a bank is of no conse- 

 quence to the public, if the payments of that bank are stopped even for an hour or a 

 day. ' Sir, we must carefully distinguish between immediate and ultimate solvency. 

 With ultimate solvency, it is true, the public has no concern. Whether the assets of 

 a bank stopping payment prove sufficient to pay one shilling or twenty shillings in the 

 pound, is a question almost wholly without interest to the public." Mr. Clay's Speech* 

 p. 20 in pamphlet. 



