428 



Proceeding of Learned Societies. 



[[APRIL, 



even fraction of the number which repre- 

 sents the rank of this term." He also 

 read a printed note on a memoir of Euler, 

 bearing the title " Nova methodus frac- 

 tiones quascumque rationales in fractiones 

 simplices resolvendi." 24. MM. Raspail 

 and Saigey transmitted a note relative to 

 their process of sizing paper, requesting it 

 might be left with the secretary for the nse 

 of those whom it might concern, to which 

 the Academy acceded. MM. de Jonnes 

 read a note on the recent employment, at 

 Cephalonia, of mercury as a preservative 

 against the plague. A zoological memoir 

 of M. Jacobson having been referred to 

 MM. Dumeril and Blainville, their report 

 was ordered to be printed. 31. M. Arago 

 read an extract from a memoir of M. La 

 Rive, of which the object was the study of 

 the circumstances which determine the 

 direction and intensity of the electric cur- 

 rent in a voltaic element. M. Mitscher- 

 lick, of Berlin, and Mr. Conybeare, were 

 nominated correspondents in the section 

 of mineralogy and geology. MM. Mathieu, 

 Legendre, and Dulong, made a report (of 

 Avhich the following is the conclusion) on 

 M. Francceur's memoir, relative to the 

 comparison between the French metre and 

 the English measures. " The proportion of 

 the imperial English yard to the French 



metre was obtained with great precision 

 by an immediate comparison of the two 

 standards. The metre=39-3707y English 

 inches, and the yard is=0'9 14383 18 of a 

 metre. The ounce was detcrmined= 

 31'0913 grammes, a result which is con- 

 sidered to be within from 2 to 4 milli- 

 grammes of the truth." The approbation 

 of the Academy was expressed as to the 

 skill with which M. Francoeur had solved 

 this interesting problem. MM. Desfon- 

 taines, Mirbel, and Labillardiere reported 

 favourab'y on, and recommended the 

 publication of M. Jaume Saint-Hilaire's 

 " French Flora and Pomona." Jan 7. 

 M. Mirbel was named vice-president for 

 the year 1828, and M. Dulong, vice-presi- 

 dent for 1827, commenced his functions as 

 president for the current year. M. Warden, 

 a correspondent, communicated a letter 

 from Mr. Smith, trading in the Upper 

 Missouri, who, in the end of 1826, had ex- 

 plored a tract of country to the south-west 

 of the Great Salt Lake, to the west of the 

 Rocky Mountains in North America. M. 

 Blainville read a note, and MM. Bosc and 

 Latreille, communicated some observations 

 on the difference between the males and 

 females in a species of gelinotte (g. mario- 

 nis). Mr. Ivory, of London, was named 

 correspondent in the section of geometry. 



VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS. 



The Bank Question. The time having 

 arrived when this important question must 

 receive the attention it is entitled to, we 

 submit to our readers the following impar- 

 tial view of it : 



The misunderstanding existing between 

 the Bank of England and the Country 

 Bankers is of a two-fold nature 



1st. The country bankers complain, that 

 in endeavouring to establish generally the 

 branch banks, and to obtain a monopoly 

 of the paper circulation of the kingdom by 

 these means, and by getting to themselves 

 exclusively the private banking business of 

 the country, the bank directors are ex- 

 ceeding their understood privileges, as be- 

 tween them and the country and London 

 bankers, which were, that they, the bank 

 directors, should be the bankers of govern- 

 ment in all its various branches, of re- 

 ceipts and payment, to public offices, to the 

 Court of Chancery, and for such private 

 concerns as, from party preference, or 

 other causes, became entrusted to them ; 

 and that the general private banking busi- 

 ness of the country should be with the 

 country and London bankers. In return, 

 the bankers have always continued to hold 

 in dead deposit, as well as for payment of 

 all demands upon them, the notes of the 

 Bank of England exclusively ; each party 

 thus becoming deeply interested for the 



welfare and prosperity of the other, in- 

 stead of being rivals and opponents as is 

 now the case. The advantage to the Bank 

 of England of having so immense a pro- 

 portion of their notes as centre with the 

 bankers in a constant state of complete 

 inaction, without chance of presentation, 

 must be obvious and equally so the dis- 

 advantage which might accrue to them 

 from any other mode of circulation being 

 adopted, by substitution of a different paper, 

 on the plan of the Hamburgh and other 

 foreign banks. On the whole, the bankers 

 think themselves hardly dealt with : but 

 this being a question of private interest, 

 the public probably care little about it, and 

 the majority, not understanding the mat- 

 ter, will, without giving it reflection, side 

 with the strongest party. There can, how- 

 ever, be little doubt that, unless checked, 

 the establishment of general branch banks 

 goes to the subversion of all private bank- 

 ing, both in town and country, as the bank 

 directors offer advantages which private 

 bankers cannot do such as transacting 

 private business free of all the expense 

 and charges incident to the transfer of 

 property to and from the metropolis, and 

 also more particularly in the payment of 

 the government dividends and annuities 

 on the spot where the branch bank is esta- 

 blished. 



