i792' on hanking companies. loi 



would Indemnify the public, supposing the partners 

 of the bank not to be worth a sixpence. The bank 

 of Ayr, with all its folly and all its fraud, hurt the 

 unwary proprietors ; but all its notes in the hands of 

 tlie public, were paid. This was a blind adrentu- 

 rous bank, when the subject of banking was lefs un- 

 derstood than now. In the courssi of all our obser* 

 vation, the towns of Scotland, in whieh banks have 

 been establilhed, have advanced rapidly in manufac- 

 tures and commerce, and the country round them m 

 agriculture ; for the trade of our private banks is not 

 confined merely to ifsuing loans of their paper; they 

 facilitate commercial intercourse, and furnifh the 

 country with bills of exchange, on any place in 

 Grtut Britain or Europe. Till last year, all remit- 

 tances from the Highlands were nnade froin Inver- 

 nef^, to which, value behoved to be sent from the re- 

 motest corners ; now you may negociate a bill in 

 Stornaway, Thurso, dnd X^in, as easily as at the Ex- 

 change of Edinburgh : Is this no advantage ? Cre- 

 dit can be converted into temporary loans of ca/h, 

 here, as well as ^t Edinburgh; and why ihould it 

 not ? Wha.t title has any one part of a free country 

 to advantages, from which other parts of it are de<. 

 barred? lean see a reason why commercial jealousv 

 Ihould wifli to confine those advantages td places 

 which earliest got pcfs'efsion of them ; but none why 

 a wise legislature Ihould lend its powers, to gratify 

 the jealousy and avarice of stlfifii individuals. 



The greatest danger with which the countrr is 

 threatened, will, ia future, arise from tempting offer?, 



vor.. vii. C c t 



