236 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



Lord of the Treasury, who pronounced it terribly dangerous, 

 likening these little village banks, with, it may be, their 

 score or five or tenscore of members, dealing with only 

 trivial sums, to the ill-fated " City of Glasgow Bank," 

 which plunged thousands into ruin ; and with Rouher-hke 

 emphasis declared that never would the Treasury agree 

 to — what in point of fact it had formally agreed to fourteen 

 years before, when sanctioning the registration of village 

 banks as " specially authorised societies " under the Friendly 

 Societies Act. Lord Denman, who in the same speech 

 severely censured a well-knoM^n parliamentary draftsman — 

 who is also a member of the House of Commons — on the 

 score of his bad draftsmanship, may be a very high authority 

 on banking. However, seeing that Sir George Murray, at 

 that time Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, accepted 

 my explanation of the case as fully satisfactory, and that 

 his predecessor, the late Lord M^elby, was one of the Select 

 Committee of the House of Lords which subsequently 

 inquired with great care into the provisions of practically 

 the same Bill brought in in 1910 by Lord Shaftesbury, and 

 approved the Bill without a dissentient voice, and that he 

 afterv/ards wrote to me expressly declaring that he would be 

 glad to give any assistance that he could to the promotion 

 of such banks as I proposed, it will be just possible to bear 

 Lord Denman 's censure with something like equanimity. 

 The stumblingblock to him evidently was the form of 

 liability implied in the case of one type only of the banks 

 recommended, which is technically unlimited. A word 

 or two will be due presently to that point, since the name 

 " unlimited liability " has raised a perfect epidemic of 

 apprehension. Lord Denman's official opposition tempora- 

 rily gave a quietus to the Bill. For, although Lord Crewe 

 had warded off a division, which was likely to go against 

 the Government, by the promise of a " Conference," once 

 that offer had been accepted and had served its purpose, 

 no more was heard of the proposed " Conference." 



Brought before the same House in a slightly altered 

 shape in 1910 by Lord Shaftesbury^ the Bill was referred 

 for examination to a singularly competent Select Committee, 



