PETITION FOR A MUTUAL BANKING LAW. 47 



er: If we are able, at this time, to bring forward the existing bank- 

 ing system as a new thing, and should recommend its adoption, would 

 you not laugh in our face, and characterize our proposition as ridic- 

 ulous? Yet the existing system has an actual and practical being, 

 in spite of all its imperfections: nay, more, it is the ruling element 

 of the present civilization of the Christian world; it has substituted 

 itself, or is now substituting itself, in the place of monarchies and 

 nobilities. Who is the noble of the present day, if not the man who 

 lends money at interest? Who is the emperor, if not Pereire or 

 Baron Rothschild? Now, if the present system of banking is capa- 

 ble of actual existence, how much more capable of actual existence 

 is the system of mutual banking! Mutual banking combines all 

 the good elements of the method now in operation, and is capable 

 of securing a thousand beneflts which the present method cannot 

 compass, and is, moreover, free from all its disadvantages! 



