THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION 59 
As a private corporation, the Bank has to look after its own 
interests, while, at the same time, as a result of the importance of 
this institution in carrying practically the only reserve of the 
country, it has to take upon itself the responsibility of 
a public office. Moreover, as it enjoys the confidence of the Gov- 
ernment its course may seem objectionable to others who do not 
see behind the scenes, and the consciousness that the Bank of 
England enjoys this privilege makes the less fortunate institu- 
tions rather critical in the judgment of the action of its directors. 
If the Bank rate is advanced the public immediately ery out that 
the Bank is a nervous old thing, a mere child, enemy of trade, 
ete. On the other hand, if the Bank rate is not advanced, the 
public often express themselves to the effect that the directors 
surely cannot appreciate their responsibilities. By this time the 
Bank should be free from this kind of cheap abuse, but like the 
Government of the day, it always has unkind crities. 
As regards the business of the Bank—there was a time when 
it just took the business that came to it and then it was assailed 
in a good humored way as a ‘‘soft head,’’ but recently, however, 
it has been reaching out and extending its branches, and thus 
competing with its neighbors for business; and recently a new 
phrase was created by a Chairman, of one of its competitors. who, 
feeling the keenness of its competition, coined the expression of 
‘‘the new woman,’’ stating that the ‘‘Old Lady of Threadneedle 
Street’’ should now be styled the ‘‘new woman’’ of the money 
market. 
The power of the Bank of England is enormous throughout 
the world. Its weekly statement is eagerly scanned by financiers 
of all of the commercial centres, and, while the reserve it holds 
is comparatively so insignificant to the tremendous credit it sus- 
tains, so great is the lever it possesses over the market that only 
twice in twenty years has its rate risen to six per cent., notwith- 
standing the tremendous upheavels that have occurred throughout 
Europe during that time. ‘The reserves held by foreign nations 
aggregate very many times the amount held by the Bank of Eng- 
land, but the reserve is ample, notwithstanding the enormous 
