192 ADDRESS. [>ct. 



and, secondly, because I thought you might find so good 

 a president in our excellent treasurer, Mr. Martin, to 

 whose efforts the Institute owes so much of its success, 

 and who represents a firm which happily combines with 

 the interest of an ancient monument the vigour and 

 utility of a living institution. The first duty which 

 devolves upon your president is to take the chair at the 

 present meeting, and your committee have expressed a 

 wish that I should commence by giving an inaugural 

 address. On future occasions we shall probably be 

 occupied very much with practical and economical 

 questions. As regards the former, I hope that the 

 Institute may assist in securing uniformity of action, and 

 in exercising a judicious influence on custom, which to 

 so great an extent forms the basis of law. To-night, for 

 instance, we are honoured by the presence of a great 

 authority on banking, Mr. Thomson Hankey, who will 

 be good enough to give us his views on audits and 

 balance-sheets. At the next meeting, Mr. Palgrave, of 

 the Economist, has promised to give us a paper on the 

 Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Bank of 

 Germany. Nor shall we, I hope, neglect the principles 

 of political economy, for I believe you will most of you 

 agree with me when I say that far more money is lost in 

 business through errors of judgment than through fraud. 

 It is a national misfortune that political economy is so 

 completely ignored in our schools. On the present 

 occasion, however, I have thought that it might not be 

 altogether an unfitting prelude to our labours if I 

 endeavour to trace up the stages by which we have 

 arrived at the present state of things, dwelling prin- 

 cipally on the earlier stages, because the later ones will 



