here, it would meet with no sympathy from the banks which now adorn our metropolis. Such an institution, wherever found, is, in fact, a nuisance. The men who control it, faithless to every trust, and swayed by the basest motives, are chargeable with a criminality so much the more flagrant than that of private offenders, as they have prostituted to a mercenary self-aggrandizement, a more generous confidence and more ample resources. They have used the seal of the government to sanctify their treachery, and abused the confidence of the commonwealth to aim a serious blow at its prosperity. To attempt to screen themselves behind the impersonality of "the bank," is only another proof that cupidity and cowardice are twin sisters. The "bank" is but an alias for themselves. Human jurisprudence may fail of establishing their identity; but it may be worth their while to consider, whether it is the "bank" that will be called upon to answer for these delinquencies at the Great Assize.

No crisis ever occurs in the money-market, that "the banks" do not come in for a lavish amount of censure. The usual assumption is, that they have had a controlling agency in inflating prices to a dangerous extent, and are therefore responsible for the reaction which follows. That this may have been so any particular case, is quite certain. But it ought

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to be considered that banks, in their legitimate character, are not the regulators, but the implements of trade; and that while they may influence the tides which bear the great flotillas of commerce, they are themselves swayed by those tides. It is not their prerogative to decide whether a merchant shall extend his business beyond prudent limits or embark in an insane speculation. That is his concern. And if a community choose to do those things, and find themselves after a while, as the natural consequence, drifting towards the shoals of insolvency, they should at least suspend their maledictions against the banks, until they learn whether the fault may not lie nearer home. It is one of the invariable contingencies of business, that the financial institutions of a country may be obliged abruptly to reduce their discountline, and, to borrow a nautical phrase, shorten sail in every practicable way. The money and the commerce, the husbandry and the politics, of the world, are so reticulated, that a failure of the crops in Turkey, or a civil revolution in Spain, might seriously affect the condition of every bank in Missouri or Iowa. A wise merchant will consider this in laying his plans, and beware of so entangling himself with banks that a change in their policy will subvert his foundations. The spirit of this observation is also applicable to the banks. Subordinate as they are to

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higher agencies in the trading and political world, it should be a point of morals with them, no less than a rule of practical wisdom, so to conduct their affairs as to reduce the amount of disturbance they may suffer from these extrinsic causes to the lowest possible degree. The very best quality in the working of a bank, next to inflexible honesty, is steadiness. may recur again to the sea for an illustration, when a vessel is in tempestuous weather, or traversing an intricate channel, one's ear is saluted with the constant iteration of the cry to the helmsman, "Steady!" "Steady!" I know not that there is any word in the language which better deserves to be hung up in large capitals in our bank-parlours, than this homely Saxon dissyllable, "STEADY!" "STEADY!" The crew that can keep a financial ship steady through all the conflicting winds and currents of the business-world, is deserving of as much honour as the intrepid navigators who thread their way in safety through the ice-fields of the Northern circle. And, it may be added, the crew that do not aim at this, and strain every nerve to accomplish it, should be discharged on the first opportunity.

I have not intended by any remarks which have been made, to exonerate banks from all responsibility in bringing about commercial panics. In too many instances they have had a leading part in producing

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these calamities. It may be unreasonable to require them to "regulate the trade" of a country, but they can abstain from a policy which will engender a speculating mania, and tempt houses to be imprudent. Indeed, there is a question of morals, as well as a question of expediency, involved in the loaning of their funds, whether with or without reference to a crisis. They are neither to feed the fever of speculation by "doing" the paper of firms already, as may be currently understood, beyond their depth in rash adventures; nor are they to abet dishonesty by sustaining men who have made a fortune by failing. Honourable men who have experienced misfortune, have a claim upon them. Nor is there among all their functions a single one more beneficent and praiseworthy, than that of assisting to set on their feet, individuals of tried integrity, whose disasters have only revealed to their creditors fresh grounds for respect and confidence. But they have no right to treat a swindler thus. A man who has notoriously defrauded his creditors, and is by common consent branded as a rogue, it is not their province to restore to his former standing. They might as well put their seal on a forged draft, and send it out as genuine. It matters not that the party concerned may tender them ample securities. His paper is tainted; and if they touch it, the profits they make upon it, go into

their vaults as the "wages of unrighteousness." They are not a mere money-making corporation. They are trustees. They have no more right to debauch the morals of the community, than they have to circulate counterfeit notes. And they are doing this whenever they employ their great powers to reinstate an unprincipled man in the public confidence.

The only qualification to be appended to this statement, is, that the principle shall not be extended to cases of merely alleged fraud. Almost every failure brings out a charge of fraud from some quarter. And a majority of failures certainly involve indiscretions which cannot be deemed innocent. But these are usually treated with lenity, where a man bears himself frankly and ingenuously at the time of his catastrophe. Banks must beware how they allow themselves, in dealing with examples of this sort, to imbibe the resentments of creditors, and oppress firms which are trying to retrieve their former errors by a judicious and upright policy. It is one of the benign principles of the Divine government, "He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy." We are bound to adopt it in our intercourse with one another. But neither individuals nor corporations can be required to countenance those who, having defrauded their neighbours once, give no evidence that they will not, should occasion offer, do it again.