"Indeed, Sir,11 interrupted the old gentleman, with quick anxiety; "pray what has happened? - we are the same as ever."

"Pardon me, Mr. Fuller; I have noticed for many a year, that on a certain day in the week a pint of porter has regularly stood at the foot of your stairs. I always could tell, when I saw that pint, that it was washing-day with you, and greatly pleased I used to be at that proof of your economy: for, Mr. Fuller, the man who is entrusted with the keeping of other men's money, should know how to take care of his own; and he cannot give any better or stronger proof of what he is capable of in that respect, than by being moderate and abstemious in his house-keep-ing. Therefore I was always, as I have just said, well pleased to see you were not wasteful with your washerwoman. I felt sure, while that continued, that my deposits in this house were safe - perfectly safe, Sir. (This was said with an emphasis and a look that set the tips of Mr. Fuller's fingers a-twirling, as if a small electric battery had been brought to play upon his nervous system.) But I see you are changing - you are breaking loose, Mr. Fuller; you now allow your washerwoman not a pint, but a pot of beer on washing-days; and I must say, Sir, that if you go on doubling your expenditure at that rate, it may be time for your customers to look after their balances.,,

Mr. Fuller, it is said, took this rebuke quite seriously, and with humble thanks, assuring his customer that business had increased - that more resident clerks were now employed than formerly - and that as there was more washing to be done, a helper had been hired, and an extra allowance of beer permitted. But this he promised to re-trench, and he kept his word. The pot of beer was countermanded, the "standard" pint replaced, and never afterwards exceeded during the old gen-tleman's lifetime.

There is another story told of this Banker of the old school. On the day he completed his eightieth . year, he made mention of the circumstance at the Bank; and one of the clerks, more courageous than the rest, expressed a hope that they might have the pleasure of drinking his health and many happy returns of the day. To the general surprise, the old gentleman took the hint graciously, and said, "Well, we shall see." Just before dinner-time he withdrew for a minute or two, and returned into the office with a bottle of port in his hand, which he placed upon the challenging clerk's desk, saying, "Well, I have brought you a bottle of port wine to drink my health, as you wished it; it is good wine, and I hope, young men, that you will commit no excess with it?

Old Mr. Denison was another member of the primitive school of Bankers, who made his own fortune, and was remarkable for his economy and strict attention to business. He lived for years at his Banking-house in St. Mary Axe, and was so thriftful as to go to market daily for his family. But if he looked closely after small matters, it was be-cause he held everything subservient to one great one his bank and the accumulation of capital. Like most men who have a turn for economy, he was fond of boasting of the bargains he had bought. There has been many an anecdote related of the trouble it used to give the old gentleman to provide good things cheap, when his son, the present Banker, so long member for Surrey, entertained his west-end friends at dinner. For, with the honourable pride distinctive of most Scotchmen, old Mr. Denison not only took care that his son's education should be excellent, but gave him every fair encouragement to gain a footing in the best society; in which, by-the-by, he was as successful as he could have wished. He left a large fortune, which has been increased by his son, one of the richest of our London Bankers, and reputed to be worth nearly two millions sterling, the greater part of which he keeps always available for ordinary business.

The present Mr. Denison gave a striking proof of the extent of his resources, and the spirit and decision of his character, when the Bank of Manchester, in 1835, proposed to become a Bank of issue. That proceeding was highly distasteful to the Bank of England, which had previously enjoyed the exclusive circulation of Lancashire. Accordingly the Manchester Bank was soon made to feel the displeasure of the Bank parlour. Its drafts and acceptances became a subject of comment; its London Bankers disagreed with the directors, and closed their account; its London bill-brokers sent them notice that there would be difficulties to encounter in getting cash for their bills in future. A series of adverse circumstances arose in rapid succession to embarrass and distress the company; they were full of anxiety, and reduced to extremities, when they had the good fortune to obtain an introduction to Mr. Denison. That gentleman, upon a brief statement of their case, and after satisfactory explanations as to their solvency, saw that a great principle was involved; that a cause in every respect national, and which the Government and Parliament had anxiously promoted, stood in jeopardy; and he brought the negotiation quickly to a favourable issue, by stating that he should be prepared with 600,000l. the next day to meet the demands of their agency, which, if necessary, he would increase to a million in the course of the week.

The particulars of this transaction ought not to appear, as they do, for the first time, in a page like this. Their proper place would have been in one or other of the reports of some one of the half-dozen Banking committees that have sat, since they occurred, in the House of Commons. But, as I have already had occasion to point out, the heavy labours of our parliamentary investigations upon Banking are remarkable for the pertinent matter they pass over without question or comment.

It is not so much the rarity or the importance of the act itself in this instance that challenges our special notice - it is not the distinct picture it presents to view of the great monied power a private Banker in London possesses - nor is it the vivid impression produced upon the mind when figuring to itself one man placing such a sum as a million of ready money at the disposal of a customer in the ordinary course of a morning's business, and that without notice or preparation - but it is the astonishment we must feel upon discovering the strong monopoly of the Bank of England bringing its influence to bear against the legitimate operations of a legally constituted body of traders who may be said to have derived their existence from the special interposition of Government and the legislature. I am far from meaning to say that ministers or either House of Parliament took any part in the formation of this particular Bank; but I do say that the country stood mainly indebted for the principle and system of joint-stock Banks of issue to the interposition of Lord Liverpool's cabinet in their behalf; and that it was a sense of indispensable public duty that led that administration, in a manner, to constrain the Bank of England to wave those immunities which operated as a bar to their operations. Such being the case, a monstrous piece of injustice was meditated by the Bank of England when it attempted to prevent the Bank of Manchester from issuing notes. One can hardly conceive a proceeding more calculated to suggest the propriety of searching investigation and rigid explanation; for it took its rise in direct contravention of a policy sanctioned and encouraged by the Government and Parliament for the public benefit. It was, moreover, a positive interference with the legal rights of the manufacturing and mercantile interests of Manchester, and it broached in broad terms an arbitrary dogma, which has since then been understood to have been repeatedly enforced - that no joint-stock Bank issuing their own notes shall be admitted to a discount account at the Bank of England. But the fact was cushioned by one secret committee after another, and remains to this day undefended and unexplained, Midway between the old and the modern school, and possessing some of the best qualities of the two, is the firm of Jones Loyd and Company, consisting of two partners - father and son. The father is said to be the only Banker in London who has made a fortune by Banking without having been bred to it. Banking sought him. He preserves, it is said, to this day, in his bed-room, a little table which used to stand many years ago in his shop at Manchester, and upon which, as people used to bring their money to him, his first accounts were kept5. He, as well as Mr. Denison, is estimated to be worth nearly two millions of ready money, all of which is kept floating in convertible securities for immediate use. Like Mr. Denison senior, too, he has reared a son who fully sustains his own high character and reputation. Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd, by his example, and still more by his writings, has acquired the honours of being decidedly the highest Banking authority of the present period. He claims the merit, moreover, - and in that respect he stands alone - of having after a long and severe disputation, in which superior knowledge and conclusive deductions were uniformly found upon his side, compelled the Bank of England to conduct its affairs according to the standard, which he has pronounced the only safe one to be referred to for a sound management of the currency.