The terms hank and banker represent conceptions so commonly understood that a satisfactory definition or classification ought not to be difficult. But banks may be defined by reference to their mode of organization, their methods of doing business, or the functions which they perform. Thus, with reference to their mode of organization, banks may be separated into those which have a corporate form and those which have not such a form, i. e., corporate banks and private banks. Corporate banks would require a division into national banks, which are organized under the federal law, and state corporate banks, which are organized under state laws. Private banks would require division into individual bankers, partnerships and joint-stock companies. But such a division fulfills no useful purpose and is merely formal. Again, with reference to their methods of doing business, banks may be divided into commercial banks and savings banks; but this division is not useful, because the term "savings bank " no longer defines a bank which has no capital stock but divides its profits among its depositors, for many savings banks are now merely commercial banks. Other banks have two departments - a savings counter and a commercial counter. A constantly increasing type of bank is now the trust company, so called. This term is sometimes applied to an ordinary commercial bank; at other times a trust company, besides carrying on a banking business, such as receiving deposits and discounting commercial paper and collecting exchanges, has a department wherein it receives and executes trusts of various kinds, which is not a banking business at all. Often the trust company adds to its other functions a savings department. But this method of classifying banks fulfills no useful purpose, unless the term "savings bank " is restricted to the old type of savings bank, which shows tendencies toward obsolescence. Regarding banks with reference to their functions, the usual division would be banks of issue, banks of discount, and banks of deposit. Banks of deposit would include savings banks. But this division is not valuable, for the reason that there are no banks purely of issue or purely of discount. The national banks alone are banks of issue, but they are also banks of deposit and discount. State banks of issue no longer exist, but all commercial banks, corporate as well as private, are banks both of deposit and discount. Therefore this division fulfills no useful purpose, but it is advantageous as an aid in defining the meaning of the term "banking powers." Since this latter term is often used in statutes in a general way, it becomes absolutely necessary to define the term " bank," and thus, as incidental thereto, to define the phrase " banking powers." This definition must be sought for in the decisions. But in law as in every other science, where terms in common use are utilized, the meaning of a word will often vary with reference to the circumstances in which it is used. From one point of view in the law, courts have found it necessary to define the word "bank" in terms which will not be satisfactory from another point of view. It is a truism, frequently disregarded, that the language of a court should never be considered apart from the circumstances of the particular case in regard to which the language is used. Especially is it true that the framers of statutes and constitutions have used legal terms without any accurate judgment of the result. The courts, in consequence, in order to do justice to litigants, have often been compelled to do violence to language. In construing a penal or prohibitory statute, the word "bank" has had in some instances a different meaning from that which it has borne to a court construing a revenue or a license tax law. It will therefore be sought to define the words "bank" and "banker" with reference to the language of decisions, keeping in mind the particular connection in which the language is used.