The names of the different Banks, and the places at which their head offices are situated are as follow:

Edinburgh - Bank of Scotland.

- Royal Bank of Scotland.

- British Linen Company.

- Commercial Bank of Scotland.

- National Bank of Scotland.

- Sir William Forbes & Co.

- Edinburgh and Leith Bank. Aberdeen - Aberdeen Banking Company.

- Aberdeen Town and Country Banking Company.

Aberdeen - North of Scotland Banking Company. Arbroath - Arbroath Bank. Ayr - Ayr Bank. (Hunter & Co.) - Ayrshire Banking Company. Dumfries - Southern Bank of Scotland. Dundee - Dundee Banking Company.

- Dundee Union Bank.

- Eastern Bank of Scotland.

Glasgow - Glasgow and Ship Banking Company.

- Western Bank of Scotland.

- Glasgow Union Banking Company.

- Clydesdale Banking Company.

- City of Glasgow Banking Company. Greenock - Greenock Bank.

- Renfrewshire Banking Company. Inverness - Caledonian Banking Company. Leith - Leith Banking Company.

Paisley - Paisley Commercial Banking Company. Perth - erth Banking Company. - Central Bank of Scotland.

Of these twenty-nine Banks, twenty-three are joint-stock, and of the latter three are chartered. The whole have 368 branches amongst them, and the population of Scotland being two and a-half millions, it follows that there is a Bank for every 6000 persons. The shares of all the Banks sell at the rate of 143 1/3 on their paid up stock; those of the joint-stock companies at 150 3/8; the average dividend per annum on the former is 6 1/3 per cent.; upon the latter 6 1/20*.

But though the number of Banks has decreased in Scotland since 1825, the increase of Banking business has been considerable. It appeared in the Report of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce for the past year, that "The first return of the circulation was made in Scotland in 1825. Every one knows the extraordinary advance which Scotland has made between that period and 1840. For instance, in the former of those years she manufactured 55,000 bales of cotton; in the latter 120,000 bales. In 1826, the produce of the iron furnaces was 33,500 tons; in 1840, about 250,000 tons. In 1826, the Banking capital of Scotland was 4,900,000l.; in 1840, it was about 10,000,000l.: yet, with all this progress in industry and wealth, the circulation of notes, which in 1825 varied from 3,400,000l. to 4,700,000l., was in 1839 from 2,960,000l. to 3,670,000l.; and in the first three months of 1840, 2,940,000l."

* Appendix, p. 303. Commons' Report, 1841.

Mr. Kennedy considers that there are not more Banks at the present moment in Scotland than are necessary, and although the profits are kept very low by competition, that there still is room for all. In comparison with the increase of the Banking establishments, there is a diminution in the amount of notes circulated. Free competition, and the multiplication of Banks and branches, have, in his opinion, a tendency to diminish the amount of notes in circulation.

Here then is another curious feature in the case. We have to admire the long-continued and safe note-circulation of Scotland, compared with the heedless irregularities and destructive insecurity of the currency of England, and we have to wonder at the ease and simplicity with which a progressive commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural business is carried on, with what in England would be considered an extremely dispropor-tioned circulating medium - one, moreover, which is almost wholly of paper; for so small is the quantity of gold in Scotland, that many a shopkeeper does not take a sovereign once in six weeks.

Mr. Orosbie, Manager of the National Bank of Scotland has entered into some details upon this subject in his remarks on the Scottish system of Banking, which are not a little curious. That gentleman finds, upon referring to official returns and other documents of authority, that the Bank note circulation of England and Scotland from September 1833 to March 1840, both months included, stood respectively thus: -

The population by the census of 1831 was for England 13,900,000 and for Scotland 2,400,000; the amount of the rental for England was 34,330,000l., for Scotland 4,850,000l.; the quantity of shipping amounted in England to 1,800,000 tons, in Scotland 500,000 tons; and the number of acres under tillage in England were 12,000,000, in Scotland 2,600,000.

From the preceding data it follows, that if the circulation of notes in Scotland had been on a par (in amount) with that in England, then the Scotch circulation should, in proportion, have been to its

Whilst in fact the circulation of Scotland was only, during the same periods, at the highest 3,122,000l, lowest 2,765,000

These results unquestionably show a very limited amount of bank-note circulation in Scotland, and an extreme economy in the use of money.

Two practices are uniform in Scotch Banking, which have frequently been commended, the one as affording great accommodation to the people, the other as giving great stability to the Banks: I allude to the system of cash credits, and the clearing system observed by the Bankers. The former has been very well described in the Report of the Lords' Committee of 1826 on Scotch and Irish Banking. In copying it I shall only add, that it is a boast with Scotch Bankers, that many of their most successful agriculturists and wealthiest manufacturers have owed their prosperity to a cash credit. "There is also," say their lordships, "one part of their system which is stated by all the witnesses (and, in the opinion of the Committee, very justly stated,) to have had. the best effects upon the people of Scotland, and particularly upon the middling and poorer classes of society, in producing and encouraging habits of frugality and industry: the practice referred to is that of cash credits. Any person who applies to a Bank for a cash credit, is called upon to produce two or more competent sureties, who are jointly bound; and after a full inquiry into the character of the applicant, the nature of his business, and the sufficiency of his securities, he is allowed to open a credit, and to draw upon the Bank for the whole of its amount, or for such part as his daily transactions may require. To the credit of the account he pays in such sums as he may not have occasion to use, and interest is charged or credited upon the daily balance, as the case may be. From the facility which these cash credits give to all the small transactions of the country, and from the opportunities which they afford to persons who begin business with little or no capital but their character, to employ profitably the minutest products of their industry, it cannot be doubted that the most important advantages are derived to the whole community. The advantage to the Banks who give these cash credits arises from the call which they continually produce for the issue of their paper, and from the opportunity which they afford for the profitable employment of part of their deposits. The Banks are indeed so sensible that in order to make this part of their business advantageous and secure, it is necessary that their cash credits should (as they expressed it) be frequently acted upon, that they refuse to continue them unless this implied condition be fulfilled. The total amount of their cash credits is stated by one witness to be five millions, of which the average amount advanced by the Banks may be one-third.