Date Deposits Cash in Hand Money at Call Government Securities total. 31 December 1845 3,590,014 563,072 628,500 1,039,745 2,231,317 31 December 1846 3,280,864 634,575 423,060 938,717 1,996,352 31 December 1847 2,733,753 7,231,325 350,108 791,899 1,863,332 30 June 1848 3,170,118 588,871 159,724 1,295,047 2,043,642 31 December 1848 3,089,659 645,468 176,824 1,189,213 2,011,505 30 June 1849 3,392,857 552,642 246,494 964,800 1,763,936 31 December 1849 3,680,623 686,761 264,577 973,691 1,224,029 30 June 1850 3,821,022 654,649 258,177 972,055 1,884,881 31 December 1850 3,969,648 566,039 334,982 1,089,794 1,990,815 30 June 1851 4,414,179 691,719 424,195 1,054,018 2,169,932 31 December 1851 4,677,298 653,946 378,337 1,054,018 2,080,301 30 June 1852 5,245,135 861,778 136,687 1,054,018 2,122,483 31 December 1852 5,581,706 855,057 397,087 1,119,477 2,371,621 30 June 1853 6,219,817 904,252 499,467 1,218,852 2,622,571 31 December 1853 6,259,540 791,699 677,392 1,468,902 2,937,993 30 June 1854 6,892,470 827,397 917,557 1,457,415 3,202,369 31 December 1854 7,177,244 694,309 486,400 1,451,074 2,631,783 30 June 1855 8,166,553 722,243 483,890 1,754,074 2,960,207 31 December 1855 8,744,095 847,856 451,575 1,949,074 3,248,505 30 June 1856 11,170,010 906,876 601,800 1,980,489 3,489,165 31 December 1856 11,438,461 1,119,591 432,000 2,922,625 4,474,216 30 June 1857 13,913,058 967,078 687,730 3,353,179 5,007,987 31 December 1857 113,889,021 2,226,441 1,115,883 3,582,797 6,923,121

1191.  Do you employ your money in the discounting of bills for other persons than your own customers?—­Discount brokers.

1192.  Only to discount brokers?  Yes.

1193.  Not to strangers who are in the habit of bringing you in bills; commercial houses?—­I should say generally not.  We have one or two houses for whom we discount who have not accounts with us as bankers, but generally we do not discount except for our customers or for billbrokers.

1194.  Do you consider that any advantage can arise to the public by the Bank of England advancing to a greater extent than can be considered strictly prudent on the soundest principle of banking, under the idea of their affording aid to the commercial world?—­As I said before, as long as there are good bills in circulation, that is, bills about which there would be no doubt of their being paid at maturity, there should be some means by which those bills could be discounted.

1195.  And do you think that it is part of the functions of the Bank of England to discount a bill for anybody, merely because the party holding the bill wishes to convert it into cash?—­As I said before, the Bank of England will have great difficulty in getting rid of that inconvenient idea which there is in the mind of the public, that the Bank of England is something more than an ordinary joint stock bank.  I think it must depend very much upon circumstances whether you can or cannot refuse the discount of good bills which are offered to you.