Mr. Botly said he did not mean deposits on call.

The Governor of the Bank of England continued—­That is only a matter of detail; the main question is whether we ought to pay interest on deposits, and of such policy I must express my entire disapproval.  Mr. Moxon has referred to the amount of our debts, but, as I stated when I took the liberty of interrupting him, we could never trace the origin of any rumour which prevailed upon that subject.  As far as it can be said to have ever existed it had its origin most probably in the vast amount advanced by the Bank.  It must, however, be remembered that we did not make our advances without ample security, and the best proof of that is the marvelously small amount of bad debts which we contracted.  It has never been a feature of the Bank to state what was the precise amount of those debts; but I believe that if I were to mention it upon the present occasion, it would be found to be so inconsiderable that I should hardly obtain credence for the announcement I should have to make.  I am convmced that our present dividend has been as honestly and as hardly earned as any that we have ever realised; but it has been obtained by means of great vigilance and great anxiety on the part of each and all of your directors; and I will add that I believe you would only diminish their sense of responsibility, and introduce confusion into the management of your business, if you were to transfer to auditors the making up of your ac counts.  If your directors deserve your confidence they are surely capable of performing that duty, and if they do not deserve it you ought not to continue them in their present office.  With regard to the supposed lock-up of our capital, I must observe that, with 14,000,000 L. on our hands, we must necessarily invest it in a variety of securities; but there is no ground for imagining that our money is locked up and is not available for the purpose of making commercial advances.  We advanced in the space of three months the sum of 45,000,000 L.; and what more than that do you want?  It has been recommended that we should take charge of securities; but we have found it necessary to refuse all securities except those of our customers; and I believe the custody of securities is becoming a growing evil.  With regard to railway debentures, I do not believe we have one of a doubtful character.  We have no debentures except those of first-class railway companies and companies which we know are acting within their Parliamentary limits.  Having alluded to those subjects, I will now put the motion for the declaration of the dividend.

The motion was accordingly put and unanimously adopted.

The chairman then announced that that resolution should be confirmed by ballot on Tuesday next, inasmuch as the Bank could not, under the provisions of its Act of Parliament, declare otherwise than in that form a dividend higher than that which it had distributed during the preceding half-year.