many years subjected to change upon the incoming of each Administration.
From the organization of the National Banking system to this time
(1884) there have been four Comptrollers,--three of whom voluntarily
resigned. The present incumbent of the office, Mr. John Jay Knox,
has discharged his important duties with great satisfaction for
twelve years, and with his predecessors has conclusively established
in practice the non-partisan character which is indispensable to
the successful administration of the Bureau.

The division and distribution of bank capital under the National
system do not merely carry its advantages to every community, but
they afford the most complete guaranty against every abuse which
may spring from a large aggregation of capital. The Bank of the
United States in 1816 had a capital of thirty-five millions of
dollars. If a similar institution were established to-day, bearing
a like proportion to the wealth of the country, it would require
a capital of at least six hundred millions of dollars--many fold
larger than the combined wealth of the Bank of England and the Bank
of France. It is hardly conceivable that such a power as this
could ever be intrusted to the management of a Secretary of the
Treasury or to a single board of directors, with the temptations
which would beset them. It is the contemplation of such an enormous
power placed in the hands of any body of men that gives a more
correct appreciation of the conduct and motives of General Jackson
in his determined contest with the United-States Bank. His instincts
were correct. He saw that such an institution increasing with the
growth of the country would surely lead to corruption, and by its
unlimited power would interfere with the independence of Congress
and with the just liberty of the people.

MERITS OF NATIONAL BANK SYSTEM.

The single feature of resemblance between the Bank of the United
States and the system of National banks is found in the fact that
Government bonds constitute the foundation of each. But the use
to which the bonds are devoted in the new system in entirely
different from that of the old. The United-States Bank retained
its bonds in its own vaults, liable to all the defalcation and
mismanagement which might affect the other assets. In the present
system the National Bank deposits its bonds with the Treasury
Department, where they are held as special security for