its fluctuations. It is a system so easy
in its working, that no householder in Scotland is without it; and for
every shilling that he deposits in the bank, he receives regular
interest, calculated from day to day, without any deduction or
commission, at as high a rate as if he had left, for a stipulated
period, a million of money unrecallable by him, to be employed in its
trade by the bank. This is surely a great accommodation and
encouragement to the trader. But see how the introduction of the
metallic currency would affect us. Operating deposits there would be
none; for, if the banker were not actually compelled to charge a
certain per centage of commission, he would at least be able to pay no
interest. Or let it be granted that, by great economy, (though we
cannot well see how,) he could still afford to pay a diminished rate,
the proportion would be too small to tempt the dealer to the constant
system of deposit which now exists, and hoarding would be the
inevitable result. Or suppose that the system of deposit should still
continue in the large towns, what is to become of the country when the
branch banks shall have been removed? A little topography might here
be valuable, to correct the notions of the theorists, who would
legislate precisely for the thinly inhabited districts of Kintail and
Edderachylis, as they would for the town-covered surface of
Lancashire.

But there would be more important losses to the public than the mere
cessation of interest upon operating deposit accounts. All the
witnesses who have been examined, agree that cash-credits must be
immediately withdrawn. Of all the facilities that a mercantile
country, or rather the foremost mercantile system of a country, can
afford to industry, that of cash-credit is certainly the most
unexceptionable. Take the case of a young man just about to start in
business, whose connexion, habits, and education, are such as to give
every possible augury for his future success. The _res angustae domi_
are probably hard upon him. He has no patrimony; his friends, though
in fair credit, are not capitalists; and he has not of himself the
opportunity of launching into trade, for the want of that one talent,
which, if judiciously used, would in time multiply itself into ten. He
cannot ask his friends to assist him in the discount of bills. Large
as the affection of a Scotchman may be for some descriptions of paper,
he has a kind of inherent repugnance to that sort of f