would like to see all forms of industry
managed by the State, that the banking business might sooner or later
be taken over and worked as a State monopoly. At that time this danger
of monopoly seemed to be still fairly remote, but since then the
progress of amalgamations has brought it appreciably nearer, and
so has vigorously stimulated both the hopes and fears of those who
consider that it tends to bring nearer the seizure of banking business
by the State. The fear is expressed by Sir Charles Addis, manager of
the Hongkong Bank and director of the Bank of England, in the July
number of the _Edinburgh Review_ in a very interesting article on the
"Problems of British Banking." Sir Charles observes that:

"It may even be questioned whether the gigantic size they have
already attained does not constitute a menace to the predominant
position which the Bank of England has hitherto enjoyed as the
bankers' bank. How will the Bank of England be able to maintain
its supremacy and control the money market, surrounded by banks
individually greater and more powerful than itself, especially
when the object in view is by raising the rate of interest to
prevent an internal or external drain upon our gold reserve? It is
even conceivable that the finance of the State may be threatened,
and it is probably for this reason that in Germany the Prussian
Minister is said to be considering a State monopoly of banking.
Nor can the psychological effect of these great aggrandisements of
capital in the hands of a few banks be ignored. They are virtually
Government-guaranteed institutions. The insolvency of one of
the great banks would involve such widespread disaster that no
Government could stand aside. They would be compelled to make use
of the national resources in order to guarantee the solvency of
private banks. From Government guarantee to Government control
is but a step, and but one step more to nationalisation. We are
playing into the hands of Mr Sidney Webb and the Socialists."

As it happens, in the July number of the _Contemporary Review_, Mr
Sidney Webb was developing the same theme, namely, the inevitability
of banking monopoly and the necessity, as he conceives it, of
defeating private monopoly for the sake of profit, by State monopoly
to be worked, as he hopes, in the public interest. His article is
headed by the rather misleading title, "How to Prev