This is what is meant by saying that a long established and rich bank has a 'privileged opportunity'; it is in a better position to do its business than any one else is; it has a great advantage over old competitors and an overwhelming superiority over new comers.

New people coming into Lombard Street judge by results; they give to those who have: they take their money to the biggest bank because it is the biggest.

I confess I cannot, looking far forward into the future, expect that the smaller private banks will maintain their ground.

Their old connections will not leave them; there will be no fatal ruin, no sudden mortality.

But the tide will gently ebb, and the course of business will be carried elsewhere.
Sooner or later, appearances indicate, and principle suggests, that the business of Lombard Street will be divided between the joint stock banks and a few large private banks.