They do not now manage like the other Banks in Lombard Street.

They keep an altogether different kind and quantity of reserve; but though the practice is mended the theory is not.

There has never been a distinct resolution passed by the Directors of the Bank of England, and communicated by them to the public, stating even in the most general manner, how much reserve they mean to keep or how much they do not mean, or by what principle in this important matter they will be guided.
The position of the Bank directors is indeed most singular.

On the one side a great city opinion--a great national opinion, I may say, for the nation has learnt much from many panics--requires the directors to keep a large reserve.

The newspapers, on behalf of the nation, are always warning the directors to keep it, and watching that they do keep it; but, on the other hand, another less visible but equally constant pressure pushes the directors in exactly the reverse way, and inclines them to diminish the reserve.
This is the natural desire of all directors to make a good dividend for their shareholders.