The Bank directors now fear public opinion exceedingly; probably no kind of persons are so sensitive to newspaper criticism.

And this is very natural.

Our statesmen, it is true, are much more blamed, but they have generally served a long apprenticeship to sharp criticism.

If they still care for it (and some do after years of experience much more than the world thinks), they care less for it than at first, and have come to regard it as an unavoidable and incessant irritant, of which they shall never be rid.

But a bank director undergoes no similar training and hardening.