Theory suggests, and experience proves, that in a panic the holders of the ultimate Bank reserve (whether one bank or many) should lend to all that bring good securities quickly, freely, and readily.

By that policy they allay a panic; by every other policy they intensify it.

The public have a right to know whether the Bank of England--the holders of our ultimate bank reserve--acknowledge this duty, and are ready to perform it.

But this is now very uncertain.
If we refer to history, and examine what in fact has been the conduct of the Bank directors, we find that they have acted exactly as persons of their type, character, and position might have been expected to act.

They are a board of plain, sensible, prosperous English merchants; and they have both done and left undone what such a board might have been expected to do and not to do.