The panic of that year, it will be remembered, happened, contrary to precedent, in the spring, and at the next meeting of the Court of Bank proprietors--the September meeting--there was a very remarkable discussion, which I give at length below, and of which all that is most material was thus described in the 'Economist': 'THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THE LATE MEETING OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND.
'The late meeting of the proprietors of the Bank of England has a very unusual importance.

There can be no effectual inquiry now into the history of the late crisis.

A Parliamentary committee next year would, unless something strange occur in the interval, be a great waste of time.

Men of business have keen sensations but short memories, and they will care no more next February for the events of last May than they now care for the events of October 1864.

A _pro forma_ inquiry, on which no real mind is spent, and which everyone knows will lead to nothing, is far worse than no inquiry at all.
Under these circumstances the official statements of the Governor of the Bank are the only authentic expositions we shall have of the policy of the Bank Directors, whether as respects the past or the future.