A cautious man, in a new office, does not like strong measures.

Bank Governors are generally cautious men; they are taken from a most cautious class; in consequence they are very apt to temporise and delay.

But almost always the delay in creating a stringency only makes a greater stringency inevitable.

The effect of a timid policy has been to let the gold out of the Bank, and that gold must be recovered.

It would really have been far easier to have maintained the reserve by timely measures than to have replenished it by delayed measures; but new Governors rarely see this.
Secondly.