On one vital point the Bank's management has been excellent.

It has done perhaps less 'bad business,' certainly less very bad business, than any bank of the same size and the same age.

In all its history I do not know that its name has ever been connected with a single large and discreditable bad debt.

There has never been a suspicion that it was 'worked' for the benefit of any one man, or any combination of men.
The great respectability of the directors, and the steady attention many of them have always given the business of the Bank, have kept it entirely free from anything dishonorable and discreditable.
Steady merchants collected in council are an admirable judge of bills and securities.

They always know the questionable standing of dangerous persons; they are quick to note the smallest signs of corrupt transactions; and no sophistry will persuade the best of them out of their good instincts.