You could not have made the directors of the Bank of England do the sort of business which 'Overends' at last did, except by a moral miracle--except by changing their nature.

And the fatal career of the Bank of the United States would, under their management, have been equally impossible.

Of the ultimate solvency of the Bank of England, or of the eventual safety of its vast capital, even at the worst periods of its history, there has not been the least doubt.
But nevertheless, as we have seen, the policy of the Bank has frequently been deplorable, and at such times the defects of its government have aggravated if not caused its calamities.
In truth the executive of the Bank of England is now much such as the executive of a public department of the Foreign Office or the Home Office would be in which there was no responsible permanent head.

In these departments of Government, the actual chief changes nearly, though not quite, as often as the Governor of the Bank of England.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary--the Deputy-Governor, so to speak, of that office--changes nearly as often.