Among private people they are the principal depositors in the Bank; they are therefore particularly interested in its stability; they are especially interested in the maintenance of a good banking reserve, for their own credit and the safety of their large deposits depend on it.

And they can bring to the court of directors an experience of banking itself, got outside the Bank of England, which none of the present directors possess, for they have learned all they know of banking at the Bank itself.

There was also an old notion that the secrets of the Bank would be divulged if they were imparted to bankers.

But probably bankers are better trained to silence and secrecy than most people.

And there is only a thin partition now between the bankers and the secrets of the Bank.