And all the rest of the knowledge requisite for a banker can easily be obtained by anyone who has the sort of mind which takes to it.

No doubt there is a vast routine of work to be learned, and the manager of a large bank must have a great facility in transacting business rapidly.

But a great number of persons are now bred from their earliest manhood in the very midst of that routine; they learn it as they would learn a language, and come to be no more able to unlearn it than they could unlearn a language.

And the able ones among them acquire an almost magical rapidity in effecting the business connected with that routine.

A very good manager and very good board of directors can, without unreasonable difficulty, be provided for a bank at present in London.
It will be asked, what more can be required?
I reply, a great deal.
All which the best board of directors can really accomplish, is to form a good decision on the points which the manager presents to them, and perhaps on a few others which one or two zealous members of their body may select for discussion.