Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/331

Rh of 150. He settled in Windgap Cottage, a short distance from Kilkenny ; and there, a complete invalid, he passed the remainder of his life. His last piece of literary work was the novel, entitled Father Connell. He died in July 1842, aged 44. Banim s true place in literature is to be estimated from the merits of the O llara Tales ; his later works, though of considerable ability, are not unfrequently prolix, and are marked by too evident an imitation of the Waverley Novels. The Tales, however, show him at his best ; they are masterpieces of faithful delineation. The strong passions, the lights and shadows of Irish peasant character, have rarely been so ably and truly depicted. The prevailing quality is a wonderful vehemence, combined with a gloominess extending at times to natural phenomena as well as to the characters of the tale ; the incidents are striking, sometimes even horrible, and it is not without some justice that the authors have been accused of sensa tionalism, of straining after melodramatic effect. The lighter, more joyous side of Irish character, which appears so strongly in Lover, does not receive due prominence from the Banims. (See P. J. Murray, Life of John Banim, 1857.)  BANJARMASSIN, a district in the south-east of Borneo, which was incorporated by the Dutch in consequence of the war of 1860, in regard to the succession in the sultanate, which had been under their protection since 1787. It is watered by the river system of the Banjar, and traversed by a chain of mountains that in some places reaches the height of 3000 feet. The district has been divided by the Dutch into the residency of Kween and the sub-residencies of Amuntal and Martapura. The town of Martapura was the seat of the sultan from 1771. The principal productions of the district are gold, diamonds, coal, pepper and other spices, drugs, edible birds nests, gum, wax, rattans, &c. The inland portion is covered with forest, while the flat and swampy seaboard is largely occu pied by rice-fields. The inhabitants, who are for the most part Dayaks, are roughly estimated from 300,000 to 600,000.

, the chief town of the above district, also known as Fort Tatas, is situated about 15 miles from the mouth of the Banjar, in lat. 3 23 &, long. 114 37 E. The most of the houses are built on piles, as the town is subject to frequent inundations. In 1700 the East Indian Company established a factory here ; but the place was found to be unhealthy, and the Company s servants were finally attacked by the natives, whom they repulsed with great difficulty. The settlement was abandoned. The English again seized Banjarmassin in 1811, but restored it in 1817. The trade consists in the export of the products of the surrounding country and the import of cloth, Chinese pottery, all kinds of metal goods, opium, tobacco, and salt. The population is of a very mixed character, and is esti mated at upwards of 30,000. Of the commercial com munity the Chinese form a very important portion. The coal mines, discovered in 1846 at Mount Pengaron, to the E., are largely worked by the Dutch.         BANK, in its simplest form, is an institution where money may be deposited for safe keeping ; but banks are usually established to lend as well as to receive money ; and the profits of a banker are commonly derived from the excess of the interest he receives from those indebted to him over the interest he allows, so far as he allows any. to those who have deposited money with him. Early denunciations of usury (Exod. xxii. 25) show the antiquity of the practice of lending money at interest ; but this must have long preceded the origin of the business of both borrowing and lending money. When this first appeared it was not, at least in modern Europe, a distinct profession, but was undertaken by goldsmiths and dealers in precious metals. In the progress of the separation of employments, which is a characteristic of an advancing society, banking became a business of its own, which has again been sub divided into many branches independently pursued. It was, for example, formerly generally allowed to be part of the business of a banker to borrow money by issuing promissory notes payable to bearer, which passed from hand to hand as money, within the sphere of the operations of the banks, and banks thus borrowing money were called Banks of Issue ; but it has been contended of late years that the function of issuing notes passing by delivery as money should be reserved for the state, or for some institu tion controlled and directed by the state ; and we shall have hereafter to notice the controversy that has arisen on this point, and the steps that have been taken in conse quence of it. An explanation of the different species of banks will also properly be deferred tilt a later stage, but it will be convenient here to give a general sketch of the nature of the business of an ordinary banker. We have said he receives and lends money ; he may receive money either on a deposit or on a current or drawing account. When money is received on deposit it is commonly repay able to the depositor alone, to whom a deposit note or receipt is given ; but it may also be paid to any one to whom the depositor gives an order on the bank either endorsed on the deposit note or receipt or accompanying it. If the banker undertakes to pay interest on deposits, the rate varies according to the length of the notice the de positor agrees to give before withdrawing the money, the ability of the banker to deal with it being, of course, dependent upon the time he may rely upon keeping it. When money is received on a current or drawing account, the customer of the banker draws it ou t, as he requires, by means of orders, to which the specific name cheques is given ; and, partly for convenience and partly by way of security against fraud, bankers are in the habit of giving their customers books of forms of cheques consecutively numbered. Cheques are generally payable to the person in whose favour they are drawn (the payee) or bearer, though they are sometimes payable to the payee or order, in which case endorsement by the payee is necessary before the money can be received. By the usage of bankers in the United Kingdom a &quot; crossed &quot; cheque, that is, a cheque across the face of which two parallel lines, with the name of a banker or the words &quot; & Co.&quot; inserted between them, have been drawn, has been long held pay able by the banker on whom it is drawn to the payee alone or to another banker ; and this usage received the force of law by statutes of the present reign (19 and 20 Viet. e. 25, and 21 and 22 Viet. c. 79). Bankers lend money by opening credits in their books, against which their favoured customers may draw to the extent of the credits opened; by discounting bills; by the purchase of securities ; or by advancing money on securities, &c., &c. It will have been gathered that they also under take the business of collecting the money for cheques, for bills, and for other securities as they mature, which they may have received from their customers. The labour of collection is much facilitated in England by the fact that bills of exchange are almost invariably made payable in London, and that every country banker has a correspondent among the London bankers who collects for him and pays for him; and the London bankers again maintain an 