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168 "Is the Governor of the Bank of the same opinion which has now been expressed by the Deputy-Governor?

"Mr. Whitmore—I am so much of the same opinion, that I never think it necessary to advert to the price of gold, or the state of the exchange, on the days on which we make our advances.

"Do you advert to these two circumstances with a view to regulate the general amount of your advances? I do not advert to it with a view to our general advances, conceiving it not to bear upon the question."

And Mr. Harman, another Bank director, expressed his opinion in these terms:—"I must very materially alter my opinions before I can suppose that the exchanges will be influenced by any modifications of our paper currency."

Very few persons perhaps could have managed to commit so many blunders in so few words. But it is no disgrace at all to the Bank directors of that day to have committed these blunders. They spoke according to the best mercantile opinion of England. The City of London and the House of Commons both approved of what they said; those who dissented were said to be abstract thinkers and unpractical men. The Bank directors adopted the ordinary opinions, and pursued the usual practice of their time. It was this "routine" that caused their moderation. They believed that