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233 publish no reports. The result of these banks, as regards the dividends they pay, is—

—that is to say, above 25 per cent. of the capital employed in these banks pays over 15 per cent. and 62 per cent. of the capital pays more than 10 per cent. So striking a result is not to be shown in any other joint stock trade.

"The period to which these accounts refer was certainly not a particularly profitable one—on the contrary, it has been specially unprofitable. The rate of interest has been very low, and the amount of good security in the market small. Many banks—to some extent most banks—probably had in their books painful reminiscences of 1866. The fever of excitement which passed over the nation