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336 walls, all has been quiet; and silently and undisturbed, the work planned by its founder, has gone on day by day, as it will go on years on years after the writer, and the reader of to-day, shall have been forgotten.

I can conceive of no more perfect system for the protection of the interest of the borrower, than that upon which this institution is operated to-day; and I wish it were possible for us to establish such a bank in every city in the United States.

You—no my friend, some other man—must raise funds to meet a temporary—it is to be hoped—emergency. A watch, or diamond ring, or some other valuable is offered as security at the Nacional Monte de Piedad. Two valuators are called on to pass upon it. They make their estimates, separately, and then on comparison of the two, the medium is adopted. On diamonds and other precious stones, and similar articles of unchanging value, the bank will loan up to seven-eighths of the agreed valuation, and on articles of less determined and permanent value, a lesser sum, according to circumstances; the average being much more than could be obtained on the same articles in the United States, by a stranger, at an ordinary pawnbrokers.

The interest varies, according to the time on which the loan is made, and the amount. The lowest rate is about three per cent., and the average nine and three-quarter per cent, per annum, on all the transactions of the institution. You—no, our friends—borrow money for a year, and can pay interest on the loan and have it carried on for any number of years, if desired.

When interest is no longer paid, the article pawned is kept in the vaults for seven months, and then taken out and passed into the hands of the official valuator