made, are also of the most satisfactory kind to a banker; they are, to a great extent, made to another account at his bank.  These largest ordinary payments of the Government are the dividends on the debt, and these are mostly made to bankers who act as agents for the creditors of the nation.  The payment of the dividends for the Government is, therefore, in great part a transfer from the account of the Government to the accounts of the various bankers.  A certain amount no doubt goes almost at once to the non-banking classes; to those who keep coin and notes in house, and have no account at any bank.  But even this amount is calculable, for it is always nearly the same.  And the entire operation is, to those who can watch it, singularly invariable time after time.

But it is important to observe, that the published accounts of the Bank give no such information to the public as win enable them to make their own calculations.  The account of which we have been speaking is the yearly account of the English Governmentwhat we may call the Budget account, that of revenue and expenditure.  And the laws of this are, as we have shown, already known.  But under the head ‘Public Deposits’ in the accounts of the Bank, are contained also other accounts, and particularly that of the Secretary for India in Council, the laws of which must be different and are quite unknown.  The Secretary for India is a large lender on its account.  If any one proposed to give such power to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, there would be great fear and outcry.  But so much depends on habit and tradition, that the India Office on one side of Downing Street can do without remark, and with universal assent, what it would be thought ‘unsound’ and extravagant to propose that the other side should do.  The present India Office inherits this independence from the old Board of the Company, which, being mercantile and business-like, used to lend its own money on the Stock Exchange as it pleased; the Council of India, its successor, retains the power.  Nothing can be better than that it should be allowed to do as it likes; but the mixing up the account of a body which has such a power, and which draws money from India, with that of the Home government clearly prevents the general public from being able to draw inferences as to the course of the combined account from its knowledge of home finance only.  The account of ‘public deposits’ in the Bank return includes other accounts too, as the Savings’ Bank balance, the Chancery Funds account, and others; and in consequence, till lately the public had but little knowledge of the real changes of the account of our Government, properly so called.  But Mr. Lowe has lately given us a weekly account, and from this, and not from the Bank account, we are able to form a judgment.  This account and the return of the Bank of England, it is true, unhappily appear on different days; but except for that accident our knowledge would be perfect; and as it is, for almost all purposes what we know is reasonably sufficient.  We can now calculate the course of the Government account nearly as well as it is possible to calculate it.