CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION TO MEMBERSHIP. I. PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 1. Upon what branch of the cost of production do the profits of capital mainly depend? 2. The rate of interest may be very different in two different countries, the credit of these countries being equally good-England and America, for example-give reasons for the difference. 3. Give what you consider a good illustration of 'credit' as a power in political economy. 4. What are the methods of working and the sources of profit, of these new institutions, the Cheque Bank and the Money Order Bank? 5. Do the telegraphic and the telephonic systems enter into the sphere of political economy? State shortly your reasons for your 'yes' or 'no.' II. STOCKS AND STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS. 1. What are the public funds of Great Britain? How are the stocks transferred? When are the dividends due, and how are they drawn? 2. State what you know of the stocks of the Indian Government, and of the methods of transfer and collection of dividends. 3. What limitation is there in the practice of the transfer office of the Bank of England in the recognition of trusts, and in regard to the number of persons who may be entered as joint owners of stock? 4. What special statutory provision must be attended to in contracts for sale and purchase of stocks and shares of joint stock banks. III. HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES OF BANKING AND Currency. 1. Give a short account of the crisis of 1866, stating the causes which led to it. 2. What governs the rate of discount? 3. Assume that you know three banks such as the following—(1) A metropolitan without branches. (2) A metropolitan and provincial with many branches. (3) One with a few branches in a purely manufacturing district. Suppose each bank to have State in the case of each bank separately the manner in which the total may be employed according to sound principles, and comment specially upon the amount and form of the reserve of each. 4. What is bimetallism? State shortly the usual arguments advanced for and against, and give your own opinion on the subject. 5. When may a currency be considered to be most perfect and in the most desirable form. 6. Give briefly the history of the City of Glasgow Bank. State the prin. ciples of banking which were violated in its management, and show how the violation of these led to its ruin. 7. What in your opinion are the excellencies and the defects in the system of Scottish banking. IV. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGES. 1. Name as many as you can of the causes affecting the exchanges. 2. Explain why it is that London is used as a place of settlement for a large proportion of transactions between foreign countries, and give an illustration of the practice. 3. For claims due to China by England, bills of a certain class or character are used, but for claims due by England to the Continent of Europe generally, settlement is effected by a different class or character of bills-describe the two classes of bills, and explain how it comes to pass that they are respectively used in these two cases. 4. Describe what is meant by the "specie point." V.-PRINCIPLES OF SCOTS LAW AND CONVEYANCING. 1. What is the presumption of the law of Scotland in regard to moveables in the possession of any one? 2. Define corporeal moveables and incorporeal moveables, and state how a security can be constituted in each case. 3. Discern between testate and intestate succession; and give a general outline of the process of administering the estate of the deceased in both events. 4. What amount can be recovered by a bank which holds a cash credit bond for £500-secured over heritable property, realising, on sale, £1,000 -the account kept under the bond being overdrawn £100 beyond the credit ? 5. A customer has £100 at his credit with a bank. An arrestment, in common form, is lodged against him for £80, the amount of his debt to the arrester. The debtor's cheque for £20 is presented to the bank? Is the bank in safety to pay or not? Explain why or why not. VI.-PRACTICAL BANKING. 1.-Correspondence. Write an application for a cash credit to the extent of £1,000 on personal security, and report thereon. A Cautioner proposed for an advance being under age, and the other Cautioner having only a life interest worth £2,500 a year, write, as from the bank, showing how the proposal should be dealt with, and explaining the reasons. A bill drawn on A B by C, D and E as trustees of F, is dishonoured. Draft letter of advice of non-payment, and state to whom it should be addressed. Write a letter suggesting the opening of a branch bank in a country town, and applying for the agency, explaining the position and qualifications of the applicant, and the circumstances of the place as offering inducements for the bank favourably considering the proposal. 2.-Branch Supervision. State some essential qualifications of an Inspector. State the most efficient means of testing the accuracy of the cash book and the cash, on the occasion of an inspection. What would be the best arrangement of apportioning the duties of a branch where, say, three clerks are employed, so as to provide the most efficient check upon the cash transactions. State the routine in inspecting a branch, and to what departments of its business special attention should be paid. 3. Advances. In the case of advance, e.g., on iron warrants, state, generally, what steps are necessary to ensure a valid security being got. When a bill at 1 d/d is held as the security for an advance, for what period can it be relied upon as valid? On a cash credit secured by three personal obligants, two deaths of sureties occur without the knowledge of the bank. Three years after the death of the second surety the credit is called up, when the remaining surety disputes his liability. What are the bank's rights, in the present state of the law, both as against the surviving surety and the representatives of the sureties deceased? In the case of a cash credit bond for £500 signed by four obligants, one of them added to his name the words, 'only liable for £200. Would the deed be a valid one? State some reasons as to the .expediency, or otherwise, of advancing on mill property and machinery. A cash credit per £1,000, Dr. £990 is called up for payment. Interest due amounts to £50. Should the interest be debited to the account before the demand for payment is made ? One of three obligants in a past due bill asks two months delay, to which the bank agrees by letter. What would be the effect of this upon the liability of the other obligants? VII. LAW OF BANKRUPTCY. 1. Describe the difference between an insolvent and a bankrupt. 2. What is a preference, and how can it be annulled, and within what time? 3. Give an outline of sequestration (mercantile) in theory and practice. 4. In what circumstances is a trust deed preferable to sequestration for the speedy and inexpensive realisation and division of the estate of a debtor ? VIII. MERCANTILE LAW. 1. Define a bill of lading. 2. What is stoppage in transitu? and how does its action affect the holder-for-value of a bill of lading? 3. If a banker advance, say £1,000, on the faith of a delivery order for 1,000 quarters of oats, how should he act so as to perfect his security? 4. Define the liability of a partner in a company registered (1.) With unlimited liability; (2.) With liability limited by shares; (3.) With liability limited by guarantee. 5. Can the uncalled capital of a company, limited, be assigned legally in security of a cash credit? Explain why, or why not. IX.--LAW OF BILLS, CHEQUES, AND RECEIPTS. 1. Specify the essentials of a bill. 2. Write a copy of a bill. (1.) Duly accepted by the drawee : (2.) Duly accepted per procuration of the drawee: and explain the reasons for the difference, if any. 3. What advantages has a pro. note for money borrowed as contrasted with a personal bond? 4. A B drew a cheque on his banker for £100, payable to C D or order. C D endorsed it to E F, who kept the cheque for fourteen days, at the expiry of which time both the drawer and the banker failed. F, after applying dividends from both estates, experienced a loss of £40. What claims has he on CD? and explain the reason. 5. Explain generally the meaning of a judicial consignment, and say under what circumstances a bank may safely pay the amount on a certified copy interlocutor. CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION AS ASSOCIATES. I. ARITHMETIC. 1. Find the rent of 305 acres at £4. 17s. 6d. an acre. If the landlord allows an abatement of 20 per cent., what does the tenant pay? 2. A thaler is equal to 3s., 25 thalers to 95 francs, and 61 francs to 25 gulden. How many gulden are there in £5? 3. Reduce to mixed numbers 4. Divide 3 5 602 4,139 12,332 45,739 into two parts, so that one is greater than the other by 13 5. Find the value in shillings and pence of £0.97,216. 6. Extract the square root of 13 to four places of decimals. 7. Divide 90 into two parts, so that if half the greater be added to double the less, the result is 90. II.-ALGEBRA. 1. Find the cube of va-vb. 2. If ax=by, and x+y=c, find the value of x and y. 3. Find a number which, if it be divided into either two or three equal parts, the continued product of the parts shall be the same. 4. A banker pays a customer a sum S in c pieces of money. Had he paid him in gold he would have got a pieces, and had he paid him in silver, he would have got b pieces. How many of each did he get? 5. What is the number from nth part of which if a be taken, a times the remainder is equal to b. III. GEOGRAPHY. 1. Name the counties through which the main line of the L. and N. Western and Caledonian Railways passes between London and Edinburgh. 2. Name ten of the principal seaports of the United Kingdom, as nearly as you can in the order of their importance. 3. What are the names of the Australian and New Zealand Colonies, and of the chief towns in each colony? 4. Trace the course of the Rhine, and name the chief towns on its banks. 5. Name the States of the American Union east of the Mississippi. VOL. XLII. 35 6. What and where are the following? Astrachan, Bizarta, Denver, Fiume, Hejaz, Janina, Kioto, Merve, Pindus, Soudan, Tuticorin, Winnipeg, IV.-ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS. 1. Can you improve upon the following?"The man came here this morning again who owns the short stick." 2. Compose a sentence illustrating the difference between the meaning of the words "here" and "hither;" and another sentence giving a similar illustration in regard to the words "whence" and "whither." 3. There are two ways of putting the following sentence right; give them both "A quarrel has arisen between these two men, and it is impossible to get it reconciled." 4. Put the following into good prose :-- 'When famed Cecilia on the organ play'd, And fill'd with moving sounds the tuneful frame; 5. Give a short description of some accident. V.-BOOK-KEEPING AND BANK BOOKS. 1. State the relation betwixt the accounts, "deposit accounts" and "credit accounts" in the general ledger, and the accounts in the deposit account and credit account ledgers. 2. Explain why the interest for one day on the sum of the gross decimal on an account at the end of the year exactly represents the interest on the account for the year. 3. Give an example of a weekly return by a branch, shewing the amounts of deposits and advances at the branch. 4. State the principal books required at the head office and branches respectively. 5. In the case of a bill discounted, state the various entries which require to be made from the date of discounting to its being paid. 6. To what account are bills placed when none of the parties to them are able to meet them at maturity? 7. What is meant by a subsidiary book? Name one. VI. EXCHANGE AND CLEARING HOUSE SYSTEM AND RULES. 1. How often does the exchange of notes and clearing of cheques take place, and how are the balances arising thereon dealt with? 2. If the clerks of any one of the banks do not attend the Exchange Room at the proper hour, what is the penalty? 3. When and how often do settlements take place betwixt the banks, and how are these settlements arranged? 4. Suppose a cheque on the Bank of Scotland branch at Stockbridge, paid into the Commercial Bank's branch at Southbridge on Tuesday before the clearing hour, and dishonoured on presentation-State the course of the negotiation, and when notice of the dishonour should be received by the party who paid in the cheque. VII.-NOTE CIRCULATION. 1. With regard to the banks in Scotland who have registere l under the |