were both lost, together with a further £300,000, and upon application to the court the liquidation was made official. An abstract from the accounts published last January, is below:

LIABILITIES.

Amount due by the bank on deposits, notes in circulation, and all

other liabilities

£4,494,596

750,000

£152,951

3,715

156,666

1,860 30,000

31,861

£5,333,123

Other securities, including bills discounted, loans to customers, &c.

4,380,230

£5,333,123

BANKING LAW OF SWEDEN.

THE recent bank failures in England and Scotland have called attention to many questions in the administration of banks, the form of association, the mode in which the accounts should be made up and audits conducted, and other points of this description. We have, therefore, thought it might be desirable to place before our readers the Banking Law of Sweden, which contains in a small compass the basis of a system which has stood the test of experience for many years with great success. In this country banking is regulated by many Acts of Parliament, the provisions of some of which it is difficult to reconcile with each other. As an instance of this it is enough to mention that while under Parliamentary provisions English provincial joint-stock banks are prohibited from opening offices in London without having the privilege of issuing notes, Scotch banks have been able to open offices in London without imperilling their circulation. Other discrepancies in our Banking Law will readily occur to the recollection of those who are engaged in

carrying on the business. The advantages of a uniform systemTM for the whole of Great Britain and Ireland would be very great. The whole of the provisions of the Swedish Banking Law -would not be completely suited to our requirements, but we publish it here as a very good and well considered example of legislation on the subject.

BANKING LAW OF SWEDEN.

1864.-Collection of Swedish Statutes. No. 31.

HIS ROYAL MAJESTY'S GRACIOUS PROCLAMATION RESPECTING PRIVATE BANKS WITH RIGHT TO ISSUE THEIR OWN BANK NOTES.

Given at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, the 20th of May, 1864.

WE, CHARLES, by the Grace of God King of Sweden, Norway, the Goths and Vandals, give Notice, That whereas the States of the Kingdom in their address of the 26th November, 1863, presented to us the project of a law concerning private banks with the right to issue their own bank notes, upon which the highest courts of law gave their opinion; but we found ourselves hindered from accepting in an unaltered form that same project, which likewise comprised matters baving the nature of civil law; we have taken into gracious consideration those parts of the said project which do not belong to civil law, and have thought proper, rescinding the Royal Proclamation of the 14th January, 1824, respecting the establishment of private banks and discount offices, the Royal Proclamation of the 9th January, 1846, respecting private banks which issue their own bank notes, and the Royal Proclamation of the 10th November, 1855, concerning certain alterations in and additions to the aforesaid Proclamation of the year 1846, being mainly in accord with the project of the States of the Kingdom, to enact and direct for the information of those private banks of issue, which may hereafter establish or obtain the desired charter, as follows::

SECTION I.

Private persons desirous of entering into partnership for the object of carrying on banking business by means of an elected board of directors, with the right of issuing their own bank notes, shall make application to us for our gracious permission thereto, and at the same time hand in the rules and regulations adopted by the Company. If they are found to be in accordance with this law and the common law and statutes in general, and we find the establishment of the bank to be beneficial to the country, a charter will be given to carry on banking business during a period of at most ten years, reckoning from the opening of the bank. If the Banking Company wishes to

have the charter extended, it shall make application in the manner just stated, eighteen months before the current charter runs out.

SECTION II.

The partners in such Banking Company shall be Swedish subjects to the number of at least 30, and they are responsible, one for all and all for one, for the fulfilment of all the engagements of the Banking Company. They are called partners with joint responsibility.

SECTION III.

It is open to the partners with joint responsibility, for the purpose of increasing the capital of the bank, to unite with themselves shareholders whose responsibility for the engagements of the Company is limited to the full amount of their shares. They are called shareholders with limited liability, and such may not be received into the Company for more than at most the half of the amount which the partners with joint responsibility put into the capital.

SECTION IV.

The owner of shares with limited liability may not be allowed the right of taking part in any other resolution at the Company's meetings than the election of auditors, to which office, however, they may be elected.

SECTION V.*

PAR. 1. A partner with unlimited liability, his heirs or sharers in his estate, shall not be entitled during the term of the charter, to retire from the Company or transfer any of his shares to another person, unless the Company consent thereto. A request on that account shall be made in writing to the directors, and taken into consideration at the ordinary meeting of the Company, to be held in the business year next ensuing.

PAR. 2. Owners of shares with limited liability may transfer their shares to another person, after notice has been given to the directors of the Company, due regard being had in other respects to the rules laid down by the Company for such purpose.

SECTION VI.

When a partner with unlimited liability retires from the Company, or a fresh partner of the same character joins it, notice thereof shall, after each ordinary meeting of the Company, be given on the part of the directors to the local court of justice, so that an entry may be made in its register, and also advertised in the public newspapers.

This section prevents any speculative dealings on the Stock Exchange in bank shares, but it does not restrict them from being readily saleable.

SECTION VII.

PAR. 1. A list of the whole, partners with joint responsibility as well as shareholders with limited liability, shall be kept at the bank, which list, moreover, shall contain a statement of the number of shares which each one holds.

PAR. 2. In this list all duly made alterations in the right of ownership of the shares shall be immediately notified.

PAR. 3. It is free to everyone who so wishes, at such times as the bank is kept open for the public, to take notes of this list, also upon payment of a fee, to obtain, for the sake of correctness, a certified extract therefrom by the proper official.

SECTION VIII.

The rules of the Company shall contain resolutions concerning the following principal subjects:

(a.) The amount of the capital;

(b.) How far shareholders with limited liability may be admitted, and on what conditions, especially as to the share of the profits which shall come to them;

(c.) The grounds for exercising the right of voting at the Company's meetings;

(d.) The number of directors on a board, which at the head office must at least be five;

(e.) The number of auditors and the time of the audits, which shall be performed annually;

(f) The branches of the business of the bank; it being expressly enacted that neither its own share certificates nor those of other private banks may be accepted as security for advances;

(g.) The manner of effecting alterations in the Company's rules; (h.) The time of the ordinary meetings of the Company, which

shall be held at least once a year, and the conditions for calling together extraordinary meetings of the Company; (i.) The formation of a reserve fund, and the share of the annual profits, which shall be transferred thereto; and

(k.) The terms upon which, taking into consideration what is hereinafter prescribed in Section 13, the registered bonds and interest-bearing obligations shall be valued, which may be accepted as deposit for issued bank notes.

SECTION IX.

The capital of the Banking Company contributed by the partners with joint responsibility may not be under one million riksdaler riksmynt.

SECTION X.

PAR. 1. This capital shall be fully paid up in the coin of the realm

within one year, reckoning from the date of the bank being opened to the public, and the proportion thereof fixed hereinafter in Section 13 converted into bonds and deposited in a public place of safety, in accordance with what this law and the Company's rules in other respects may more especially determine.

If the capital has not been contributed in the said manner within the period now fixed, the charter shall be forfeited.

PAR. 2. If shareholders with limited liability have been admitted into the Company, the amount by which the original capital is thus increased shall likewise be contributed within a year, reckoning from the date when the subscription opened on that account was closed.

SECTION XI.

The capital shall be divided into equal shares. The share certificate shall always be made out in favour of a person mentioned by name, and may not be issued before the capital in full has been contributed as enacted on that account in Section X.

SECTION XII.

The capital contributed may not be decreased by division, so long as the business of the bank continues, nor at its termination in a wider proportion than that the remainder fully corresponds with the amount of the Company's circulating and current liabilities of all kinds.

SECTION XIII.

PAR. 1. The directors shall, in accordance with particular rules made by the Company, convert at least sixty, and at most seventy-five, per cent. of the capital into public bonds of such a nature as is hereinafter stated.

PAR. 2. These bonds shall consist, at least in one-third part, of readily saleable obligations, bearing interest, and for the remainder thereof, of bonds registered upon landed property in the country, within the half of the assessment value last determined, or in real property in town, within the half, either of the value of the insurance against fire, or of the assessment value last determined; the buildings in town, however, in order to allow of the registration thereon being accepted as this security, must always be insured against fire in some fire insurance office in the country provided with rules and regulations duly granted.

SECTION XIV.

PAR. 1. The deposit of the bank shall be examined by delegates of the Company, together with the Governor of the province, or whoever he may appoint in his place to be present at the examination, and approved, when they are found to be of the nature mentioned in the foregoing section, and in other respects may be considered to contain full security.