Banking Law was passed. It contains not only the ideas, but almost the precise form of expression which the letter contained.

Nor was the principle thus evolved confined to this State or country. In 1843-44, when Sir Robert Peel proposed his amendments to the charter of the Bank of England, this security for the bank's circulating notes was not lost sight of.

The issue department was made distinct and separate from the discount department of the bank. This idea was suggested in 1841, by your father, in his review and criticism on the Bank of the United States. He there showed the practicability and necessity of having the issue of circulating notes independent of the discount department, and proposed that it be under the charge of a board of governors, while the other parts of the bank should still be managed by the directors.

If I mistake not, in the discussions which arose in Parliament on the subject of the Bank of England, in 1844, reference was had to the Free Banking Law of this State, then six years in successful operation, to show the feasibility of limiting and securing the bank's issue beyond a peradventure.

The influence, therefore, of Professor McVickar's letter of 1827 was not temporary nor confined to the State of New York, although attempts to introduce the Free Banking System into other States prevailed only partially.

The old unsecured currency of State banks, was more profitable to the stockholders; and when such institutions were faithfully managed, the public rarely suffered a loss on bank bills. This was true as to the Safety Fund Banks, and also in regard to the earlier chartered banking institutions of the several States.

Still, in exceptional cases, the community did lose, and the advantage of the Free Banking System over either of the old systems was that the people were by the former entirely secured from loss, by bonds lodged in the banking department of the State, beyond the control of the bank, and held in trust to pay the bill-holders if the bank should default.

Again, in 1863 we find this system offered to the whole

country, and adopted by Congress in the following Act, namely: "An Act to provide a National currency, secured by a pledge of United States stocks, and to provide for the circulation and redemption thereof."

This National Bank Act, with more defects than improvements, as compared with the original, - is the New York Free Banking Law of 1838, over again. Possibly, it may yet be so essentially modified as to be made to perform, satisfactorily, the work of a proper United States Bank, and its branches.

Under this law the National banks now furnish a paper currency of larger volume, and of more uniform value, throughout the country, than has been known before.

Your father, in common with many of the best thinkers in the land, was in favor of a National or United States Bank, with wise restrictions as to undue political influences; and possessing the power to regulate exchanges, to furnish secured circulating notes, redeemable (at the parent bank) in coin, and required to afford facilities to mercantile and commercial interests in the shape of discounts.

One great truth is now fixed and determined, and that is, that hereafter, no bank or banks will be allowed by law to supply a circulating medium not secured to the public outside of the bank itself! And it must be a source of inexpressible satisfaction to you, my dear sir, that your father was gifted with such powers of reasoning as enabled him to define and establish a vital truth in political economy, for the benefit of mankind.

Please accept my thanks for that valuable pamphlet, “Hints on Banking," and believe me, yours sincerely,

J. E. WILLIAMS.

STRAWBERRY HILL, October 15, 1870.

INDEX.

ABBOTSFORD, visit to, 157- BOWDITCH, DR., 300.

ACADEMY OF FRANCE, 217, 232.
ACKLAND, SIR THOMAS, 134, 137.
ADDISON, Lady Huntington's rec-
ollections of, 40.
AFFLECK, LADY, 133.
ANDERNACH, schools at, 187.
ANDERSON, GEN. ROBERT, opinion
of the War, 326.

ARCHERY, as an exercise for busi-

ness men, 201.

BADEN-BADEN, its gambling

rooms, 192.

BANKING, principles of, 89.
national, 92.

works on, Appendix.

BANYER, MRS., AND MISS JAY, me-
moir of, 383.

BARD, DR. SAMUEL, mode of life
at Hyde Park, 53.
letters from, 17, 51.
death of, 59.
memoir of, 69.

BARD, MR. WILLIAM, character of,

71.

BARD, MISS SALLY, letter from, 20.
extracts from diary, 23, 24,
44, 289, 290.

death of, 290.

BRISTED, MR., candidate for pro-
fessorship in Columbia Col-
lege, 47.

BROGLIE, DUC DE, 214.
BROGLIE, DUCHESSE DE, 214, 219.
BUCKINGHAM, SILK, 221.
BURDETT, SIR FRANCIS, 176.
BYRON, Scott's opinion of, 162.

CALHOUN, MR., 121.

CALIFORNIA, missions to, 318.
CAMPBELL, the poet, 226.

CAMBRELENG, MR. C. C., on bank-
ing questions, 243.

CANOVA, works of, 136.
CATHEDRAL SYSTEM, advantages
of, 267, 355, 358.

missions, 355-359, 375-380,
401.

CHALMERS, DR., 127.

his life at home, 149.
CHANTRY, visit to studio of, 136.
CHAPLAINCY, at Fort Columbus,
308.

resignation of, 328.
CHARLES X., Mr. Rives' estimate
of, 215.

CHASE, BISHOP, of Illinois, on mis-
sions, 318.
CHEERFULNESS, a duty, 297.

BARNABAS, ST., chapel-school of, CHESS CAFÉ, in Paris, 220, 223.

Irvington, 366.

BARTON, MRS., 54, 56.

BATES, SIR JOSHUA, 128, 178.
BAYARD, REV. DR., 301.

BEDLOE'S ISLAND, chaplaincy du-
ties at, 320.
BOLINGBROKE, Lady Huntington's
recollections of, 40.
BOWDEN, REV. PROF., death of, 44.

CITY MISSION SOCIETY, a founder
of, 247, 266.

CLOWES, REV. TIMOTHY, trial of,
40.

CLUB, THE, of New York, 300.
COLERIDGE, visit to, 130.

Scott's opinion of, 169.
influence of his philosophy
293-297.

DEAF AND DUMB, first efforts GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, erection of

LAFAYETTE, MARQUIS DE, 216. NAPOLEON I., narrow escapes-

LOUIS PHILIPPE AND FAMILY, OFF

evening spent with 225.
LOWELL, visit to manufactories of,
299.
LYNDHURST, LORD, 229.