therefore, an English banker retains a sum of Bank of England notes
or coin in due proportion to his liabilities, he has a sufficient
amount of the legal tender of this country, and he need not think of
anything more.

But here a distinction must be made. It is to be observed that
properly speaking we should not include in the 'reserve' of a bank
'legal tenders,' or cash, which the Bank keeps to transact its daily
business. That is as much a part of its daily stock-in-trade as its
desks or offices; or at any rate, whatever words we may choose to
use, we must carefully distinguish between this cash in the till
which is wanted every day, and the safety-fund, as we may call it,
the special reserve held by the bank to meet extraordinary and
unfrequent demands.

What then, subject to this preliminary explanation, is the amount of
legal tender held by our bankers against their liabilities? The
answer is remarkable, and is the key to our whole system. It may be
broadly said that no bank in London or out of it holds any
considerable sum in hard cash or legal tender (above what is wanted
for its daily business) except the Banking Department of the Bank of
England. That department had on the 29th day of December, 1869,
liabilities as follows:

Public deposits 8,585,000 L
Private deposits 18,205,000 L
Seven-day and other bills 445,000 L
Total 27,235,000 L

and a cash reserve of 11,297,000 L. And this is all the cash reserve,