All its Vagaries of Haphazard.

My reply is chiefly because, as the late Mr. Walter Bagehot remarked, "those who best know many of the facts of banking will not tell them or hint at them." I presume he meant they were trade secrets. Science now disclaims these tricks of the dark ages. In the history of the world it is recorded that human power had too often exulted over those lying at its mercy. The victors left off eating their captives when they found it was to their advantage to employ or sell them as slaves. Under a partially enlightened national conscience, those in political or social power took advantage of the ignorance of those less informed than themselves, and do up to this hour propose that capital should have the balance of might on its side, and the food of the world within its grasp with which to enforce its power. Thus to-day, no matter at what expense in labor any property real or personal has been brought together—if merely one-half of its cost has been pledged for money—the mortgagee takes the whole of it and leaves the unfortunate borrower penniless. So glaring is this hardship that even the Law Times awhile ago revolted against its infliction, and said "the notion of sanctity of contract is outside the question, when the enforcement of the contract is practically impossible, or only attainable at vastly exceptional cost." The heaviest part of the indictment is that by tampering with the currency of the country these bankers bring about the very catastrophes that place the borrower at the mercy of the lender. It was given as a jeu d'esprit, in an American paper, that