1. What a Banker should be. - 2. Selection of a Banker . -3. Joint-stock versus Private Bankers. - 4. Opening Accounts. - 5. Accounts with Firms, Executors and Administrators, Trustees, Assignees, Married Women, Husband and Wife . -6. Drafts of an Agent.' - 7. Deposit Accounts .-8. Drawing or Current Accounts. - 9. Cash Credits or Overdrawn Accounts. - 10. Bankers' Remuneration. - 11. Advances on Bonds, Government Stocks, Railway and other Shares, Dock Warrants and Bills of Lading, Policies of Assurance, Title Deeds. - 12. Property deposited for safe custody. - 13. Securities deposited against Advances. - 14. Judge's Order. - 15. Bankers' Books as Evidence. - 16. General Hints to Persons having Banking Accounts. - 17. Death of a Customer. - 18. Bankruptcy of a Customer.--19. Bankruptcy of a Banker. - 20. Banker's Pass Book. - 21. Disclosing the State of an Account. - 22. Confidential Reports between Bankers.

The relations between a banker and his customer, though perhaps ordinarily not quite so intimate and confidential as those between a solicitor and his client, are, or may be, almost as important. It frequently becomes necessary for a customer to take his banker into the closest confidence, to impart to him the most minute details of his business, and the most exact state of his affairs, for on the fiat of the banker may depend the question of his remaining solvent or being compelled to appeal to the Court of Bankruptcy.

The qualifications requisite to render a man an efficient banker are numerous, and not so readily to be met. with as some people are apt to imagine. He should be a man of good intellect, and clear sound judgment; a man of tact and nerve, able to act promptly in an emergency, who can read character, and knows whom to assist to their mutual advantage, and to whose blandishments to turn a deaf ear. He should be able, if necessary, to write a business biography of any of his customers, for how often does the decision of a question turn upon antecedent circumstances. It was once said of an eminent banker that he was able to scent an accommodation bill.

But banking is frequently taken up by those who may be termed amateurs, in other words by those who having passed the greater portion of their lives in other professions give the remnant of their days to bank management, as though that were the only business requiring neither training nor technical knowledge.

Before coming to a decision as to the commencement of business with any particular bank, a prudent man will naturally be anxious to know something about the establishment to which he is going to commit his interests in this important matter.

In the metropolis banks are numerous and of high standing, but in the provinces the case is different; there except in the larger towns the choice is generally restricted to two or three. In making a selection the relative claims to confidence of the private and joint-stock banks will have to be considered, each having certain advantages over the other.

The accounts published periodically by nearly all the joint-stock banks, showing the state of affairs, give great assistance in making a choice, although in certain instances the figures have been, to say the least, inaccurate. The practice to our knowledge adopted by the Alliance Bank, for instance, of throwing open everything to the auditors, should be universal. Not only is the balance-sheet of this institution vouched for by eminent public accountants, but the securities deposited for safe custody are likewise overhauled. Why all banks do not show their inner pigeonholes to auditors is a question we will not enter upon; we can, however, make a rough guess, and the public will no doubt be able to do the same. Still, as a rule, it may be taken for granted that a balance sheet is a reliable document, a conclusion which is justified on the ground that any officer of a banking company publishing a false statement of account is by law guilty of a misdemeanor.

On the other hand it is not always generally known who are the members composing a private firm; true it is that the names are advertised every year for those who choose to look, yet the change of the constitution of a firm may easily escape notice.

Often a private banker is a landed proprietor, and from this a notion of his means may be derived; sometimes too another business is combined with banking. In either case the question may fairly arise whether the funds of the bank may not be diverted to the improvement of the land, or the carrying on of the business, so as not to be available to meet an emergency.

In case of misfortune the depositor in a joint-stock bank has the unpaid capital to fall back upon, and in many companies it is an article of association that on the loss of a certain proportion of the capital the concern shall be wound up; a private banker usually exhausts his resources, before his doors are finally closed, hence we see that when a joint-stock bank fails its customers generally get their money back eventually, whilst those of a private bank have to be content with a dividend.

The capital of a joint-stock bank cannot except by fraud, be withdrawn, but although a private bank may at some time have been in possession of ample means, by the retirement of partners from the business the firm may be seriously weakened, and it has happened that on the death of a banker having landed property he has bequeathed his interest in the bank to one member of the family, whilst the land (the reserve fund of the bank) has descended to another. These are facts which obviously would not be extensively advertised.

There are, however, certain material considerations that work altogether in favour of the private bank. For instance, a manufacturer requires a large advance, he walks into the private banker's room, lays the business before him and has the matter settled then and there.

But if he kept his account with a joint-stock bank, he would go to the manager, who would possibly discover that the rules laid down for his guidance prevented his entertaining the proposal without bringing it before "the Board." This entails delay, always an important consideration in business; but this is not all. The affair comes before "the Board," some half dozen or more gentlemen, of whom some may be the applicant's opponents in trade. It may be hoped, but it will hardly be believed, that personal feelings will have no weight; but taking it for granted that they have not, the fact that in one case the matter is arranged secretly, and in the other is made the subject of debate and discussion, will exercise great influence on many people, leading them to decide on banking with a private establishment.