No. IV, Postscript. (1)

An Account of all distributions made by the Bank of England amongst the proprietors of Bank Stock, whether by money payments, transfer of 5 per cent. annuities, or otherwise, under the heads of bonus, increase of dividend, and increase of capital, betwixt 25th February, 1797, and 31st March, 1830, in addition to the ordinary annual dividend of 7 per cent. on the capital stock of that Corporation, existing in 1797, including therein the whole dividend paid since June, 1816, on their increased capital; stating the period when such distributions were made, and the aggregate amount of the whole.

Our strictures on the Bank of England have been thought a little too severe. It is hardly necessary to remark that we have spoken of the Directors in their corporate, not in their individual capacities. The Bank has frequently been controlled by circumstances which it had little share in producing, and the ultimate consequences of which, actual experience could alone demonstrate. The Directors are often placed in an awkward dilemma, in which their duty to the proprietors, whose servants they are, prescribes one thing, and the interest of the public another; it is not surprising, then, if it sometimes happen that the common weal suffers in order that the dividends may be augmented. What we are now stating applies with equal propriety to the East-India Company. We should just as soon think of charging the present Directors of either association with the delinquencies of their predecessors, as of laying on William IV. the crimes of Richard III. or Henry VIII. The able men mostly chosen for the management of both companies, and the successful manner in which their affairs have been conducted for the benefit of their respective constituencies, often appears to us a strong argument in favour of that principle of representation for which the nation is now contending.