TABLE XIV. Average Amount of the Circulation of the Bank of England, and of the Private and Joint-Stock Banks, and of the Bullion in the Bank of England during the years 1842 to 1853, both inclusive, and also to the end of July, 1854: designed to exhibit a comparison between them. (For the amount of the Circulation in previous years see Table V.) The Total Circulation of the Bank of England, and the Circulation of Notes under £5, on the last day of February, in the years 1811 to 1821 inclusive, and the proportion per cent. between them: designed to assist in forming an opinion as to the amount of Notes under £5, which the Bank of England might now be able to keep in Circulation. TABLE XVI. The Total Amount of Country Bank Notes, and the Amount of those under £5 stamped in each year, from 1820 to 1825 inclusive, and the proportion per cent. between them: designed to assist in forming an opinion as to the amount of Notes under £5 which the Country Banks might now be able to keep in Circulation. Average Circulation and Coin held by the Irish Banks during the Four Weeks ending Saturday the 24th day of December, 1853: designed to show the large proportion of Notes below £5 in circulation, and also that the Banks in the North of Ireland (the Belfast, Northern, and Ulster Banks,) issue a larger proportion of small Notes than those in the South (the National Bank of Ireland, Carrick, and Clonmel). Totals of 3 Northern Banks, 836,130 148,095 1,132,853 1,280,949 553,878 852,269 420,995 679,964 1,100,960 409,366 TABLE XVIII. Average Circulation and Coin held by the Scotch Banks during the Four Weeks ending Saturday the 24th day of December, 1853; designed to show the large proportion of Notes under £5, and also that the proportion is higher in Scotland than in Ireland. Suggestions for Improving the Present Mode of Keeping and Stating the National Accounts. By CHARLES JELLICOE, ESQ., F.S.S. [Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association, for the Advancement of Science, at Liverpool, 21st September, 1854.] THE object of all account keeping is two-fold: viz., the determination of the status or condition of affairs at given epochs, and the record of the transactions which lead to changes in such condition from epoch to epoch. A little consideration will show that, in the absence of information on either of those heads, our knowledge, in any given case, must be necessarily very imperfect, and that to arrive at a complete comprehension, it is indispensable that we should have full particulars as to both. It is, therefore, somewhat remarkable that many of the great institutions of this country limit themselves to the publication of particulars comprised under one or the other only of the heads in question. Thus, the Bank of England and most of the joint stock banks give an account of their status at certain epochs, but leave the public quite in the dark as to the transactions which led to it. Many of the great assurance companies, on the other hand, do just the reverse of this; that is to say, they omit all mention of their status, and give merely the transactions which have intervened since the last account rendered to their constituents. But strange as these instances may appear, they are of little importance when contrasted with the singular and momentous irregularity prevailing in this respect in the Government departments. From the time that the accounts of the country were first made public, to the present day, no attempt has ever been made, so far as I am aware, to exhibit the actual state of its affairs at any given epoch; nor does it appear to be in the power of any functionary of the Government to say whether, when the liabilities and assets of the country are brought into comparison, it is on the whole in a solvent condition, or otherwise. To some this may seem a question of small importance; they will perhaps consider that it is sufficient to know what the income of the country is, and how far it is adequate to meet its expenditure, and they are satisfied to measure its prosperity by the amount of the surplus of the one over the other. But it may be shown that this is often a very delusive test, and that the omission of such an annual statement of assets and liabilities as that I am contending for is productive of many very serious evils; thus, to mention one or two only, the money expended in the purchase of national property, being blended with the ordinary expenses of the nation, is quite lost sight of with the year's accounts, and hence the property itself becomes equally lost sight of, and the check upon its due preservation or productiveness gone. Had moneys thus expended been always carried, as they ought to have been, to such heads as "crown lands," "public buildings," "dockyards," "arsenals," "military stores,' ships of war,' ," "naval stores," &c., the annual accounts of the country would now exhibit a complete and unerring schedule of all the accumulated purchases made out of the public purse, and any neglect or improper alienation of them would thus scarcely fail to become apparent. 99 66 Another evil arising from the present system is, that the actual expenditure of the country often appears to be greater than it really is, and the surplus consequently less than it ought to be, and an unnecessary fluctuation in the annual expenses and resources is thereby introduced. But the more weighty ill consequence is, that there is no check upon the due bringing to account of all the revenues arising from such properties as may have been purchased; for since these last are never necessarily brought forward in succeeding annual statements, any revenues arising from them may easily be overlooked. What is here contended for is nothing more than that which every merchant finds it essential to do in his own case, that he may be enabled to compare the state of affairs at one epoch with that existing at another, and thus be enabled to judge of the progress or retrogression of them. It may be said that schedules of the national properties are kept in the proper departments of the State; but this is not sufficient to ensure the correct registration of them; nor is there any plan of doing so equal to that which a regular system of account-keeping can supply. In the returns annually submitted to Parliament an account should be given, beginning with the balance for or against the country at the commencement of the year; it should then show the income and expenditure during the year, and terminate with the balance at the expiration of it. This balance should then correspond (and this is a very important point, since the correctness of the whole in a great measure depends upon it) with the difference between the assets and liabilities of the nation at the date of the account, and these assets and liabilities should of course be properly detailed. The following will serve to show the operation of such a system applied to the national affairs. We will suppose the balance on the 5th of July, 1853, to be against the country to the extent of 659,000,000l. (and nothing can show more forcibly the defects of the existing system than that we are obliged to suppose it); the usual annual statement briefly detailed will then appear as follows: |