LECTURE VII.

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART., M.P., F.R.S.

[Read before the Bankers' Institute, 22nd May, 1879.]

ALLOW me to congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the great success which has attended your efforts to found this Institution, which now numbers more than 1,300 members, besides a considerable number of applicants not yet elected. The object of the Institute is, as you are aware, to facilitate the consideration and discussion of matters of interest to the profession, and to afford opportunities for acquisition of a knowledge of the theory of banking. It will arrange meetings for the reading, discussion, and publication of approved papers on subjects connected with commerce and banking, for courses of lectures on mercantile law, political economy, banking, and other kindred subjects. It will probably institute examinations and grant certificates, and will eventually found a library of works on commerce, finance, and political economy. I must confess that, when you did me the honour of requesting me to become your president, I felt some scruples in accepting the invitation, gratifying as it was, on these two grounds -firstly, because my time was already so much occupied,

and, secondly, because I thought you might find so good a president in our excellent treasurer, Mr. Martin, to whose efforts the Institute owes so much of its success, and who represents a firm which happily combines with the interest of an ancient monument the vigour and utility of a living institution. The first duty which devolves upon your president is to take the chair at the present meeting, and your committee have expressed a wish that I should commence by giving an inaugural address. On future occasions we shall probably be occupied very much with practical and economical questions. As regards the former, I hope that the Institute may assist in securing uniformity of action, and in exercising a judicious influence on custom, which to so great an extent forms the basis of law. To-night, for instance, we are honoured by the presence of a great authority on banking, Mr. Thomson Hankey, who will be good enough to give us his views on audits and balance-sheets. At the next meeting, Mr. Palgrave, of the Economist, has promised to give us a paper on the Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Bank of Germany. Nor shall we, I hope, neglect the principles of political economy, for I believe you will most of you agree with me when I say that far more money is lost in business through errors of judgment than through fraud. It is a national misfortune that political economy is so completely ignored in our schools. On the present occasion, however, I have thought that it might not be altogether an unfitting prelude to our labours if I endeavour to trace up the stages by which we have arrived at the present state of things, dwelling principally on the earlier stages, because the later ones will