BANKING

is a very ancient institution, for clay tablets BANNOCK, have been discovered near Babylon recording the financial firm of Egibi Sc Son (in the 7th century B.C.). BANNS Chinese had bank-notes centuries ago made of very valuable skins, and the old Greeks i ued letters of credit. The Bank of Venice was established, on more modem lines, in the 12th century A.D., and the famous Bank of Barcelona in 1401. I11 the 17th BANSHEE, century the Bank of Amsterdam was the most important, but it had to give place to the Bank of England which was founded by a Scotsman in 1694. BANTAM The Bank of Scotland was founded in 1695 by an English man. The capital of the Bank of England is about 14J million pounds, with a reserve of about 3 millions. The most important questions in B. come under the heads of (1) Utilization of Deposits and BANTU Capital by Private or Joint-Stock Banks Bankers’ Lien; (3) Scotch Credit System and; Unpaid (2) Bills Procedure (4) Registration of B. Companies Banyan Clearing-House; System Discount Market; (5) Bankruptcy. Banking is; often (6) connected unofficially; (7) with Brewing, e.g. in the case of the Guinne es, the Hoares. the Barclays. Lloyd’s Bank at Wolver hampton has an actual license for the sale of beer, and the Bank of England is allowed by its charter to sell BAOBAB, beer. The worst bankruptcy on record was that of Over end, Gurney Sc Co., whose debts were over £".000 000, and whose failure entailed the failure of Baptism other A much firms to the awful amount of £100,000,000. from £2 the failure of Baring Brothers, with liabilities of ovcr *.ooo,ooo, if the Bank of England had not come to the rescue, and formed a joint-guarantee fund along with the leading provincial and London Banks. Amongst the other most seridus failures in the last 50 years have been the Western Bank of Scotland (£9.000,000); City of Glasgow B. (£6.290,983) Sanders on Sc Co. (£5,299,000); Liverpool Borough; B. & (£5,000,000); Pcto Betts (£4,000,000). In France, during 16th and 17th centuries, bankrupts had to wear green caps, and in Scotland before the Union they had to wear parti-coloured garments, generally grey and yellow. A bankruptcy in China entails immediate execution, which accounts for the boast that no A failure has Occurred in China for 900 years. bankrupt—John Perrot—has even been hanged in England for secreting his property, in 1761. It is rather a pity that nations cannot be hanged for similar offences. Turkey was declared bankrupt iu 1876 Portugal and Roumania are practically in the same; condition Spain and Italy are very deeply in debt, the latter; for her army and navy. The United Kingdom and Pru ia are said to be the only European states which raise sufficient revenue to uarantee a fair permanent equilibrium on a yearly g udget. The U. K. has reduced her National Debt from 848 millions in 1817 to well unde 700 millions. France has the largest National Debt in the world, over 1200 millions, t.c. nearly £32 per head of the population. The forgery of Bank Notes is rendered very difficult by the peculiarity of the paper, design, and printing, e.g. the Bank of England not, s, or by the mixture of colour, c.g. the Bank of Scotland, which defies photography. The actual cost of making each note is about one penny, so that a succe ful forger has a margin of profit of Newfoundland are made of the sand brought down by icebergs via the Labrador current from the coast against which they were originally built up. The icebergs melt when they meet the Gulf Stream, and the sand is deposited oif the Newfoundland coast, where it is soon covered with the sea-weed, in which the fish can find their food and lay their eggs. must not be confused with Baronet, which is a very much later institution. Banneret was a higher grade of knighthood which was conferred by the sovereign for some heroic act on the field of battle, and it was so-called because the knight was given a banner in exchange for his pennon. As the rank thus conferred was between that of a knight and that of a baron, the word has been confused with baronet. is a north country cake of home-baked bread, made of pease or barley meal and unleavened. of Marriage are available for three months after their proclamation, the purpose of them being merely to secure public knowledge of the intended marriage, and must be in the names by which the persons are usually known. of Keltic folklore, is a female fiend who gives warning of deaths in any family over which she has any special guardianship. Fowls were originally natives of Japan, though they seem to have taken their name from Bantam, in Java, the place from which they were first imported into this country. Cf. currant i from Corinth, peach from Persia, ca/iro from Calicut, etc. is the name of a group of African Languages spoken mainly between 20° S. and 6° N., especially by the Zulus and Kaffirs. Trees are natives of India, and are remarkable for their branches drooping down to the ground and taking root as separate stems. There are sometimes as many as 350 large stems and ten times as manv small ones. The tree is a great rendezvous for monkeys and birds. or Monkey-bread Tree, is a native of West Africa. It is remarkable for the huge size of its trunk and for the girth of its branches. of Infants rests upon the notion that the church is always one and the same through all changes of dispensation, and that, as infants were included in olden days in the church in this way, they must be still. And the pa ages in the Bible connecting baptism with faith arc taken to refer only to adults. The two great modes of II. arc dipping and sprinkling,. of which only the latter is suitable for infants. The place of B. in the Christian system is that of sacrament, a seal of the covenant of grace, and a sign of its ble ings.