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The great property which they possess both in French and English

funds, about forty millions, it is said in the latter (in which,

I suspect, however, there is a considerable exaggeration ), the

great sums which they lend to private people, in countries where

the rate of interest is higher than in their own, are

circumstances which no doubt demonstrate the redundancy of their

stock, or that it has increased beyond what they can employ with

tolerable profit in the proper business of their own country; but

they do not demonstrate that that business has decreased. As the

capital of a private man, though acquired by a particular trade,

may increase beyond what he can employ in it, and yet that trade

continue to increase too, so may likewise the capital of a great

nation.