Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

398 HISTORY OF THE BANKwhich the directors were rapidly losing ground.The situationfor a number of years was therefore that while their controlof the Council enabled them to block all new bank charters,their loss of control in the Assembly prevented the enlargementof the bank's capital, which had been reduced to100,000. This incidentally made the government contributionone-half of the whole capital, instead of one-fourth,as in the original arrangement. A compromise was finallyarranged by which the financial interests of Kingston wereallowed to obtain a new charter, namely, that for theCommercial Bank of the Midland District, while the Bank ofUpper Canada obtained the desired increase in its capital.Allowing for the usual variations of place and persons,the amount to be paid in, and other details, the charter of theCommercial Bank of the Midland District, passed in 1832, 1reproduces almost entirely the Acts chartering the Bank ofKingston and the Bank of Upper Canada, omitting, of course,the third section of the last-mentioned Act, which related tothe partnership with the Government. There were, however,a few additional features in the charter of the CommercialBank which are of permanent interest. In the first place,in response to the pressure of public opinion, and followingthe lead of some of the more advanced American banks andthe renewed charter of the Bank of Montreal, a much fullerreturn of the affairs of the bank was required to be made tothe Provincial Government. The earlier returns simplycalled for the amounts of capital stock subscribed and paid,debts due to and by the bank, notes in circulation, and specieon hand. The bank was now required to furnish informationas to its liabilities under the following heads :1. The capital stock paid in.2. Bills in circulation of five dollars and upwards, notbearing interest.3. Bills in circulation under five dollars, not bearinginterest.* Wm. IV (2nd session). 1832, c. xi.