Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

416 HISTORY OF THE BANKthe Quebec Bank and revising its charter, one or two innovationswere introduced.Provision was made for legalizing thetransmission of shares under certain circumstances, such, forinstance, as death, insolvency, or the marriage of a femaleshareholder, otherwise than by the usual act of transfer executedby the shareholder in the books of the bank. Another clauseenacted that "the bank shall not be bound to see to theexecution of any trust," as for instance, obligations to whichthe shares belonging to any individual might be made subject.In 1854 the legislature had before it the matter of permittingthe chartered banks to increase their capital stocks.The failure of the free banking Act was becoming apparent andit was plainly a question of reverting to the older system ofchartered banks.As a result six of the banks, the Bank ofMontreal, the Bank of Upper Canada, the Quebec Bank, theCity Bank, the Commercial Bank and La Banque du Peuple,were granted power to increase their capital, and in theenabling Acts a number of amendments were made to theircharters. 1 The following year, it may be noted in passing,three of the banks which were among the first to go into businessunder the "Act to establish Freedom of Banking," theMolsons Bank, the Zimmerman Bank and the Niagara DistrictBank, also applied for and obtained charters. 2 Among theamendments made to the charter of the Bank of Montreal in1854 was a clause (section 4) providing that the directors, aswell as the president of the bank, might be paid for theirservices. This permission was soon extended to the otherlarge banks, but not for some time to the smaller ones.Theproportion of discounts or advances which might be made bythe bank against paper or securities bearing the name of anydirector was also reduced from one-third to one-tenth of thetotal amount of its discounts or advances. In 1856 this wasfurther reduced to one-twentieth. 8 Other amendments, which18 Viet.. 1854, c. xxxviii to c. xliii.*18 Viet., 1855, c. ccii, c. cciii. and c. cciv, respectively.19 Viet, 1856, c. Ixxvi, section 21.