Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

42 HISTORY OF THE BANKlater he announced with evident gratification that a matterto which he had given close personal attention, the qualificationof directors, had been arranged in a manner which is sureto meet with the approval of the other directors. The directorof a bank with a capital of one million dollars and under musthold personally and in his own right at least $3,000 of paid-upcapital stock; of a bank with over one and not exceedingthree million dollars of capital stock, $4,000, and of one withover three millions, $5,000. The system of monthly returnswas simplified and the percentage of reserves to be held inDominion of Canada legal tender notes was fixed at thirtythreeper cent., as the bankers had suggested.In this letter Senator McMaster also refers to misstatementsin the press, which show the influence of politics onthe discussion of what might be regarded as a highly technicalquestion. "I am receiving letters from Upper Canada, fromwhich it would appear that King and I have had a row, hegoing with the western banks and I acting in opposition tothem. I need not tell you that the Telegraph's4 statements tothis effect are pure fabrications.manner with allI acted in the most friendlythe banks, as well as those in the west, allprovince of Ontario and held office as Premier and Attorney-General from 1867 until1871. During part of this time he sat also in the Dominion House of Commons, whichaccounts for the reference made by the Hon. William McMaster to his taking part inthe debates. There were several others at this time who sat in both the OntarioLegislature and the Dominion House of Commons, there being nothing in the BritishNorth America Act to forbid this. So far as Ontario is concerned, the practice wasput an end to by 35 Victoria (Ontario) 1871-72, c. iv, which disqualified members ofthe Commons of Canada from sitting in the Ontario Legislature,Sir Richard John Cartwright, G.C.M.G. (1835-1912), was the son of the lateRev. R. D. Cartwright, Chaplain to the Forces at Kingston, Ont., and a grandson of theHon. Richard Cartwright, a United Empire Loyalist, who became judge of the Court ofCommon Pleas, and a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. He wasbom in Kingston, Ont., and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was for a timepresident of the Commercial Bank of Canada, Kingston. From 1873 to 1878 he wasMinister of Finance, and from 1896 to 1911 Minister of Trade and Commerce ofCanada. He was created a K.C.M.G. in 1879 and G.C.M.G. in 1897.The Telegraph was a Toronto evening newspaper, which had recently been foundedby the late John Ross Robertson, but failed shortly afterwards, to be revived someyean later as the Evening Telegram.