The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-12 00:00:00

CO-OPERATIVE BANKING.

Mr. Ludlow writes with regard to his scheme of
co-operative banking that it is unadvisable to throw
open to all the world the banks which he proposes to
establish, because they would at first be the objects
of much suspicion and jealousy, and it would there-
fore be necessary to prevent panics that might bo
got up if any persons other than those interested in
co-operation were allowed to make deposits.
A few years hence this objection may no
longer exist. In the meanwhile there is plenty of
opportunity for doing business on a large scale.
There are 200,000 co-operators dividing £400,000 a
year, and with collective balances in hand of about
£150,000, besides all their individual resources ; there
are also at least 500,000 trade society men, whose
collective balances cannot possibly be reckoned at
less than 1,000?000. From these two sources alone
a sufficient starting capital should be obtainable, even
if one could not touch the Building Societies,
which have, probably, some £3,000,000 disposable,
or the Friendly Societies, whose reserved
capital has been reckoned at from £11,000,000
to £20,000,000. The great object of these
banks is to meet the difficulty that distributive co-
operation has by this time at its command more
capital than it knows what to do with ; that, over
and above • large sums deposited with joint-stock
banks at a law rate of interest, its most successful
establishments are, in one shape or other, daily
paying back capital to members and depositors, and
amongst
such depositors to trade societies, which
find themselves thus compelled to take their money
out of the co-operative movement.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The Democratic tactics, to defeat the XVth
Amendment in Indiana, by the members of that
party resigning their seats in the State Legislature,
so as to prevent a quorum being present, have
failed, as the Republicans proceeded to pass the
Amendment, and the Attorney-General pronounces
their course to have been legal, and the Amendment
lawfully passed. The Republican State Conven.
Lion of Kentucky met on the 28th May, and recom-
mended the speedy ratification of the Amendment.
These are the States whose ratification of the XVth
Amendment has as yet been signified to the Secre-
tary of State :--Missouri, March 1, 1869 (Defec-
tive) ; Kansas, Feb. 27, 1869 (Defective) ; North
Carolina, March 5, 1869 ; West Virginia, March
3, 1869 ; Massachusett§, March 9-12, 1869 ; Wis-
consin, March 9, 1869 ; Maine, March 12, 1369 ;
Louisiana, March 5, 1869 ; Michigan, March 8,
1869 South Carolina, March 16, 1869 ; Pennsyl-
vania,ilarch 26, 1869 ; Arkansas, March 30, 1869.
On the 27th May the Rhode Island Senate adopted
the Amendment by a vote of 22 to 11.
Secretary Boutwell will acquire more knowledge
of human nature in a year or two of office than the
experience of a life teaches others. From the
sra-
pacious office-seeker, such as Dr. Mary Walker, to
the man who remits him, as one did the week be-
fore last, 100, with the observation that it comes
" from one who wants to be honest," he gets an in-
sight into every variety of temperament. The
amount of'advice he receives anonymouSly, or with
the mum perhaps of a barber's de* attached to