forced itself.......................

 I know it will be said that in this work I have pointed out a deep malady, and only suggested a superficial remedy.  I have tediously insisted that the natural system of banking is that of many banks keeping their own cash reserve, with the penalty of failure before them if they neglect it.  I have shown that our system is that of a single bank keeping the whole reserve under no effectual penalty of failure.  And yet I propose to retain this system, and only attempt to mend and palliate it.

     I can only reply that I propose to retain this system because I am quite sure that it is of no manner of use proposing to alter it.  A system of credit which has slowly grown up as years went on, which has suited itself to the course of business, which has forced itself on the habits of men, will not be altered because theorists disapprove of it, or because books are written against it.

-Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market