"Have you considered to what extent the profits of other bankers would be affected?—I should expect that the principal circulation of the country bankers is in small notes, and therefore in that proportion they would suffer."-Lords' Report, p. 108.

JOHN HOLMES HOUSTON, Esq. Banker at Belfast.

"If all the notes under £5 were prohibited to be issued, would it be worth while in your opinion to keep the establishment of a bank in Belfast? I do not think it would, except by carrying it on in the same manner as it formerly was-to keep a discount office charging a commission on discounting bills, because £5 notes would not circulate; then our circulation would be so trifling it would not answer." Lords' Report, p. 35.

H. A. DOUGLAS, Esq. Director of the Provincial Bank of Ireland.

"I consider the cash-account system, and the one pound circulation so connected, that if the notes are withdrawn, it is understood that our establishment will not grant any further cash-credits.-The business which we carry on, even if we charged a higher rate of interest, or a commission, would not be of sufficient magnitude to repay us for the expense of our establishment, independent of our notes. If the issue of small notes be withdrawn, then we cannot afford to allow interest on deposits."-Lords' Report, pp. 24, 26, 27.

4. The abolition of small notes would prevent the investment of British capital in the present banking establishments.

T. S. RICE, Esq. M.P. and Director of the Provincial Bank of Ireland.

"Is it your opinion, that if all notes under £5 were abolished, a considerable inconvenience would arise in the ordinary traffic in Ireland? I conceive that it would. I conceive that the first effect of the extinction of all notes below £5 would be a much more considerable diminution of the general mass of the circulating medium in Ireland than in England.

"I fear extremely that if any thing were to occur which materially diminished the profits of our establishment, it would have the effect of depriving us of one of the chief benefits of the establishment, namely, the support and controul of British capitalists, and conducting the bank by British merchants, and upon British commercial principles. I conceive a rate of profit, rather higher than the average rate of profits, is essential to induce persons so circumstanced to engage in such a business, more particularly when it is considered that there is no limitation of responsibility by the grant of charters."-Lords' Report, pp. 47, 51.

5. The gold currency would be sent out of the country, whenever it bore a premium in England.

HENRY H. HUNT, Esq. Local Director of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, at Waterford.

"What do you think would be the consequence of a law which prohibited the issue of notes below £5, both by the Bank of Ireland and by any other banking establishment in Ireland? I should think it would be very hazardous indeed: I should very much apprehend that the gold circulation would at times be withdrawn in a very great degree from the country, whenever gold was wanted in London; for instance, A SMALL PREMIUM UPON A SOVEREIGN WOULD INDUCE A

VAST QUANTITY OF THEM TO BE BROUGHT OUT OF IRELAND.

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Have you ever known instances of quantities of gold being brought over from Ireland to this country, and persons making a regular traffic of it?—I have."-Commons' Report. pp. 73, 74,

6. The proposed measure would cause general distress, and prevent the progress of enterprize.

JOHN ROBINSON PIM, Esq. General Merchant in Dublin. "The very idea of curtailing the currency under five pounds, would have a tendency to discourage all adventure in Ireland at present. I should not, for one, be careful of placing money in any kind of machinery till the effect was tried. I fancy it would reduce property very much in that country, and sometimes fancies are almost as bad as reality."-Lords' Report, p. 19.

7. The proposed measure would be a violation of the charter of the Bank of Ireland.

ARTHUR GUINESS, Esq. Director of the Bank of Ireland.

"You are aware that an act of parliament passed in the twentyfirst year of the late king, on the occasion of increasing the capital of the Bank of Ireland.--I am.

"The government, by that act of parliament, are bound to receive Bank of Ireland notes in payment of all sums of money if offered, fractional parts of twenty shillings only being excepted. They are.

"If then the government were to prevent you issuing notes under £5, would not the effect be the same as refusing to accept notes less than £5 in payment?-The effect would be the same.

"Then to all intents and purposes it would be a breach of faith in one case as well as in the other.—I conceive it would."-Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, p. 240.

In this year the following memorial was presented to the Lords of the Treasury.

"To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury.

"The Memorial of the undersigned merchants, traders, and others, inhabitants of the City of Dublin and its vicinity,

66 Sheweth,

"That by the act forming the Bank of Ireland, it is enacted, "That no company or society exceeding six in number (except the Bank of Ireland) shall borrow, owe, or take up money, on their bills or notes, payable at demand, or at any less date than six months, from the borrowing thereof, under a penalty of three times the issue." (21 & 22 Geo. III. c. 14.)

"That in the year 1821 the above act was modified, by the 1st and 2nd Geo. IV. c. 72, so far as to permit the establishment of banking companies exceeding six in number, at a distance of fifty miles from Dublin, under certain conditions therein mentioned.

"That in consequence of the ambiguity of the said act, no companies were formed under it, nor until the year 1824, when an act was passed to explain it, and carry its provisions into effect. That the above act was repealed last session, and a further explanatory act was passed, under which provincial banks have been established, at a distance of fifty miles from the city of Dublin, issuing notes payable at the place where issued.

"That the said act only goes to the extent of permitting the establishment of banks issuing notes payable on demand fifty miles from Dublin, thereby leaving the city of Dublin, and a circuit of fifty miles, exposed to all the evils resulting from monopoly in so important a matter.

"That although it is at present legal to establish such companies, the prohibition annexed of not issuing bills or notes payable on demand, or at a less date than six months, renders the liberty of establishing such banks inoperative, as without a power to issue notes payable on demand, no bank in Ireland can realize common interest for the capital embarked, and the sphere of its utility is bounded.

"That the liberty of issuing notes or bills payable at six months after date, is also rendered inoperative by the stamp acts in force, prohibiting the re-issue of such or any post bills, except those of the Bank of Ireland, when once discharged, the effect of which prohibition makes such an issue useless.

"That at different times there have been several failures of banking establishments in Dublin, which have, at the period at which they happened, and subsequent thereon, thrown the city into the greatest distress, and have often occasioned a serious defalcation in the public

revenue.

"That under the present banking law there is no security to the public that weak banks may not be again established in Dublin, and a repetition of failures occur; more especially as the notes of private banks in Dublin have at all times shared a considerable portion of the circulating medium with that of the Bank of Ireland.

"Your memorialists therefore hope, that great benefits having been already rendered to Ireland by a partial permission to establish

joint stock banks, that your lordships will extend the measure by granting to Dublin the same privilege which has been already conferred upon the rest of the kingdom; and for that purpose that your lordships will take into consideration, on great public principles of policy, the expediency of entering into a new agreement or bargain with the Bank of Ireland, so as to permit the establishment of joint stock banks in the city of Dublin, with adequate capital, and under such regulations for the security of the public, as to your lordships shall seem fit."

In this year (1826) the directors of the Provincial Bank of Ireland delivered to the proprietors the following report:

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It being provided, by the deed of settlement, that a general meeting of proprietors of the Provincial Bank of Ireland shall be held on the third Thursday of May in each year, the directors have, in the discharge of their duty, called the proprietors together for the purpose of laying before them an account of their proceedings. From the recent commencement of the business in Ireland, the present report can do little more than detail the measures which have been taken to attain the important objects proposed in the formation of this society; and as many of the present proprietors may not be exactly acquainted with the causes which led to its establishment, or the difficulties which attended its progress, it may be desirable to give a more detailed statement than would be required by the original promoters of it.

"After the disastrous failures in 1820, it may be easily imagined that the wants of Ireland, with respect to banking accommodation, were most severely felt, especially when it is stated, that with the exception of two very limited establishments in the south, viz. in Mallow and Wexford, there were, besides Dublin itself, only two places in the whole extent of the kingdom in which banks remained, viz. Belfast and Cork; all those previously existing (and they had been numerously spread over the country) had, from their want of capital, or from having been imprudently managed, either failed, or been withdrawn. The charter of the bank of Ireland, however, which limited every other banking company to six partners, operated to prevent the establishment of any with such a command of capital as should secure the entire confidence of the country, or afford that assistance to agriculture and commerce which was enjoyed in more favoured parts of the empire.

"This state of things at length led to a negociation between government and the bank of Ireland, for opening, to a certain degree, the charter of that corporation; and two acts of parliament were passed, one in 1820, and another in 1824, permitting the establishment of joint stock banking companies without any limitation as to the number of partners in any place in Ireland, distant more than fifty miles from Dublin.

By this act of the legislature, a more extensive field for banking operations in Ireland was presented, holding out reasonable expectations of an ample return for the capital invested, whilst at the same time important benefits would be conferred on that country. "That such institutions might be carried on with safety and advantage was satisfactorily proved by the experience of one of the sister kingdoms, in which they had been established for one hundred and thirty years; and to their operation, the almost unexampled improvement of that country is in a great measure to be attributed.

"The example of Scotland has also proved that the prosperity of such institutions does not depend on the enjoyment of any monopoly, or of any exclusive or chartered privileges, but that when regulated by prudence and caution, they will be found, perhaps, in a greater degree than most commercial undertakings, equally conducive to the true interests of the country, and to the profitable employment of the capital of the proprietors.

"Influenced by these considerations, a number of gentlemen held a meeting in London on the 11th June, 1824, for the purpose of deliberating on the best means for carrying these views into effect.

Measures were subsequently taken, after the mission of one of the present directors to Ireland, for the formation of the society, by the publication of a prospectus, and an invitation to subscribe a suitable capital; and towards the end of the year 1824, applications for shares to an amount very far exceeding the capital, which was considered to be sufficient, having been received, the gentlemen by whom the undertaking was set on foot, proceeded to allot shares to the extent of 20,000 of £100 each, forming a capital of two millions, as originally intended, and to call for a deposit of 5 per cent. on the scrip certificates being issued to that amount.

As the capital of the society was chiefly to be raised in Britain, and indeed as the society itself was called into existence by the very circumstance that capital adequate to such an undertaking could not be found in Ireland, there was an obvious expediency in making London the principal seat for directing the operations of the bank, had there even existed no legal impediment to the principal board being established in Dublin.

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Many difficulties, however, which it required both time and perseverance to surmount, were found to stand in the way of the undertaking. These difficulties arose from the imperfect state of the law respecting banking business in Ireland, and no other remedy appeared for their removal than an appeal to the legislature to amend the law whether this attempt could be best made by the introduction of a private bill into parliament, or by a recommendation to government to introduce a general measure, was a subject of much anxiety and deliberation to the directors. On every side they found themselves involved in difficulties, and it required the greatest care and circumspection to avoid those errors which might hereafter prove prejudicial to the establishment.