The advances made on three items are thus summarily shown in Parliamentary Return, No. 194, of 18th April, 1834. the Poor Charitable and Literary Institutions Public Works and Employment of 1,535,336 1,536,824 1,995,128 2,230,622 4,225,750 868,174 472,247 1,340,421 3,072,160 From 1819 to 1830, the Bounties and other expenses of the Irish Fisheries establishment amounted to 259,3581. The grants of money made by the Irish and by the Imperial Parliaments are also in favour of the liberality and munificence of the latter : The average grants by the Irish Parliament, for six years previous to the Union, were 79,3147. Ditto by the Imperial Parliament for four years previous to 1817, 369,8647. Independent of heavy charges for the administration of Justice, for Police, Coast Guard Service, and other public purposes, and irrespective of the cost of various Civil establishments of the Army in Ireland, and of a charge for Naval defence, of Colonial establishments, or Diplomacy, the following statement shows the money voted by the Imperial Parliament, during the three years ending 1843, for the undermentioned purposes in Ireland: : In order that it may be fully seen that the revenue raised in Ireland is inadequate to the direct as well as to the indirect expenditure which is incurred by the Imperial Treasury for the expenses of the Crown, of the Navy, of the head departments of the State, of the Colonies, the Diplomatic Service, Packets and Post Office, and various other large items, it may be sufficient to observe that the expenditure in Ireland, for the year ending January 5th, 1842, was, for the Army, 946,0007.; the Ordnance, 110,4207.; the Miscellaneous 331,7387.; payment for interest and management of the National Debt, 1,186,9831.; and 575,9817. other permanent charges on the Consolidated Fund;-total, 3,151,1237., out of a revenue of only 4,100,000Z. If Ireland were required to pay taxes in proportion to Scotland, or to area and population, it would be necessary to treble her taxation, in order to contribute rateably to the Imperial expenditure. Without dwelling further on this branch of the subject, it may be assumed that the whole taxation of Ireland does not afford a sufficient sum to pay a fair quota of the expenses incurred on behalf of Ireland by the Imperial Treasury. The assertions demonstrated by facts in this Chapter to be true are first, that Ireland is now one of the least taxed countries in Europe; second, that the amount of taxes levied per head in Ireland is now only one-half the amount levied at the period of the Union; third, that the taxes levied in Ireland are only one-fifth per head the amount levied in England, and onethird the amount levied in Scotland; fourth, that in thirty-three years the difference of taxation between Great Britain and Ireland is more than three hundred million sterling in favour of Ireland; and fifth, that there has been no violation of the Act of Union. 1 CHAPTER X. State of Banking in Ireland ;-Defects of the System ;-History of Each Public Bank ;-Conduct of the Bank of Ireland ;—History of Loan Funds. THE Banking Establishments of a country are intimately identified with its prosperity or adversity; and affect materially its public and private finances. A brief exposition of the state of Banking in Ireland, before and after the Union, may here be introduced, in illustration of one of the great evils under which Ireland now labours; and which it is of vital consequence to the country should be early and effectively rectified. The Bank of Ireland was brought into operation in 1783, with a capital of 600,000l. Irish currency, under a complete monopoly charter from the Irish Parliament. From 1784 to 1799, the dividend paid was 5 to 6 per cent. In 1800, the dividend on 1,500,000l. capital was 7 per cent. In 1809, capital 2,500,000l., and dividend, up to 1814, was 74 per cent. In 1821, a bonus of 500,000l. was added to the original capital; and on the 3,000,0007. capital, 10 per cent. was paid to 1829; and thence, to 1835, 9 per cent. dividend was paid. From 1802 to 1822, one million one hundred thousand pounds sterling was added from profits to the capital of the Bank, independent of annual dividends of 7 to 10 per cent. This statement shows that banking as well as commercial profits increased from the time of the Union. Ireland has, however, materially suffered from want of a sound and expansive banking system. In England, many private bankers have failed since 1800, and their place is as yet imperfectly supplied by public banks. In 1800 (March 25) the number of bankers issuing notes in Ireland was 11; in January, 1801, No. 23; in 1802, No. 29; in 1803, No. 30; in 1804, No. 40. The number of notes paying duty, in the like period, was— This extensive issue of paper money, consequent on the restriction of cash payments, led, finally, to the most disastrous failures among the private bankers, to whom it is alleged no aid whatever was afforded by the Bank of Ireland; that establishment, on the contrary-under the monopoly of its charter, it is further alleged-made every effort to prevent the formation of any other public bank, to fill the place, as in England, of the defunct private banks. In 1820, no less than eleven banks, some of them of considerable influence and extensive credit, broke in rapid succession; and, with the exception of two firms in Mallow and Wexford, there was not, excepting those in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast, a solvent bank remaining. Mr. George Lewis Smyth, in his work on " Banking in Ireland,”* makes the following statement on this subject, and which will fully explain the reason why Ireland has so long been deprived of an efficient banking system and monetary circulation, which is as essential to the body politic as a due circulation of blood is to the body corporate. "In this extremity, and not before, the Government of Lord Liverpool found it necessary to interpose, and place some check upon the career of the Bank of Ireland, by opening out facilities for conducting a better description of Banking business than had hitherto been practised,-it was determined to try the experiment of Joint Stock Banks in Ireland, as well as in England; and the Bank of Ireland, upon being allowed to add half a million to its capital, parted with so much of its monopoly as enabled Banking Companies, with more than six partners, to carry on the business of Banking at a distance of fifty Irish miles from Dublin. This was effected by the 1st and 2d Geo. IV. c. 72. The reluctance with which this agreement was entered into, on the part of the Bank, may be inferred from some circumstances which immediately ensued. Early doubts were raised, and legal opinions taken, upon the construction of the Act of Parliament, which marred its practical utility. From what quarter, at whose instigation, and at whose cost these doubts were raised, canvassed, and enforced, it is hardly necessary to indicate. In the end it was successfully maintained, that every partner in an Irish Joint Stock Bank * Published by Hooper, Pall Mall, London, 1840. ought to be a resident in Ireland; and thus the Irish were suddenly cut off from the co-operation of the English capitalists, without whose assistance they were themselves wholly to encounter the competition of the Bank of Ireland. So far, the Bank broke faith with Parliament and the public: it had obtained a certain boon, half a million of money, as the price of a fixed concession, and having secured its own share of the terms, it turned boldly round to pick holes in the Act of Parliament, by which the agreement was regulated, and sought to prevent the improvement which the national interests so urgently demanded. "It took four years to effect a redress of this artful piece of injustice. Right, however, ultimately prevailed, and the Provincial Bank of Ireland was established by a Proprietary of the highest respectability and ample wealth; as might have been foreseen, the difficulties offered to the success of the Provincial Bank by the Directors of the Bank of Ireland, were numerous and severe. Several heavy and keenly-timed runs upon the Provincial took place, of which, as no accurate or authentic account has been given, we are not, perhaps, formally warranted in laying to the charge of the Bank of Ireland. "The Provincial Bank of Ireland, as already stated, was founded in 1824, and before 1826 the Bank of Ireland was at open war with it. The first step taken in the very unbecoming course of opposition upon which the Bank of Ireland now entered, was to set up Branch Banks of its own, in the towns in which the Provincial Bank proposed to carry on business; the next was, to resist, with all its most active weight and energetic influence, the 6th of Geo. IV. c. 42, which was about to pass for the sole purpose of simplifying and explaining the preceding Act of Parliament upon the same subject. "This was a course not ungracious only, but most vexatiously inconsistent. From the year 1783 to the year 1824, the terms of the monopoly enjoyed by the Bank of Ireland forbad the establishment of a second Joint Stock Bank in Ireland; the Bank of Ireland had not Dublin alone, with its circle of fifty miles, exclusively to itself, but it reigned paramount over the whole island also. Nevertheless, during that long series of years, it never once extended itself into the Provinces-it set up not a single Branch Bank; it left the country entirely dependent upon the circulation of Private Banks; the great majority of those concerns were well known to possess no adequate means; the failures that ultimately took place amongst them, entailed on the public losses estimated at the amount of twenty millions sterling; and yet, during this long interval, in the presence of these heavy sufferings, the Bank of Ireland confined its operations to Dublin. But the moment the urgency of the circumstances invited others into the field-as soon as London capitalists published a prospectus, in which they promised to afford certain towns in the country parts of Ireland that accommodation which the Bank of Ireland had so long denied them, the Bank at once set up a determined opposition in those very towns, and resorted to every means within its reach to embarrass and defeat the new adventurer. It thus not only refused to do the good required, when it alone had the power, but it laboured to deter others from rendering it, even when the Legislature had specifically interfered for the purpose. With a view of driving the young rival out of the field, it was resolved not to recognise it in any transaction, not to exchange notes with it, to insist upon cash payments for its notes at the branches, and to refuse to pay gold in the very same places for its own. Perhaps the worst feature in this vexatious act, is to be found in the fact that the Bank of Ireland had, just before, been in the habit of paying gold for its paper throughout the country, and that it now inconvenienced the public by denying gold for its |