So extraordinary were the views of the common people that a banker in Dublin of the name of Beresford having made himself very unpopular, a "large assemblage of ignorant country people having previously collected a quantity of Beresford's notes, publicly burnt them, crying out with enthusiasm while the promises to pay on demand were consuming, 'What will he do now; his bank will surely break.'"

The number of banks which failed in Ireland in earlier times was extraordinary; thus Sir Robert Peel in his speech of the 9th of June 1845 on the Bank Act of that year, made a quotation "from the report of the committee of Irish exchanges, which sat in 1804. At that period there were fifty registered banks, but they all failed, and their failures, I know personally, led to the most fearful distress." Since the legislation of 1845, however, the business has been carried on with equally extraordinary steadiness and success, and at the present time is on a footing fully equal to that of any other part of the United Kingdom.

The earlier history of banking in Ireland pursued very closely the same process of development as in England. Circulation preceded and fed deposits. The credit which the banks obtained

by the ready acceptance of their notes brought customers to their counters, and thus the existing system, fortunate in excellent managers, was built up gradually and surely.

Alone in the three kingdoms, Ireland maintains the same limit of authorized circulation as that established by Peel's Act of 1845. Not one of the six banks which had the privilege of issue at that period has lost it since.

The names of the banks carrying on business in Ireland, the years when they were established and their position in 1906, are as follows:—

Capital of Irish Joint-Stock Banks in 1906

Name of Bank and Year
when established.

Capital
paid-up.

Rate of
Dividend
per annum.

Bank of Ireland

1783

£2,769,230

11

Hibernian Bank*

1824

500,000

10

Provincial Bank

1825

540,000

20

Northern Banking Co.

1825

500,000

18½

Belfast Banking Co.

1827

500,000

36

National Bank

1835

1,500,000

8

Ulster Banking Co.

1836

500,000

18

Royal Bank*

1836

300,000

12

Munster Bank, Ltd.*

1864

200,000

8

* Thus marked are not banks of issue.

Banking, like every other business, has to pass through periods Banking crises of difficulty. The severity of these in the case of banking is intensified by the vast number of interests affected. These, on the one hand, are world-wide in their scope, on the other they touch every home in the country. The stringency of such a time in England has since the passing of the act of 1844 been greatly enhanced by a doubt being sometimes felt as to whether a relaxation of the act of 1844 would be allowed. In any case, some little time must elapse before the assent of the ministers of the crown to the request of the Bank of England can be known. Since 1844 there have been five periods of pressure,—during 1847, 1857, 1866, 1870 and 1890. Of these in three, 1847, 1857 and 1866, the difficulties reached panic.