§ The house went into a committee of ways and means; in which,
Mr. Foster,after detailing the history and progress of the Bank of Ireland, stated, that it was proposed that the bank capital 701 should be increased from one million and I a half to two millions and a half; the interest en the additional million to be the same as on the present capital; a million and a quarter to be advanced to government for the period of the charter, unless government should upon certain notice think proper to repay it sooner. The Irish bank was also to manage the whole debt of Ireland, free of further expence, whatever addition may be made to it. He therefore moved, That it be the opinion of the committee, that the governor and company of the Bank of Ireland be continued as a corporation till the 1st of Jan. 1837.
§ Mr. Tierneyobjected to the resolution, on the ground that he disapproved of the principle of borrowing money from the bank whilst the restriction of specie existed, and he thought this a bad money-bargain for the public.
Mr. Fosterreplied, that this million was to be raised by the bank proprietors or from subscribers, and would be bona fide an. increase of their renewal. The motive of the renewal of the charter was not with a view to any money bargain, but to secure the existence or the company, to discount at five per cent, for the public.
§ Mr. Parnellobjected to the renewal of the charter, because it would remove the transactions of the bank out of the controul of parliament.
§ Mr. Bankesstated, that the committee whose report he had had the honour to submit to the house, were of opinion that the benefit to be attached to the paper of the national banks of England and Ireland, by its exclusive credit, was not expedient to be continued longer than the exigency of the times required. It was net fit that the hands of the legislature should be tied up, whether the circumstances of the country-were so materially changed as to throw an additional benefit into the hands of the bank or not. He thought that ten, or at most fifteen, years addition, was sufficient to be granted at present.
Mr. M. Fitzgerald,in order to give some idea of the benefit that was to be derived from an accredited issue of paper, stated that one banking-house in Ireland set up on the price of a captain's commission in the dragoons, and that they afterwards had afloating capital to the amount of 490,000l. Besides, he did not think that the bank of Ireland was entitled to much favour from the legislature, as at the time of the invasion at Bantry-bay, under general Hoche, they refused to advance money to govern- 702 ment, and it was by the money of a loyal individual that the army was put hi motion.
The Chancellor of the Exchequermaintained that the liberality and loyalty of the bank of Ireland had not any the smallest reason to be called in question. The addition was only one million Irish currency; and the security which it gave to individuals, and the benefit to the public by the gratuitous management of its debt, were ample reasons for the renewal of its charter.—The Resolutions were then agreed to.