§ Mr. Grenfellobserved, that the accounts for which, in pursuance of Ins notice, he was about to move, were of three descriptions. The first related to the issues of paper by the Bank of Ireland; the second to deposits of the public money in the Bank of Ireland; the third, to the remuneration on the part of the public to the Bank of Ireland for the management of the public debt and other services. With respect to the first subject, the issues of paper, he believed it would appear that those issues had increased since 1797, in a much greater proportion than the issues of the Bank of England; for that, being in 1797, only 600,000l. they were now four millions and a half. With respect to the second subject, the deposits of public money in the Bank of Ireland, those deposits were of the same nature as the government deposits in the Bank of England. They had, however, very considerably decreased during the last three or four years. That decrease was in the proportion of 15 to 3; the Treasury the Chancery, and the Exchequer being the only departments of the Irish government deposits from which were placed in the Bank of Ireland. On the 1st of January last, the aggregate amount of those deposits did not exceed 700,000l. It was his wish that all those who transacted the public business should be rewarded liberally. He had combated the emoluments derived from public balances by the Bank of England, not because they were liberal, but because they were profuse rewards of the services rendered to the public by the Bank of England; and he had no hesitation to say, that the Bank of Ireland was fairly entitled to the advantages derived from the deposit of the sum he had mentioned. With respect to the third subject, the remuneration which the Bank of Ireland received for the management of the public debt, he should say little for this good reason, that the Bank of Ireland received no such remuneration. The Bank of Ireland charged nothing for that or any other service to the Irish government. Without wishing to make any invidious comparison between the conduct, on this point, of the Bank of Eng- 441 land and the Bank of Ireland, he might be permitted to commend the liberality of the Bank of Ireland, and to express Ms hope that the result of he investigation, for the institution of which he had given notice of a motion, would be to set up the example of the Bank of Ireland as that which the Bank of England ought to follow. The hon. gentleman then moved for the said accounts.
§ Mr. Manning, notwithstanding the side-wind attack which the hon. gentleman had just made on the Bank of England, hoped the House would abstain from forming any opinion on the subject, until the hon. gentleman should make the motion which he had given notice of his intention to make after Easter, when he trusted he should be able to satisfy the House that the charges made by the Bank of England for the management of the public debt, and for other services to the public, were perfectly reasonable, and such as ought to be allowed.
§ The motions were then agreed to.