AN ACCOUNT of all Prosecutions in Scotland for the Forgery of Promissory Notes, or for the
Issuing of Forged Promissory Notes, for the last twenty Years; distinguishing the Years, the
Number of Convictions, and the Number of Instances in which the Capital Sentence was
carried into Effect.

Appendix, No. 3.

Copy of a MEMORIAL from certain Merchants of the City of Dublin, to the Treasury; respecting the exclusive Privileges of the Bank of Ireland.

Whitehall, Treasury Chamber,

17 Feb. 1826.

ber,}

J. C. HERRIES.

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,-

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. 3, c. 14.)

That in the year 1821 the above Act was modified, by the 1st and 2d Geo. 4. c. 72, so far as to permit the establishment of Banking Companies exceeding Six in number, at a distance of 50 miles from Dublin, under certain conditions therein mentioned.

That in consequence of the ambiguity of 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 That the above Act was repealed last Session, and a further Explanatory Act was passed, under which Provincial Banks have been established, at a distance of 50 miles from the City of Dublin,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 50 miles from Dublin, thereby leaving the City of Dublin, and a circuit of 50 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 reputation 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.

Appendix,

N° 3

Appendix, N° 5.

AN ACCOUNT of the Numberof Banks established in Scotland; distinguishing the Charter Banks, and the Number of Partners in such Banks as are not Chartered.

Appendix,
N° 5.

!

Appendix, N° 6.

A RETURN of the Number of Country Banks in Scotland issuing Notes, that have become Bankrupts since January 1816, up to the present time; stating the Place where the Banks were established, the Number of Partners in each Bank, the Amount of Debts proved against each, and the Amount per cent of Dividends paid or declared upon each; as far as the same I can be complied with.

THE only application for a Sequestration, under the Bankrupt Statute, applicable to Scotland, appearing from the Records of the Court of Session, to have occurred since the month of January 1816, against a Bank in Scotland issuing Notes, is one against the Falkirk Union Banking Company, carrying on business in the town of Falkirk, and county of Stirling, in the month of October 1816 years; whereof the Partners were six in number. The amount of the Debts proved being £. 51,009. 5s. 8 d. sterling; and amount of the Dividends hitherto paid or declared being £.45. per cent, or 9s. in the pound sterling of the Debts so proved.

Attested by

Rol' Dundas, Clerk of Session.

Appendix,

N 6.