The session of 1722, however, did not close without an Act for securing the public from some of the injuries produced by the defective Banking business of the period. The 8th Geo. I. c. 14, provided that Bankers' unpaid notes should bear interest; that no Banker should fraudulently alienate his property; and that real estates, left at his death, should be available for the payment of his notes. This appears to have been the second general enactment connected with Banking in Ireland, the first having been the 8th Anne, c. 11, passed in 1709, and entitled, "An Act for the better payment of inland bills of exchange, and making promissory notes more obligatory.'" From that law it would seem that mercantile paper was then in the lowest state in Ireland, for power was given by it to protest inland, as well as foreign bills and promissory notes for more than five pounds, upon non-acceptance or non-payment; and the same law was, for the first time, applied to promissory notes and Bank notes, which were declared legally transferable, and the usual right of action given in cases of their non-payment. The persons principally engaged in Banking, at this juncture, would seem to have been goldsmiths, merchants, and general traders, and the business to have consisted in little more than the deposit of money, for safe keeping, with persons who held a public office for that purpose, and who gave, for moneys so lodged, receipts or promissory notes, payable at a certain date.

4 Memorial to Lords Justices, Appendix c. c. Journals to House of Commons, 1721.

The efforts made to better the commerce and currency of Ireland, having been limited to the single act of Parliament already cited, we are naturally prepared to meet with renewed complaints of the scarcity of silver, and the hindrance given by it to manufacturers and retail trade. These continued to prevail, with more or less strength and frequency, until 1735, when the interference of Government was again emphatically called for, and not without reason; for such, we are assured, was the dearth of coin, that a single piece was traced at one market, in the north of Ireland, serving the purpose of five successive bargains, and suffering a depreciation of sixpence on each. After the publication of various tracts, and much discussion, during which it was remarked, as rather curious, that the Bankers took no part in the argument, Government promised relief, and, after still further hesitating and delaying, produced, in 1737, a new coinage for Ireland, and settled a scheme of exchange, by which the value of the coin circulating in the country was fixed at a certain rate, which made the English guinea of the value of 11. 2s. 9d.; the English shilling, 1s. 1d.; and various current foreign coins, in gold and silver, of proportionate amounts, or what were pronounced such, for there were not wanting disputants to maintain that some foreign coins, particularly Spanish and Portuguese, were unfairly depreciated.

If we bear in mind that this was a period during which every one was free to issue not only Bank notes, but copper and silver coin; that there was no bankrupt law; and that when a Bank failed, the slow and uncertain process of a special act of Parliament was required to wind up its affairs, in case the improvident establishment left a wreck behind worth the cost of salvage; we shall probably be surprised to find that, proceeding from the year 1720, as our starting point, we have no record of a Bank breaking until 1732, when Meade and Curtis stopped payment, and the 5 Geo. II. c. 23, passed for the relief of their creditors. Two years afterwards, Burton and Falkener, established in 1720, failed, and gave occasion for the 7 Geo. II. c. 26. For some twenty years or so longer, the tide of monetary affairs flowed muddily on without any extraordinary shock or violence; but in 1753, undoubted signs of a coming storm became discernible. Exchange fell three per cent. below par, and the house of Commons instituted inquiries which led to a declaration upon its part, that the paper in circulation far exceeded the capital of those who issued it, and also the just proportion which the quantity current ought to bear to the national specie. Importing merchants, it was asserted, obtained credit without having property, and by forcing trade, increased the receipts of the treasury, while they were really diminishing the wealth of the kingdom. This exposure doubtless led to the heavy bankruptcies that quickly followed. In March 1754, Dillon and Farrell's Bank closed; during the same month of the year following, Wilcox and Dawson failed; and the partners in the firm of Lennox and French absconded. Distinct acts of Parliament passed for the settlement of these reverses, but public and private credit continued to droop until 1760, when both fell prostrate, and the whole country was reduced to one level ruin. Three Banks failed in Dublin - Clement's, Dawson's, and Mitchell's - and three that remained solvent refused to discount a bill. All monetary transactions ceased, and a dead stop was put to every description of business: ultimately only two Banks were left in Dublin, namely, Messrs. Latouche's, and Gleddowes', afterwards Newcomen's. Public meetings were held, Parliament was petitioned, and the decay of manufactures and the sunken credit of the nation were piteously set forth, and eloquently deplored. A Committee of Inquiry having been appointed, it was resolved, that the complainants had proved their case, and that the quantity of paper in circulation (in consequence of the bankruptcies, it is presumed) was not near sufficient for trade and manufactures. It was consequently proposed, and ultimately agreed, that Parliament should undertake to support the still subsisting Banks to the amount of 50,000l. each. Bankers' notes were also received, by virtue of a special proclamation, as cash, from the contractors to a loan which Government was then raising, and thus a temporary succour was extended to the general distress. There was another panic in 1770, and the lord-lieutenant, nobility, principal gentry, and merchants found it necessary to come forward and publish a declaration, in which they pledged themselves to take the notes of Messrs. Latouche, Messrs. Gled-dowes and Newcomen, Messrs. Findlay and Co., and Messrs. Dawson, Coates, and Lawless, - then the Bankers in Dublin 5 During the same year a bankruptcy law was passed, for the first time, in Ireland- And thus closes all that the progress of Banking in that country offers for observation previous to the institution of the Bank of Ireland.