The Bank of Ireland has now been working half a
century, pos- sessing, for the greater part of that time, the exclusive privilege of banking to the fullest extent in Ireland, and possessing, even to this hour, the exclusive power of banking in Dublin, and within fifty miles thereof. During that time, it has realized and divided amongst the knot who managed it, and those who forced themselves into possession of its " stock," through the medium of their kites, millions of money, wrung from the sweat and the toil of the Irish people. This Bank was commenced in '84, by the subscription of six thousand shares of one hundred pounds each. We cannot tell how much of this sum was actually paid down ; but this we know, that its capital has gradually augmented, with a trifling exception, by additions from its profits, from time to time, to the enormous sum offour millions sterling. In addition to this, it owes the people of Ireland seven millions of money for deposits due to them, and notes outstanding. Here, then, are eleven millions of money managed by fourteen Tories, for the one Catholic on the direction may be thrown in for nothing, and the one they have chosen is worse has nothing.—.Pilot.
Previous page
