BANKING IN IRELAND.
TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Westminster, 30th May 15:15. Sm —I learn by my private letters, thnt a passage in one of the hauling ankles of the Spectator of 10th May, upon the subject of the Bank ef Ire- land Charter, has attracted particular attention in Ireland. You intimate that Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer " will h we a leaning to the monopoly of the Beek of Ireland, and will be ftvoulable to the granting of a charter by the Board of Trade to the Provincial laink of Ireland." This seems to he thought a not unlikely thing; nevertheless, it will he by no means and in no way a fair one. The Board of Trade is certainly authorized hy the 1st N'icturia, c. 73, to grant Lettets Petent to trading compeniee whieli limit the responsibility of the shareholders to the amount of their respective elteree subseribed ; but the Board has already conic to a detetroinetion nut to recommend the granting of a charter to any company tradlng with a greater capital than 200,0(eq., unless onc-holf of that capital be paid up. Now the Provincial Bank of Ireland has not paid up any thing like one-half of its capital, and therefore is excluded froin a charter by the existing rule laid down by the Board for the determina- tion of such matters; and I wish to draw attentiun to the circumstance, viith a view of pointing out to the Board of Trade, that if it shuuld appear advisable Cu, modify the regulations now in force, for the purpose of conferring a most valuable privilege upon one Irish Joint Stock Bank, the change should be such as to place the boon within the reach of the other establishments of the same
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