HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



149 



Another circumstance of consi- 

 derable importance agitated Ireland 

 about the same period. When the 

 issue of specie from the bank of 

 England was stopped, the same pre- 

 caution was of course extended to 

 the bank of Ireland, and certainly 

 with at least an equal necessity ; 

 the dread of Impending commotions 

 had spread in Ireland so widely, 

 that the prai3;ice of concealing the 

 ])recious metals was re-"o.(cd to by 

 people in general, and circulation 

 was already drained to a consider- 

 able amount, for the purpose of pri- 

 vately hoarding. But in England, 

 l!ic dircftion of the bank was in the 

 hands of men of the first intelligence 

 and ability ; in Ireland, the directors 

 were respectable individuals, but 

 plain and limited traders, by no means 

 scientifically versed in that political 

 oeconomy, of which they had be- 

 come (when their notes were ren- 

 dered the currency of the country) 

 very principal administrators. in 

 England, also, parliament preserved 

 a vigilant inspertion over the issues 

 of the bank, which measure was to- 

 tally Knhceded by the Irish legisla- 

 tion.* The bank, thus left to itself, 

 without control or superintend- 

 ance, regulated the issue of notes 

 by its own discretion, and extended its 

 discounts to the widest range of 

 private attachment or interest. The 

 quantity of its notes supplying the 

 circulating medium, shortly amount- 

 ed so high, as nearly to quadruple 

 the notes and specie employed in the 

 currency of Ireland, anterior to the 

 restriction. ' The private bankers, 

 encouraged by the facility of mak- 

 ing good their payments in Bank of 

 Ireland paper, became liberal in a 

 L 3 propor- 



* Mr. Forstcr, who has since stood forward as a grand accuser of tlie bank of 

 Ireliincl, was, rlnriiig the wliolc periofi of tliis reprehensible neglect, a princijjvil 

 adviser of the crown, and a Icadin;' uieinber of lliC Iriih liuuse of <;otnijion>. 



good marquis of Clanricarde. Dar- 

 ing the troubles which preceded the 

 Hsurpatiou, this latter noble person 

 ■was the first,in point of dignity, among 

 the catholics of Ireland: neither per- 

 sonal insults, nor public injuries, 

 nor the threats or entreaties of those 

 who sought to intimidate or soothe 

 him to compliance with their views, 

 could move him from the steady 

 course of loyalty and of honour. 

 He stood on high, a bright exau)ple 

 to all, an incentive to the good, a 

 reproach to the ill-intentioned. 

 Such, but with a happier star, was 

 the earl of Fingall, amid the dis. 

 contcr.is and disatfeCtion which, 

 from the year 1796, made but too 

 extensive a progress in Ireland. 



On the prcs.ent occasion, his in- 

 fluence and popularity were exert- 

 ed, and the result of his efforts, 

 aided by the universal wish to con- 

 cede to the measures of lord Ilard- 

 vicke, was, that the meetings of the 

 catholics, from which great mischief 

 was foieboded, were conducted with 

 composure, and without offeusive 

 ostentation ; and were neither cal- 

 culated to inflame the feelings of 

 those who pressed, nor to exaspe- 

 rate the opposition of those who 

 resisted the great measure, ofVn, 

 though inaccurately, denominated 

 emancipation. Four or five meet- 

 ings of this nature were held, for 

 the purpose of deliberating as to 

 the propriety of the mode and time 

 of application. The final decision 

 did not take place until the winter 



of 1805; the account of it. 



toge- 



ther with the proceedings in conse- 

 quence, will therefore properly 

 come under the arrangements of our 

 subsequent volume. 



