124 BANKS. 



the old Market House at five o'clock the same evening. In 1846, the pre- 

 mises underwent alteration. 



In 1865, the Belfast Banking Company was incorporated, and the capital 

 raised to £"1,000,000; August 16, 1883, it was registered as a Limited Lia- 

 bility Company, with a capital of £"2,000,000. 



In 1837 the Southern Bank of Ireland was established, with a nominal 

 capital of £500,000, and power to bring the subscription up to £1,000,000. 

 It sprang out of the Cork business of the Agricultural Bank, and was man- 

 aged by certain of that Bank's officers. In about two months it suspended 

 payment. Undoubtedly it promised badly, judging from facts stated about 

 it, and its irregularities, before a Committee of the House of Commons. 

 Mr. Pierce Mahony declared in his evidence, that, as to the credit of the 

 shareholders, he " should be sorry to take £500 endorsed by the whole of 

 them." 



In 1835 the National Bank of Ireland — for that was its title till 1856, 

 when the two final words were dropped — was founded by Daniel O'Connell, 

 its first Governor. The subscribed capital was £1,000,000, in £50 shares, 

 its constitution being that ever}^ holder of five shares had one vote, twenty 

 shares two votes, sixty shares three votes, a hundred shares four votes. It 

 commenced business at Carrick-on-Suir. As Mrs. Morgan John O'Connell 

 says — 



" It was intended to be especially a poor man's bank, g^ot up for the purpose 

 of enabling- the lower classes to invest their small savings, and thus get an 

 interest for their money, instead of trusting their pound notes to the fortunes 

 of an old stocking, or a cracked teapot, or even a hole in the thatch. These 

 expedients for saving- money were not uncommon, and those who were a little 

 more enlightened used frequently to hand over their money to a friend to 

 * keep safe ' for them." 



The banking instinct was not strong in our peasantry in those days. 

 Occasionally it showed itself, and then chose a wrong place of deposit. It 

 was some time before even the Liberator's bank got properly to work among 

 them. 



" Even I," Mrs. O'Connell continues, " born five years after the National 

 Bank was first established, have been asked by people to take charge of their 

 little hoards. And in the old days there were many traders, like my father's 

 [Charles Bianconi's] old friend, Mary Kirwan, who used to gain considerably 

 by the small sums intrusted to them — of which they were allowed to keep 

 the interest." 



Originally, an unusual principle in banking, the National Bank consisted 

 of two separate and distinct bodies and interests — the English shareholders 

 and the Irish shareholders. In 1836 there were 246 shareholders having 

 votes, of whom only 46 were Irish; in 1843, there were 481 shareholders, 

 of whom only 106 were English. When a branch was opened the local and 

 English shareholders subscribed an equal proportion of the capital, and 

 divided the profits. In 1837 the two stocks were consolidated, except at 

 Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir, where the local shareholders were indisposed 

 to admit the whole proprietary to partake in their profits. In 1856, how- 

 ever, the final consolidation was arranged. 



