The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-19 00:00:00

dented by a similar copy. At present great uncertainty
prevail;, as to the right of property in papers supplied to
periodical works, as to the right of property in works Writ.
ten at the instance of a bookseller., til,o as to tbe•ritilit of
engraving ctorn an oriiinal piefure: lieeveVer desirable it
my be that these eirestiont could be settled, it is impos-
sible to ietertere with the existing regulations of the book-
sellers and authors, or of the patrons of art and artists.
Neither, for the future, do I propose to lay deem Any rule
as to the rights which shall origieally be ittiplied between
the patties themselves but that the right of copy shall
be registered as tb hook, picture, or engraving, only with
the consent of both exhibited in writing ; and when
01100 to registered, shall be abSolute in the party re-
gistered as owners At present an engraver who has given
large ram for permission to engrave a picture, and ex-
pended his money and labour on the plate, may be met by
unexpected competition, for which he has no remedy. By
making the registration not the condition of the right itself,
but of the remedy by action or otherwise, the independence
of the contracting parties will be preserved, and this evil
avoided for the future. A competent tribunal will still be
wanting. Its establishment is beyond the scope of my in-
tention or my power; but I feel that complete justice will
not be done to literature and art until a mode shall be de-
vised for a cheap and summary vindication of their injuries
before parties better qualified to determine it than our
judges or juries.--(Hear, hear, hear.) But the main ob-
ject of the Bill which I contemplate is—l will not use the
words of ill omen, " the further encouragement of learn-
ing," but further justice to learning—by the further ex-
tension of the time during which authors shall enjoy the
direct pecuniary benefit immediately flowing from the sale
of their own works. Although I see no reason why
authors should not be restored to that inheritance which,
under the name of protection and encouragement, has been
taken from them—(Hear, hear)—l feel that the subject
has so long. been treated as matter of compromise be-
tween those who deny that the creations of the inventive
faculty, or the achievements of the reason, are the
subject of property at all, and those who think the property
should last as long as the works which contain them live,
that I propose still to treat it on the principle of compro-
mise, and to rest satisfied with a fairer adjustment of the
difference than the last Act of Parliament affords. I shall
propose, subject to modification when the details of the
measure shall be discussed, that the term of property in all
such works of learning, genius, and art, shall be extended
to sixty years, to be computed from the death of the author
which will, at least, enable him, while providing for the in-
struction and delight of distant ages, to contemplate that
he shall leave in his works themselves some legacy to those
for whom a nearer, if not a higher, duty requires him to
provide, and which may make " death less terrible." When
the opponents of literary property, in the language of Mr.
Justice Yates, speak of glory as the reward of genius,
they make an ungenerous use of the very nobleness of its
impulses, and show how little they have profitted by its
high example. When Milton, in poverty and in blind-
ness, fed the flame of his divine enthusiasm by the as-
surance of a duration coeval with his language, I be-
lieve, with Lord Camden, that a thought crossed him
of the wealth which might be amassed by the sale of
his Poem—(Hear, hear)—but surely some shadow would
have been thrown on the clear dream and solemn vision of
his future glories, had he foreseen that, while booksellers
should strive to rival each other in the magnificence of their
editions, or their adaptation to the convenience of various
classes of admirers and their own, his only surviving de-
scendant—a woman—should be relieved from abject want
only by the charity of Garrick, who, at the solicitation of
Dr. Johnson, gave her a benefit at the theatre which had
appropriated to itself all that could be represented of
Comas.--(Hear, hear.) The liberality of genius is surely
ill-urged as a reason for our ungrateful denial of its rights.—
(Hear.) The late Mr. Coleridge gave an example, not of
its liberality, but of its profuseness, while he sought not even
to appropriate to himself the fame of the vast intellectual
treasures which he had derived from boundless research and
tinted by a glorious imagination—while he scattered abroad
the seeds of beauty and of wisdom, to take root in con-
genial minds, and was content to witness their fruits in the
productions of those who received them.—(Cheers.) But
ought we, therefore, the less to deplore, now when theliving
music of his divine philosophy is for ever hushed, that the
earlier portion of these works, on which he stamped his own
impress—all which he desired of the world, that they should
be recognised as his—are published for the gain of others
than his children ; that his death is illustrated by the for-
feiture of their birthright ?—(Hear.) What justice is
there in this ? Do we reward our heroes so ?—( Hear.)
Do we tell them that glory was their reward—that they '
fought for posterity—and that posterity would pay them ?
—( Hear, hear.) We leave them to no such cold and un-
certain requittal. We do not merely leave them to enjoy
the spoils of their vietorieeL—wo concentrate a nation's
honest feeling of gratitude and pride into the form of an en-
dowment, and teach other ages what we thought, and what
they ought to think, of their deeds, by the substantial me-
morials of our praise.—,(Hear, hear.) Were our Shake-
peare and Milton less the ornaments of their country, less
4
the benefactors of mankind ? Would the example be less
inspiring if we permitted them to enjoy the spoils of their
victories—if we allowed to their descendants, not the tax
assessed by present gratitude and charged on the future, but
the mere amount which the future might be delighted to
pay, and in which payment the reward must be commensu-
rate, not only to the immediate good, but to the permanent
blessing—extending as the circle of their glory expands,
and rendered by those who reap the benefit and arc con-
tent at once to enjoy and to reward its author 2 (Hear.)
But I do not press those considerations to the full ex-
tent—the part is beyond our power—and I only ask
for the present a brief reversion in the future. Riches
fineless are already ours. It is, in truth, the great-
ness of the blessings which the world inherits from genius
that dazzles the mind on this question—and the habit of re-
paying its legacy by words that confuses us, and indisposes
us to justice. It is because the spoils of time are ours—be-
cause the forms of classic beauty wear for us the bloom of
an imperishable youth—because the elder literature of our
own country is a free mine of wealth for booksellers, and of
delight to ourselves, that we are unable to understand the
claim of our contemporaries to a beneficial interest in their
works.--( Hear, hear.) Because genius of necessity com-
municates so much, we cannot conceive it as retaining any-
thing for its possessor. There is a sense, indeed, in
which the poets have made us " heirs of truth and
pure delight in Heavenly lays ;" and it is because of
this very gift—because their thoughts become our thoughts,
and their phrases unconsciously enrich our daily language—
because their works, harmonious in themselves, suggest
to us the rules of composition by which their imita-
tors should be guided—because to them we can resort,
and " in our golden hues draw light"—that we cannot
fancy them apart from ourselves, or admit that they have
any property except in our praise. And our gratitude is
shown, not only in leaving their descendants without parti-
cipation in our material substance, but in leaving even the
fame to be frittered away by abridgments—polluted by base
intermixtures—and deny to their descendants even the cold
privilege of watching over and protecting it. There is
something peculiarly unjust in bounding the time of an au-
thor's property by that of his natural life. It denies to age
and experience the probable reward it permits to youth—
to youth sufficiently full of hope and joy to slight its pro-
mises! It gives a bounty to haste, and informs the labo-
rious student, who would wear away his life to complete
some work which " the world will not willingly let die,"
that the more of his life he devotes to its perfection, the
more limited shall be his interest in its fruits. It stops the
progress of remuneration at the moment when it is most
needed, and when nature would turn the fate of the dead
into the means of provision to survivors. At the moment
when his name is invested with the solemn interest of the
grave, whet, his excentricities or frailties excite a smile or
a shrug no longer, when the last seal is set upon his earthly
course, and his works assume their place among the classics
of his country, your law says his works shall become our
own public property, and you will requite him by seizing
on the patrimony of his children.—(Hear.) We blame the
errors and excesses of genius, and we leave them, justly
leave them, for the most part to the consequences of their
mingled nature ; but if genius, in assertion of its diviner al-
liances, produce larger returns when the course of its frail
possessor is spent, why is the public to insult his descend
ants with their alms and their pity ?—(Hear,hear.) What
right have we to moralise over the excesses of a Burns, and
insult hi arnemory by charitable honours, while we are
taking the benefit of his premature death, in the expiration
of his copyright, and the consequent deduction of some
paltry sum from the price of his works.—(Hear, hear.) Or,
to advert to a case in which the highest intellectual powers
were astociated with the noblest moral excellence, what
right have we to take credit to ourselves for a poor and
ineffectual subscription to rescue Abbotsford for the family
of its great author, while we insist on appropriating even
now the profits of his earlier poems to ourselves, and antici-
pate the time when, in a few years,
hisnovels
without rent-charge to enjoy, and every
one willto
eboep
yo,utros
emasculate, and to garble ?—(Hear, hear, hear.) This
theis
nou
re a;sebuotf
look
ke
ownhoaninothKeirn gsr picture—thatac received all
peoplea_
ofdelightedl,,ian
andtoohof
contemporaries, and
ginejnuiruiessanfrdoniintehgisrit
lolbttl e. insultsothin
integrity,
loriedin—fublain,
aknrudpdt)--,
from posterity but a naive—look at Daniel ages Foe re-
collectgingveianritalgie struggle away
h;
—s • n lifed
his works live, imitated
topay hisli m
creditorsPd
, corrupted, yet cas •
ting off the stains,
not by protection of law, but by
their own pure essence.
—(Hear.) Had every schoolboy, whose young imagina-
tion has been prompted by his great work, and whose
heart has learned to beat in the strange yet familiar soli-
tude he created, given the halfpenny to the statute of
Anne, there would have been no need of a provision for his
children, no need of a subscription for a statue to his
memory.—( Hear, hear.) The term allowed by the exist-

'l4-1E SUN, LONDON,

ing law is curiously adapted tO @ncOtirage the !ightest
Works, atil to leans the noblest unprotected; Its little
span ,it ample.for
.atithert Who seek, only, td amuse ; who,
f' to bhuile the time, lost like the time f' also lent to fri
volity or corruption " lighter wings to fly," who sparkle,
blaze, and expire! These may well—the fire-flies on
the heaving sea of public opinion and haunting feeling ;
yet surely it is nut .111 st ttl legislate rbt, these alone, and
deny.all reward to that iiterailire iyhil h e4)ire endure.
—( Hear, hear.) Let the tiiPPO'Se aii liiith4r Of trite. ori-
ginal geniugt dltgustett With the inane phraseology which
had taken the place of poetry, and devoting himself from
youth to its service, disdaining the superficial graces
which attract the careless and unskilled in the moving
accidents of fortune—not sailing in the tempest of the
passions, but in the serenity which lies above them ;
whose works shall be scoffed at—whose name made a
by-word—yet who shall
,persevere in his high and holy
cause, gradually impressing thoughtful minds with the
pereeption of truths made visible in the severest forms
of beauty, until he shall gradually create the taste by
which he shall be appreciated—>intluence one or other of
the master-spirits of his age—be felt pervading every part
of the national literature—softening, raising, and enrich-
ing it ; and when at last he shall find his confidence in
his own aspirations justified, and the name which was
the scorn admitted to be the glory of his age, he shall
look forward to the close of his earthly career, as the event
shall lend the last consecration to his fame, and deprive his
children of the harvest he was just beginning to reap.
As soon as his copyright becomes valuable it is gone.—
(Hear, hear.) This is no imaginary case; I refer to one
who, "in the setting part of time," has opened a vein of
sentiment and thought unknown before—who has supplied
the noblest antidote to the freezing effects of the scientific
spirit of the age—who, while he has detected that poetry
which is the essence of the greatest things, has cast a glory
around the lowliest conditions of humanity, and traced out
the subtle links by which they are connected with the
highest—of one whose name will now find an echo not
only in the heart of the secluded student, but in that
of the busiest of those who are fevered by political con-
troversy—of William Wordsworth.—(Cheers.) Ought
we not to requite such a poet in some degree for the injus-
tice of our boyhood ?—(Hear, hear.) For those works which
are invariably quoted by our most popular writers, the spirit
of which now mingles. with our intellectual atmosphere,
he probably has not received, through the long life he has
devoted to his art, until lately, as much as the same labour,
with moderate talent, might justly produce in a year of
moderate industry.—( Hear.) Shall the law, whose time
has been amply sufficient to his scorners—which has pro-
tected them—now give no protection, because he has out-
lived their scoffs, and because his fame has been fostered
amidst the storms, and has now the growth of years? There
is only one other consideration *to which I will advert as
connected with this subject—the expedience and justice of
acknowledging the rights of foreigners to copyright in this
country, and of claiming it for ourselves in return. If at
this time it were clear that our law allowed no protection to
foreigners first publishing in this country, there would be
great difficulty in dealing with this question for ourselves,
and we might feel bound to leave it to negociation to give
and to obtain reciprocal benefits. But if a recent decision
on the subject of musical copyright is to be regarded as
correct, the principle of international copyright is already
acknowledged here, and there is little for us to do, in order
that we may be enabled to claim its recognition from.
foreign states. It has been decided by a judge conversant
with the business and the elegancies of life, to a degree
unusual with an eminent lawyer—by one who was the most
successful advocate of his time, yet who was not more
remarkable for his skill in dealing with facts than for the
grace with which he embellished them—by Lord Abinger
—that the assignee of foreign copyright, deriving title from
the author abroad to publish in this country, and creating
that right within a reasonable time, may claim the protec-
tion of our Courts against any infringement of his copy. If
this is law, and I believe and trust it is, we shall make no
sacrifice in so declaring it, and in setting an example which
France, Prussia, America, and Germany are prepared to
follow.—(Hear, hear.) Let us do justice to our law and
to ourselves.—( Hear, hear.) At present not only is the
literary intercourse of countries who should form one great
family degraded into a low series of piracies ; not only are
industry and genius deprived of their just reward ; but our
literature is debased in the eyes of the world by the
wretched medium through which they behold it. Pilfered,
and disfigured in the pilfering, the noblest images are
broken : wit falls pointless, and verse is only felt in
fragments of broken music : sad fate for an irritable race !
—(Hear, hear.) The great minds of our times have
now an audience to impress far vaster than it entered
into the minds of their predecessors to hope for—an
audience increasing as population thickens in the cities of
America, and spreads itself out through its long-untrodden
wilds—who speak our language, and who look at our old
poets as their own immortal ancestry. And if thus our lite-
rature shall be theirs—if its diffusion shall follow the efforts
or the stout heart and steady arm in their triumph over the
obstacles of nature—if the deeper woods which shall still
encircle the still-extending states of civilisation shall be
haunted with visions of beauty which our poets have
created, let those who thus are softening the ruggedness of
young society have some personal interest about which af-
fectioa may gather ; and at !east let them be protested from
those who would exhibit them mangled or corrupted to the
new world of their admiring disciples. I do not, in truth,
ask for literature favour-1 do not ask it for charity—l do
not even appeal to gratitude in its behalf ; but I ask it for
a portion, and but a portion, of that common justice which
the coarsest industry obtains for its natural reward, and
which nothing but the very extent of its claims, and the no-
bleness of the associations to which they are akin, have pre-
vented it from receiving from our laws. The Hon. and
Learned Gentleman concluded by moving, " That leave be
given to bring in a Bill to consolidate and amend the laws
relating to property in books, musical compositions, acted
dramas, pictures, and engravings, to provide remedies for
the violation thereof, and extend the term of its duration.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
lie did not know whether he might claim the privilege of
seconding the motion of his Hon. and Learned Friend, but
lie begged to be allowed to do so—never, on any occasion,
having enjoyed a mere unmixed feeling of gratification than
he derived both from the speech of his Hon. and Learned
Friend—(Much cheering)—and the motion of which it was
introductory. And in passing he might be allowed to say,
that the motion was not inappropriately made by his Hon.
and Learned Friend—(Cheers)—to whom the country was
under some obligations of a literary character which would
long be remembered—(Renewed cheers). Most fitting was
it that one to wheal the country was so indebted should
come forward and claim in behalf of literature not an act of
charity or generosity, but an act of pure justice.—( Hear,
hear.) He would not run the chance of weakening in the
slightest degree the force of the observations which had
fallen from his Hon. and Learned Friend, by endeavouring
to illustrate them or carry them further, but he would re-
mark that, judging from the mode in which his Hon. and
Learned Friend's arguments had been received, it appeared
that there were none of his hopes for the future which the
House was not disposed to participate in. For himself, he
must say, that no case within his knowledge had been pre-
sented to the attention of the Government. in which lite-.
rary men or their descendants claimed the bounty of the
Crown without serious reproach appearing to attach to the
law of copyright.(Hear, hear, hear.) No such case had
been under his cognisance without his feeling, when the
Crown was doling out the bounty which Parliament placed
at its disposal for such purposes, that a much more liberal
provision than could be thus afforded would have been se-
cured to them as a matter of right if the law of copyright
had been just in its operation.—( Hear, hear.) In the
course of his observations his Hon. and Learned Friend
had opened a question of considerable importance : he
alluded to the question of international law ; and he had
brought the subject forward at a most opportune period,
inasmuch as that other brother of the English family—for
so he must ever describe the nation on the other side of the
Atlantic—( Hear, hear)—had already given it some atten-
tion. He believed it had been brought under the consi-
deration of the American Congress by a report drawn up by
one of its most eminent statesmen, Mr. Clay. The illus-
trations alone of his Hon. and Learned Friend were suffi-
cient, in his opinion, to make out his case ; but, taken in
connection with the arguments which he had urged, they
were beyond doubt irresistible. The Right Hon. Gentle-
man, in conclusion, said he was quite sure that it would be
most gratifying_ to the most distinguished of living poets to
see justice rendered to genius, and to receive it at the hand
of his Hon. and Learned Friend.—(Cheers.)
Sir H. INGLIS said, having in the course of last ses-
sion intended to bring this subject under the consideration
of the house, he was unwilling to lose the present oppor-
dtuonnietys
oo tea
Inagd tehvaetr y
rs
et eaas do
nof t roe geroent irnagt
utiha at
et hfiele had
unsoet,
those interested in our literature, and the country at large,
that the task had been undertaken by one who was in all
r e sip,eecat‘s ,
es
was
ahsi highly qualifiedgi v
e given
to tborirneoa render r
theit IBu
itli.c e.—(Cheers.)
FINAL REGISTRY OF° ELECTORS BILL.
to M
introduce rE ljP l
wasi NsSi mTi l°a rN toE o n said,e
of bringing in last year, and which was read a second time.
othhiechß ihll;whhaicdhlie eudr
It was then withdrawn, because its clauses were inserted in
the Registration of Voters Bill. That Bill, however, did not
pass the other House, and, as it seemed very problematical
what might become of the Registration of Voters Bill this
yer,r, he had thought it advisable to make a second attempt
to remedy a practical grievance. In the present thin state
of the House he did not wish to occupy its time, and would,
therefore, merely state that the objects of the Bill (as its
name implied) were in the first place, to give the right of
voting to every man whose name might appear on the
register of the current year, without regard to any loss of
qualification that might hay

ItiDAY, MAY 19, 1837.

And, in the second place, to make election Committees of
this House courts of appeal, that Was La 6:ty; to prevent
election Committees from opening the register, or froth in=
quiring inid the validity or invalidity of any vote, unless
the veto had pretiously been Made a matter of discussion
before a revising barrister.—( Hear.) lie quite agreed
in all that was ;'eterday by the Hon. and Learned
Member for Liskeard Orr. C, Buller; r ;,:I:::eting the bad-
neo,cf electltiti ttithrtiittos nb tribunals to decide on tnu
validity 8f e but that We'd d for limiting
their power, arid preventing their interfering with 061
tions which might be better decided in the Courts below.
Mr. WASON inquired why no progress had been made
with the Itegistfation of Voters Bill ?
The ATTORNEY-GENII:IIAL said the Hon, Gen-
tleman must be well acquainted with the state or public
business, and of the impossibility of proceeding with that
amongst other hear.) The fault was not
with the Government. He yet hoped that the Imprison.
ment for Debt Bill, and all the other measures which had
been brought in by the Government, would • follow each
other in rapid succession through this House, and be sent
triumphantly up to the House of Lords. As regarded
the present measure, he had consulted with his Noble
Friend the Secretary for the Home Department, and they
had determined not 'to oppose the motion.
After a few words front Mr. P. BORTH WICK,
Mr. WASON said they had had two Bills with the same
object before them. He called that a waste of the time of
the House.
Leave given to bring in the Bill.
LUDLOW CHARITY TRUSTS.
Mr. CHARLTON rose to make the motion of which
lie had given notice. He said that if an inquiry that he
wished for were conceded, he should he able to prove that
the trusts that were intended solely for charitable purposes
had been squandered away in litigation. He wished for
the inquiry in order to disprove the charges that had been
made against him. He considered that the Government
was pledged to grant the inquiry that he sought for. He
could show that he was not guilty of the charges that had
been preferred against him ; but that those who made them
were themselves guilty of great abuses.
An HON. MEMBER moved that the House be counted,
and forty Members not being present, the House adjourned
at a Quarter past Seven o'Clock.

LIST OF THE THIRTY-EIGHT MEMBERS
Who were in the House when it was counted out on the 18th May,
on Mr. Charlton's Motion for a Select Committee.
Balfour, Thomas Fergusson, IL C. Richards, Richard
Barclay, David Harcourt, G. G. Roebuck, J. A.
Baring, F. T. Jackson, J. D. Rolfe, Sir R. M.
Barnard, E. G. Lewis, W. Sandon, Lord
Bernal, It. Lowther, J. H. Stanley, W. 0.
Bowes, T. Marsland, H. Stanley, E. J.
Borthwick, P. Nicholl, J. Thomson, C, P.
Bowring, Dr. O'Ferrall, More Twiss, Horace
Brotherton, J. Pease, Joseph Wakley, Thomas
Charlton, E. L. Philips, M. Warburton, 11.
Clive, Viscount Pinney, W. Wodehouse, E.
Clive, E. B. Rice, 'l'. S. Wortley, J. S.
Fector, John Minet Young G. F.

REPRESENTATION OF GLASGOW

The Tories of our good city seem to be emulous of ac-
quiring for themselves the reputation of unfeeling, if not in-
decent, politicians. Without ascertaining whether there is
or will be a vacancy, they have assumed that the mis-
fortunes of one of our representatives must lead to such a
result, and at once they plunge into plots ar.d meetings,
with the view of planting a Tory over us. Yesterday, some
Churchmen, of questionable political reputation, assembled
a motley group together, to prevail on the Tories to take a
Churchman, slightly addicted to Liberal principles, under
their protection ; but while the latter admitted their wil-
lingness to take up the cry of the Church, or any other cry
to serve the Tory cause, they would have nothing to do
with a Church candidate. There is at least some honesty
in thi% line of conduct. And there is some courage also, I
for, according to report, the Tories have agreed to thrust
upon Glasgow a very young candidate for senatorial dis-
tinction, totally unacquainted with any one of the great
interests of our city, and net at all likely to trouble himself
about them. Nay, more, they actually began yesterday to
hawk about a requisition to this stripling! How very dif-
ferent has been the conduct of the Liberals from that of
the Tories ! They have not made a single movement ;
they are obviously desirous that their excellent representa-
tive should :still remain at his post ; indeed they will not
move until he has broken up the connection betwixt them.
They thus evince their good feeling towards him personally,
and their reliance on the firmness and activity of their
party. And if the time should not be distant when they
shall be called on to try their principles at the poll, they
will not value them the less, or be the less ready to act
upon them, that they have previously exhibited a degree of
sympathy for misfortune equally creditable to them as men
and as politicians. In the mean time, we earnestly caution
all Liberal electors' against subscribing any requisition at
present, as a Liberal candidate will unquestionably solicit
their suffrages as soon as the field is.open.—Scots Times.

PROVINCIAL BANK OF IRELAND.

Yesterday a highly respectable body of Proprietors of
the above Company met at their office, Old Broad-street, to
receive the annual report of the Directors. Among the
company were :—Thomas Masterrnan, Esq. ; A. Alex-
ander, Esq. ; M. 0' Farrell, Esq. ; Sir Robert Campbell,
Bart. ; A. Thorp, Esq. ; J. Young, Esq. M.P. ; J. P.
Muspratt, Esq. ; G. R. Robinson, Esq. M.P. ; E. Blount,
Esq. ; S. E. Morgan, Esq. ; M. Attwood, Esq. M.P. ; E.
Fletcher, Esq. ; &c. &c.

Mr. O'FARRELL, Esq., being unanimously called to the
Chair, W. MARSHALL, Esq., having read the advertisement
which convened the meeting,
The CHAIRMAN rose and said—Gentlemen, you have
heard from the Secretary the object of this meeting. It is of
a two-fold character : the first is to elect four Directors, in
the room of the same number of gentlemen who go out by
rotation. The second object is co hear the Report of our
last year's proceeding. The first in order will be to elect
the Directors, in the room of H. Alexander, M. Attwood,
M. Monteflore, and John Wright, Esquires. As no other
gentleman have offered themselves to fill these vacancies,
I will put it to the meeting that the same gentlemen be re-
elected (which was carried unanimously). We will now
proceed with that which is far more interesting to the pro-
prietors—it is the Report of our last year's proceeding,
and when we take into consideration the extraordinary
events of the year, both in commercial and banking transac-
tions, I feel confident it will give to you the greatest satis-
faction in its details.—(Hear, hear.)
The SECRETARY then read the following Report :
It will be in the recollection of the proprietors, that in the
Report to the last yearly General Meeting, the Directors
took occasion to advert to the extraordinary multiplication of
branches of the joint-stock banks then existing, which were
rapidly spreading over the whole country, and had given to
banking in Ireland a novel and an alarming appearance. It
was also stated in that Report, that several entirely new joint-
stock banks had been announced as being at that time in the
act of formation. Of these latter two banks have been since
that period established, viz., the Ulster Banking Company in
Belfast, which quickly opened a number of branches ; and the
Royal Bank of Ireland, which being established in Dublin,
has no power to issue notes as long as the exclusive privileges
of the Bank of Ireland are continued.

In addition to these another Joint-stock Bank has been
recently announced in Cork, to be called the " Southern
Bank of Ireland." And, pursuant to that announcement, the
names of certain parties, as Shareholders, Directors, and
Officers have been registered at the Stamp-office in Dublin
on the lath of March last.

With reference to the increase of Banking offices in Ireland,
the Directors have further to remark that, fur some time sub-
sequent to the last general meeting of Proprietors, they con-
tinued to be urged, as they had previously been, by solicita-
tions from a great variety of quarters, to set down additional
Branches ; but, with the exception of one Branch on a small
scale at Cootehill, which was considered necessary to maintain
business connections previously formed in the same county,
all such applications were declined ; the Directors not being
able to perceive, in the aspect of affairs, any reason for
changing the opinion expressed in their preceding Report, that
the competition in banking, which seemed to be carried on to
excess, foreboded no good either to the country at late, or
the Banks which engaged in the conflict.
The Directors therefore continued to act on the system of
caution and restriction which they had fur several previous
months been inculcating upon all their Managers ; deeming
it snore prudent to forego the advantage of even good busi-
ness in some quarters, than to engage in competition
with other Companies who, for the sake of extending the cir-
culation of their notes 1 were in danger of rendering credit of
too easy attainment by persons undeserving of it ; thereby
producing reckless competition in the markets on the part of
buyers, and raising, in Ireland, the prices of produce far be-
yond what could be realised in the markets of consumption on
this side the Channel, the ruinous consequences of which it
was not difficult to foresee.

But besides the contingent danger to be apprehended from
losses likely to arise through laxity in affording credit, ano-
ther certain and immediately injurious effect upon banking in
Ireland, was produced by the prevailing competition in reduc-
ing the terms of transacting business below the level of fair
profit ; and in causing these terms to be unnecessarily persisted
in, as will be noticed hereafter, for a considerable time after
the rates of discount had been universally raised in England.
Nor was this all ; for while a desire to engross the circulation,
or eagerness to obtain a footing in the country, made certain
banks lower the terms of lending money, the wish to obtain
the means of effecting this object, without calling for capital
from their shareholders, induced some of these banks to raise,
at the same time, the rate of interest on deposits—thus, by
the operation of a double process, diminishing the fair and le-
gitimate profits of banking.
If it should be said here, that the country was a gainer by
this process; inasmuch as those who wanted money for the
purposes of trade and agriculture, were thus enabled to obtain
it at an easy rate ; while those, on the other hand, who were
possessed of money, but wanted either the wish or the oppor-
tunity to employ it in such pursuits, had thus, without risk or
trouble to themselves, the means of procuring, for the use of
their money, a better return than they could formerly have
done; it may be fairly answered, that the real and solid ad-

private or by joint. stock companies, are not to be looked for,
unless the terms on which Banking Companies, of the one or
the ether description, carry on their busines, are such as to enable
themselvei proW.r. The expenses on the one hand, and the
hazards on the other, are so considerable, that unless it be visible
to all reflecting persons that the accommodation which is afforded
by any Bank to the public, is so conducted as to unite profit with
prudence iti its transactions, that Bank will neither command
the confidence of the entintryf nor be able to confer upon the
district in which its operations Ere exercised any real advan
tages in the encl.
As the reason 1836.7 advanced in its progress, the symp
toms of a eiiinKe (tont the prosperous appearance which Ire.
land presented in 1836.6, began gradually to develop,: them.
selves. The very unpropitious Weather which prevailed dur-
ing the summer and harvest had, a moCt deteriorating effect
upon the crops. A general apprehension of scarcity both at
home and abroad, however erroneously entertained, yet, aided
by the facilities of obtaining money already referred to, excited
speculation in corn, end raised the prices in Ireland to an un-
reasonable height; whilst tile ()utility of the grain exported to
Britain at the commencement of the season proved to be of a
very inferior description, owing to the unfavourable weather in
which it had been reaped, and the bad condition in which it
had been brought to market. The flax crop in the north, also,
was so much damaged, as to have been almost totally ruined.
In England, likewise, the face of the commercial world
had, before this time, been gradually changing its appear-
ance, and the scarcity of money began now to be seriously
felt. Yet, strange to say, through the competition already
alluded to, the rate of interest charged by the Banks in Ire-
land continued for a considerable time to be under that which
was charged by the Bank of England. But this unnatural
state of things could not last. Money could not continue to
be plenty in Ireland, and to be scarce in England at the
same time. Those Banks which, both in England and Ire-
land had been most active in forcing business became sorely
pressed. This was very visible in Ireland in the month of Oc-
tober, and the pressure went on increasing till the middle of
November, when the Agricultural and Commercial Bank was
obliged to suspend its operations.
The effect of this shock to public credit by the stoppage of
a Company so extended over Ireland, having not fewer than 45
branches, may be supposed to have been considerable. The
condition of that Bank, for some time before its failure, had
been very apparent, and had created a growing alarm, which
at length broke out in a demand upon it far gold that quickly
extended itself to all the banks in Ireland. The Pro-
vincial Bank, of whose credit and stability the county evi .
dently entertained no doubt whatever, was nevertheless, in
consequence of that alarm, subjected to the risk and expense of
of transmitting large suppiies of gold in addition to the ample
stocks with which it was already prepared, and had for some-
time been at all its branches, in case of any extraordinary de-
mand arising; it being obvious that if the event which was ap-
prehended, and which did happen, should produce a general
panic in the country, circumstances would be so different from
those of any former run, that it would not be in the power of
the Directors to calculate to what length the demands for gold
might extend.
It can scarcely be necessary here for the Directors to state
to the Proprietors that the assertions which have been put
forth in speeches and resolutions inserted in the public news-
papers on behalf of the Agricultural and:Commercial Bank,
charging the officers of the Provincial Bank with unfair con-
duct towards that establishment, are entirely without founda-
tion—( Hear, hear)—and were only not replied to, because
the Directors considered them to be altogether undeserving of
notice._( Hear, hear.)
It seems to be of more importance that the Proprietors
should be made fully aware of the difficulties which the Direc-
tors bad to contend with, upon the occasion of this last run for
gold, compared with the runs which had preceded it.
These difficulties were 1. The increase in the number of
the branches of the Provincial Bank. 2. The greater
.num-
ber of branches actually subjected to the extraordinary demand
for gold. 3. The difference of locality in the branches sub-
jected to such demands contrasted with former instances. 4.

Ihe extreme scarcity of money in England at the time this
last run commenced, contrasted with what had been the state
of the money market, on every preceding occurrence of the
same kind.
The run which preceded that of November last, took place
in February and March 1833, and may be assumed as an in-
stance of the contrast here referred to. Of the whole number
of branches ten only were subjected to demands on that occa-
sion ; and of these ten, not one was situated to the north of a
line drawn across the island from Dublin to Galway. In the
space of nearly four years which had intervened, February
1633 and November 1836, the branches of the Bank had, in
compliance with most respectable invitations from all parts of
the country, been gradually increased in number; and of the
whole branches now existing, twelve are located in the pro-
vince of Ulster, a division of the country till that period entirely
exempted in the experience of the Provincial Bank from that
species of excitement, which in the south and south-west of Ire-
land had so repeatedly produced extraordinary demands for
gold, whereas on the late occasion now mentioned, every one
of the branches of the Provincial Bank, without exception,
whether in the north or south, the east or the west of Ire-

land, was more or less the subject of such demands.
were any of the Banks in the North exempted.
That such an excitement was not unlikely to be produced

Nor

in consequence of the imprudent system of banking which
had been obviously spreading over the country, and had pene-
trated into the north as well as into the other districts of Ire-
land, the Directors bad too much reason to apprehend; and
although the confidence of the country in the Provincial Bank
was believed to be, as it has proved, unshaken, it was not the
less a duty incumbent on the Directors to reinforce its
branches at every point, however well provided, as before
mentioned, these already were for even more than ordinary
demands.

The proprietors have been fully informed by former yearly
reports, that in order so provide for all ,such possible emer-
gencies, it is the practice of the Directors to preserve an ade-
quate portion of the funds of the Bank in a tangible yet pro-
ductive condition. On the recent occasion, accordingly, not-

withstanding the numerous points to be attended to, the Bank
was not, by any means, taken unprepared, although such was
the extreme scarcity of money in the principal mart of the
empire, that for a part of the time while these demands for
gold in Ireland lasted, even Exchequer Bills were all but in-
convertible.—(Hear, hear.) A state of things which had
not occurred upon the occasion of any former run the Provin-
cial Bank of Ireland has had to record.
The effects of these circumstances upon Ireland were but
too visible. One considerable channel, through which pur-

chasers in her markets for export had been supplied, was com-
pletely stopped. Those Banking Companies who continued
their business, but who had relied upon re-discounting the
bills of their customers to enable them to maintain the race of

competition, were compelled by the increasing scarcity of mo-
ney, to draw in ; while those other Banks which had all along
avoided that course, felt it not to be the less necessary now to
redouble their caution. The high prices to which produce in the
Irish markets had been unnaturally raised, could not there-
fore be maintained; and numerous failures became as naturally

the consequences of their depression, and of the restrictive
measures to which the Banks were compelled to resort. And
not only were the export ma►kets for corn and provisions from
Ireland to Britain affected, but the very important and re-
cently flourishing trade to America, in the manufactures of
Ulster, began about the same time to feel the effects of those
more extended operations between Britain and the United
States which, increased as they have since unfortunately been,
by similar derangement in some of our eastern commercial re-
lations, have now for several months continued to agitate the
mercantile world.

In reviewing the events of the past year, therefore, the pro-
prietors will readily perceive that the Directors have had no
ordinary difficulties to encounter, and that the profits of the year
must have been considerably affected by the circumstances
which have been detailed. 1. By the extraordinary rivalship
which had been raised up in banking, and which, even if it
had not reduced the rate of profit, must have necessarily re-
duced the amount of the business of any pre- existing estab-
lishment. 2. The actual low rate at which, owing to that
rivalship, business was in reality, for a great part of the year,
transacted. 3. By the unavoidable expenses of maintaining
in the ft-at instance heavy stocks of gold, throughout the year,
and then of transmitting large supplies, to meet a general and
extensive run on the Banks in Ireland at a time of unexampled

pressure on the money market. And, 4. By the failures con-
sequent upon the scarcity of money and derangement of credit,
from a share in the losses occasioned by which, it was not to

be expected, the Provincial Bank could escape.
Under all the circumstances which have marked the comse
of the past year, the Directors trust that the proprietors will
feel satisfied with the following Statement of Accounts, to

which their attention is now reqnested, viz :
By the Accounts submitted to the last Yearly Ge-
neral Meeting, the amount of Undivided Profits
at the 26th March, 1836, was £124,335 8 11

From which there is to be deducted the sum of

40,000/. added to the Capital of the Bank, in
the form of 4.000 New Shares of 10/. each, dis-
tributed to the existing proprietors at 25th June,
1836, pursuant to the Resolutions of an Extra-
ordinary General Meeting of Proprietors, held
on the 15th June, 1836, making the paid-up
Capital of the Bank 540,000/. Deduct accord-
ingly

Remain... £84,355 8 11
To which add the Net Profits for the year ending
the 25th, being the last Saturday, of March
1837, after deduction of all expenses, and pro-
viding for all bad and doubtful Debts, amount-
ing to

... 45,943 3 8

Sum of these Z 130,298 111 7
From which there is to be taken the Amount of
Dividends paid to the Proprietors since last
Yearly Meeting, viz :-
1. On the Original 100/. Shares—
At Alidstuniner, 1836 ...... —20,000/.
At Christmas, 1836 20,000/.
2. On the new 10/. Shares—
At Christmas, 1836 ...
Sum.

. 1,6001.

41,600 0

Remains, Amount of Undivided Profits at 25th
March, 1337 £88,693 12 7
From this statement the proprietors will observe that the
paid-up capital of the Bank is 110 W 540,0001., consisting of
20,000 original shares of 1001. each, on which 251. has been
paid ; and 4,000 of 10/. each, which have been wholly paid :
and that, notwithstanding tha unprecedented circumstances
which have been referreeto, the profits of the year not only
warrant the Directors to continue the rates of dividend at
eight per cent., on both the old and the new shares, but have
also enabled them to add to the rest, or amount of undivided
profits at 25th March, 1837, the sum of 4,313/. 3s. Bd.,
making the amount of the rest, as above stated, 83,698/. 12s. yd.,
after having appropriated 40,C001. to the encrease oPLthe
•paid-up capital of the Bank.
. _ _ _