The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-27 00:00:00

NATIO. NAL BANK OF IRELAND

The sixA r airmail general meeting of the Directors and
Proprietors of 'the National Bank of Ireland, took place
yesterday, ly; is Co:upany's offices, 13, Old Broad-street.
At one o'cao ek the chair was taken by Daniel O'Connell,
Esq., M.P., iGG vernor.

The Dire( present were Col. the Hon. Leicester
Stanhope, Arice O'Connell, John Rawson, Robert
Su..ton, jun., J. C. Ending, E F. Green, John Harman,
T. Lambe Mu 'may, S. P. Rickman, James Reade, J. R.
Elmore, A. P. Johnson, J. J. Keene ; and among the
Shareholders v. re observed Sir Burton M‘Namara, Capt. •
S;:allan, the R v. Thomas Mate, James Hutchinson,
Charles Bianci mi, Richard Smithwick, James Lowe
Wheeler, Patric IL Hynes, Francis Frith, Charles Rule, E..
O'Beirne., Char ics Green, James Johnston, James Ruf-
fell, IL M. Join' s, John Robins, Augustus Vigne, Paul
Bevan, Arthur Buckley, John Thomas, William King,
John Hardy, fir 4:1 Joshua Bacon, Esqrs.
On taking the chair the GOYERNOR sail their first
dut,yin ordi nary course of business was to call on the
Secretary to r• 4tes. the advertisement. convening the
meeting. •

TheSeerutary„Frazer B. Smith, Esq., having read the
advertisement,

The Go-.7zlcion then called upon the Secretary to read
the Report, which had been unanimously a3reed to by
the Directors.. •

The Secret. try alien read the Report as follows :
REPORT

Of the ,Directc ,rs of the National Bank of Ireland, made
to the Prop .'.et. n-s at the Sixth Annual General Meet-
ing, held at th Office' of the Company, No. 13, Old
Broad-street, :London, on Wednesday, the 26th of
• .May, 1841.
The Directoml 'ave much pleasure in meeting the Pro-
prietors, assemble( 1. on the present occasion, and in sub-
, mating the uswil statement of accounts, exhibiting the
result of , their 1a )ours for the past year, whereby the
best evidence will be afforded of the continued prosperity
of the.Con.pany, 'and of its atiairs haying been prudently
! and profitabi-7, corlducted.
In conchtdulg the Report made at the last Annual
General Meeti ug , the Directors announced their inten-
tion of increasi the rate -of dividend on the 'paid up
capital of the ompany to 6 per cent., and from the
steady and satis.l ..ctory progress of the business of the
Bank, they expre ised a confident opinion that they would
not only be enal_ )led to -maintain that increased rate of
dividend, but also to make in each succeeding year a
considerable addit ion to the Proprietors' Reserve Fund.
When the rnset ..:tled state of the Money market, and
the very eaten sive failures which have occurred on both
,sides of the I risk Channel during the past year, are
taken into con: dderetion, and that every Bank, carrying
on business on an extlnded scale, must be affected, more
or less; by such, imexpected and disastrous events, it will
prove highly sr itisfactory to the Proprietors to learn, not-
withstanding t. liese adverse :circumstances, that the ex-
peetations whic h were held out to them by the Directors
at the last An- mai Meeting have.been realised, OS will
appear by the i blowing stAte-ment to which their atten-
tion is now rec Fested s. d.
Undivided Pro ts at December, 1839
Not Profits for :the year ending Dee, Is4o 27,744 12 4

£43,283 9 1
Deduct last yozr's Dividend to' the Pro-
prietors, for :Midsummer, 1840, 10,500,
Ditto, ditto, for Christmas, 1840, 10,500,

21,000 0 0

Leaving amou at of undivided Profits at

Pece—mber,l .840

. 22,283 9 6

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From the f 4 =going it will be observed that the net
pr9fits of the 1 Ist year, after defraying all the current
expenses, and , providing for bad debts, amounted
.to•
•2717441;125. 441., and after the payment of the increased
rate of divide 7 id for the year, of 6 per cent., that a sur-
plus-remains 4 )f 6,7441. 12s. 4d., which sum added to the
previous and ivided profits, leaves a total of unappro-
priated profits.,.of 22,283/. 9s. 6d. at the credit of the
•Reserve-Fund. in December last.

• In:eonclusi on, the Directors have much satisfaction in
assuring the Proprietors, that on taking a careful review
of the entire concerns of the National Bank of Ireland,
thy not only. continue to feel the same perfect confi-
dence, so strongly expressed by them in former Reports,
but the. growin g prosperity of the establishment now
fully warrants them in renewing that impression, and
- the well-grounded opinion that it will become, under
erudent and .cautious management, equally a source of
profit to the holders of its stock; as it has already proved
sininently ba aeticial to all classes in those districts of
.he country in which its operations are conducted.
There are •now to be electeil four Directors, in the
foom of Chr. istopher Fitz-simon, Esq., John Rawson,
:Esq., Colonel the lion. Leicester Stanhope, and John
Joseph Keene, Esq., who retire by rotation, all of whom
are candidates for the office, and eligible to be re-elected.
Since the last Annual General Meeting the Court of
;Directors have filled up five vacancies in the direction
;(taa since the notice convening this meeting). These
ippointmenta will now require the confirmation of the
l;roprietors, and which will complete the number of Di-
.‘ectors to sixteen, as provided by. the deed of settlement.
The GOVERNOR—In calling the attention of the Pro-
prietors to the Report, and in submitting it for their ap--
prebation, Wished to state that if any part of it had not
seen distinctly understood, it would be read over again,
any any explanation -th-g--;:t-n. required would be given
.t-ith regard to the several matters referred to therein.
He thought the Directors had a right to congratulate the
Proprietors and themselveis upon the present posture of
the affairs of the Bank.—(Hear, hear.) Last year was,
in some respects, one, giving advantages to those inte-
rested in the management of banks, because it was a year
in which Ireland was favoured by Providence with a
Top, in some respects, beyond the usual average, and as
:hat country was unhappily almost exclusively an agri-
-ntltural one, of course an increase in the agricultural
aroduc..,e must necessarily produce an increase of specula-
:ion and business, and must prove a source of profit to es-
tablishments like Banks, which make advances upon secu-
rity to be turned ultimately into capital in this country.
rhe only favourable feature in the history of the bank-
'lig concerns of the country for the last year was a good
:merest. In other respects there were many circum-
stances of an unfavourable nature, and which were cal-
nilated to impede the progress of an Institution like the
,resent. There was the ultimate closing of the Agri-
ailtural Bank. It had, as they were all probably aware,
suspended its operations shortly after its existence, and
again after fluttering for some time, and throwing out
branches into different parts of the country, it finally
closed in the course of the past year. That necessarily
disparaged and threw doubts upon the circulation and
stability of every other Bank ; and where it did not
operate to disparage, it rendered great caution necessary
on the part of the Directors, and caused them to incur
additional expense, which he trusted they would not be
called upon to incur again ; and indeed they could, not
For the same purpose, for that Bank was gone, and there
vas no possibility of its being revived.. The people of
Ireland had this reason to place confidence in the Direc-
tion of the National Bank, that when the 'Agricultural
Bank was first established, he had felt it his duty to
?üblish and give circulation to a caution to the people of
Ireland against the plan they had adopted—namely, the
carrying on their operations, not upon capital but upon
lebt: He had denounced the plan at the time, and if
there. was any confidence reposed in him on behalf of
the National Bank, that would. not be diminished by the
recollection that the Bank that had failed had been de-
nounced by him on its first' establishment. Other failures
also had occurred, that had interfered with the commer-
cial arrangements in Ireland. The failure of Wright
and Co., and others, had operated to a certain extent,
and tended materially in diminishing - the profits
of the Banlc,_ by increasing those cautionary expenses
which they were obliged to incur whenever such un-
toward events occurred in Ireland, in order to be pre-
pared against any possible contingency.—(Hear, hear.)
The Proprietors would find on a reference to the Report,
that not only was their concern a profitable one, but that
they were able to pay a dividend of 6 per cent. again,
and in addition to that, a sum of 6,744/. 12s. 4d. was
added to the rest—thus making the clear profits unap-
propriated amount to 22,2831. 9s. 6d. after dedueting two
half years' dividends at 6 per cent.'which amounted to
21,000/.—(Hear, hear.) He was directed by the Board
further to inform the Proprietors, that they had not the
least hesitation in assuring them that the dividend pay-
able in July next, would be at the rate of 6 per cent.—
(Hear, hear.)—From these statements, he thought it
must be manifest to the Proprietors, that the concerns of
the Bank were prosperous, that their prospects were
diminishinggood
good, that their resources were increasing, and the risk
in proportion as they became acquainted
with the 'characters of the trading and commercial com-
munity. They were all aware that when a Bank was
first established, it had to feel its way, and the parties
whb were most :likely to deal with it in the first instance
were persons who had worn out their credit or created
saiSpicions as to their stability in the minds of other
Bank S.. In short the first commodity with which a
Bank dealt was, perhaps, the worst it would meet with
in the course of its transactions. As it proceeded it got
rid of those weeds, of, commerce, and began to know
the good, fruit from the bad—its extended dealings made
it more conversant with men of business, and
_
it became master of a subject in which
it.was at first only malting experiments. It was now
Ns duty to submit to them the proposition, that theße
-
iaport, which had just been rend, be confirmed, printed,
land circulated among the proprietors.
had th
lileasure to add, that, although notice had been given toe
.the shareholders, no candidatehad b
'the vacancies in the direction,except those ammeetinttioonfiedll u
byp
the Secretary in reading the Report. There were four
gentlemen to be re-elected, ante fivemd
ee
ting. whose
hm
t names
e s
required the confirmation or the
would be submitted to them presently, but no other per-
sons now offered themselves, which was an evidence of
that unanimity of action which was always desirable in
institutions like theirs, and which was so conducive to
perfect harmony and co-operation.—(Cheers.)
Mr 13TANcora had great pleasure in seconding the
motion for the adoption of the Report.
• A-PitOPItIZTOR said the Report which had been read

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