of the said corporation, in the borrowing and receiving of monies, and giving seeurities for the same, under the common seal of the said corporation, and in their dealings in bills of exchange, or the buying and selling of bullion, gold, or silver, or in selling any goods, wares, or merchandize whatsoever, which shall really and bona fide be left or deposited with the said corporation for money lent or advanced thereon, and which shall not be redeemed at the time agreed, or within three months after; or in selling such goods as shall or may be the produce of lands purchased by the said corporation; or in lending or advancing any of the monies of the said corporation, and taking pawns, or other securities for the same."". pp. 22, 23.

Another great event in Irish banking occurred very recently, by the establishment of the Provincial Bank, which was followed by many others of a similar kind, though upon a much smaller scale; among which we may mention the Agricultural and Commercial Bank of Ireland, whose prospectus exhibits a novelty in the mode of purchasing shares, that is likely to be of much benefit to the less wealthy classes :

“1. That this establishment be called 'The Agricultural and Commercial Bank of Ireland.'

"2. That the capital of this bank shall consist of one million of shares, on each of which the sum of one pound sterling (exclusive of one shilling for defraying the expenses of outfit), shall be paid, and no further call be made, without the sanction of a meeting of proprietors duly convened for the purpose; nor in larger instalments than ten shillings per share; the consulting committee to have the power, from time to time, of appropriating one-third of the clear profits to the increase of the capital stock-not to exceed five millions in the whole.

"3. That should 25 per cent. of the capital so paid be ever lost, the company shall by such loss be dissolved-unless a majority of three-fourths of the votes, at any meeting to be duly convened for that purpose, shall decide to the contrary-the engagements of the company discharged in full -its affairs wound up, and the residue divided amongst the shareholders, in proportion to the number of shares held by them respectively. Shareholders in the country not being able to attend at such meeting, to have the power of voting by proxy on this question, under proper regulations.

4. That the cities and towns in which branches shall be established, shall be divided into first, second, and third classes, as may be expedient for the interests of the company.

"5. That residents within a due distance of each of said cities and towns, shall be considered as belonging to such city or town.

"6. That no individual shall hold more than five hundred shares in his or her name, without the consent of the consulting committee for the time being.

66

7. That in every question submitted to the shareholders, every holder of five shares shall possess one vote-of twenty shares, two votes-of fifty shares, three votes-and for each fifty shares above that number, one vote additional; no holder of shares to possess more than ten votes; all votes to be given by ballot.

"8. That the affairs of the company shall be under the direction of a consulting committee, consisting of not more than twenty-one members, each of whom shall be possessed of at least three hundred shares, to be annually elected by the shareholders by ballot; one third of such consult ing committee to go out of office each year; such consulting committee to sit at such place as may be deemed expedient.

"9. That no person shall be allowed to vote at the public meeting for the appointment of the first consulting committee, unless he or she shall have been possessed of the requisite number of shares, for one month previous to such public meeting, nor shall the right of voting be allowed at any subsequent meeting of the shareholders, unless to those who have possessed such qualifications for six months previous to such meeting.

10. That no person shall be eligible to be a member of the first consulting committee, who shall not be possessed of three hundred shares for one month previous to the election of such committee; and that no person shall be eligible to be a member of any future consulting committee, who shall not be possessed of the like number of three hundred shares for six months previous to the election of such future consulting committee.

11. That so soon as a competent number of shares shall have been subscribed for and paid up in any town and neighbouring district, a branch bank shall be established in such town, as one of the first, second, or third class (as the case may be), to be placed under the direction of a resident management; three hundred shares to be the qualification for any individual selected for such management.

"12. That the secretaries or managers shall give their constant attention to the affairs of the company. All officers employed, to give adequate security.

"13. That experienced accountants be employed by the company, who shall from time to time visit and examine the several branches.

"14. The proprietor of the stock of any other banking company may be, according to the foregoing and following conditions, a proprietor of the shares of this company, and receive its profits and dividends; but no director or officer of any other bank, shall be capable of being a director or member of the consulting committee. And any director of, or member of the consulting committee, who shall become a director or officer of any other bank, shall thereupon cease to be a director or member of the said committee, and a new director or member shall be elected in his stead.

"15. That fifty thousand provident shares, over and above, and exclusive of the paid-up capital of One Million, may be subscribed for in weekly or monthly instalments of sums not less than one shilling; that such instalments be received at the branch bank, on banking days, by the directors, managers, or proper officer, one or two of whom shall sign a script-book or other acknowledgment to the party subscribing. That as soon as the full amount of such share shall have been paid up, then such provident shareholder shall be registered in the company's books, and be to all intents and purposes a shareholder from that day.

16. That if any such subscriber to the provident shares, being a labourer, servant, or working tradesman, or if a female, being in a corresponding situation, within the district, shall continue his or her subscrip.

tions, without intermission, as above required, for five years (with certain exceptions as to sickness intervening), he or she shall at the end of such term be considered deserving the protection of the bank, and provided his or her general character be good in the opinion of the existing directors or managers, he or she shall, on application, if about to commence any branch of industry or calling requiring accommodation, be entitled to a cash credit, at their discretion, which advanced sum will be charged the usual bank interest, and the principal may be liquidated by gradual subscriptions back again to the provident shares of the bank.

17. That to give additional solidity to this institution in the minds of the less informed of its shareholders and subscribers, the superintending management may invest the surplus capital of the company on mortgage upon well-circumstanced landed estates.

"18. That with a view to the above, every proper opportunity shall be taken to ascertain a safe mode of investment.

19. That the shares of this company, except the provident shares, shall be paid up when required, by two instalments of ten shillings each. "20. That the clear profits of the company shall be divided halfyearly, and be paid at the respective branches, or in Dublin, subject only to such necessary drawback as may be deemed expedient, of such profit, which shall be kept and detained to form a reserve fund, or increase of capital.

21. That the laws constituting the company cannot be altered unless by the vote of two meetings specially called for that purpose, on notice of not less than ten days, or more than twenty-one.

666

22. That periodical reports (yearly or half-yearly, as may be agreed upon), of the proceedings shall be published, giving full and satisfactory statements of the affairs of the company.

23. That the above be the leading principles of the company, subject to such review and revision as may be found proper, at a meeting to be duly convened, when the first instalment of 10s. is paid up.'"-pp. 117—

120.

This bank commenced business towards the latter end of 1834, and has successively opened branches in the following places :

"Ballina, Ballinasloe, Bandon, Castlebar, Cork, Ennis, Enniscorthy, Fermoy, Galway, Kilkenny, Killarney, Kilrush, Limerick, Longford, Mallow, Nenagh, New Ross, Roscrea, Skibbereen, Sligo, Strabane, Strokestown, Tipperary, Tuam."-pp. 127, 128.

A still more recent undertaking of this kind is the National Bank of Ireland. It allows interest on deposits to the extent of two per cent. per annum, for money lodged on current accounts, and two and a half for money lodged on deposit receipts. Its court of directors in London are

་་

"W. H. Calvert, Esq.; John R. Elmore, Esq.; C. Fitzsimon, Esq. M.P.; Edmund F. Green, Esq.; Henry Kinscote, Esq.; T. L. Murray, Esq.; Daniel O'Connell, Esq. M.P.; M. O'Connell, Esq. M.P.; John Rawson, Esq.; J. Roskell, Esq.; J. Clement Ruding, Esq.; Isaac Solly, Jun. Esq.; The Hon. Leicester Stanhope; Robert Sutton, Esq.; Thomas Vigne, Esq."-p.129.

We shall conclude our extracts by a recent parliamentary return of the number of joint-stock banking companies in Ireland, excluding the chartered Bank of Ireland, with the dates when established, &c.

"1. The Hibernian Joint Stock Company, established by special act 5 Geo. IV., cap. 159, at Dublin-two hundred and twenty-five part

ners.

"2. The Northern Banking Company, established under general act, 31st December, 1824, at Belfast, Ballymena, Lisburne, Coleraine, Newtownlimavady, Magherafelt, Lurgan, Armagh, Downpatrick, Londonderry-two hundred and eighty partners.

666

3. The Provincial Bank of Ireland, established 31st August, 1825, at Armagh, Athlone, Ballina, Ballymena, Ballyshannon, Banbridge, Bandon, Belfast, Cavan, Clonmel, Coleraine, Cork, Downpatrick, Dungannon, Dungarvan, Ennis, Enniskillen, Galway, Kilkenny. Limerick, Londonderry, Lurgan, Mallow, Monaghan, Moneymore, Omagh, Parsonstown, Sligo, Strabane, Tralee, Waterford, Wexford, Youghal-six hundred and forty-four persons.

4. The Belfast Banking Company, established 1826, at Belfast, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Londonderry, Ballymena, Lurgan, Dungannon, Cookstown, Armagh, Banbridge-two hundred and ninety-two partners.

5. The Agricultural and Commercial Bank of Ireland, established 28th October, 1834, at Nenagh, Ennis, Bandon, Castlebar, New Ross, Enniscorthy, Limerick, Tuam, Roscrea, Skibbereen, Killarney, Strabane, Mallow, Kilkenny, Cork, Longford, Ballina, Galway, Strokestown, Kilrush, Ballinasloe, Tipperary, Fermoy, Boyle, Parsonstown, Londonderry -two thousand one hundred and seventy partners.

"6. The National Bank of Ireland, established 24th January, 1835, at Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, Thurles, Cashel, Cork, Enniscorthy, Kilkenny, Longford, Tipperary, Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Roscrea, Tralee, Cahirciveen, Dingle, Killarney, Listowel, Waterford, Dungannon, New Ross, -two hundred and fifty partners.

666

7. The Limerick National Bank of Ireland, established 17th Aug., 1835, at Limerick, Kilrush, Charleville-five hundred and twenty-three partners.

"8. The Ulster Banking Company, established 15th April, 1836, at Belfast one hundred and seventeen partners."-pp. 131, 132.

Having now gone over the entire history of banking in Ireland, we must say, that from the details given in Mr. Gilbart's work, of the great improvements that have of late been effected in this branch of business there, we are led to suppose that a corresponding increase of the domestic and foreign trade of that portion of the empire has also taken place, and that now at least, the sister kingdom has commenced her career of prosperity, of which we hope soon to see the results, in the increase and extension of domestic comforts to the great mass of her people.

397

ART. IX.

1. Remarks on the Influence of Mental Cultivation and Mental Excitement upon Health. By AMARIAH BRIGHAM, M. D. London: Whittaker & Co. 1836.

2. Observations on the Influence of Religion upon the Health and Physical Welfare of Mankind. By AMARIAH BRIGHAM, M. D. Boston. 1835.

WE shall, we think, be allowed to assert without contradiction, that there is no business or art that administers to the necessities or conveniences of mankind, which has not from time to time been beset with empiricism. Of this, we fear, education has had more than its full share. It may be doubted whether medicine itself has exhibited among its professors and practitioners a greater amount of quackery. After reading innumerable treatises to show the necessity of early mental cultivation, we have arrived at a knowledge that such early forcing of the intellect is dangerous to the health of the individual, and oftentimes destructive to the beneficial action of the organs so engaged; and that such is the case few will now question, who have advanced any degree towards a knowledge of the close connexion which subsists between the mental operations and the material medium of their manifestation. And we have no doubt it will strike the most insensible-after a consideration of the delicate structure of some of the organs most essential to life, and of their easy susceptibility, especially in childhood, to impressions unfavourable to health-and that they will see the danger of confining children to the school-room five or six hours at a sitting, daily, for years, on an uneasy bench, in a constrained posture, and often with such rigour, that to stoop and pick up a pin is marked as a misdemeanour, which counts, at the end of the year, in the estimate of character, and exerts an influence in the annual distribution of prizes. A mere glance at that wonderful organ, the brain -that mysterious medium of communication between the immaterial mind and the material body, so curiously wrought, so delicate as scarcely to admit of examination, furnished with an immense supply of blood-vessels, which are excited to increased action by every motion-the slightest hint of all this were enough, one would think, to give warning of the imminent risk with which children, at an age when bodily constitution and mental character both peculiarly expose them to injury, are forced, by hot-bed excitements, to studies proper only to maturer years. The successive develop ments of the different powers of the mind are disregarded; and at an age when little more than perception and memory are fully developed in the young mind, exercises are required, which can be properly performed only by calling into action the riper faculties of a much later