6. Weekly returns of the Bank to be published.

7. The Bank to be exempt from Stamp Duty, or Composition on their Notes.

8. The Bank to deduct £180,000 per annum, on the charge for the Public Debt.

9. The Bank to allow the profits on increased circulation to the Government.

10. New Banks of Issue prohibited.

11. Restrictions upon Banks of Issue.

12. Bankers ceasing to Issue cannot re-issue their notes.

13. Limitation of Bank Issues to a fixed amount.

14, 15, 16, Sect. regulate the union of Bank partnerships.

17. Penalty on Banks issuing in excess.

18. Issuing Banks to render Accounts.

19. Mode of ascertaining the average amount of Bank Notes of each Banker in circulation during the first four weeks after the 10th October, 1844.

BANKS OF IRELAND ACT, 1845, 8 & 9 VICT. CAP. 37.

The principal features in this Act are as follows:

:

Sect. 5. Repeals 33 Geo. II. c. 14, s. 15, so

far as prohibits public officers from being partners in Banks.

Sect. 6. Bank of England Notes not allowed to be a legal tender in Ireland.

Sect. 8. No Banker, who was issuing his own Notes on the 6th May, 1844, and on the 1st May, 1845, allowed to exceed the average amount of Notes he had in circulation during the year preceding the 1st May, 1845, allowed to exceed the average amount of Notes he had in circulation during the year preceding the 1st May, 1845, such circulation to be certified by the Commissioners of Stamps, and after that date no uncertified banker allowed to issue Bank Notes in Ireland.

Sect. 12. Banks permitted to relinquish their Notes in favor of the Bank of Ireland by an Agreement in writing, and the Bank allowed to increase its Issues to the same amount, exclusive of gold and silver coin.

Sect. 13. No Banker having relinquished the right to issue Notes can resume his Issues.

Sect. 16. Every Issuing Bank to render weekly accounts to the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes, distinguishing the Notes of £5 and upwards from those below that value; and also to deliver an account of the total amount of gold and silver coin held at the head office, etc.

Sect. 18. The Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes to make monthly returns of every Bank of Issue, containing the average amount of notes in circulation, and also of the amount of gold and silver coin held by each Banker, and publish the same in the Dublin Gazette.

Sect. 20. The amount of Silver Coin not to exceed one-fourth of the gold coin held by such Bankers; and no Bankers to issue notes on silver to a greater extent than one-fourth part of the gold coin.

Authorised Issues of Irish Banks, £6,354,494.

BANKS IN SCOTLAND ACT, 1845, 8 & 9 VICT. CAP. 38.

By this Act, passed in 1845, the Scotch Banks of Issue were assimilated to the Banks of Issue in Ireland, by fixing a limit to their authorised Issues, based on an average amount of Notes in circulation during the year preceding the 1st May, 1845, such amount not to be exceeded, except the excess of such issue be covered by gold and silver coin at the head office, in the proportion of one-fourth of silver to three-fourths of gold. Only the Banks specified to issue Notes under £5; and Bank of England Notes not allowed to be a legal tender in Scotland.

Authorised Issues of Scotch Banks £3,087,209.

73

CHAPTER VII.

THE GOLD COINAGE.

THE standard fineness of the gold sovereign is 22 carats out of 24, the representative of fine gold, or 11-12ths of fine gold, and 1-12th of alloy; and the standard weight of the same coin is 123 274 grains troy, which constitute the money integer in which all values are reckoned; the quantity of fine gold in the sovereign is, therefore, 113.001 grains troy. This standard of weight and fineness, to represent the pound, was fixed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1717, when Master of the Mint.

It is a common error to consider these regulations as a "standard of value;" whereas, they only constitute a standard measure for estimating the relative value of different things compared with gold.

The common expression "Mint Price," is a term equally vague and uncertain. There is no such thing as Mint price, applicable either to gold or silver. The Mint authorities, in their

management of the Coinage, are simply authorised to coin a given weight of bullion, either gold or silver, of a specified fineness, into a certain number of pieces of a given denomination, according to regulations laid down in a document called the "Mint Indenture." It is this that gives to all the coins a certain fixed legalized value, as currency, which can never be departed from but by the authority of parliament.

Many attempts have been made by different Statesmen and others to preserve a uniform value between the coin and the bullion from which it is manufactured, but without effect, as the nominal value, given to coin in one country, ceases to exist the instant it enters another country; and it is estimated only by the quantity of fine metal contained in it.

The market price, and the Mint value of coins, therefore, simply indicate their actual value as bullion in the first case, and their nominal value as coin in the second; and as long as both are allowed to be freely exported and imported from one country to another, this distinction will always exist.

Gold is, therefore, properly made our legal tender for any sum above 40s., and as the £5 Bank of England Note represents 5 gold sovereigns, and promises to pay that amount of gold