ject for the establishment of a national bank for
Ireland. Swift ridiculed the proposal (see p. 31), no doubt, out of
suspicion of the acts of stock-jobbers and the monied interests which
were enlisted on the side of the Whigs. His experience, also, of the
abortive South Sea Schemes would tend to make his opposition all the
stronger. But the plans for the bank were not ill-conceived, and had
Swift been in calmer temper he might have seen the advantages which
attached to the proposals. [T. S.]

[22] Thus in original edition. In Faulkner and the "Miscellanies" of
1735 the words are, "altogether imaginary." [T. S.]

[23] The motto round a crown piece, which was the usual price of
permits. [_Orig. edit._]

[24] The Dean of St. Patrick's. [F.]

[25] Paul Lorrain, who was appointed ordinary of Newgate in 1698,
compiled numerous confessions and dying speeches of prisoners condemned
to be hanged. A letter to Swift, from Pope and Bolingbroke, dated
December, 1725, mentions him as "the great historiographer," and Steele,
in the "Tatler" and "Spectator," refers to "Lorrain's Saints." Lorrain
attended some famous criminals to the scaffold, including Captain Kidd
and Jack Sheppard. [T. S.]

[26] The following is an account of the proceedings of both the houses
of the Irish parliament upon the subject of this proposed bank.

In the year 1720, James, Earl of Abercorn, Gustavus, Viscount Boyne, Sir
Ralph Gore, Bart., Oliver St. George, and Michael Ward, Esqs., in behalf
of themselves and others, presented a petition to his Majesty for a
charter of incorporation, whereby they might be established as a bank,
under the name and title of the Bank of Ireland. They proposed to raise
a fund of L500,000 to supply merchants, etc., with money at five per
cent., and agreed to contribute L50,000 to the service of government in
consideration of their obtaining a charter. In their petition they
state, that "the raising of a million for that purpose is creating a
greater fund than the nation can employ." Soon after the above-mentioned
petition was lodged, a second application was made by Lord Forbes and
others, who proposed raising a million for that purpose, and offered to
discharge "the L50,000 national debt of that kingdom, in five years from
the time they should obtain a charter." The latter application, being
subsequent in point of date, was withdrawn, Lord Forbes and his friends
having acquainted the Lord-lieutenant that, "rather than, by