as proposed, a long debate ensued, which occupied two days. On the 9th
December a list of the subscriptions was called for, and on the 16th
they resolved, that if any lord, spiritual or temporal, should attempt
to obtain a charter to erect a bank, "he should be deemed a contemnor of
the authority of that house, and a betrayer of the liberty of his
country." They ordered, likewise, that this resolution should be
presented by the chancellor to the lord lieutenant. ("Lord's Journal,"
vol. ii, pp. 687-720.) _Monck Mason's "Hist. St. Patrick's Cathedral_,"
p. 325, note 3. [T. S.]

[27] The title, Esquire, according to a high authority, was anciently
applied "to the younger sons of nobility and their heirs in the
immediate line, to the eldest sons of knights and their heirs, to the
esquire of the knights and others of that rank in his Majesty's service,
and to such as had eminent employment in the Commonwealth, and were not
knighted, such as judges, sheriffs, and justices of the peace during
their offices, and some others. But now," says Sir Edward Walker, "in
the days of Charles I., the addition is so increased, that he is a very
poor and inconsiderable person who writes himself less."

Accordingly, most of the signatures for shares in the projected National
Bank of Ireland, were dignified with the addition of Esquire, which,
added to the obscurity of the subscribers, incurs the ridicule of our
author in the following treatise. [S.]

[28] SUBSCRIBERS TO THE BANK, PLACED ACCORDING TO THEIR ORDER AND
QUALITY, WITH NOTES AND QUERIES.

A true and exact account of the nobility, gentry, and traders, of the
kingdom of Ireland, who, upon mature deliberation, are of opinion, that
the establishing a bank upon real security, would be highly for the
advantage of the trade of the said kingdom, and for increasing the
current species of money in the same. Extracted from the list of the
subscribers to the Bank of Ireland, published by order of the
commissioners appointed to receive subscriptions.

_Nobility._

Archbishops 0
Marquisses 0
Earls 0
Viscounts 3
Barons 1
Bishops 2
French Baron 1

N. B.: The temporal Lords of Ireland are 125, the Bishops 22. In all 147,
exclusive of the aforesaid French Count.

_Gentry._

Baronets 1
Knights 1

N. B. Total of baronets and knights in Ireland uncertain; but in common
computation supposed to be more than two.

Member