第25章

68 Whether it be not vain to object that our fellow-subjects of Great Britain would malign or obstruct our industry when it is exerted in a way which cannot interfere with their own?

69 Whether it is to be supposed they should take delight in the dirt and nakedness and famine of our people, or envy them shoes for their feet and beef for their belies?

70 What possible handle or inclination could our having a national bank give other people to distress us?

71 Whether it be not ridiculous to conceive that a project for cloathing and feeding our natives should give any umbrage to England?

72 Whether such unworthy surmises are not the pure effect of spleen?

78 Whether the Protestant colony in this kingdom can ever forget what they owe to England?

79 Whether there ever was in any part of the world a country in such wretched circumstances, and which, at the same time, could be so easily remedied, and nevertheless the remedy not applied?

80 What must become of a people that can neither see the plainest things nor do the easiest?

81 Be the money lodged in the bank what it will, yet whether an Act to make good deficiencies would not remove all scruples?

82 If it be objected that a national bank must lower interest, and therefore hurt the monied man, whether the same objection would not hold as strong against multiplying our gold and silver?

83 But whether a bank that utters bills, with the sole view of promoting the public weal, may not so proportion their quantity as to avoid several inconveniencies which might attend private banks?

85 Whether anything be more reasonable than that the pubic, which makes the whole profit of the bank, should engage to make good its credit?

88 Whether, in order to make men see and feel, it be not often necessary to inculcate the same thing, and place it in different lights?

90 Whether the managers and officers of a national bank ought to be considered otherwise than as the cashiers and clerks of private banks? Whether they are not in effect as little trusted, have as little power, are as much limited by rules, and as liable to inspection?

91 Whether the mistaking this point may not create some prejudice against a national bank, as if it depended on the credit, or wisdom, or honesty, of private men, rather than on the pubic, which is really the sole proprietor and director thereof, and as such obliged to support it?

93 Whether a national bank would not be the great means and motive for employing our poor in manufactures?

94 Whether money, though lent out only to the rich, would not soon circulate among the poor? And whether any man borrows but with an intent to circulate?

95 Whether both government and people would not in the event be gainers by a national bank? And whether anything but wrong conceptions of its nature can make those that wish well to either averse from it?

96 Whether it may not be right to think, and to have it thought, that England and Ireland, prince and people, have one and the same interest?

97 Whether, if we had more means to set on foot such manufactures and such commerce as consists with the interest of England, there would not of course be less sheep-walk, and less wool exported to foreign countries? And whether a national bank would not supply such means?

102 Whether business in general doth not languish among us?

Whether our land is not untilled? Whether its inhabitants are not upon the wing?

104 Whether our circumstances do not call aloud for some present remedy? And whether that remedy be not in our power?

106 Whether, of all the helps to industry that ever were invented, there be any more secure, more easy, and more effectual than a national bank?

107 Whether medicines do not recommend themselves by experience, even though their reasons be obscure? But whether reason and fact are not equally clear in favour of this political medicine?

117 Whether therefore a tax on all gold and silver in apparel, on all foreign laces and silks, may not raise a fund for the bank, and at the same time have other salutary effects on the public?

118 But, if gentlemen had rather tax themselves in another way, whether an additional tax of ten shillings the hogshead on wines may not supply a sufficient fund for the national bank, all defects to be made good by Parliament?

119 Whether upon the whole it may not be right to appoint a national bank?

120 Whether the stock and security of such bank would not be, in truth, the national stock, or the total sum of the wealth of this kingdom?

121 Whether, nevertheless, there should not be a particular fund for present use in answering bills and circulating credit?

122 Whether for this end any fund may not suffice, provided an Act be passed for making good deficiencies?

123 Whether the sole proprietor of such bank should not be the public, and the sole director the legislature?

124 Whether the managers, officers, and cashiers should not be servants of the pubic, acting by orders and limited by rules of the legislature?

125 Whether there should not be a standing number of inspectors, one-third men in great office, the rest members of both houses, half whereof to go out, and half to come in every session?

126 Whether those inspectors should not, all in a body, visit twice a year, and three as often as they pleased?

127 Whether the general bank should not be in Dubin, and subordinate banks or compters one in each province of Munster, Ulster, and Connaught?

128 Whether there should not be such provisions of stamps, signatures, checks, strong boxes, and all other measures for securing the bank notes and cash, as are usual in other banks?

129 Whether these ten or a dozen last queries may not easily be converted into heads of a bill?

130 Whether any one concerns himself about the security or funds of the banks of Venice or Amsterdam? And whether in a little time the case would not be the same as to our bank?

133 Whether it be not the most obvious remedy for all the inconveniencies we labour under with regard to our coin?