It may be said that the sum required could be raised in Ireland--that
patriotic feeling would stimulate the operation, and the large sum of
money (over L50,000,000), lying on deposit at the Irish banks may be
referred to as available. Patriotism that has not financed the Irish
Parliamentary Party will not be likely to finance a gigantic railway
loan. Nor is the large sum appearing as banking deposits really free
money available for investment. With increase of deposits, the items of
loans and advances in banking accounts have also correspondingly
increased, and they largely balance each other. Not only is the money
deposited by one customer lent to another, and therefore already
utilized, but, to a large extent well known to bankers, the deposits,
_i.e._ the credits to particular accounts, represent money lent to the
persons having these accounts, and are not, in fact, their own free
balances. So also credits in the accounts of one bank, figure as debits
on the balance sheet of another bank. There probably has been in recent
years considerable saving in Ireland, but it is also certain that those
savings have largely gone, and will continue rightly to go in
improvements of farms, which the Land Acts and Land Purchase Acts have
made worth improving for their possessors. Those who have not saved
enough borrow, and the bank advances represent largely the capital
required by farmers and traders. The deposits, therefore, are being well
used, and are not dead money. Divert them to any large extent to another
purpose, and there will probably be a contraction of banking credit,
which Irish farming and industry will be the first to feel.