The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

MAY 2, 1857. evening Mr. Payne Collier presided. The chairman spoke of the "immortal one," as being far above man's praise, as one of whom nothing new could be said, for his works were all in advance of the present age, for whose praise eulogy bad been worn thread bare and panegyric exhausted, and of whose praise nothing on this side heaven was fully worthy of him. Mr. C. H. Bracebtidge proposed the " British drama," in a speech of great length, in which he sought to exculpate Shakespeare from the charge of having violated the law in the matter of the deer-shooting. The speaker read some interesting documents upon the subject, which were supposed to prove that at the time the celebrated deer was shot, the ground upon which the act was committed was not a park, and therefore the act was not a criminal one. _ _ THE BAKERY at Aldershott Camp caught fire last Saturday, and, in spite of all the efforts of a powerful body of troops, was totally destroyed, together with a large amount of dour and bread. AN ATTEMPTED MURDER AND SUICIDE took place at Bristol on Monday, by an Irish labourer, John Cooney, residing in Steep-street, St. Michael's, Bristol, who suddenly attacked his wife with a hatchet, struck her over the bead and body, and left her almost dead. He then ran down into the cellar, and cut his throat. grtianE THE Lonn CHANCELLOR has given judgment in the appeal from the decision of the Master of the Rolls, by which Mr. Vincent Scully was held liable as one of the con►ributories to the Tipperary Bank, not withstanding the transfer of his shares to a third party. 'rho Chancellor, after stating his reasons for dissenting from the decision of the Master of the Rolls, said he did not consider that Mr. Scully's name should have been placed on the list of contri butories, and he would therefore vary the order of the court below, and order it to be struck off. A CORRESPONDENCE between the Dublin Protes• tant Association and the Lord Lieutenant, with respect to the late election riots, has been published. The association in their address remarked : That your memorialists have observed with intense pain and indignation that for a series of years past faithfulness to Protestant principles has been looked upon as unworthy the countenance of the Executive authorities, especially in Ireland, and that the profession of principles avowedly hostile to the British Constitution has been a sure passport to Executive favour, as though it were no longer politic or necessary to uphold the principles which our beloved Sovereign is sworn to maintain, and by virtue of which alone she occupies the throne of these realms. That the conseouence of such conduct on the part of the State authorities is now made manifest in a most painful manner. That crime, outrage, and lawlessness have become normal in this country ; the Executive authority seem to have become a dead letter, while the lives of Pro testants are placed in jeopardy, liberty of conscience out raged, the laws violated, and truth dishonoured. To this the Lord Lieutenant replied, promising to keep in view the immediate subject of complaint, but declining all further correspondence with the asso ciation, for their remarks "of so highly disrespect ful and disparaging a character." The association, upon receipt of this, met and adopted another address, repudiating any offensive intention, but claiming a right to address his Excellency at all times. THE IRISH SECRETARYSHIP is said to have been offered to and accepted by Mr. Fagan, M.P., and a committee has actually been appointed to secure his re•election in such an event. Mr. Herbert., M.P. for Kerry, is, however, still spoken of as the successor of Mr. Horsman by his sanguine friends. Considerable anxiety prevails in reference to the appointment. an Viiitarg HER MAJESTY'S Sinp Transit, having the 00th Regiment ou board for China, has put in at Corunna in "deep distress." Tha following is an extract from the letter of an officer on board : Iler Majesty's ship Transit, Corunna, April 19. Here we are ! done up ! Two days' " Bay " weather sent us in here to be fresh rigged; you never saw a worse sea•boat in your life,—crank, top-heavy, and everything that's bail ! We have everything we could wish in the way of provisions—only two days' salt since we came on board;—but such an old tub you never saw ; the rigging never set up, or anything secured; we had hard work to keep the masts from going over the side; if she had pitched instead of rolling I am sure the foremast would have gone over the bows. We had to get tackles across the decks from side to side to brace the rigging in to save the spars ; in fact, a greater tub to roll I never knew. She is top heavy. lam certain that she will never weather the Cape, or she will deceive all on board, both soldiers and blue jackets. She is a disgrace to the British Government, and more so to the dockyard authorities. I f she is lost I only hope my diary will be found to condemn those who sent her to sea. You may think what she must be when I tell you for a truth that there are not one dozen men (troops) on board with a dry hammock, every seam in her deok letting in'water. They had to give, or at least did give, extra grog. MINIM •1•1111114•111 Mr, THE PRESS. Tnoors and stores continue to be despatched to China. Several gunboats and also under orders for the China station. CAPTAIN SAYER, who recently vacated an appoint ment in the Adjutant-General's department, will succeed Lieutenant Colonel Addison as Deputy Assistant Quertermaster•Genera! to the Forces, at the Horse Guards. yaw anb TM: ROYAL BRITISH BANK. THE examinations continue. Messrs. Chan Aler and Page, the auditors, Mr. Craufurd, the late manager, Mr. Humphrey Brown, Mr. Gillott, and other of the directors have been examined this week. The tenor of Mr. Page's evidence was to the effect that in pre paring the audit he had believed everything told him by Mr. Craufurd, and had been deceived. He merely looked at the. totals and retied upon Mr. Craufurd's statements, without examining the ledger : Commissioner: You seem to throw it all upon Mr. Crawford. Why did you not look at the vouchers ? Witness: I took Craufurd's statement as correct. Commissioner: Then what was the use of the audit? You do not appear to have looked at the vouchers or at the figures in the ledger. Witness explained that the audit was a general audit, and not interfering in the management. About five hours were usually occupied in the audit. Mr. Page had no notion that 95,0001. of past due bills were not "assets " as represented by Crau furd, nor even that Brown's overdrawn account of 37,5921., Cameron's :30,0601., or the 54,049/. sunk in the Welsh works, were not available assets. Mr. Thomas Chandler, the other auditor, appears to be a gentleman of varied accomplishments. He is a surgeon, a brickmaker, a director of the Wandle Water Company, of an Australian Chartered Company, and of a Brick and Tile Company. Mr. Chandler's evidence was precisely similar to Mr. Page's. The assets were all represented by Craufurd as good. Loan account, No. 2, witness described to the same effect represented in the ledger as " bills continued with collateral security." Never heard of Brown's overdrawn account at the time. Craufurd made the same representations to him substantially as to Page, and the real facts were found pretty much as Page had described them. Never heard of the Welsh works until after the bank failure, although 120,0001. were sunk in them. tip to the failure of the bank believed it to be solvent. Never heard of the debts of Cochrane, Gwynne, Oliver, or the others. Mr. Craufurd, the late manager and previous ac countant, when asked why, as accountant, he had made false representations to the auditors, re plied : It was the form given to me by my predecessor, and drawn up by Cameron. I could not swear to the pre cise words I told Mr. Page. I cannot recollect what I said to Page about London bills discounted with security, though I will not swear positively in contradiction to what he says. Cameron gave me the titles of the accounts in his own handwriting or pencilling. I daresay that is among the papers. Solicitor : As " London bills, No. 5," was calculated to deceive the auditors, why did you not tell them so? Witness: You are assuming they were denied. Solicitor: You have said so already. Witness : I could not have done so without referring to my superiors. - SoliCitor : Then, you were the vehicle of a falsehood, you admit? Witness: Page said once, " The audit is, after all, a mere farce." I said, " I agree with you that it is a farce—nothing better." Solicitor: Why did you consent to be the vehicle of a falsehood? Witness: It was master and clerk; I obeyed my instruc• tions. In April, 1833, I knew there were 40,0001. in the past•due account and past•due bills. Solicitor : Was it not the design that the creditcrs of the bank should believe the 95,0001. past due bills were good assets ? Witness : That was so. Solicitor : When you knew that 1:,0001. at least was bad, why did you not tell them ? Witness : I obeyed my instructions. Solicitor : Were you not the servant of the company—of the directors ? Witness: J considered myself as responsible to Cameron, and I was told by Alderman Kennedy I must look to Cameron, who told me once, when I spoke to a director, he would dismiss me if I did so again. Mr. Craufurd further admitted that batween 8,000/. and 9,0001. of the assets of the bank consisted of their own shares. The auditors did not know this and he did not tell them. With respect to the sus pense account "he gave the auditors tho best account he could." He did not tell them of the Welsh works being included in the suspense account !or 31,(x)01.:-- Solicitor : Were not the Welsh works the ruin of the bank ? Witness: Undoubtedly. Solicitor : Yet you never told the auditors or the etiStenee of the Welsh mines and the advsuee of 140,0006. ? 431 Witness : I did not volunteer any statement on the subject. I thought Page kncw about the Welsh works. The Welsh works were the largest customer of the bulk. Solicitor: How can you consider an investment a cus tomer ; and if so, why did you not tell the auditors so ? Witness : Because they were told that they had no right to look into the securities. The directors appear to have made the best of their bargain : In some instances the directors helped themselves to their salary in the middle of the year. The salary was voted by the shareholders fot the past year at the annual meeting. When the directors drew out money, the amount was put down to the suspense account. The money which the directors took us their salary before it was due, being put down in the suspense account, actually appeared as the assets of the bank. An account was made up on the 3rd September, IMO, by me, which showed the assets were 30,0001. less than their liabilities. The evidence of this witness concluded with an ex position of the art of cooking accounts : Booker and Co. recovered damages against the bank -1601. debt and costa—but it wis set down as an asset to the last, and interest may have been counted on it. It is a debtor balance. I suppose the bank thought they had a claim against I find that six per cent. irtereat was charged on that sum, and added to the profits of the bank. That was not commenced in my time, and I do not know the history of the transaction. By this ingenious process it will be seen that what under ordinary circumstances would have been set down as lost money was not only made an asset of the bank, but kept year after year, from 1853, as a profitable asset—sometimes paying interest at six per cent.; so that, instead of a sum of 1601. lost by the bank in 1853, it actually appeared in the bank books in 1857 as principal and interest, 1741.—the money having been years before in Messrs. Bookers' pockets. In connection with this gentleman, we may call attention to a circular issued by him on the 11th of August, IMO, a few days previous to the bank closing : Let me, therefore (concluded this circular), beg you at once, if you have not already done so, to bring your own account and that of every friend you can influence to your own bank, where we fully believe the bualuess facilities afforded are equal to any other joint-stock bank, and the benefit* which will thus directly accrue to yourself as a shareholder must be most apparent.—l am sir, your obedient servant, THOS. CRAUFURD, General Manager. With regard to Mr. Humphrey Brown, the history of his connection with the bank is briefly told. He became a director on the 4th of February, 1853, and opened an account by a cash payment of 18/. 4:.; taking up the twenty shares necessary for his quali fication by a note of hand for 1,0001., which was never paid, and effecting a small loan on his own account 'or 2,000/. This was in February, 1833. By the 2nd of May that year. a successim of similar small loans had brought the total debt to 9,0001., and having once reached this point it went on at a rapidly accelerating ratio. By the end of 1854 it had reached some 30,0001. In May, 1855, Cameron, on his re turn to the bank after a three m on th s ' illness, found that it had been increased to upwards of 74,0001. In November, 1855, it had reached its maximum, and then stood at 77,698/. SLR CHARLES Fox AND Ma. HENDERSON appeared upon their last examination before Mr•. Commissioner Balguy in the Birmingham District Court of Bank ruptcy this week. After a conversation between the solicitors and Commissioner the bankrnp•s were passed, and the certificate meeting was f xed for the 27th of July. In the meantime (three months) the creditors and all other parties will have the opportu nity of making all necessary inquiries into the affairs of the bankruptcy and be prepared to lay the result before the Commissioner on that occasion. A NEWSPAPER AGENT, one William Cockburn, was brought before the Lord Mayor, on Tuesday, charged with having written, printed, and published, certain libels upon the "Bank of London," in a publication called the Joint-stock Companies' Journal. Mr. Bodkin appeared for the bank, and, having stated - the case at length, read extracts from an article pub.. lished on the 18th of April last, which, on the au thority of a recent article in the Atlas newspaper, charged the directors with helping themselves to the funds of the bank. Boys were hired to stand with placards at the bank doors, and to offer for sale copies of the journal containing this libellous charge. The defendant denied that he had anything to do with the paper beyond being the advertisement agent. The case was remanded. An application at the Court of Queen's Bench for a rule nisi for criminal information was granted on Thursday by Lord Campbell. WALTER RAMER'S LIFE POLICY of 1f2,000/, is about to become a subject of litigation. 111 r. Smith, the solicitor of the Palmer family, has applied to the Bankruptcy Court for leave to bring an action against the assignees of Walter Palmer's bankruptcy, who claim the money. The case will be heath heat •eek before Mr. Commissioner Balguy. e. .