The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

Crain ant Commerce.

The report of the Oriental Bank Corporation, issued
preparatory to their electing on the 21st, states that the
profits of the year 1857, after allowing for all bad and
doubtful debts, to have been £156,020. A dividend of
5 per cent. (or at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum)
was paid for the first six months, and a like distribution
is now recommended, with an additional 2 per cent, as
bonus. A balance of £4,820 remains to be carried
forward. The claim of the corporation on the London
and Eastern Bank is fully secured, and there is stated to
be every prospect of its speedy settlement.
THE NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM DISTRICT
BANK.—On Monday and Tuesday, Mr. Pugh, objet clerk
to Vice-Chancellor Kindersley, held a Court in the
offices of the Northumberland and Durham District
Bank, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the purpose of fixing
the list of oontributories to the calls to be made for the
payment of the creditors of the company. Of the
partied connected with the management of this unfor-
tunate concern, Mr. W. B. Ogden, managing director,
is entered on the list for 100 shares, Mr. Bigge, 125
shares, and the executor of the late Mr. Bigge, of
London, 3,375 shares ; Mr. J. Hawks, 1,200, his rela-
tive, the Rev. W. Hawks, 1,820, Mr. Jonathan Rich-
ardson, 560, and Mr. George Ridley, M.P., 555; Mr. J.
Sillick, 700 shares, and Mr. R. P. Phillipson, the
solicitor to the company, 70 shares. The largest single
shareholder in the company is Mr. W. Mountain, of
Newcastle, who holds 2,290 shares. The call made
upon the shareholders is £35 which, with • call of £5
made after the Bank stopped, makes £4O s share that is
deemed neeessary to be advanced to clear the bank of its
liabilities. There are several widows and single women
upon the list, and it is thought that the call, large as it
is, will hardly pay the creditors in full.
SPECULATION—Curious disclosures do take place in
the Bankruptcy Court, and much light is thrown by the
examinations of bankrupts on the hidden springs of
commercial action. Every phase of rascality and swind-
ling may be found transpiring through the current
transactions of every-day business; an unscrupulous,
dishonest rec:Jessness, were not worse, characterizing
all. There are, however, exceptioes. The disclosures
made by Mr. James Gray, engineer and ironfounder of
this city, in his examination before the Sheriff on Wed-
nesday, stand out in striking relief to the general run of
insolvencies. It is simply a ease of inexplicable fatuity,
under which spell a man could persevere against hope
in carrying on &business of which he knew nothing prac-
tically, arid, if possible, less commercially, for upwards
of 30 years, without having probably in any one trans-
action ever made • profit. It was nothing but loss train
the commencement, and loss continued to the end. The
large fortune of • confiding brother was gradually swal-
lowed up in the loam and sand of • ruinous foundry.
The handsome competency of trusting sisters was sac-
rificed to the criminal vanity which would bring ruin
upon the nearest and dearest relations rather than
confess to misfortune. Mr. Gray never speculated.
His private expenses were only £l5O a year, and yet,
after 32 years' trading, he stops payment with a deficit
of 226,0001 If the bankrupt's brother, Mr. Charles
Gray, had not unexpectedly died in March last an in-
solvent, the probability is that this gnawing cancer would
have been yet unknown, and the facilities afforded by
our banks in discounting bills would have allowed the
credit of James Gray and Co. to remain still unim-
paired on 'Change. When John Monteith pursued the
reckless course of trading which he did for 10 years be-
fore he was called upon to answer the interrogatories
put to him before the Sheriff, there was really seine
philosophy in the course he adopted. He lived like a
fighting cock all the time, kept a splendid house, with
a large retinue of servants, and might be said to have
enjoyed • sensual life in • high degree. He had no
capital to lose. He had no risk. It was " heads I win,
tails you lose," with him throughout. On an average he
probably lost about £30,000 a year during the ten years
he was last in business. With Mr. Gray the case was
different. He was thrifty in his domestic expenditure,
and he never took " • ride of the bills" which he got
discounted. It is his own family who are the principal
sufferers; and, on reading the examination over, it
must be admitted that there appear to be more ineseli-
cable hidden springs of human action, even in connexion
with commercial transactions, than are dreamt of in the
philosophy of the majority of manicied.—Glasgoic Daily
Mail.
saiarie
--

AXOTUER. CUSS OT VIOLENT COUGH, 5011.11 THROAT, &C., IT
Da. Lococe's PULMODIE WA/MRS.—Dated Klrton.—" Sir,
Having had an ulcerated sore throat and violent cough for
several months, accompanied with excessive expectoration, and
obtained no relief from my medical attendiud, and being re-
commended by my neighbour, Mrs. Maddison (who had expe-
rienced great relief from Dr. Looock's Wafers), to try them, and
I was induced to do an, and feel great pleasure in having my
testimony to a speedy cure experienced by me from one box
only. (Signed), CiikaLerrrr HEAD. To Mr. J. Noble, Book-
seller, Market-place, Boston." Dr. Locock's Wafers give
instant relief, and a rapid cure of asthma, =emotion, coughs,
and all disorders of the breath and lungs. Price Is. lid.,
Ps. fld., and lls, per box. They have a pleasant tutu Sold
by all medicide Vendors.
IMPORTANT CAUTION.—It has been discovered that many
Medicine Vendors, when asked for any of Dr. LOCOCIM Mint-
CININ, attempt to pus off instead some counterfeit, because
they have • greater profit in doing so than by selling the
genuine medidne—the public is cautioned against such die-
honeet practices, which may be detected by observing that
every box of the ennuis medicine has the words "
DL
Looodes Wsrsaa" in white litters on a red ground in the
Government stamp, and without which words ALL £lll
COVIITDREETTE ADD AM HEPOSITIOS.