The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-04-06 00:00:00

BANKERS AND BANKING.

The following letter appeared in Friday's Times :
Sir,—l was truly glad to gee the recent remarks in
your City Article upon fraudulent banking; it is,
indeed, important to know whether the prosecution of
fraudulent bankers is to be left to mere charm', or to be
carried out with strict impartiality. Roguery in a
banker carries with it an amount of evil which can
hardly be calculated. To be a banker at all implies the
supposed possession of undoubted integrity. It is a
species of commercial ordination, the setting apart of •
man from other men to be an instance and example of
high money morality. He becomes our confessor in the
matter of our personal estate, our director in that of
our investments. He holds the deeds and securities
which are to no the life of the dividends and " interest "
by which we ourselves and our families live. We must
often be very confidential with him, everbe very trustful
in him. His betrayal of our confidence, his fraudulent
dealing with our trust, may any day reduce us to abso-
lute beggary.
It is high social treason to even whisper doubt as to
abanker's solvency; who, then, dare question his moral
principle? He holds a high social status, he is the
"mystery man" of private life. Of course be is • re-
ligious man—l mean a man who attends to all the duties
of religious respectability; sometimes he does more.
Colonel Waugh has built • most beautiful church at
Brankaea. As my windows look out upon it, and it is •
great convenience to my family, I have more satisfac-
tion in the fact than any of my friends, who are only
creditors of the estate.
Now, Sir, I do think that men who step into this pri-
vileged position should be made to know that in propor-
tion to the claim they make upon our confidence there
should be care to deserve it. If they stand high, have
voluntarily ascended to the height on which they stand,
there is the greater reason to take heed lest they fall.
Again, I do not think it unreasonable to ask of the law
of the land that it should, by some wholesome discipline,
endeavour to strengthen the integrity of bankers, mak-
ing them to see that roguery in men of their class
must, for the sake of society, be severely punished.
Circumstances in my own neighbourhood have lately
proved to me in the most painful manner that things are
considered as not criminal in bankers which in their
nature are opposed to every principle of common
honesty, as usually accepted in society. We had • few
weeks ago a bank of the highest respectability. It had
its locale in our "town." Its customer' were literally
" the nobility, gentry, clergy, and respectable trades-
men of the vicinity;" the partners, two particularly
quiet, highly esteemed, very moderate living men. It
iasued between £6,000 and £7,000 worth of notes. One
partner was our Mayor at the very time when the veil
fell from our eyes; he was treasurer to our savings-
bank. The 'quires and landed proprietors, with scares
an exception, had current accounts with the firm ; the
clergy as generally banked with them ; the tradesmen
of the town put the most implicit confidence in them.
Was there a subscription opened for any philanthropic
purpose Our bankers consented to receive the dons,
lions. Religious societies, turnpike trust', penny clubs,
the " Balkeld Fund," the "Indian Mutiny Fund," the
neighbouring railway deposits, he., all were blandly
received and, it was supposed, safely kept.
They were ever ready to pay from 4 to 5 per cent.
upon deposit accounts, even very small sums, so that it
is not surprising that many poor persons drew out their
money from the savings•bank to place it in the firm of
the treasurer to that institution. Instead of making
their notes of issue payable to the cashier and bearer,
they filled them up as payable to Lord—, Squire—,
Rev.—; in fact, to all the notables of the neighhourhood
who were their customers, thus giving a sort of
Ida* to their business, which to my knowledge had ite
effect on many holders of their paper, who hoarded it as
they would gold, for, poor creatures I had it not their
landlord's name upon it? Would he let his name so
appear on anything but good convertible paper?
Well, Sir, the bubble has burst, our Bankers are bank.
rapt', and day by day I have had to listen to Wes of
cruel ruin. Their affairs have undergone the investiga-
tion of a committee chosen by the creditors. The result
is simple. They began with no capital, with worse than
stone; for over nine years they persevered ; discounting
a bill for a very large amount for a woolstapler, who be-
came insolvent, they were early last month brought to a
stand, failed, are now in the Bankruptcy Court. In
the above space of time the two partners, never, as has
yet been proved, having been really solvent, drew on
their own account £19,000. By their own showing rig
have incurred "losses an stocks, shares, and in
mints" to the amount of 26,158. A solicitor died in.
delved to them, either in the shape of current account
or bills discounted, to the amount of £4,910, for which
they have security they estimate at £OOO Their liabili-
ties are £49,000, the meta, aloo. I will not go into
any of the minor feature. of ease of this ban ask, !
hope all will be properly toped In the Carl of

fitiioui

_ .
—,,se of " ooming go..
On the 23rd of January they received £285 from a
comparatively poor man for immediate purchase of £3OO
New Three Per Cent Stock, he merely using them as
agents, having no account with them; since the failure
on the 13th of February they confess to him that they
had not made the investment—" they had been so
pressed for money."
It may be my stupidity or my ignorance, but I confess
I cannot see any real difference between the act of
cooking • balance-sheet annually and paying heavy
dividends in the face of heavy losses and no profits, and
the continuing • large issue of notes payable at sight
with the certain knowledge that, at sight, they mild not
be paid, in that they represented no real capital—were,
in reality, nothing but printed bits of paper belonging to
an insolvent firm, parted with for good money, and
made payable to customers whose current accounts were
in daily jeopardy from the speculation of the very men
who adorned these notes with their names.
I cannot draw a distinction between the act of him
who receives money to-day in exchange for bills which
will be for • certainty dishonoured to-morrow, and the
act of a man who should pay me for • pony in Norfolk
with notes of • bank in Dorset he knew would have
failed before I could present them for payment.
It really, Sir, is time we should know what ia real
crime in these matters; at present the line of impala-
tion appears to be far too fine between what banking is
said to justify and common honesty is known to forbid.
I shall await with some curiosity the result of the inves-
tigation of the affairs of this Bank in the Bankruptcy
Court; if the inquiry is as searching as it deserves to
be, it will develop fresh proof of the necessity of new
legal enactment to protect society from that system of
too easily condoled roguery which prevails in the ()Dol-
men:nal world, to the ruin of many thousands yearly
who put their faith in what are called—respectable men
of =habits.

S. G. O.