The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

DEAR DOCTOR, what do you advise ► I
al vise Allred ltellon's Concerts: afterwards to EVANS',
zovn Y ("ARDEN. bear some charming singing, order one of
thel 'capital chops and otagairicent potatoes, and that is the hest
advice I cot glte you.

Ehe Or;nelso.

TO WaRE6PONDENT9.

„—.—.—.....
Adrertisements Intended for •• The Express” London Heselrct
Paper. must be at the oMce. 10, llouverie-street, by Two
o'clock on the day of pahheaLou.

HAYMAP.KET.

Tut,' Ererrso, RACCiIrSini:iiiIADNE—TIIE CASTLE
ANDALU,IA. Mears. Netas, F urea, ttnekatoue. Compto..
Mist L Keeley and Madame Weiss.— I. RIEND IVAGGLFI3.
Compton.—And ♦ KISS IN Tlll. DARK.

PRICE ,t

SH• F TEM% BORN -1707P-X;D- LICK. Mr. D. Morn,.
And TIIL STREETS OF LONDON. Messrs. VI: frg, .1. W. Ray,
D. Fisher. D. ifurrn7, J. Nelson. fi. torrester, and D.
Mn. R. )larston, limns Barnett and Overrate.

ANXIA.

iHta Ermnno. THE LIVES. Mesdames Yarnold,
Crai and SsotS Singing by lifters. G. 'eater an, Louis
Lindsay. 31adame Plson.— And TUE BAY OF BISCAY
Mesas. al:aad, Drummond, Bigwo d ; Miss S. Miles.

RIGA WATER AT U)NDON•CRIDGE.
THIS DAT Morning, lb. 421u....A1tem00n, lh.
Morning, 2b. Itni....Afternouu, 212. 29m.

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30.

TEE Shareholders of the Leeds Banking Com-
pany are exceedingly deserving of pity. They are
not like partners in a new and speculative enter-
prise which they could not succeed in establishing;
nor were they proprietors in a dry and worm-
eaten concern that had survived the want
out of which it grew. Their Bank has been
struck down by a foul blow in the midst of a useful
and vigorous life. An examination of the accounts
shows that, in the words of the Committee, it was
doing to the last a " safe and legitimate business,"
which yielded " ample and increasing profits."
Mr. Tr RQUA.ti D, the accountant called in
by the Shareholders' Committee, told the
proprietors on Wednesday that there was at the
tune cf the stoppage a surplus of 100,000!. on the
legitimate operations of the bank. The share-
holders have lost their paid-up share capital,
110,000/. ; the sums paid on account of a recent
allotment of shares, amounting to 27,304/. ; :the
reserve surplus fund, 90,0001.; the contingent
fund, 16,655/. ; and the 100,0001. profit above
mentioned. Besides this, they have to provide
half a million of money in order to meet liabilities
incurred in their name.

And ail this disaster has been brought on
them by a recklessness which in a man ac-
customed to the forms and usages of bust
-
peas is amazing. It appears from the inves-
tigations of the Committee that the embarrass-
ments of the bank are due to five or six accounts
which were opened unwisely, grew extensively,
and soon absorbed all the vitality of the concern.
There are in the hands of third parties bills re-
ceivable, bearing the endorsement of the Leeds
Banking Company, to the amount of nearly two
millions sterling (1,919,0001.), and these have
pullit: the bank down. It is the eicl story of bulk
failure. As Mr. TURQI-AND expressed it, " in-
" solvent debtors were allowed to become masters
"of the coffers of the bank." Once permitted to
owe the bank money, these people made the
manager their slave, and the property of the share-
holders their spoil. People outside the bank knew
that these parties ought not to have been trusted,
but when they bad got in the manager, ac-
cording to his own admission, " dared not atop
"them," knowing that if he did so, a heavy loss
would be discovered, and the bank would atop too.
It was stated at the meeting on Wednesday, and
with every probability, that if the money market
had been easy, and the London agents willing to
to connive at the irregular practices of the mana-
ger, the bank might have been carried on for
another year, by which time the liabilities of the
shareholders would have been enormously, in-
creased. Under the circumstances, therefore, the
stoppage may be considered a fortunate event.

The Leeds shareholders were enamel on —Wed
need iy that a statement which had gained pub-
licity, to the effect that the illegitimate transactions
of the 'milk had been concealed from the directors by
the i.sa of a private ledger, was unfounded, and that
ou the contrary all transactions, good, bad or indiffe-
rent, appe.l red in the ordinary books of the establish-
ment. This being the fact, it is more extraordinary
than ever that the directors should not have known
what was ;oing on. On this point, however, it is
proper to hear what they have to say. One of
them, Mr. WALKEIC SimetioN, has stated the po-
sition in which as a director he was content to
stand. Mr. Situ.-ON said—

When be Snit joined the Board the ordinary directors had
no lower at all. There were gentlemen who had been on
the Board for twenty or thirty years, who knew the routine;
but be found when he went in that he was nearly powerless.
He could not a,s a book nor the account', but he felt it due
to his own honour and the io eeeee ts of the shareholders
generally, to put this question in the presence of the direc-
ton and the manager, "Can you vuucb that yon know and
have seen that these accounts are correct':" Mr. Wilson,
the private 6ireeter, said, "I can, on any life." These
gore,. L 4 W. re asked every half year. He said to Mr.
Ward, '• 1 f,- I it my place to ask you separately. Will Ton
wind, ti:ase accounts are correct ?'" _Lc! Mr. Want
said. "I

Mr. NV ,IKER SIMPSON was an ordinary di-
rector. le tua then hear what Mr. WilsoN, the
private diri-ctor, whn was an willing to relieve his
colleagres responsibility, hes to say. Mr. Wu,
:4 itiform.d the meeting that—
The whole of this dictater had come upon them in mow
ineEce of :Lc !Argo discounts end the exchange Of Paper of
London LOW,. that they had nothing at all to do with, and
ought never t.. have touched. That was the work of Mr. Green•
land, wl.O c manager had done it without courilting any one
of the direct .r., and he knew no more alvvat it than any
gentleman pi sent. He told Mr. GreenltEd O Ely 3,taterday
what he had t ,••vioualy said to the members of the committee,
that he (Mr. Greenland) had never conault,d the director
about thw d count business; and be raid, "Of coarse I did
not consult 3 ,u, because that wax the work of the manager,