The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-10 00:00:00

Vie Orpreoo.

OUTGOING MAILS.
The smile kr Brill' North America aad the limited
Ikea. will be made up ea thil evening of Dee. 14.
Th. wmt Imma Dirak. excluding Bermuda Haresnab,
Xmas, Ho..daras, New Odes" sad Mesita, aid including
Meese kr Madeira. Bt. isaia-de•Nisersgas, New °made,
• am, aid Perm. will be deapatahed ea Dm. 17.
TM seat malls kt Lily" Spate, sad Gibraltar will be
maim if ea Dee. 17.
Ijyps, The sage tor °Maar, Malta, Greet*, Se lambs blawde,
jadeC up es tbe eplea, and China, vim Ileatbaapbra,
warming of Dec 20.
TIN sons vie Mareeilia, to the idediterrameam, Dept'
Ogles, Mong-Homg, de., will be made op csa the
weenies of Dee. 24.
TM malls for Maderia, the Brasile, and Buenos Agrea,will
bine& up is Jae. 4.

WATIR AT LONDON MUD=
r....11..rai—M055i55,1116.18m....-....Alisnion. II b. Sla.
—masa& w um. Ahem... If A. as

LONDOY, MOYDAY, DECEMBER 10.

THE government and the legislature of this country
have been for the last five years fumbling about the
question of savings bank' and their security, without
advancing one step in the matter. Being an elee-
mosynary institution, with email margin for the Par-
ment of officers, it was neceesary to have gratuitous
trusteeships, and in order to induce men of substance
and prudence to fill the office, it was found necessary
to diminish its liabilities. Accordingly an act of par-
liament in 1844 exonerated trustees from being
answerable for deficiencies in the bank, unless so far
as they chose to declare themselves so liable, or so
far as they had themselves actually received moneys.
The relaxation of the duties of trusteeship in
savings banks was followed by, if it did not lead to,
some very lamentable defalcations, more especially in
Deland. There, a saving! bank, of which the
funds had been abstracted by the actuary, wits still
made to coptinne its operations under the advice of
Mr. Tenn PaArr, in the hope.' of recovering where-
withal to meet it. demands. The experiment failed,
and a very. natural plea of liability was brought
leeward against the government.
The treetop, then, could no longer be shirked, and
a committee of the House of Commons was appointed
In 1848, which iecommended that the liabilities of
the trustees should be better regulated, and auditors
appointed. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
bevoght in a bill in consequence, repealing the clause
relating to trustees in the bill of 1844, and appohrieg
auditors to examine the accounts at certain periods,
and compare the pass-books of the depositors with the
amount-books of the banks.
It was not the fault of the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER if he did not carry that bill in the ma-
sks of 1848. But the opposition which unexpectedly
smiled it was of the moat violent kind. Po .r Lod
Ozoaoz BENXI:4CE was the foremost to denounce it as
" a Star Chamber business." His lordship haJ been
Informed by divers 'envies of ravings barks that
the sight of depositors coming on certain days to the
office to have their books examined would create a
panic first, and then a nth upon the banks. Moreover,
the appointment of auditors would necessitate their
being paid oat of the profits of the backs, which
would increase the fees, and rob the paor. The act of
1844 had occasioned an additional expense of lls. in
the 1001., and this had caused a sentib% falling off in
the number of depositors, an effect which tee pro-
loped measure could not fail to defeat or to aggravate.
11a addition to this argument it was alleged
that the English savings banks were as solid
as a rock, whatever their Irish sisters might
`he. Upon inch heated and hazarded astertiors
:as these, a, like the protec'ionist leader who made
ice, " England " was loft out of the bill. And al-
iiimagla the committee wee renewed in the last session
lif liament, their labours, such as they were, were
directed towards the Irish exigency.
As usual, no remedy can be applied to an
evil in this country until it has reached a cer-
tain maximani of flagrancy. And this, fortu-
nately for future depositors in savings banks,
has been the case in the preterit year. Two
for three well-known instances attracted public atten-
tion, and a great many more instances have escaped
'public knowledge. The suspicions of the trustees
,have been awakened, and a remedy applied.
;Nothing, indeed, can be more simple or easy than
for a body of trustees to do this; but defalcriclie hive
'occurred in so many instacces, and public suspicion
;has been so aroused, that parliament must interfere,
and a bill be brought in for the appoint-
ment of some officer to audit the backs.
Whether some officer may not be found
amongst those already performing public fanc.ioce,
and endowed with a public salary, who might add to
his other duties the examiner of the books of savings
'banks, is a point to be considered. At all events, the
expense of such audit ought to be borne by the dis-
triet, and not by the poor.
.11 A more immediate question is, how the unfortunate
depositors of the Rochdale Bank are to be paid the
,amount of their, in many cases, hard-scraped saltines.
The trustees are few, and whatever their desire,
should the amount of the defalcaticn reach 70,0001.,
or even 50,0004 it will be impossible to refund the
debt in full without a subscription. These have been
resorted to in similar cases, none of which were, how-
ever, so serious as the present.
! Oa this subject we publish the following letter
received from the Vicar of Rochdale :
TO TIIIIIIDITOR OP yes WXPRESS.
• received - • hem J. Harris,

tits,—l have _a..ed a cheque _• . e, E.g.. of
Darlington (flee pounds) as a donation towards making
good the loss of the poor depositors. lam desired by him
se acknowledge the receipt of it in your alumna. lam
precluded by the incomplete state of the investigation and
ether circumetaneee from entering into any particular* re-
• smiting ttat defalcation which has so justly exci•ed public
attention and sympathy. I may in general terms state that
the trustees and managers (whatever their legal responsibili.
lies) are, with one r two exceptions, quite alive to their
moral reernsihilities, and to the fact that the d. rsitors have
sot only the general claims of justice, but also the peculiar
claims arising from the inference that their very deposits
are pledg aof their being among the best members of so-
ciety. Bat it must be borne in mind that there are only
eight trustees—that the managers are peserely only men of
mall means—and that, however willingly they may lathlike
thmaselvis. or however rigidly they may be sacrificed, the
enormous deficiency cannot' be made up without public
aesietaisee. F.a reason‘ already stated, I cannot enter at
plasm Into the acts by which they have been deceived, nor
into the question of the extent of blame to be attached to
them. On these points there will be investigation and
judgment in due time and by appointed eathori•v. —I sta,&c.,
J. B. N. MOLESWOR
1 Dee. 3. Vicar of &Aida*.

IT is high time for government to adopt seta._
definite and uniform line of conduct in the matter of 1
convict transportation. Early last session a measure
was anr ounced having in view an experimental limita-
tion of transportation with a view to its ultimate
abandonment and the provision of a substitute. To
this day there has been no public notification of the
scheme beirre reinquished ; and yet we have had the
Cape colony thrown into a semi-revolutionery fer-
ment, by the despatch of a number of convicts
to it, against the reiterated protests of the
inhabitants. And now, Government having
wisely, though tardily, resolved not to force these
convicts on the Cape, we learn that they are to be
sent to Van Diemen's Land, already super-saturated
with convictism ; and 1 semi-official announcement is
made about the same time that government intend ;-
future to send convicts to Western Australia.
There has hitherto been a lamentable want of char
views and firm consistent action in the c Induct of
government, ;he legislature, and the public with re-
gard to transportation. The practice has been alter-
nately eulogised and run down, extended and all but
abandoned.. It was adopted without any distinct or
accurate investigation of its effects and eiVeLcies as
a penal ; it was restricted, almost sbindona d,
in deference to a vague sentimental cry got up an the
convict colonies, and abetted in this country by the
advocates of a gigantic scheme of emigration to be
conducted by government.
The origin of our existing system of ttonviet trans-
portation may be easily traced. Simple bat.i.hment
was a punishment frequently resorted t by all na-
tions e rly and imperfect stars of their civiliza-
tion. S . that society could reheve itself from the
apprehensi ins entailed upon it by the personal ere-
Nam of evil-doers by ejecting them from
Its bosnen, it sought nothing further. In
Scotland, banishment "forth or the country,"
(i. e. ,eT ding Scotch rascals across the Tweed) was
no uncommon sentence about a century and a half
ago; and banishment from the county (i. C. sending
irregular liver 9 to prowl on their own con- trymen
10018 thirty or forty miles distant) is a sentence that