The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-01 00:00:00

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zoNDON; MONDAY. MARCH 1.

iLITER a fortnight's trial, in the course of which
every roma of the most practised skill and ability
wee exerted fa their defence, the seven Directors of
the Royal British Bark have been found guilty—
three of them, CAMERON, BROwN, and &DAIL'S,
without and four of them, KENNEDY, OWEN,
MCLEO), and STAPLETON, with, a recommendation

to ninny. CAMESON, BRowx, and mt have
bees antenoed to a ries imprisonment, as made-
meatunts of the first elms (without hard labour);
XIIIIIIDT to mm. months.; Owry to six ; M'lmon
to thee; whoa STAPLETON, whcae ease undoubtadly
preents many eirennistanors of mitigation, is dia-
. . .

e.hargstl. as payment of a nominal fine of Ic
Kith retard to two, at least, of these dein-
(pests, Meows and Cinetos, the public would
hare been well satisfied if a far severer
sentence had been pawed. The degradation
of hard labour in a prison garb amid conviction/p—
-eke degradation which was properly imposed on
PACL and STRAHAK—wouId certainly not hare been

coosidered too harsh in the case of these swindlers,
whetted canoed a more wide-spread ruin by frauds
in a moral point of view scarcely leas flagitious. In
future such OSPDOSE will come within the range of
the Fraudulent Trustees Act, which empowers the
indiction of a punishment more adequate to the
enormity of the transgression. Even as it is, the
sentence, if regarded in its coneequenem, is no light
OM CAMERON, BROWN, and ERDAILI, and KEN-
IIILDT, are henceforth marked men. As respects the
two former, it is to be hoped that it will be impossible
even in this age of lax mercantile morality, that they
should ever again he entrusted with the power of
deluding and raining their fellow-citizens. It will
wanly be Reny years, to say the least of it, before
Mr. GOVISTMOt E4D/LILE mad Mr. Alderman KEN-
RIEDE can again show their faces in the society of
honest men. As to the minor delinquents, Mr. Ownt,
though long a Director, seems entitled to the benefit
of the plea, such as it is, that he suffered himself to
be made the tad of more active and designing men;
it is also in his favour that Old one occasion he moved
for a committee of investigation into Batiwsi's debt,
and did what he could to have that model Director
brought to book. It may fairly be urged on behalf
of Mr. *Leon that he was naturally led to place
implicit reliance on the representations of CAMERON,
his father-in-law; and that he gave the strongest pcs-
able evidence of his belief in the Bank's stability by
investing in it the whole of whatever fortune he pos-
sessed, and making hie shares the subject of his mar-
riage settlement. Mr. STAPLITON's case stands on a
different footing. Not may was he the most recent of
the Directors in point of dam, but there is abundent es-i-
-dea*, that from the first he steadily discountenanced
the proceedings of CAMERON and Itnow•N, that he
speedily earned the enmity of the former, and finally
succeeded iu driving the latter from the Direction-
He never made a farthing by the Bank ; he held 20
shares throughout, which he never tried to dispose
of; he commenced his account with a considerable
sum bowl fide paid in to his credit, and when the
Bank stopped payment there 'was a balance in his
favour. When he ultimately found that things
were going hopelessly wrong, he opposed a dividend
and urged a call. It may be difficult to exonerate
him from blame for having continued in the Direc-
tion after the actual state of affairs was brought to
his knowledge; but it would be a gross injustice to
pat him in the same category of guilt with CAME-
RON, with BROWN, with ESDAILE, and, notwith.
standing the favourable recommendation of the jury,
we must add, with KENNEDY. The jury, whose in-
telligent and close attention to this meet protracted
and wearisome inquiry, eminently entitles them to
the thanks of the country, and their verdict to
its respectful attention, have found it incon-
sistent with their sense of duty absolutely
to acquit Mr. STAPLETON. The intimation,
however, that fell from Lord CAMPBELL in the coarse
of his summing up, and his declaration, after the
verdict was given, that, notwithstanding such ver.
diet, ►e could not conscientiously inflict a severer
seeeenee than a fine of one shilling, followed by an
instant discharge--sufficiently shows, what all who
have followed the evidence will be at once reedy to
admit, that Mr. STAPLETON'S conduct, though in
some respects censurable, is not fairly amenable to
the grave charge of frandalent misrepresentation
and criminal sonspiracy.
The 'object of inquiry ranged itself under three
heads. The first question was whether the Bank was
or was not in a state of insolvency at the end of the
year 1tt5.5 and the beginning of the year 1N66; the
second, whether that fact was known to the della&
ants ; the third, whether knowing, that they entered
into a design to rtpresent that the Beak wee then in
a flourishing condition, for the purpose of deceiving
or defrauding the shareholders and the public. Tame
were the material question., and to the evidence se
it bore on these the attention of the jury was by
Lord CAMPBELL Strictly confined.
The answer to the first question evidently goes
to the root of the whole inquiry. If the Bank is
the 31st of December, 1865, was not in fact basal.
vent, the Balance-Shoot declaring it to be so mullet
false, and the Report founded on that Bals.ss
presented to the meeting on the lit February, MK
was not fraudulent, lf, on the other hand, am
Balanoe-Sheet was made up by taking meats as
seems, for a number of debts known to be ampurie,
so as entirely to misrepresent the acted eslailffika of
the Bank, the first step in the process of proemial