The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-25 00:00:00

Rat. inttiligtnct.

EQUITY COURTS.—Fss. 34.
(BAN the Master of the Rolle.)
KZ ILIKINGTIII 11CHOOL.

The object of this applioation erse'to obtain the &notion of
the curt em to the a itniseibility of dissenters as trustees of
the charity. The school, t►o the primipal, was not the
oalY object of the charity. and it was contended that the
o; her re were such as to take away any eaclumve church
character which might otherwise attac► to the foundation.
Him honour meld that is aoald sot consider the charity es
el. [um, ely a Church of Rugland charity. The school was
Church of England ached, but baring regard to the purposes
for which tha surplus of the income was given he thought
there wee no greuud for restricting the trustees to ambers
of the Church of Eaglead.

SAMAR= V. Will.
Admiral Semester sold to bir.Webb, for 4,000/., as obis
at Hampreston. in Donetshim, without taking the premed=
to consult his solicitor to the impaction. Webb entered into
straightway beget to cut down the timber
Crd°be hid paid a (ambles of the porehase-money. The
admiral afterwards ascertain: d that the capitalist who had
bought his estate was an uncett;il.e.t.d bankrupt, and oh-
t tined an en parte injunction to rt.train the felling and sale
of the timber. us the committal of asst.:, until the purchase-
money should be paid.
Mr. Cris:knell now moved, on behalf of Webb, to dissolve
the injunmioo.
The Muter of the said that an unoertificated beak-
rapt could only contract for the benefit of his enigma', add
that Mr. Webb not having enlightened the admiral ss to
his position, mat not be allowed to arty off the substantial
part of the property wi,bout having paid the price. The
motion we. therefore retort with coats.

.....
Mr. Palmer and Mr. Begawan, who appeared for Admiral
Bsumaret, were not called upon.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.—FEB. 24.
(Sittings at NW Pride at ChuldbaU. Balm Lord
Campbell sad a Special Jury.)
ROYAL BRITISH BANK.

. DAT.
TR* 4011 M I. XVICTIIIIIT BROWN, IDWAID ISMAILI,
IMMAT DI/IMMO NACILMOD, 1110MAILD RAMTLMT
WIDT, WILLIAM DAXISL OWIN, lOax ITAIPLITON, AID
■cox MUM CAMICSON.

Sir Fitzroy Kelly in his address foe the datandent, Mr.
Stapleton, urged a vat ay of muskets to prove that at
the tune of the publicakez of the balance-sheet fa
December, 1845, his client wee unaware of its falsity.
He wee the derived, and not the deceiver.
He dead his learned friend to prove that In December, 1866,
Mr. Stapleton knew that Mr. Brown was an insolvent
debtor. Then as to the Welch works, which had, ae al
by the prosecution. entailed a loss on the bank of 100,0001.,
They said that the blleace-sheet fraudulently suppressed
this loss, and stated the 100.0001. amongst the assets, and
that Mr. Stapleton knew it. That they must eetablish, or
the case spinet Mr. Stapleton mum fail. Bat how dif-
ferently would sanguine men and a desponding man view such
property u mining property. A prudent men would not
frost his own inexperience. He would apply to others more
experienced than himself, and that Mr. Stapleton had done.
Mr. Stapleton had instructed him to say that in December,
1855, ha regarded those mines as a ready productive property.
Hs would now refer to two other debts in the large debts,
which were tee in number. He alluded to the debts of Oliver
end Maness. With regard 3 Oliver's debt, the case for the
lion was t hat at • sting in Nov. or Dee., at which Mr.
rt:P nu
on was present, it was mentioned that some securities
which were expected to be realised had failed. But the
amount of 0 leer's debt we. not known to Mr. Stapleton,
tar the dividend received or expected. Mullene's debt wee en
old debt, in ezitteace long bore Mr. Stapleton joined the
bank. Was Mr. Stapleton, who had jest joined the hosed,
to take on himself to do that which Mr. Paddison had de-
clared to be premature—to deal with such an account as that
—to declare whether it wee a good or bad debt, or whether
ft was properly or improperly inserted in the balance-sheet ?
If there wee and thing wrong in the balance-sheet, it was the
balm. tif the directors who rat from 1849 to 1845 to cause
it to be corrected. It was no business of Mr. Stapleton's.
Ile could only know it was the mode practised by Mr. Cameron,
with all his experience in the affairs of the bank—Mr.
Cameron, who enjoyed the confidence of the director', and
who had been treated by the government in the vazi.nia im-
portant situations he had filled. Mr. Stapleton could not
have believed that the Welch week, would be a total loat—
he did not believe, nor did he dare to suggest, that Mr. Hum-
phrey Brawn wee an Insolvent debtor, and as to the other
debts, he implicitly believed that if they were bad debts they
were properly dealt with in the balance-sheets. He had
been 'myriad that Sir Frederic Thesiger had opened, and
that hia learned friend (Mr. Atherton) had sines pressed it
as a proof of Mr. Slap!• toe's knowledge that the balance-
sheet was false, beanie it had coins to his knowledge at a
meeting, at which Mr. Fedaile and others were present,
that the bills given by a tradesman, named Blacker, for a
small debt of 4,0001, were proved to be fictitious.
He had now be believed laid before them suffi-
cient ground+ to saidY them that no man would
have been justified, in Deamber, 184.5, in demouneing
(hose debts as bad, cr the debtors as insolvent debtors; but
If so, for b. would not test his car on such a ground, he
cared aot whether there were bed debts to the amount of
100,000/., or 10,0001., or 11., did Mr. Stapleton know the
state of the bank's attire at the time?

Lord Campbell—Aar Frederic Theurer, on the part of the
prosecution, admired that when Mapleton came into the
beak he was limner of the state of it.
Sir F. Kelly—Exactly so, my lord, and it was my earnest
hops that they who are now repreeenting my distinguished
friend, who baa been justly raised to the highest position in
the law, at the dose of the case, when there is not a
sciatala of evidence affecting Mr. Stapleton, they would have
done him the justice—the tardy justice—too late for
his peace of mind—to consent to his acquittal at this
stage of the case. I deny that my learned Irked
can prove that he ever, from the first moment, believed that
the bank was insolvent. That ha did roe during his long
warfare with Mr. Cameron and Mr. Brown that there were
mismanagement and tosses I freely admit, but that
he believed in the solvency of the bank is dear and beyond
all doubt. Though we find him standing alone against all,
opposing a dividend and proposing a al of 25 per out.,
which would put 70,000/. into the bank, I ray that donates the
failure he believed that if it had the aid of men of integrity
and of baldness capacity its fortunes would be relieved, its
re-estab Il od, and that the bank might, a it
ought to have been, one of the leading institutions in this
great city. It was in this belief that he had but a
for days before the failure of the bulk written
to his kinsman, Mr. Alexander Matheson to oome
forward, and by the respectability of his =me
and station give confidence to the public in the bank. Its
failure took Mr. Stapleton as much by surpeise as it did any
of the depositors whose case Sir F. Thesiger so pathetically
opened. Can it be supposed that for the sake of his wretched
little fortune, which is now lost to WM, he would have in-
volved his lineman—that he would have brought rein on
him. in tempting him to come forward and lend to the insti-
tuti,,n the unction of his name? And now I solemnly appeal
to my lord and to you to say whether there is a ptrtiel; —a
scintilla—of erideneein the mass of pro. ,f which has been laid
before you to affect the honour and integrity of Mr. Stapleton?
At the clonclusion of the learned gentleman's speech there
were loud demonstrations of applause from the body of the
court, rhea

Lord Campbell said—Thais manifestations must not be
repeated. AU here meat remember that we are in a court of
justice.
Mr. Serjeent Shea then addressed the jury on the pert of
Mr. Alderman Kennedy. The learned serpent detailed the
circumstances under which his client joined the original
promoters of the bank, and after a withdrawal in 1860, ?sickbed
the directors in October, 1854. The main evidence
Aldermen Kennedy was the memorandum 44 the 1V:(
?ley, 15.53, requiring Mr. state to report on the ste of
the bank, and the poreibility of the bank retrieving its dia-
meters. He did not dispute that when Mr. Alderman Ken-
nedy wrote that letter be knew of the baste by the Welsh
works, and that Mullen. and G triune were debtors to the
bank, but be could lot have poenibly known that the securi-
ties were worthless. How could Mr. Aldermen Kennedy
have then Ithown that the debt of Mr. MGreger wee how
lea, or what the securities given by Oliver would produce.
He submitted this letter was the letter of en honest men--It
wee the inquiry of a man who did not know' but was
anxious to know the truth. Accountants and bill dirks had
taken months to ascertain the deficit end less on past due
bills. Mr. AMerman Kennedy had no such meals of
arrivie.a: at that knowledge. He wee alarmed by this bold
asertion by his colleague, Mr. Brown' and he went to the
man who was most likely to be able to afford him the infor-
mation, Mr. Cameron, who then enjoyed the confidence of
the board. About this time, in September, 1866, Mr.
Alderman Kennedy entered on hie office as sheriff of Lon-
don and Middlesex. An office involving more labour, or re•
qtdrlng more personal attention, it was impossible to con-
ceive. It wax a life of wade, a life of expense, a Idle of
hospitality, a life of charity, and of serious duty in attendiZ
the Criminal Court. It was an office which emu
the whole time of a ma, end it woe ono which
no man could have discharged in the manner it
woo notorious Mr. Alderman Kennedy hod dlecharuad it
with the weight on his mind that be was to his own now-
ledge a conspirator in a fraudulent bank—e willing party to
the ruin of that clams of hie fellow-eitizene for obese benefit I
be had oeginally assisted in promoting it. He would now
turn to the third period into which be proposed to divide his
address It was a peeled at which he arrived—he would not
say with triumph, for that would not be becoming in him—
but with the strong conviction that it would show a state of
fats which moat discharge Mr. Alderman Kennedy from'
the stigma sought to be cast on his character. During the
whole of that time when, according to the prosecution, this
conspiracy bad been hatched, and when it was alleged that Mr.
Alderman Kennedy had coespired with Mr. Stapleton he had
never attended the meetings of the board. They had held le
oorcoamalcation. He did not wish to make aempleinte, lent
he thought that If the crown had not the heart to let off
both Mr. Alderman Kennedy and Mr. Stapleton they sheild
not have indicted both of them, and thus Puteluild the Pcooll
that they bad not bees In otimmunioadm during the pw+od•
in ciata. Could it be supposed that Mr. Aldermen.
.Kennedy wee tn here with Mr. Cameros P Uwe& stem*
bad bees discovered during his year of ehrinalty It would
have bonsai on Mr. AM Kennedy such a diepam and die-
credit am had never Winos any ethanol London. It u•is in•
credible that there should have been any await intelrisenee
between Mr. Cements and Mr. Alderman Kennedy,