The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-06-10 00:00:00

restored.

The American election movements are now
sufficiently advanced to enable us to form some
idea of the leading subjects which engross the

public mind of the Union ; and in all that has, as
yet, transpired we can find no such thing as the
trace of a war feeling, or attempt at the creation
of a war party, iu any one of the States. There is
much which is reassuring in this fact, and it
would require something more, if we are not much
mistaken, than a gross display of official rancour,
and newspaper threats, to induce the Americans
to forego the blessings of the trade, peace, and
prosperity, now before them. The New York
papers are far more pacific in tone than many of
our own sensible journals, and the thoughts of
war were never, probably, further removed from
the minds of the great bulk of the American
people. The mercantile classes of England will
know how to appreciate all this, and how to res-
pond to it as reasonable beings. The British
Cabinet have, no doubt, forwarded precautionary
orders to the commanders of our ships of war off
the coast of Central America ; and if we are not to
be compromised by the rampant madness of Old
Spain, in sending a fleet into the Gulf of
Mexico, to be " used up like a streak of
" lightning," we are placed beyond the dan-
gers of being dragged into scenes of blood-
shed by an untoward accident. With the first
shot fired by the Spaniards against the Mexicans,

or the Nicaraguans, Cuba will pass from the grasp
of Spain. The fortress of Vera Cruz will prove
more than a match for her ships, and the Ameri-
can Government, having declared that they will
enforce neutrality in the Nicaraguan territory,
is sufficient to enable us to predict the fate that
awaits the 4,000 men which the Cubains are said
to be about sending to invade that Republic.
Meanwhile, England has nothing to apprehend
if she keeps out of the turmoil which other
countries have cut out for themselves in the New
World.

THE mercantile public have watched with intense
interest the proceedings of the Irish Courts of
Law in the late JOHN SADLEIR'S affairs. The
winding-up" of the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank
is generally reviewed as a practical test of the
Ministerial retention of virtues of unlimited liability
in banking. In this case, forgery, obtaining money
under false pretences, the fraudulent application
of deposits of customers, were admitted by the
deceased partner and co-manager of the concern,
and the admission is now proved to be true in
one of the supreme tribunals of the land.
What, then, remains to be done ? Are
the shareholders, the innocent victims of what
must have been the work of a conspiracy, of
greater or less magnitude, to be made
to pay, while those who were JOHN SADLEIR'S
partners in the management of the Bank, and in
almost hourly communication with him, to escape
scot free? The " English shareholders" will
scarcely submit to such a mockery of justice, with
the fate of STRAHAN, PAUL, and BATES, staring them
in the face. The course pursued in the case of the
London Bankers, was to find out who the
responsible and acting partners were. The liability
of outstanding parties was left for afterthought. But
how different has been the modus operandi on the
other side of the Channel. If it had not been for the
natural indignation of the IRISH MASTER of the
ROLLS, whose public life has been one of honest
independence and irreproachable integrity, the
great bulk of JOHN SADLEIR'S delinquencies and
his partners liabilities, whether civil or penal,
would have remained buried in the voluminous
reports of a MASTER in CHANCERY'S office.

As it is, the English shareholders are becoming
resolute, and an application was recently made to
the MASTER of the ROLLS, for leave to take criminal
proceedings, when his honour said,—" The transac-
" tions of the directors and the parties were tainted

`1 with the most extraordinary fraud, and it seemed
" strange to him ,that the Irish Government had not
" taken notice of the case." And, he added, that "if
" the Government overlook the facts that appear
" upon the case, he considered that they would be
"guilty of very great dereliction of duty to the public."
The Court then pointed out the law as laid down
in a judgment reported in t 149 gd House of

DRTHERN

TIMES.

Lords Cases, and in which Lord BROUGHAM

and several of the English Judges concurred,

"by fictitious means, fraudulently raised the
" price of Shares in the Market by declaring a

" dividend upon the capital, when in fact there
" were no profits out of which to pay such divi-
" dend, they were guilty of the greatest fraud, and
" would be answerable for it, not only civilly but
" criminally, as for a conspiracy to defraud the public,
" and such offence would amount to a misde-
" meanour." Here we have the law, and if the
" facts" alluded to in SADLEIR'S case are as clear
and intelligible, it does indeed appear strange that
it has not been enforced against those directors,
whose transactions a Judge on the Bench says.
are " tainted with the most extraordinary fraud."

Few cases of greater commercial importance have
been brought under the notice of the public. A
full investigation of the "facts," of which the
MASTER of the Roims has spoken, is due to the
banking and mercantile communities ; and we need
not add that while men, against whom the charges
we have cited from the reports of a court of
law, are made, are allowed to escape an enquiry,
STRAHAN, PAUL, and BATES are cruelly used men,
Morally, the transactions of the two establishments
are identical. Legally, those of the management
of the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank were an
hundred-fold worse. There was no forgery
or false pretence attempted to defraud a
large circle of shareholders and uninitiated de-
positors, on the part of the London Bankers.
The latter owed the extent of their connection,
and the confidence the public placed in them, to a
long and honourable career, whilst the former
resorted to every species of artifice, not forgetting
saint, demagogue, member of Parliament, and
Cabinet Minister, to carry out his designs. But
leaving all this out of sight for the moment, is it
not time that those who call on the shareholders
of the Tipperary Bank to pay up heavy sums
of money, should give the public something
like a pro forma balance sheet, which would show
them what has become of the large sums of money
JOHN SADLEIR received from his successful opera-
tions ?

The notable deceased carried on a rather pros-
perous trade for years. He purchased largely in
the Encumbered Estates' Court. Have all his
rich land, and startling bargains disappeared ? He
was receiving large sums of money on railway
shares and title deeds up to a few hours before
his death. Has all he ever had or got
into his possession by his boundless
transactions vanished ? If it has, it would be a
satisfaction to his English dupes, and an equal
gratification to his Irish creditors, to know what
has become of his landed property, and what he
did with their cash ! Enforcing payment of
suppositious liabilities of shareholders is rather
a novel procedure, and one which cannot be justi-
fied by pleading the urgency of the case of those
who have been victimised by the Directors, and
not by the shareholders, of a public company.
And we would strongly recommend those who
are required to pay large calls, to demand

an account from the official manager, to
show what the assets are—what has become
of the money received by the Directors
within the last six years—what lands JOHN
SADLEIR bought and sold during those years—to
what uses ha applied the rents and profits, and a
full and reliable detail of all his, and his partners
dealings, such as a court of equity ought to render
to all those who are interested parties. Without
such a business statement, how are the share-
holders to know where their liabilities begin or
end, and how can public opinion be brought to
bear on one of the greatest swindles of our
time ?