Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-30 00:00:00

with once, in 1846; and from that time afterwards I
believe not at all. The deed provides the bank state-
ments should be signed by three directors, and it was only
once complied with, namely, in December, 1316. The
statement of general balance is this :—" Vie have ex-
amined the account, and approved the same. Signed,
.W. RATHBONE, ROBERT CROSTIIIVAITE." The state-
ment is sigzed by William Cross. A balance-sheet fo
.. 1347, is signed by two directors, as auditors; and affer.
1847 the statements are never 'again- certified or, signed,.
but only recorded in the director's minute-book.
Now, we have. been told that the directors were
ignorant of what was going on in the bank ;
but I .find .tilere was .a discussion, and a resolu-
tion passed, and secrecy. signed on more than one
occasion. On the 30th of June, • 1846, William Rath-
bone and Richard Rathbone addressed a lettar to the

directors. A second committee was apßointed,which
met those gentlemen, and which reported'as folloW4:
" That in- order to prigvent the public discussion arising.
out of the present. state of the bank, which under other
circumstances would be inevitable, and in order tl mike
way for other arrangements, that MI% Rbtherhana be
requested to retire from the direction." .Now, gentle-
men, if the proprietors had been informed at that early
period of the real state of the bank, of which they were
then in, full possession, do you suppose for one moment
that I, and the other shareholders, would have allowed
matters to go on front had to worse till they arrived at
the culminating. point of losing the whole of your capital
and a. call upon your shares? No man in pO,Ses:3iou
of his common senses would have allowed anythinf; of
the kind. But so far from giving that information which
.was (14e to you as shareholders, here is a resolation
• which is calculated to bark all information. .There Was

a minute that all advances.slionld be limited to 1,20,001
in 1840, but that Was found so inconvenient that it was
rescinded in 18.53. Why was it rescinded ? Then:Fe it
• had been trair;gre,sed, not (ily twofold, or threeal,
but I will not undeotake to say to :What extent—it had
already been violated to such an enoituous extent,, On
_Nov. 20th, 1856, there was a minute : "No open
account to exceed £lO,OOO, except the following,"
and then follows a list of gentlemen, comprisfng some
hundreds of thousand of pounds, every one of whOni haS'
gOne; . (Cries of "Name, name ") Why,: I don't think
it necessary for rue to name them. (A shareholder : "It
it due -to.the sharehohlorsl But if, as we go oa, it is
thought desirable that, the *meeting should be furnished
with sonic lames, I
tall have no objection; but I Wish
to avoid it in'eVerY case. Where it' is possible. I
promised you, gentlemen; that I would be very brief
indeed ; .and. I therefore pass on from th's to an ;ther
part of the subject: I' Will' only just observe here: that
the original founders 'of. the bank were wide. awake
-.ennugh, and knew their interest.. too ,well to continue in
't, and le't it in 1316. The next point to whielt I
... would just advert, as we go along, -14 that the balances
dearieounts were carried on from year to year as- good,
there they figured for years after lc 3, when it
.Was'intieisible, as slicill'Sb.ow ire''. I 1 ',y, that 013
atiOttirg'etjuld be ignorant of their ortlilessnes3-
•'llenaVhbai.) There is the , . '
4il.nce:l'llai&no delicacy in menti::,.: as it is
a name knoWn to everybody ; : 1846. That
balance
,Was not ~written off ti I (densation.)
shall now, gentlemen, rive ;cv; iintatices of the
- good managerinf; tuid i -).1-.1..2r in ~v!lich your. pro-
' pertyhas been deAlt•With: are sel,,,eted, with:one
or two exeqtfotiS;-Iwilll6t.it any plrticul.ir
.are taken out of tbOtftts,. and I c:c.:::crtalce to-say, bat
I could furnish'ycyn,',,,Tse.o,V.l,,,i• one I shall
quote, if I wire to tilak6 '.election carefully from
them. The tfrSt on the'.liSt-is .C28';078 to aai•ewer.
The security deposited -.titg the hank waS a lease; - and
, that lease, gentlemen, ':cati: tell you, was worse than
Worthless. The next is 't34,600, to a person well known
never to have been worthy' of credit for a tithe-of. that
' ' aMou.nt; and he gaVe no security whatever. -:(•t*llatnei
name?" A voice, " Those names. wonld- be',/tty
Thctery.to The next is .X 31,898, 'Dal ihrior skurity.
4.l.llto'noxt is £33,000,- with a security of
•y..l.m.eed not tell you was not worth anythistg at thotime;
, The .next is .845,247. • Interest (11 that account wa';
charged to the end of Ixsl, and then, to mend matters,
airectorsliought other debts belonging tO that
:vidual: in 'order' to get the mamtgernent into their own
• hands. There it remains, gentlemen, to thii d.zy. The
next i 5129,174, which wasutterly worthless, andtbio was
nut a man on !Change, if he had known it at thq tune,
.44 wou,bl have told (lireotors so; in fact, there
was not a man ou 'Change, except the directo!..s, that did
• 'inet know that account to be worth not a farthing.
.' • "-Next there is .144,859 to a-surgeoil.` (Laughter.). Why,
,•;.: gentlemen, the security held in this case was of such a

eharacter. that, reallyl am afraid to desiti,•nate it :i•-r it
ouglit. to be,desiganted. I presume•they took his
.ppts'as secucity, aut that they were depoj.ted in this
f'6l.• tliat.enermoussum of money. The ur‘xt is
£4'4183, with the. deckqf ,romo iron works not worth
• , half the 'money. Thete.' Of Doherty{ de Wolff, arid Others
'are well kuown„qua over 1.1teta...0 other ad-
,
io 454. ,y 6 Lb viater, at,
aria ;4n.yrFd ; fliat;i a I f;;?1;:'1:a-4.eVited £13,010,
but it ~.4114e on increasing.ll.thei,aillitiO of intereA,
ird: If., now. stands,nt £17,030. 'Then Jl%O is £33 133,
with a *burif,x stated to be :£s;oo.r'; The next is
X 48,638, . had the,: ,security said to b,(18,300. . The
next is £73,74.?, with h.security stated t0.b0..410,000, a
.policy of 42,00, very I.leivy annual p rem i tit .
The next i5.40,030,,m
shot no security at
m arke all. This ac-
count, it is redlvas very small at its comence-
ment, aid rose to its "present amount by advances on
various occasions to su,stain- there. That the utnark
male. in the report. The nest' account is 450,585,
That :is .110.. 1 .account of the t but
there is accent:it): :' V. 1.240-1, securi-
ties par-
' Aicular aCeoriht 'if amiirrhtl:i infer Med F4tsteri of
Japer • •‘• ,r• • •
174 S 2001C0 'beA real those part rl pan d the
to an es#Til tli'Ahafelielder.4
•:;. • -fernething 1.14 t, :hear:).. The next is one
familiar to. you U4-547'itlias•beon in courL there
sari be to delicacy' in ..nicifiefilUg the name, and that
i"s the name of Er...eles. It account 31.6,634.11
Thcife is a In Inu te in." the book- that the whole *Of the
the' bookS'ld'ithe 31st December, 185.3
be' placed in the --rthias' of Banner. Mr.
~11aiiiiiteil-=-I(Epi•essions 'Of-dissent.) if I am stating
anythipthere,Whith I ought not to state, I will willingly
,;.forego,alr4ding tOWbat.:ll.r. Balmer reported. (No, :2 o.)
Mr. Th .do not:object.
.1-• Air.- BR AJILEY- MOORE —Mr. Banner reported that
• there was a deficiency in the cash account of 474,000.
••' lie wOnld haye.thonght that would have been a caution
.".. to the .gentlerrien managing-the affairs of the bank "as
G.- they would look into their own affairs." (Hear, bear.)
• On July 25th, the position of affairs was discussed ; a.
- balance-sheet was to Ire got and orders were given to-
• realise the property. And then comes a memoiandum,
• Aug. 3rdi 1850: ".Along conversation about the affairs;
in consequence of the grave inconvenience which a
- public exposure of the affairs might occasion, to say
nothing of the damage to the bank; Ilesolved.that the
. • manager be authorised to make advances to new firms
.)1‘ such an amount as the necessity of the case requires."
(Sensation.) • •• • •

Sr:mitt-Is —That was in 1857 ; I am aware of
, that myself. • • .
• Mr. Ba.k.mmw-Moolu—Well, it is in the Minutes of
thb report if 1856.
Mr. SELZ,
here are •a groat many inaccuracies.
• That is one I can tell, 'because- it was after I became
manager. it was in' August, 1857.
Mr. BitikmLEY-Moon.-E-,lestead of mending the mat-
ter Mut makes it worse.
SELLA.IO--Possibly ; only I want to correct you.
Mr. litumr:ey-MoonE—The next account to which I
would call your attention,. is that of a firm, comprising
- . three other firms under one head-I believe I'may very, -
4• safely say that. The aggregate. balances of those. firms
in 185* were--£214,341; in. 1855,'£21,722';' in-1856,
311,912 ; in 1857, £324;319;- and the united balances
• when the bank closed were £817,167. Now, gentlemen,-
T will show you that they knew the condition of those
accounts as early as 185:1, and that, afterhaving had warn-
ing by a letter from one of the parties themselves,-stating
his position at that time, they increased the account be-
tween June 1856 by 06,000; and yet, at that very time
we were assured in the report to the shareholders, and
mgratulated on the continued success and soundness
of the bank. (Hear, hear.) Connected with this; I
don't think it necessary to read these letters, bat here
they are, showing the position of the parties_ at that
'time. •
A Shareholder suggested that the letters should be
• read.
Mr. Bitsmuly-Mooun---I have no objections. Well,
they, had been an interview. Then this- letter was

written, in which he nearly .admits having. acted un-
justifiably in purchasing so many ships with inadequate
Ineani,.mul burdening the bank ; and f;tati.,,:i that " after
Oliver's failure he did not see how •they were to finance
in. the
..midst •of the distrust which was existing', and
which was likely to- continue to exist ; and if
lithey liked Co continue with they would rind that
to carry
..9a would infme'a burden on the bank ; and