The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-01-07 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRINS'.

• '.ram, hut being either too indolent to read, or too ignorant
to understand, were, as the Bank, disarmed, misled, and
im used upon.
It should thus appear, then, that the Bank are acquit-
t:d of the imputation of negligence, whether put in con-
test with the proprietor, or 'Marsh and Co.
" What, then, are the equities of the case? And first, as
between the Bank and the proprietor, to whom they, in the
;Itaracter of managers of the public funded debt, and, as
such, the agent of every stock proprietor, are by law ame-
nable, upon the same principle, as private bankers are to
their customers, on whose suppos. d accounts they are so un-
fortunate as to pay a forged check.
"As to him, the case stands thus: he requiret the Bank
to replace the amount of stock which has been without his
authority transferred ; the identical stock having changed
owners over and over again, and having been divided anti
subdivided into sums innumerable. Do the Bank refuse?
On the contrary, they are ready and forward in granting
information ; in furnishing evidence against themselves ;
in submitting to the loss; and although ficts are associated
with some of the cases which render their liability doubt-
ful, and which would justify them, in the opinion of the
most fastidious in appealing to the law, they, in all cars,
offer to replace the amount of stock sold. On the other
hand, what do they ask in return ? Simply thi::, that the
proprietor shall assist them in the pursuit of the stolen
property • a condition which is consonant with the feelings
of every honest man, and with which no one, in the same
predicament, can hesitate to comply. without doing violence
td his own unbiassed judgment; a condition, to speak prac-
tically, therefore, perhaps more intelligibly to monied
men, of the justice of which no rational being would have
entertained a doubt, if, instead of being money, the property
had been the Piggott diamond, once so anxiously sou,,glit
after by Mr. Montagu ; or a hone; or incited any other
specific thing, which might have been subtracted from the
custody of an agent, and for the vaiten of which, such
agent, by reason of a legal but not a moral negligence,
might he at law answerable.

"So far concerns the proprietor and the Bank.
"Next the situation of the Bank, with respect to Marsh
and Co. For although strong attempts have been made
by interested persons, as it was natural they should be, to
catch the s mpathy and commisenttion of the public, on
behalf of the unoffending and jnjured creditors, it must be
granted, in every view, both of law and justice, that the
insolveht estate would be 'subject to the same liabilities, as
it is also entitled to the same rights, as would have belonged
to it while solvent; and that in order to thrive at an honest
decision, the assignees of that estate must, for the purpose
of this discussien, be taken to be Marsh and Co. What-
ever circumlOcution may be attempted to clothe the case in
a more piteous garb, ((tight not to remove it trom that
II position.
" To proceed, then, with the Batik and Marsh and Co.
The Bank have, by mistake, and without any legal au-
thority, yet upon the application of Marsh and Co., trans-
ferred the stock of another individual, and, in continuation
of that mistake, have permitted Marsh and Co. to receive
the price of that stock, which they, the Bank, are now
called upon to make good, out of their own funds. IVllat
steps can, what steps do the Bank adopt? They require
Marsh and Co. to return the money, which, by mistake,
they have been permitted to receive, and fur which, it is
*boast superfluous to add, no consideration or equivalent
had been given by them. And what is the answer? ere-
dot Jmkrus 1 they refuse to return it.
" But let us go back one step in the history of ten
years attack on the citadel of British Commerce, and mark
the consistency of this conduct. Before the development
of the machinations, by which the system was carried on,
Marsh and Co. were repeatedly called upon to repay the
produce of the proprietor's stock illegally sold, and which
the Bank now demand them to return, under precisely,
nay, the very same circumatances; and what was their
proceeding then? They referred to their books—found
they had received the money for the proprietor—that it
had not since been paid to him or his authorised agents,
nor yet withdrawn from them by any forged check or
order, in which, by the bye, they were more lucky than
the Bank ; and they unhesitatingly replace the stock, dis-
charge themselves, and satisfy, as far as in them lies, the
justice of the case.
" But the Bank have crated to impart their riches ; and
how is the claim of restitution now met? The pos•
session of the money, through Martin and Stone, is ad-
mitted, as before; and it is also admitted, that it there
became mixed up with the funds of the house. But new
light, forsooth, has broken in upon the assignees, and
they refuse to return the money, because, they say. Marsh
and Co. were imposed upon and defrauded! that -Female- '
roy, their partner, made them the instruments of his vil-
lany ! they knew not that the powers of attorney were
forged ! and, that no sooner had the proceeds of the forge-
ries reached the house, than he withdrew and applied them I
to his own use, and not, as he has asserted, to support
himself and his partners front impending danger and ruin ;
all of which, they add, will manifestly appear on referring
to the hocks in their possession ! IVhat ! does it really appear
in books—is there such impartial evidence( xtant—that one
partner drew out 300,000/. to which lie hod not a tittle of
right; and, that he openly credited himself with large
sumsof money as openly brought in, through the agency
and medium of Mr. Stracey, Mr. Graham, and himself, for
other persons ; at all events, not the monies of the house ?
No, they say, not quite so. But it appears; for instance,
take the 16,000/. that, although that sum was not carried,
therefore is not now to be traced into any account, yet, that
it was incorporated, in some strange and mistified way,
with other sums (to which Fauntleroy, it may be imagined,
was equally well entitled) to his own individual account,
or to another account, subject to his drafts, distinguished
by the initials H. F. W. B. (which every body saw, but
nobody can explain,) and the result therefore will be found
to be, that the capital or assets of the house were not in •
creased, I.y means of the forgeries, to the extent of one
shilling.* Admit all this to be most sacredly true—is it
an answer to the Bank's claim ? Does it prove any thing
more than a degree of negligence, a desertion of duty in his
partners, unheard of in the history of bankers, unexampled
in the events of the metropolis, and so extraordinary, as,
on the first impression, in the minds of their best friends,
and for everlasting in the minds of strangers, to defy be-
lief ; and shall it be competent in them, or their assignees,
to contrast their conduct with the unfounded accusations of
negligence against the Bank, and say that, of the two, Marsh
and Co. are the more innocent, and being so, ought, in their
persons and estate, to be exempted, by that law, which Mr.
Montagu so emphatically thanked God was more powerful
than the Bank.

§ Having been favoured by the perusal of a succinct history of
the forgcricg, the writer feels warranted in obierving, that tney
commenced in April 1814, and continued progrrisively to the year
1318. when a pause ensued they were resumed In .March 1819,
and again continued throughout that and the succeeding three
years. gra.lually, as it were abating, and dually closing by one case
in 11123.

/11r. Stracey'o Counsel. at the lent public meeting, informed the
ereditots, that In 1810 the house ',mowed, therehire it may be in-
ferred the h • tee mood in need of 173,0e1.1/. lie also informed the
creditnra. in reply to a question, submitted at the moment, and for
that reaann the answer demar.de gret-ter respect, that such loan was
progressively returned, between the years 1813 and 1317.
Ste Jamea tiihbald died In 1819, and subsequently his capital
was withdrawn.

It is remarkable that Pauntlerny's depredetions should, In their
nature and circumstances, coincide rid tally, exactly, with the ac-
knowledged necessities and proceedings of his house.
The partners contend, and it is due to them to add they hare
been corroborated by the assignees, that Fetnitlerry brought no-
thing into the house, but that ho withdrew 80,0001. exclusive of
the produce of forgeries.
The p i.ition they have thus token Is, to say the leant of it, an
extremely hold int:, and opposed. as it is, by the conflicting infer-
enc.:. arising upon a comparison of the above facts, and by Fount.
leroy's assertion (which, considering the awful situation in which
he stood on the day of his trial, and still more awful situation on
the last hopeless days of his life, when lie room than once repeated
the oss.veration, unght not to he re.iecied as wholly unworthy of
belief), calls for direct and unequivocal proof to sustain it.
The balance of forgeries, after allowing for those mole good by
re-investment, is full 250,000/. which sum and the 80,0:i01., make
a total of 330,e901. alleged to have been expended by fatintleroy,
in a way unconnected with his partners. Those who were strangers
to him 'nay think it possible but those who knew him must in-
deed be astonished, cad host, in the contemplation of the subject, if
they ohmic, attempt to conjecture by what miierable expedients he,
iettlia the compass of a few years, conld have privately tliitaipated
so vest a capital, and at the saute time retain, not only the marked
confidence of many estimable men, but, in the midst of unprece-
dented extravagance, escape universal reptoach and public ex-
The first exam:notion of tie bask-opts w:11, it may be hoped,
elucidate th:s: trysteriyi.

LOSS OP THE AMERICAN SHIP DIAMOND.
In bur Paper of yesterday mentioned the loss of the
above ship in Cardigan Bay. The Speech pf the Presi-
dent of the United States, at the opet,ing of the Congress,
which was expected in town yesterday, is supposed to have
been on board the Diamond.
The following are some further particulari of this me-
lancholy shipwreck:—
Extract of a letter from Liverpool, received at the New
England Cooke-house yesterday :
" Rivernord, Jan. 4.
" Arrived the Belvidere, Fraser, from Charleston ;
sailed the 14th December. The l'refect was to sail the
same (lay. The Westmoreland, from this port, was i
going in.
" The Diamond, from New York for this port, struck
on the Causeway, near the East-end, in Cardigan Bay,
and sunk in seven fathoms water. The preventive boat
took six of the crew oft' the rigging; remainder, except
e boy, were drowned. The wind this day has come round
to the eastward. The outward-bound still remain : it is
eery probable, by the appearance this evening, that the
greatest part of them will proceed to sea to-men-row morn-
ing's tide."
Liverpool. Jan. 3.
All the paveenrris, and eight of the crew (including
the Captain and Mate) of the Diamond wrecked in Car-
digan Bay, were drowned.
INOTHER •CCOVNTt
"Pwllfiely. Jai. 3.
" Sattirday night last the Diamond, from New York for
Liverpool, laden with cotton, struck on the Causeway,
near the East-end, in Cardigan Bay, and sunk. An ex-
press came to me last night 4:'r a vessel oiboat to go off
directly, to take six men from the igging. The preventive
boat itonicdistely went, rind I hope was successful ; it has
not yet returned. It is reported that ten men are downed ;
one man only got safe on shore."
It is reported that a letter has been received in town from
Reaumaris, stating that 30 persons lieve been saved .rom
the Diamond.

LIVERPOOL: IVEDNZSDAT.

Arrived, the Active, from Cork ; James Watt, from
Glasgow; and Golnare, from Virginia—eaftedat thesame
time as the Belvidere.
The Antelope, from Buenos Ayres, has not yet got
round.

I regret to inform yon, that eight of the crew, and all
the passengers, per the Diamond, from New York, sunk
in Cardigan Bay, are drowned. The Captain and ..late
are included among the unfortunate stifecrers.
In consequence of the cliange of wind, about QOO 'w-
ads have sailed. Should it continue, it is supposed as
many more will sail to-morrow.
There continues a good demand for cotton, and Brazils
may be (limited Id. higher.