The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-18 00:00:00

MARBLE ARGIL

On the motion of Col. bIBTHORP, a return was
ordered of the expenses attendant upon the removal of
the marble arch, and the alterations of Buckingham

Palace.

and money for the navy in an extraordinary manner, and
he wanted to know what was intended to be done in re-
ference to the income-tax, which would expire shortly.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said due
notice would be given of any financial statement which
should hereafter be made by the Government.—(A laugh.)

IRISH SAVINGS BANKS.
Mr. REYNOLDS then rose to move that this House
do, on Tuesday, the 23d day of March,resolve itself into a
Committee, to consider of the losses sustained by the auf.
forces in the late Cuffe-street Savings Bank, Dublin, and
to move that an humble address be presented to her Most
Gracious Majesty, praying that her Majesty may be
pleased to take into her Royal consideration, and to
grant them a compensation for their losses, and to as-
sure her Majesty that this House will make good the
same. In a former session he had the honour of twice
defeating her Majesty's Ministers on this very subject,
but the defeat was not followed by a request from her
Majesty that he should form a Ministry.—(Hear, and a
laugh.) He might as well confess at once that the object
of this motion was to recover the balance of 30,0001.
which was due to 1,971 depositors of the Cuffe-street
Bank, and he made the demand not as an act of charity,
but as a matter of right. Thu Gevernment of the day
were aware of the insolvency of the bank long before
the crisis came, but it was kept from the depositors
through motives of public policy. Mr. Iligham made
that statement before the Committee which sat in
1848, 1849, and 1850; and when he was asked
what he meant by the term " public policy," he
said, if the insolvency had been disclosed to the deposi-
tors it might have produced a panic and a run upon all
the savings-`)auks in the kingdom. The case he had to
make out was a plain one; the bank hided through the
fraudulent negligence of the managers, and the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer for the time being had become
legally liable for the payment of the deposits
before the defalcations were known.—(Hear, hear.)
B -eh lawyers and laymen had given it as their opinion
that the depositors ought to be paid out of the public
exchequer and an instalment of 30,0001 had in fact been
paid to them.—(Hear, hear.) There could be no doubt
then of the justice of this case, and he contended that
the time bad arrived when the other 30,000/.
ought to be made good by the State.—(Hear, hear.)
At tbis hank the deficiency in the amount of deposits
was 56,2291 16s. 4d. The number which received a di-
vidend of 10e. in the pound was 1,927, and the misery
which was occasioned by the insolvency of the bank
would be understood when he stated that two-thirds
of the depositors were females, who, by depositing small
sums of money in the institution, thought they were
preparing for a rainy day. However, by the winking of
the authorities on this side of the Channel and the
frauds committed on the other side, the insolvency
of the bank was suppressed, and the poor people found
themselves victimized in 1848. It had been admitted
that the insolvency of the bank was known from 1833,
and that the fact had been suppressed by the
Commissioners on the
,grounds of public policy,
as they feared if it got into circulation there
would be a run upon all similar banks in
Ireland. He had always treated the 30,0001. given to
the unfortunate depositors by the House as an instal-
ment, not as a final settlement of their claim. When
the commissioners sacrificed their money on the ground
of public policy the House ought in justice to have
given ample compensation. The House could not
act on the principle of charity. The people
were either entitled to the whole or they were not, and
if not entitled to the whole, the House was not justified
in voting them a single shilling. The Hon. Member
concluded by moving the resolution.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said,
this was one of those distressing cases with which every
Member sympathised. No doubt a considerable portion
of her Majesty's subjects belonging to the poorer classes
had suffered very much by the failure of the Cuffe-street
Bank. He was surprised that when the HOB. Member
was so indignant with branches of the Administration in
Ireland, he had spared the managers and trustees of the
bank, whose conduct was certainly as flagrant and
infamous7as could well be imagined.—(Hear, hear.) Ile
did not think any one could contend that it was the
duty of the Government to come forward and make
amends for the want of ability or want
of faith of the manageas of these institutions
Tqe only ground the House could have for interfering
in the Cuff..-street Bank, was the peculiar circumstances
which distinguished it from other cases. The vote of
30,0001. was brought forward by the Government
and accepted by the majority as o final settle-
ment of the question. He had serious doubts
whether strictly the Government were justified in
making any grant; but seeing that 30,0004 had already
been voted, he telt, though sympathising as much as any
Member with the sufferers, bound to oppose the motion
of the Hon. Member.
Mr. HENRY HERBERT rose, and was
(LEFT SPEAKING.)