The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-16 00:00:00

The Unity Bank.

Yesterday, at the Justice-room of the Mansion-house,
before the Lord Mayor, Joaeth Wakefield Terry, of 3,
Abook-terrace, Wandsworth, and Thomas Burch, of 26,
Edmond-square, Kensington, were brought up on remand
charged that they, being respectively manager and secretary
of the Unity Joint-stock Banking Association, did unlaw-
fully make, circulate and publish, and were concerned in
making, circulating and publishing an account and balance
sheet of the affairs of the said association to the 30th June,
ISO 2, they then well knowing the same to be false in ma.
terial particulars, with intent to thereby deceive and de-
fraud the members and shareholders,

Mr Lewis, jun., of the firm cf Lewis and Lewis, solicitors,
again conducted th 3 prosecution ; Mr Sleigh, barrister, de-
fended Terry, and Mr Metcalfe, barrister, defended Burch.
Mr Kench was recalled, and said in reply to Mr Sleigh
that the resolution of the committee of liquidators to pro-
secute the defendants was passed three or four days before
they appeared in the dock. A special meeting Ras held on
Tuesday the Ist of November, at which witness moved and
Mr Goring seconded that resolution, to the effect that
Mr Lewis be instructed to prosecute, if possible to convic-
tion, the two defendants upon the charge of having pub-

lished a false and fraudulent balance-sheet. Mr Eyre was
then present—the same Mr Eyre, he supposed, who wrot3
the letter two years ago that the bank was all but insolvent.
The resolution was signed by Mr Robert ProctOrjun. The
committee of liquidators commenced operation in the month
of February or March. Subsequently to that commence-
ment they had Mr Terry before them to render assistance.
He attended from time to time and rendered information.
In addition to that, Mr Howell corresponded with him on
the affairs of the bank ; and then, atter examining and cor-
responding with him, the committee of liquidators directed
that ho should be prosecuted for this offence.
Mr Metcalfe said there was another part of the resolution
which it was rather important and curious to read —namely,
that Mr Lewis informed the committee of liquidators that
in the event of his not being able to obtain the conviction
of Terry and Burch he should make no charge for his pro-
fessional services. (Laughter.)
Mr Lewis observed that this part of the resolution had
been incorrectly copied, and asked whether the committee
of liquidators were not aware that they were answerable for
his charges.
The witness replied that they were, and that however
wrongly the resolution had been copied Mr Lewis must be
paid. He added that at the time Terry gave information
and was corresponded with, the committee were not aware
of the facts respecting the falsification of the balance sheet
which had subsequently come to their knowledge. The
• moment they had become aware of them a special meeting
was called upon the subject. Witness was solely actuated
by a desire to promote the public interests in appearing in
support of this prosecution.
Mr Howell was recalled, and his examination in chief

was continued as follows by Mr Lewis :-1 here was a
customer of the bank named Perl. He owed the bank
in Juno, 1862, in past bills £7.270 8s 4d, and on an over-
drawn account he owed £1,363 14s Id. Witness produced
181 dishonoured bills of Perl, including those debited to his
account. The £7,270 was the amount of those bills, which
appeared to have been dishonoured before June in 1861 and
1862. There was an entry of those bills in the general ledger
and past-due bill book also. The entry in the general
ledger was in Burch's handwriting, that in the past-due
book was in Terry's. Among these bills there was found a
paper containing a notice of assignment in the matter of
Jacob Peri in 1861, and yet these bills were put down as
good assets in 1862. The estate of Perl only paid about lld
in the pound. There was one bill among them for £135.
Mr Lewis here read the assignment, upon the face of
which the bank professed its willingness in January, 1862,
to take 5s in the pound from Peri.
Witness continued—The document just read showed that
the bank knew Perl had failed. The whole amount carried
to the account of the bank in 1862 was £207,000. That in-
cluded the bills of a Mr Conitz. Witness produced the cash-
article book, which purported to show the checks which had
not been called up, and the state of the balance which on
the morning would be seen. He found there nearly the
whole of the bills of Perl entered as cash on the 28th of
June, 1862. There was a total of £16,000, and in that was
included between £6,000 and £7,000 from Perl. This entry
was in the handwriting of a clerk named Curtis. The bills
f 33 entered had been dishonoured bills. They were taken from
the cash-article book and put into the past-due bill book on
the r:oth of June, and there was one of the let of July which
appeared in the cash-article book. Witness produced the
minute books, which contained an entry in Burch's hand-
writing to the effect that the cash book and past-due bias
had been examined by the d rectors. It stated that on the 30th
of Juno the correspondence, past-due bills, discounts, loans,
and cash-books were examined by the directors, and the
entry was signed by the chairman, Mr Alderman Mechi.

Mr Lewis said he should call the directors at a future
stage of the examinations to prove that this entry wan untrue.
Witness continued—The overdrawn account of £1,363
14s ld formed no portion of the tills discounted. The
mode in which it was entered affected the balance-sheet. By
deducting the overdrawn account from the amount owed to
customers it was made to appear as if the bank owed less
to customers than was really the case. There was duo to
general customers on the 30th of June, 1862, £65,381. The
snm of £159,C0S was put down as due to customers, but that
was not correct, because there was £13,600 due beyond that.
The overdrawn balance of Perl alone reduced the true
amount due to customers by £1,363. That £1,363 ought to
have been added to £65,381, and not subtracted. The
bank had another customer named Gilbert Fraser. lie was
indebted to the bank in June, 1862, 41,410 in bills, and

PRICE ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

£l6B 17s upon an overdrawn account. Witness produced
20 bills of Fraser, which had all been dishonoured in 1861
and 1862. In the board minute book of Feb. 28, 1862, there
was an entry in the handwriting of Burch to the efLet that
the directors had resolved that immediate steps should be
taken for the apprehension of Fre z,r. The latter was con-
victed in April, 1862, of forgery, but his bills were carried
into the good assets of the bank in June, 1862, and his over-
drawn account was deducted from the amount due to cus-
tomers, 'Witness produced the general ledger with the
past due bills in it. It contained an entry of dividende re-
ceived in 1861 under the estate of Frazer of £lO and again
of £2O. and that was in Burch's handwriting. The amount
was carried forward after the deduction of the dividends.
Fownes and Co. were also customers of the bank. They
owed an overdrawn account of £437 on dishonoured bills
in the beginning of 1860. That amount was carried
to the customers' ledger as an overdrawn account. The
bills were debited to Fownes and Co. When that ledger
was finished another one was opened, and then that account
was carried to the end of the book among a variety of other
overdrawn accounts. In May, 1860, there was a letter
signed by a Mr Douglas stating that a bill for £l4B 7s 6d,
which had been drawn upon his firm by Fawner and Co.,
was a forgery, but that amount was so placed in the books
as to make it appear that the bank had less owing than was
really the fact. It was treated in the same way exactly as
the other overdrawn accounts. The bank had other cuss
touters T. W. Hall. They owed £3,849 is 9d. Forty-one
of their bills had been dishonoured in 1861. They were ex-
hibited on the 11th of June, 1861, at the Court of
Bankruptcy, under the Bankruptcy of Hall. There was no
dividend on Hall's estate. In the post-due bill book there
was an entry opposite these bills in Terry's handwriting
about a shilling dividend. That amount of £3,849 was put
forward as a good asset into the item of £207,090 and odd.
The fact of the receipt of the dividend appeared in the past-
due bill book in Terry's handwriting, and in the general
ledger in Burch's handwriting. In the past-due bill there
was no entry of "forgery" against the bills of Fownes and
Co., and in the general ledger the bills of that firm were
treated as an overdrawn account. Barclay and Co. were
also customers of the bank. They owed it £1,902. T heir
bills amounted to 14 in number, all of which were dis-
honoured in June, 1862, Dividends were received on ac-
count of that estate amounting to £1,095. The last dividend
was received in November, 1861. That left a balance of
£BO7, which was carried into the good assets of the bank in
June 1862. Among the list of dividends were some so low
as 31d. and 21d. in the pound, and the entries respecting
them were in the handwriting of one of the clerks. Tierman
and Co. were also customers of the bank. They owed £1,510
in eight bills, which were dishonoured in 1860. The backs
of those bills were covered with marks of dividends. After
the deduction of those dividends Tierman and Co. owed
£929 7s Ild, and that was carried into the past-due
hills into loans to customers, and it appeared as a good asset
The entry of the dividends was in Terry's handwriting,
and the entry in the general ledger was in the handwriting
of Burch. The bank had also a customer named Bunyard.
He owed between £5,000 and £6,000 at the date of the ba-
lance in dishonoured bills and overdrawn account, and other
articles carried through the cash-article book as cash in
hand. The bills were dishonoured in 1861 and 1862, and
some were running in Juno of the latter year. Witness pro-
duced a copy of a release made between Bunyard and his
creditors, among whom was Terry. It gave a complete re-
lease to him upon an assignment being made, and was dated
in December, 1861. Upon that same day a loan of £966 15e
was granted to him by the bank, and the entry of that was
in the handwriting of one of the clerks . . The book, the re-
gister of loans, had a reference to this £966 15s as a promis-
sory note. In the board minute-book of Dec. 31, 1861, there
was no mention whatever that the loan of the £966 was
granted to Bunyard. _ _

By Mt Sleigh—lf the money was a renewal of the old
debt it would have been brought before the directors.
Witness held in his hand a note of hand for the £966, the
body of which was drawn in the handwriting of Burch.
There was another loan of £735 granted to Bunyard, but
that did not appear upon the face of the books to have been
ever brought before the directors. There was aboat £2,500
of Bunyard's bills under discount, which entered into the
item of £207,000, and in the overdrawn account fir £1,690
there appeared a difference of X4OO or £5OO in the cash-article
book. There was a book partly made up by both defendants
showing the past-due bills. The debt of Bunyard did not
appear in that book, nor did the bill for the £966 appear
there. On Jan. 20, 1863, a resolution was passed by the
directors that an account should bo made out of the good,
bad, and doubtiul debts. This account showed that most of
the debts were bad and doubtful. Bunyard's £960 did not
appear in that statement, Two of his loans, amounting toge-
ther to £1,700, were considered favourable of in June, 1862
One of these was due in January, and the other in April
They appeared in the book as matured and current bills in
1862, and they did not appear as past due bills of debtors•
There a% ere debtors included in it similar in every respect to
Bunyard. The book contained the items of several past duo
bills. The loans were very few, but the past due bills wary
many. It was then resolved by the directors that a further
alphabetical list of all defaulting customers should be pre-
pared, showing the amount of debts owing, the bills which
had been paid, and the debts which were good, bad, and
doubtful, with observations. Mr Jabez Wood was also a cus-
tomer of the bank, and he was a trustee under Bunyard's
deed.

- Mr Lewis said this case would probably occupy a long
time, and that perhaps this would be a good point at which
to break off for the day.
Mr Sleigh applied once more that his client might be
admitted to bail.

The Lord Mayor said that the plot seemed to thicken.
Mr Sleigh hoped his lordship would not arrive at a con-
clusion of that sort upon what, after all, was at present only
an exparie case. The inquiry might last a very considerable
length of time, and for the prisoners to continue to remain
in custody seemed harsh, and was certainly unnecessary.
It might be that the investigation would last until alter
Christmas. He wished not to say arything offensive,but this
he could not forbear from observing, that the prisoners acre
the mere employes of the bank. They were in a position to
furnish tangible and substantial bail, and Terry had not,
while in communication with the committee of liquidators,
and supplying them from time to time with information,
shown the slightest inclination to abscond.
Mr Metcalfe supported the application, and said that in

the case of the British Bank the prisoners were admitted
out on bail. He believed the prisoner in this case were mere
scapegoats, and that the investigation pointed more against
others than it did against his client, Burch, who was the
mere secretary, carrying out the directions of his super lore.
The Lord Mayor said that without wishing in any way
to prejudice the case he roust decline the application. But
he would consider the question of bail between this and the
next examination with his brother magistrates.

The prisoner was then remanded until 1 o'clock on Fri-
ty next.

University Intelligence.

OXFORD, Nov. 15.

In a Convocation to be holden on Thursday next, the
17th inst., at 2 o'clock, it will be proposed that the election
of the next Vinerian Scholar be postponed to Lent Term,
and that all such candidates, and such only, shall be ad-
missible as by their standing could have offered themselves
in the present term.
In the same Convocation it will be proposed-1, that
Thomas Meymott Tidy, of Queen's College, and Donald
Maolean Claxton, of St. Edmund Hall, be permitted to
enter their names in the Proctor's list for examination in
the School of Law and Modern History and in the Mathe-
matical School respectively this term; and 2, that the Rev.
Thomas Humphrey Lindsay Leary, M.A., of Brasenose
College, be permitted to commute from the degree of M,A.
to that of B.C.L, and proceed forthwith to D.C.L.
In the same Convocation the name of Mr F. Ashpitel,
M.A., of Brasenose College, whose nomination to the office
of Moderator has been approved by congregation, will be
submitted to the house.

..,
A Convocation will be holden on Tuesday, December 6,
at 2 o'clock, for the purpose of electing a clerk to be pre-
sented to the incumbency of Holmo Cu.ltram, in the diocese
of Carlisle, now vacant.