The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-23 00:00:00

The Bank Failure in Birmingham•

BIRMINGHAM, Wednesday.
It is probable that no business of importance will
be transacted at the adjourned meeting of the cre-
ditors of Messrs. Attwoods, Spooner, and Marshall,
to-morrow, as the committee appointed a week ago
intend to propose a further adjournment to the 30th
inst., " in order to give ample opportunity for offers
for the purchase of the bank property." Tenders
may be sent in up to the 29th inst., according to
the decision which the committee have now made
public.

It may be expected that there will be a very sharp
competition for the " assets and property" of the
defunct bank, as there is a very large profit to be
made out of the transaction. It has been known
from the beginning that one of the Birmingham
banks contemplated making the purchase from
the creditors—but other banks including a
London bank—are understood to be in the field. It
is not at all certain, however, that the creditors will
dispose of their interest in the concern to any buyer.
One disadvantage of such a course, and one which,
in the opinion of many of them must outweigh the
advantage of being relieved from further care with
respect to the assets, is, that they would get nothing
for the goodwill of Messrs. Attwoods, Spooner, and
Marshall's large business connection. This is a
matter of great concern ; and consequently the pro-
ject of starting a joint-stock company to carry on
the business of the bank which has just failed is
taking firm hold of the minds of many of the credi-
tors, and of a large section of the public. The
columns of the Birmingham Daily Gazette—being
the local journal which is understood to be favour-
able to the scheme—have been filled with letters on
the subject every day this week. " A Merchant" is
willing to invest £lO,OOO, another promises £5,000,
and a great number of offers of smaller sums have
been made. Ido not know what the creditors may
say of the project if it be brought under their notice;
but it is not unlikely that they may be very favour-
ably disposed towards it, seeing that the object is to
secure for them ultimately a dividend of 20s. in the
pound. The proposal is that " the creditors should
be first considered in the allotment of shares," and
that when capital is called for, the creditors, instead
of being required to pay up, shall have credit for
the amount of the present value of their interest,
that is to say, for 10s. or 12s. in the pound on their
present claims against the late bank. It is very
clearly shown by the writer in the Gazette that if
this new Joint-stock Bank should have anything
like the success which has attended the operations of
the other leading banks in the town the present de-
ficiency of £400,000 would soon be cleared off. Of
course the project will encounter, as the mere sug-
gestion of it has already encountered, a great deal
of opposition. Established interests do not care to
see a rival spring up amongst them ; but the
disinterested portion of the public seem to look
with favour on the new scheme, as it promises
to redeem the heavy losses of the farmers and tra-
ders, and especially of the friendly societies, con-
cerned in the failure of the late bank. There is cer-
tainly an opening for the proposed bank—the open-
ing left by the failure of Attwoods, Spooner, and
Marshall's bank itself. The decision of the matter
is in the hands of the creditors, and dispassionate
outsiders only hope they may see the direct road to
their own interests. There is little doubt that the
estate will be kept out of bankruptcy.
Offices have been opened in the town and district
where the creditors have been proving their debts
free of charge, and conferring the necessary powers
on their legal representatives to vote for having the
affairs of the late bank wound up privately. You
are aware that up to the evening on which Attwoods,
Spooner, and Marshall stopped payment, and filed
a petition in bankruptcy, such assistance was ex-
pected from a member of the Attwood family as
might save the bank from ruin. That expectation
was disappointed. Some members of the commit-
tee appointed by the creditors have been up to Lon-
don this week to confer with, it is understood, the
same member of the Attwood family from whom
the assistance was expected ; but what has been the
result of their deliberations is not for the present
allowed to transpire.
Just as I had finished the last sentence, and was
about to refer to a rumour which has obtained cur-
rency for some days, to the effect that one of the
private banks in the town was about to be converted
into a joint-stock concern, trustworthy intelligence
has reached me that the bank in question is Messrs.
Lloyd's, and that the rumour is indeedtrue. Messrs.
Lloyd's is the oldest private bank in the town, and
the publication of its balance-sheet on the same
morning on which Messrs. Attwoods, Spooner, and
Marshall's failure was announced, did more than
anything else to prevent the panic that might have
ensued. It is understood that Messrs. Lloyd them-
selves intend to take an active part in the manage-
ment of the joint-stock bank which they intend
starting. For the present there is no further know-
ledge than this abroad as to their intentions, but
the public will doubtless be told in a few days of all
that is to be done.

A few words maybe said with respect to the failure
of the Penny Bank, although it has not much con-
nection with the subject placed at the head of this
letter. The stoppage of this bank has been a heavy
blow to the saving habits which have been fostered
with so much care amongst the poor of this town,
and which parents have been inculcating on their
children for many years. As A never sees B in
distress without wishing that C would relieve him,
so somebody has suggested in the correspondence
columns of the local newspapers that somebody else
should come forward to make up the deficiency of
the Penny Bank.. What that deficiency is nobody
knows at present ; but, whatever it may turn out to
be, it is not at all improbable that it may be made
up to the poor depositors, for we have some generous
men and women in Birmingham. The greatest

_
secrecy is maintained—for the benefit of the

depositors, it is said--with respect to the state of
the affairs of the bank, and the only facts of impor-
tance that have been allowed to transpire are, that
the total liabilities amount to £5,000 or £6,000, and
that the number of depositors is 15,000 or 16,000.
A vast number of small sums, from a penny to a
crown, and perhaps upwards, will never be claimed,
and hence there will be the larger dividend for the
poorer depositors.

The Post-office London Suburban Directory.

The Messrs. Kelly and Co. have just issued this
supplement to the " London Post-office Directory,"
which will be found of the greatest utility to every
one either in trade or out of it. The present work
is an endeavour, and a very successful one, to ex-
tend to the districts immediately surrounding Lon-
don the advantages of a directory arranged on
precisely the same plan as the " London Post-
office Directory," and containing divisions corre-
sponding to the street, commercial, court,
and trade directory of the London work. The
names are taken from the line where the London
Directory ceases up to the extreme boundary of the
Metropolitan Postal District, so that the two works
form a complete guide to the whole area of the
Metropolis and a surrounding circle of 1.2 miles
radius. For the convenience of persons who do not
require the whole work, it has been divided into
two portions, the northern and the southern suburbs,
according as they lie north and south of the
Thames. A very complete conveyance directory is
added, and a map of the districts is prefixed, of the
same size as that which accompanies the London
Directory, and executed by the same artist, Mr. B.
R. Davies. The work is got. up in that style
which so distinguishes all the productions of the
Messrs. Kelly.

ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Ointment and Pills.—
Stomach and Kidneys.—Between these two organs there
exists a close and intimate relation, which is demonstrated
by the wasting which occurs in all diseases affecting the
kidneys. The disordered stomach is often the first index
of renal irregularity. Holloway's remedies used at that
juncture would cut short many a serious and fatal attack.
They act with wonderful efficiency on every organ of
secretion, but especially do they regulate the stomach,
liver, and kidneys, in restoring their healthy functions, and
casting out any obstructions or impurities. It is necessary
for the ointment to be well rubbed into the small of the
back twice daily,when it is absorbed, and greatly augments
the purifying and salutary influence of the pills.

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611111
61°11 1
4

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, March 22.
The Queen walked and drove in the Home Park
yesterday afternoon, and drove in the Great Park
this morning, attended by the Hon. Florence Sey-

MOUT.
His Royal Highness Prince Alfred, attended 11
Lieut. Haig went to London.
Her Royal Highness Princess Louise took a .car"
riage drive, and Princess Beatrice went out walking•