The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-19 00:00:00

BANK OF ENGLAND.

A ball-yearly meeting of the Proprietors of Bank Stock
was held ye,terday at the Bank of England, Sir John R.
Reid, M. P., the Governor' in the Chair.
Tie minutes of the last Court having been read,
The GOVERNOR communicated to the Court the answer
received from her Majesty and Prince Albert, through
the Marquis of Normanby and Colonel Anson, to the
addte;ses of congratulation on the birth of the Princess
Ro tI.

Tee GOVERNOR then stated that this was one of the
half-y( aly rneeri, gs appointed by their by-laws for the
consideration of a dividend ; and the Court of Directors
haling considered the state of the accounts cf the Corpora-
tion, were of opinion that, with the approbation of the
Court of Proprietors, a dividend might be made of 33
per cent. out of the interests and profits for the half-year
ending s:h April next.—( Hear.) He should probably be •
wing some Hon. Proprietors the trouble of putting quea.
lions, by stating that in October last the amount of
'rest" was 2,652,031/., and that the amount of their
present "rest," after taking from it a sufficient sum to pay
the dividend for the ball-year of 3e per cont., if that pre-
position should meet with the approbation of the Court,
would be 2,854,3401.—( Hear )
Mr. WILLIAMS wished to ask whether the Branch
Banks continued to be a source of profit to the esta-
blishment?
The GOVERNOR said they did continue to be a conside-
rable source of profit.
Mr. WILLIAMS said, as be believed that in April next they
would receive about 200,0001. on the " Dead Weight" ac-
count, their affairs would then be in a better condition.
Was it not so?
The GOVERNOR replied in the affirmative, and was
about to put the question fur the dividend, when
Mr. THOMPSON rose to move an amendment. He said
that the Governor had studied in a good school, and bad
not forgotten the principles iacule _tad by his education.
In that acauel "secrecy" was the motto, and " mystery"
the watchword ; and acting upon the principles of that
school, the Directors came to that Court, and dic-
tated to them (the Proprietors) what amulet of dividend
they were to agree upon, without giving them
any data upon which to consider the propriety of the
amount proposed, or any other amount of divider.d.—
( Hear.) The amendment he intended to propose was,
that this Court do adjourn for one week, in order to give
the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Directors, an oppor-
tunity of prep-ring a balance-sheet as data upon which to
decide the amount of dividend. Before be sat down he
would also put a question to the worthy Governor, namely,
whether there had not within the last half-year been a large
number cf protested bids?
The GOVERNOR—Not many.
Mr. Titomrsora—Were there not bills to a considerable
amount from Dundee, which were pretested ?
The GOVERNOR said that he cid not deny that in the
liege till transactions of the Bank of England there must
be some bills protested, but the amount during the last
ualf-y ear was net such as to call for any remark.—( Hear.)
Mr. Tuomesoe rraie some remarks upon the gentle-
reae who had preceded the present Governor in that
ceair (Mr. T. A. Curteis), and wished to know whether
there had not been a loss of 100,0001. by the failure of
the house with ii;hich that gentleman was conuectei ?
The GOVERNOR replied that the amount was nothing
like that sum. The amount proved under the estate was
upwards of 14,e00/., and of that it was probable 5,000/.
would be paid in bills, besides a dividend.
Mr. HAMMOND—Then the Bank would lose about
10,0001.
Mr. SALOMONS seconded the amendment moved by Mr.
Thompson.
On the amendment being put,
Mr. BLACKBURN rose to aedress a few words to the
Court. He said that in a great commercial city like this
it was impossible to conduct business without soma losses
—without meeting with some insolvenciee—( Hear.) But
he was afraid they (the Bank Proprietors) bad more than
their share of them.
Mr. FIELDER regretted that the amendment had been
brought ferward, and said he thought they ought not to
impugn the unfortunate gentleman who had held the post
of Governor by any act of theirs or the Court of Direc-
tors, in relation to the circumstance alluded to by the
mover of tile amendment. It was necessary that they
should repose confidence in their management, and that
confidence the present Governor and Directors certainly
bad. It was their (the Proprietors') duty, however, to
ascertain the basis upon which their affairs stow', and with
this view he should like to have the oth by-law read by
the Secretary
The by-law was aceerdirgly read: it was that which
orders that a Court of Directors shall be holden once a
wee+, at least, for the deapatch of business.
In answer to a question, the GOVERNOR said that no kind
of preference was ever given to the bids of a Director
—in fact, they were more strictly scrutinized than other.
Mr. BARNES ilenatoen expressed his suprise that there
was not a larger increase in the " rest,'' and could notetene
how to account for it. He heard that they were ding really
all the busine,s of London at 5 per cent., and yet there was
1 only an increase of about 2,000/. on the " rest." He
feared it ear to be attributed to the continual alterations in
the building.—(Hear..)
TI c amendment was then put, and negatived; and the
question fr r the dividend carried with only three deeen-
' tiears, being the number of Lands held up for the amend-
ment.
The GOVERNOR informed tire Court that the dividend
warrants'wou!d be delivered and payable on Tuesdae, the
6th cf April.
Mr. CooRE then called the attention of the Proprietors
to the omission which had been made when the Bank
Charter had been. renewed, in not obtaining some com-
pensation to the Proprietors for the privileges which they
had beco deprived of—compensation to nhich even the eee-
mica of the Bank admitted they were justly entitled.
Mr. THOMPSON brought forward a moiler, relative to the
election of Directors. He thought the election ought to
he as open as teat at the East India flou=t. He believed
that his list was the only one that was defaced, and in
order to prevent his conduct from appearing invidious, he
should submit the motion—That the Govoruor, &c , do, at
all future elections of Directors, furnish a list of 100
names, out of which 24 Directors shall be chosen.
After a short discussion, the GOVERNOR said the sug-
gestion of the Hop. Proprietor should be complied eith.
The GOVERNOR then said, that before the meeting ad-
journed, he was anxious to avail himself of the last oppor-
tunity he would have of addressing the Proprietors, and
to return to them, individually and generally, his grateful
and sincere thanks for the kindness he had experienced at
their hands since he had had the distinguished honour of
filling that chair. He would not be doing jusfee to his
own feelings, if be did not take that opportunity of re-
turning thanks. They were all aware, that, since he
had the honour of filling that chair, the Bank of England
had had many difficult es to contend with. He was de.
lighted to inform them that those difficulties had all been
overcome; and, in transmitting the chair to his excellent
friend by his side (the Deputy Governor) he would ex-
press his conviction that it was impossible to entrust the
interests of the Corporation to a more honest, worthy,
or deserving mac. Most sincerely. and truly grateful as
he was to the Proprietors for their kindness, he should
not hate done bis duty had he not acknowledged it; and
the considerate manner in which they had made allowances
for his incapacity to fill the situation he had the honour
to hold.
Bank nlkbete
bad
dovremeerensmorre
alslaid he w
its
diffienalstiehp
scpany to
dfehltegarretahtatplethae.
sure in moving a vote of thanks to the Governor, Deputy-
Governor, and Directors.
iNeir.rs
were
MARR
greatlyYATT,on seconding the motion, said the Pro-
prto
ready and satisfactory mannerindebted:he questions that had been put to him.
Theh e
Court motion
hn a
t wase thdeitettutrdcarriedurninlouslY-
T
3iethhe he Governor
had answered efreordtablel

- ----- -
MOST APPALLING SUIciDE.--On the even.
ing of Sunday last, a catastrophe of the above description
took place at Alkrington Colliery, near Middleton, by
which a mother and three children have been plunged into
eceased have been
friends and acquaintrincs of the
great distress, and the feelings of
d. a largo number of
strongly excited. A little
lman,og
named James. Guest, yaef.ater
sr
of seven
ag
eo, o'clock,
ho cok ,h
aad
mr ',MOM', as bookkeeper, at
been employed by • out of his cottage near one
the above works, rushed
f headlont, down a shaft about
of :he pits, and threw bils"ald latterly° become
150 yards in depth.
11of had
to leavevery low in
spirits, in consequence . . the employ of
bent giving up the works. 1-1
Mr. Lisesey, wb° i3e was a
and of good character, d
man of steady habits,
another
situation
ended in obtaining .
ht. and ; but, after trial, he
was not satisfied wit i ,came home to Alkrin ton.
was ho was unusually distressed, and g on.
Oa Sun
Oa over, both in his
missed itl all head and Lis limbs.
him from the door, and saw him She
the rush past the win-
dow towards coal and she followed, Calling
ea, James," " atop, stop," He
Whisht," and almost instantly di 0 was heard to say,
j
disappeared down the pit,
to which she approached near enough
against the horse-trees and to bear his crashing
Oh God l'' she cried, „
that'sCaiding rods, as he fell.
lyzed unable to go on him," and stood para-
.or return. A man who beard her
cry .came up, .and learning
_ what had taken place, he
went round to the colliers' houses near at hand, and
a sufficient number
of men was soon mustered to un-
dertake an examination of the shaft. They proceeded to
Kind up the
baskets, which were about midway in the
pit, and the first bucket which ascended brought with
it what was sufficient to convince such of them as
doubted of the reality of the man's fate; his hands
and ether viscera were is the tub, and there was rea-
son for supposing that the body bad hung upon the
tub, as, on their beginning to wind up, the tub became
detached, and something heavy was beard falling down the
remainder of the depth to the bottoni. Men were next
lit down, and they sent up the mangled body of poor
Guest, almost cut in two at the middle, and disfigured in a
most shocking manner. An inquest will be held to-mor-
row ; but, as the above are the facts, a verdict of tem-
pororary insanity only can be anticipated.
THE LATE INTRUSION INTO BUCKINGHAM
PALACIL—We understand that a most rigid
investigation
as to the manner in which d... boy Joneshas three . •
times
effected an entrance into Buckingham Palace is about to
take place. In addition to a sentence of imprisonment for
three months, the punishment of hard labour is added.
The boy persists in his first assertion, that his only motive
was to ear I. . the colLraation at Court, sad to write au C.
count of it.

i