The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-18 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—The public attention being now thoroughly
roused to look into the validity of joint-stock banks, the
few observations I have to make may now find a little
more attention than at any period for the last 20 years.

I had 30 years' active employment in a private bank ;
for very many years I made up the daily balance ; and

every year the annual balance and statement. That I
did so honestly, and retired with credit and honour to
poverty, is a fact as well known as it is rarely practised.

That some few of the present joint-stock banks are in a ,
sound condition I am most willing to concede, though
I can, of my own knowledge, state that one of the most
eminent was once wont to put forth direct falsehoods to
puff their growing child. That many are not in that
sound state which their directors congratulate their
proprietors with I am also fully satisfied. I am not to be
gulled by statements that accountants have been called
in and investigations cJncluded to the satisfaction of all
parties. Facts will steal out, and when these facts
disclose falsehoods, what are we to think of the rest !
What are we to think of the statement lately made
with respect to a late great delinquent !—" That the
advances made by the Bank with which he was con-
nected were comparatively small and amply covered,"
when it came out afterwards that securities to the value
of between one and two hundred thousand pounds had
been obtained with the money of another victimised
establishment, and handed over to this one, 'who states
it to be a comparative small advance to one person. If
they have many of these small advances, their shares
ought to be at nil.
Tho4e banks who have branches, and especially pro-
vincial branches, may be sound; but that is and must be
a mere speculation, with such a system of inspection as
is deemed sufficient by persons who only wish to believe
in their prosperity till they are crushed. lam (I flatter
myself perhaps) no mean authority in banking practical
details.; there is no part of it with which I have
not been practically conversant. I have had to con-
tend with the tricks of clerks, and devise means to
detect and prevent. I have had to do the same with
customers bringing to me forged bills for the year
together, and I well know, and to my cost, what
may be done to deceive the most practised in bank-
ing, and I unhesitatingly state that no inspection of
a branch which does not embrace such a period as
to allow of the realisation of every asset, whether
drafts or bills, with a close attention to the mode and
means by which they are realised, whether by bona
fide cash payments, or by substitution of other docu-
ments or renewals, and also a competent examination
and valuation of collateral securities is of any service
or use, but is an absolute farce. Some person fully
competent in every department of the bank should be
sent to the branches from the parent establishment,
during which time the manager should be found
other occupation, and this person should remain till
every asset had been realised. If this course
were taken, I fear very few would be found in that
position which under the present system they are pro-
nounced to be.

I think some six or seven Joint• Stock Banks have
failed within the year, generally under circumstances
very discreditable, and, if properly investigated, criminal
—but so anxious are people to make the best of a bad
job that they sedulously hush every whisper about legal
proceedings, and thus compound felony by wholesale. I
have known something about the Royal British from its
outset. I know that the first deposit of 10,0001. neces-
sary to go before the Board of Trade for their charter
was lent ; if not all, the greater part of it by a large
Joint-Stock Bank, the condition being that a certain
person should not be in their employ (had that person
been in their employ the British Bank would not have
fallen).
.Beginning with a lie they have gone on with a
swindle—and such I ever have proclaimed, and
such I ever will. It well behoves the public
to look a little closer to the moral character, tried
honesty; and habits of the men to whom they entrust
such enormous powers ; and I maintain that they have
not done so. For many years one of the leading banks
had not a man of even common competency in their
direction (I will not impugn their honesty), and the
same thing might be said of the greater part of those
who thus plunged into the management of a class of
business in which it requires a life of assiduity to obtain
a real practical knowledge of.
A RETIRED BANKER.

HIGH PRICE OP B.RIIAII.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BUN.

DEAR SlR,—Permit me to thank you most heartily
for your able and well-timed article upon a dear loaf,
while the Creator of all good has vouchsafed to us so
bountiful _ . .

I have noticed that a slight shower has been sufficient
for the vampires of Mark-lane notoriety to hang for a
higher price in cereals, even if it be by their eyelids, and,
as a matter of course, the troop of innocent, hcsrdly-
done by bakers follow in the wake.
Why, sir, I am paying at this time 9d. per quartern
loaf, and of very questionable quality ; and certainly
my loaves look as if made during a frost, they are so
terribly nipped in, and I think of setting up scales and
weights for the future, not being aware that bakers are
any more honest than their neighbours.
A new dodge has also obtained among some of our
West-end bakers. It's a fact a halfpenny per loaf is
now charged for bringing the bread round ; I have paid
it, but my servant now fetches it.
I hope and trust you will not cease to thunder away
at the gates of monopoly until these bloodsuckers let go
their hold, so that the poor of the land may obtain what
a benevolent Creator intended, "a cheap loaf," so that
there may be no complaining heard in our streets.
R. L.
27, Manchester-street.