The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-08 00:00:00

ham, is much better, and hopes are now entertained cf
his recovery.
We are able to contradict the report that has been
going the round of some of our daily contemporaries,
that General the Earl of Strafford is dangerously ill;
such is not the fact.
MILITARY M.P.'s.—ln our enumeration of the Mili-
tary Members of Parliament from whose exertions much
is expected this session, we omitted to mention the name
of Captain Wynne, of the 7th Fusiliers, who takes his
seat for the first time. It is the belief of those who are
well acquainted with Captain Wynue that he will prove
a valuable acquisition to the military phalanx. "Ho
has," says a correspondent, " a sound head, a knowledge
of the scientific and practical parts of the trade, and has
the advantage of being behind the scenes as to what
is actually passing in the service, by being a full pay
captain in one of the best disciplined and best drilled
regiments in the British army."
DEPUTY ADJUTANT GENERAL.—CoIoneI Wetherell,
the Deputy Adjutant-General to the Forces, is to be
deprived of the pay he derives from the appointment he
holds as one of the Aides-de-Camp to her Majesty, the
two appointments being considered incompatible with the
duties of each other.
COMMISSARIAT DEPARTMENT.--Assistaat Commis-
sary-General Mends, who has recently returned from
duty at Sierra Leone, is to proceed to South Australia,
to take charge of the department in that colony. This
measure has been deemed expedient, in consequence of
the great *umber of Enrolled Pensioners embarking for
that station.

WAR AT THE CAPE.—In addition to the four com-
panies of the 73d Regiment, with a detachment of Royal
Artillery, which left Cape Town for Simon's Bay on the
sth of December,'a further force of a troop of the Cape
Mounted Rifle Regiment, and a detachment of the 91st
Regiment, have proceeded to the Leeuw frontier. The
whole of the troops stationed on the frontier are to be
concentrated in British Kafraria, under the command of
Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith.

LONDON AND COUNTY JOINT-
STOCK BANK.

The half-yearly meeting of the proprietors of the
above bank was held on Thursday at the London Tavern.
Mr. J. Sadleir, M.P., was in the chair. _ .

The advertisement by which the meeting had been
convened having been read, the secretary read the fol-
lowing report :
The directors have to place before the proprietors the
belance sheet of the bank. signed by the auditors of the
company, up to the 31st December, 1850. It wilt be seen
that the net profits for the past ball-year, ending 1850,
amount to 9,9081. 9s. 101., out of which sum the directors
recommend that a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent. per
annum be declired, f,ee of income-tax, fur the haleyear
ending the 31st Dec', 1350. which, if approved by the
proprietors, will leave 3,133/. 183. 2d. to be carried to the
guarantee fund, thus increasing that fund to 35,1931. 6s.
10.1. Since the last auntie! meeting, your directors have,
in consequence of the failure ot Messrs. Nash and
Neale, established a branch at Reigate, where an in-
creasing and remunerative business is carried on. It is
with regret that the directors have to announce to the
proprietors the recent demise of John Cuthbert Joyner,
Esq., for marry years a member of the Board. The
vacancy thus occasioned has been filled up by the elec-
tion ot Witham Champion Jones,

BALANCE SHEET T,) 31ST DECEMBER, 1850.
DEBTOR. L d.
To Capital ... ... 231.035 0 0
Reserved fund ... 32,059 8 8
Customers' balances, &c. 2,030,238 4 3
Net profit for the ball-year, nEer
payment of 11,2301. ss. h. tor
interest to CUstOnatlrb ••• 9,908 9 10

£2,303,241 2 9
CREDITOR. X. s. d.
By Cash in hand ... 511,924 7 4
Securities, discounted bills, &c.... 1,740,688 10 0
Bank premises, freehold and lease-
hold 33,737 11 4
Preliminary expenses, expenses of
establishing and purchasing
branches ... ... ... 17,790 14 1

£2,303.241 2 9
The Csernatast said he hoped that the statement
which the secretary had just read would be received by
them, not merely as a brief statement, but also as a
satisfactory and cheering exposition of the condition
and circumstances of the bank at the close of the past
year.—(Hear.) In submitting to them the result, which
it was now his duty briefly to place before them for
their consideration, it did not occur to him that he need
trouble them with many observations. It was to him
certainly a gratification to have this renewed opportunity
of meeting and addressing them on the affairs of a
bank in the prosperity and progre se of which they had
a direct and common interest. But when the affairs of
a public company began to progress smoothly and well,
it might be generally remarked that directors as well as
chairmen could afford to be brief.—(Hear.) They were
cow fortunately in a position which enabled the direc-
tors to place the condition of the company's affairs
before the proprietors in a concise, and, he hoped
they would say, in a satisfactory manner—
(Hear, and cheers)—and, indeed, when a fortunate state
of things arose; it was needless for chairmen to draw
on their powers of speech. He was not anxious to in-
dulge in a train of thought which might excite in others
exaggerated notions of the future condition of the bank,
and ne was equally averse to the expression of anything
that might induce them to take a discouraging view of
the past. But in any such view—which could certainly
not be profitable—of the management of the affairs of the
bank, he felt tnat in reference to those to whom that
management had been intrusted, they ought never
to forget the circumstances under which the errors
of past years had arisen ; because in the continued
remembrance of those circumstances they would con-
stantly have before their mind lessons of experience,
which might well serve as a useful guide for the safe
conduct of their bank in future. Tne position of their
bank had not been altogether stationary for the few and
eventful years that bed passed since be had had the ho-
nour of becoming connected with it. It was impos-
sible for their directors to forget, even for a single
week, during that period, the errors of previous
years; for the proprietors well knew that they (the
directors) had been called upon during that period to
pay on their (the proprietors') behalf the penalties of
those errors. It would be quite enough to bear in mind
that they had not only met those penalties, but that they
had, at the same time, succeeded in so conducting the
affairs of the bank as to return to the proprietors what he
deemed, under existing circumstances, a large dividend, to
increase their guarantee fund, and to diminish other pre-
liminary expenses. Now these were matters which it was
not easy to accomplish at one and the same time, and he
thought that he might usefully present, in a pointed and
prominent manner to the proprietors, these pregnant and
plain facts. He thought they were encouraging, and
that they justified him in entertaining anticipations
which he did entertain with respect to the future pro-
gress of their establishment. As yet their bank was not
tull grown. In addition to those objects which they
had in view and had effected, they had been laying
broader, and he hoped better foundations, on which to
increase and extend its business. He was anxious to
take this opportunity of adverting to the main principle on
which the institution rested. He had always been at-
tashed to the joint•stoek principle. It had been, as
they well knew, applied to a great variety of enter-
prises in this and other countries, and necessarily and
naturally it had not been always suceesaful; but the
triumphs and the success of the joint-stock principle,
when interwoven with the fortunes and progress of
banking institutions, had been signal. And no doubt
much of the success which had attended their efforts
and the progress of the batik were attributable to
the support of, and . the manner in which, the pro-
prietors and the customers of it had appreciated and
relied on the joint-stock principle. Much of the
prosperity and the present strength of the bank was, he
must observe, attributable to themselves, to their con-
nexions, to their neighbours and friends, who were its
customers. Perhaps it was to our insular position that
he ought to attribute the circumstances, that we were,
nevertheless, slow to adopt great principles which had
been developed and tested by other nations and otherraces.
But, at all events, we ought to be quick and energetic in
imitating the example of our neighbours and fellow-sub-
jects, who were remarkable for the persevering spirit
with which they continued to rely on, and to extend, the
joint-stock principle as applied to banking; and he
would ask the meeting to look upon and to
admire the spirit and the feeling which had interwoven,
themselves with everything that appertained to com-
merce, to trade, and to agriculture in Scotland as re-
garded joint-stock banking. Of his own personal know-
ledge, he could say that, not merely in Scotland, but in
other portions of the United Kingdom, the prosperity
and the present wealth, not only of individuals whom
he could name—not merely of towns which were well
known to all of them,—but that the present wealth and
prosperity, and intelligence, and moral bearing of en-
tire districts, were mainly attributable to the operation
and development of the joint-stock principle as con-
nected with banking. There was not, from the highest
of those who were the descendants of the chieftains of
Scotland, to the most humble cattier tenant throughout
the country—there was not a merchant, trader, or agri-
culturist who did not feel that his individual prosperity
and welfare was inseparably mixed up in the pros-
perity and welfare of some joint-stock bank. It
would be difficult to find a Scotchman in his own
country who did not possess a deposit receipt or a joint-
;dock bank pass-book. They would find that the
Scotchman did not conceive that the value and import-
ance of a joint-stock bank in his district was merely
se
(finned to the fact that it might offer to him the pos-
s4ibility of having au over-drawn account. Much was
heard in this country of the importance and value of in-
' -troducing into it the Scotch system of banking, but un-
fortunately many Englishmen to whom he had spoken
on the usefulness of that system, had fallen into
the error of imagining that it simply meant the
opening of some bank for the purpose of enabling the
public to overdraw their accounts. The great confi-
dence which was reposed in joint-stock banks in Scot-
land gave much strength and safety to those institu-
tions
in that country. With the growth and extension
of that system the necessity of altering the laws of
debtor and creditor forced itself on the public mind,
and in Scotland those laws had been so al-
tered as to act harmoniously with the extension
of legitimate banking through the instrumentality of the
joint-stock principle. And when the people of this
country began correctly to appreciate, as the people
of Scotland had long since done, the importance of
planting among themselves the joint-stock principle of
as
itiot,
irreunsfti,e4r thea ttliermrnantfo.ocr:
banking, an alteration in the laws of debtor and creditor
„,
thesewouldr fi firm
a kbi become c t ,
thorn m e
observations soi r ; apparentch;i,sti:ti
'i d not be misunderstood, and
that it would not be thought that in pointing out the ad-
vantages of joint-stock banks he had any wish to dis-
parage those of a rival principle, for the meeting knew