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

BANK FAIL URES.

As the practice of banking becomes more common
the disclosures of the system by which banks are con-
ducted are every day tending to bring the practice into
discredit. Better for the small ,q•adesinan to tie up his
earnings in a stocking and hide it in his bed—better for
the small lodgi9ghouse-keeper to consign her gains to
the broken teapot on the top sheiT of her cupboard,
which is the receptacle of her hidden ,`Teasures, than for
either to become a depositor in banks ciSseducted on such
lax principles, on such a negation of priutsiele, as some
that have lately come under our notice, The worst
of it is that the mismanagement and feilure of
one bank throws a suspicion upon them al Some nee
banks have lately been established, and have been
doing business so successfully that they have afforded
a dividend to the shareholders of from 10 to 20 Per
cent. We look at the names of the directors and
begin to take courage, when we unfortunately renewal'
ber that, names are, after all, a fallacy—that a sell'
gious baronet may be a solemn humbug, and a mil`
lionnaire Lord of the TreasUry a bankrupt victim of
suicide. The bankruptcy of Strahan, Paul, and Bates
was a fearful lesson as well to depositors as to bankers.
To the latter it exposed the dangerous quicksands
which lurk beneath too venturesome speculation ; to the
former it exposed the flimsiness of the trust to which
they delivered their all in this world, and probably to
many suggested
that a joint-stock bank might b°
safer than a private one. Scarcely had the public recc.
vered from the astonishment created by the discovery of
so gigantic a swindle when there came another thunder'
clap ; John Sadleir was' found dead on Hampstead'
heath, and the Tipperary Bank—a joint-stock, not
private company—was obliged to close its doors and con'
fess to the robbery of its customers. And now, when
we were hoping that by these terr;ble examples comma:
cial morality was about to be purified, and commercial
prudence about to be established, ve-e discover the folly
of expecting directors to be prudent where there is *
chance of great gain, or to be moral wh ere there is day
ger of immense failure.
The Royal British Bank was established some Yeare
ago, with sufficiently modest pretensions. It was to hd
modelled on the Scotch banks, which have been ecneducte
for the most part so prudently that the instances in which
pa"ment has been stopped by any of them have Vett
exceedingly rare. Whether a mode of banking Tillie' •
has been eminently successful in provincial towns of
Scotland, and even in such cities as Glasgow soil
Edinburgh, is equally applicable to the English metro-
polis' where it is impossible that the managers of the
bank can have any accurate knowledge of all the
transactions of its customers, we shall not star to
inquire • but certainly there was the prestige of iM
Scottish success in favour of the new institution. The
beetle was professedly started to accommodate the Zr
dustrious, deserving tradesuan whose capital lay rather
in his sober sense and plodding routine than in his credit
or his purse, to assist the publican doing a steady bust"
ness in thecorner shop, and the linendraper with his unpry
tending window, the grocer who stakes his credit in lorgB
.
letters on his unrivalled 3s. 6d. mixture and the enterprisil4
hairdresser who, in honour of his bears' grease, announce*
that he has "killed another bear to.day. ' Properly rage
aged, such a bank may assist the deserving tradeernso
with an infinitesimal capital, and it may yield aWr
profit to the shareholders who embark in it. But Who
are these shareholders likely to be I The scheme he'
evidently great attractions for a certain class—Darnell,
for those who have a horror of great speculations;
and who have faith in the aggregate of slo°l°
profits amassed by small tradesmen. There is °,,e
immense number of old maids and widows and ileD"
pay lieutenants, and farmers and country surgeons,
who would open their eyes with terror at the idea
of becoming shareholders in an ordinary banke-i°l
a bank that would advance money to a wholesale !Der'
chant—that would discount the bills of a large lair
owner—that would accept the debentures of a railvesi
company—that, in short, would transact its business by
tens and hundreds of thousands at a single stroke. Bet
to.tliefie minds there is something safe in the retail nier.
chant ; he is not a speculator, he is an industrious'
honest, jogtrot man, content with moderate profits 0°
a clear conscience, in spite of his adulterations. A banift
therefore, is is concluded, which seeks its custornerS
among this class must be a peculiarly safe investment,
even if the gains should be only moderate ; and, accord;
ingly, we find among the list of the shareholders r°
the Royal British Bank just that class of persono
who were likely to be attracted by such a scheme'
Perhaps we are speaking in lamentable ignorance,
and, if so, we ask to be pardoned, but we find ll°
great commercial names among the shareholder&
Whether they be there or not, however, we certainly
find without number the names of spinsters, widows,
clerks in the Customhouse, messengers, stationers,
butlers, artists, policemen, cheesemengers, and we knee
not whom else. These were the innocents who sub-
scribed to the concern ; but, for all their innocence sad,
all their caution, the customers of the bank have lie'
no more security than if they had confided in an aria'
tocratic saint or a speculating sinner. The Bank hats
broken in the most disgraceful manner.
Whoever is to blame in the matter, and that
not very difficult to decide, it is perfectly clear that
this bank has given way from a combination of the.
causes which led to the bankruptcy of Straban and
Paul, and to the failure of the Tipperary Bank. The
latter was at the mercy of certain of the directors, who
drew on it till the bubble burst—drew on it withal,
limit—drew on it as none but a person in the position
of a director could draw. We are not accurately il3;
formed as to the credit which some of the directors 0'
the Royal British Bank obtained in the books of the
company whose affairs they controlled, and we there'
fore speak with all due restraint. But it seerei t°
be admitted that in some instances this credit
was more than was justifiable ; and we only give the
system by which a director thus takes advantage of hi°
position its proper name when we say that it amounts
to embezzlement. A director is appointed to his chair'
just as a clerk or any other functionary is, for his know'
ledge and habits of business, and it is not less improper
for him to get an excessive advance of money from the
manager than for two clerks to conspire to lend each
other cash out of their respective departments. And
as here we have an illustration of that ruinous licence
which caused the downfall of the Tipperary Bank, so in
the character of other advances we blive
i
the counterpart of the insanity in shish Peel
and Straban dashed their heads against the
wall. They lent money to impossible railways in
the south of Europe and to unproductive coal mines as
home, and, in order to recover the loans, lent more
more, instead of being content with the first loss. "e
shall know more of the transactions of the Royal British
Bank hereafter, but the same game seems to have
been played in its parlour also—money sunk 1/
unprofitable speculation and sought to be redeemed
by sinking more, till at last the bank was fairly
engulfed in the Slough of Despond. It was
engulfed, and the misery is great just in proP°l"
tion.to the modesty of the gains to which the share'
holders looked forward. If capitalists had been Or
netted with it the ruin might not be so fearful. the
depositors, it is not improbable, will ultimately escape,
but hideous ruin has fallen on the shareholders, many e
whom had intrusted all their savings, the small pittance°
of old age, to this bank. ffere is yet another *yarning
that neither high•sounding pretensions on the one hand'
nor the most humble schemes on the other, are a protec'
tion to the public; and that, be our confidence ever So
great, our vigilance ought to be still greater.—Tintes•

BARNET AUTUMNAL CATTLE AND HORSE
THURSDAY, SEPT. 4.—The above fair opened this morn'
ing, at nine o'clock. The stock was immense, in ever):
variety. Such a fair, for Barnet, has not been witnessed
for a long series of years. The Herefords ruled at bigh
prices, and went off readily, 131. to 141. being the stand'
ing figure. Shorthorns, 121. to 14/. ; Devons, 141. to
151., in a highly approved condition. The mixed breed°
moved off at ordinary rates ; 71. to 101. may be rated ea
their nominal value. The Scotch side of the fair WA°
most liberally supplied. We have not, for the last 18
years, witnessed so splendid an offering of this class of
cattle. The Galloway breeds bore high figures, 15/. fair
glowing beasts. Aberdeen longhorns, 121. to 15'.
Shorthorns were steay, at fro 141. to 15/., young
animals. A better hordse fair has not been experienced
in Barnet for many years past. Thera was great excite'
ment in this order of business. Large team horses made
as much as 751. ; ditto colts. 401. to 45/. per head ; riding
nags, 301. to 47/. each ; and small draught horses from
251. to 36/. ; Welsh ponies were not plentiful, but were
in good request. Priers ranged from 7/. to 141.
INCREASE OF TUE AUSTRALIAN TRADE.—Examining
more closely the character of the import trade of the
colony of Victoria, some very curious results
are witnessed. The necessaries of life have in
creased with most surprising rapidity. The value
of the butter and cheese imported in 1850 was but
660/., last year the value was 466,000/.; candlesamounted
to but 1,011/. in 1850, in six years the demand had ill'
crelsed to 244,000/. Wheat, flour, and bread were not
imported in the first year of the existence of the colony,
or if at all, to a very limited extent, and they are not en-
tered in the official returns, hut lastyear the consumption
of the colony was equal to 1,550,000/ of these articles.
The importation of oats increased in value from 2,579/.
in 1850 to 316,000/. last year, and potatoes from 2,1701.
to 316,000/. in the same period. In articles of luxury the
increase in the value of the imports affords a good test of
the growing wealth of the country—thus in 1850 car-
riages to the value of 1,713/. sufficed for the wants of the
Victorians, but in 1855 the demand for these articles was
supplied by carriages of the value of 69,536/. ; jewellery
was imported to the value of but 650/. in the earlier pa'
riod, but in the latter the supply was equal to 47,695/,
while clocks and watche' increased from 688/. to 21,2141
—Australian, and New Zealand Gazette.
STOKE is remarkable for the number of good stone cot
tages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which i
exhibits, ivid very considerable remains of monastic
buildings. The church is a Norman structure, with vile
rious insertions, and a south chapel of the Early Deco'
rated period, with a range of four lights on each aide.
low side window (sometimes called a lychnoscope, and
sometimes a yulne window) on each side of the chancel ;
a squint, or hagioscope, on each side of the chancel arch
and what may le the remains of a stone altar at the en
of the chancel, aro amongst the noticeable point.. On
the south side of the latter there is a large piscina, with
shelf above, placed anglewise. The most interesting fey
ture in the edifice, however, is the north door of the
church, against which, in more recent times, a porch
has been built that obscures the upper part of the orna-
mented semicircular arch. On the semicircular tymPa•
num, above the straight head of the door are various
rude sculptures, consisting of a tree in the centre, with
three large birds amongst the foliage ; on the left, or east
side of this, is a representation of the archer of the Zo-
diac, marked at the side, in Byzantine fashion,
rius ; and on the other side an animal inscribed Sagitta-
Leo, sad
a representation of the Agnus Dei,—The.Thigier• .