The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-08 00:00:00

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

In the evening the Religious Tract Society held its
meeting. The report stated that the past year had been
one of singular activity, both at home and abroad, and
above 200 new tracts and books and five periodicals, com-
prising 850,000,000 pages, had been published:during the
year. The number of publications issued from the depo-
sitory had exceeded 40,000,000, and the proximate
circulation from the formation of the societyl,2Bo,ooo,ooo.
The total receipts, including the balance left from last
year, sere £119,170 Os. Gd., of which £10,488 10s. 11d.
were subscriptions and other free contributions, and
£4,818 9s. 9d. were legacies. The total expenditure was
£112,011 3s. 2d.; £3,500 had been invested, and a balance
remained in hand of £3,058 17s. 4d. The noble chairman
delivered an energetic address, in which he declared that
there were few societies in the present day that were equal
to this society, and, excepting the Bible Society, none
superior. Addresses were delivered by the Rev. Arch-
deacon Hunter, the Rev. W. Muirhead, the Rev. James
Fleming, Mr. J. Ashworth, Mr. J. Gurney Hoare, and
Mr. C. Reed, M.P.

THE CASE OF THE REY. MR. BENNETT,
OF FROME.

In the Court of Arches, the case of •` Shepherd v. the
Rev. W. J. E. Bennett" again came on, before Sir R.
Phillimore, on Friday. It will be remembered that on
Friday last the court refused to accept letters of request
from the Bishop of Bath and Wells in order that certain
charges of alleged heresy on the part of Mr. Bennett
should be heard and determined, and his Lordship ex-
pressed an opinion that it was a case for the Bishop to
hear, embracing as it did some of the awful mysteries of
our religion.

Mr. A. J. Stephens, Q.C., applied to the Court for
leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council. His lordship had given a learned and elaborate
judgment, and declined to accept the letters of
request, on the ground that no reason was alleged why
the case was sent to the court to be heard in the first
instance.

Sir R. Phillimore was of opinion that he ought to
grant the application for leave to appeal, and it would
decide the two questions whether it was competent for the
court to refuse letters of request, or whether they were
letters of command ; and secondly, whether he had pro-
perly exercised his discretion in this case.

Mr. Stephens asked if his lorCship would, as in the case
of "Martin v. Mackonochie," allow an authenticated
copy of his judgment, as it would be of great assistance
to the Judicial Committee and counsel engaged iu the
case.

His Lordship acceded to the application.

THE ENGLISH JOINT STOCK BANK.

The rumour which has prevailed for some time that the
late directors of the defunct English Joint Stock Bank
were to be charged with fraud turned out to be
correct on Friday. Mr. Samuel Greenway Finney, the
late manager of the English Joint Stock Bank, who
has already undergone two examinations, Mr. James
Abbiss, formerly an alderman of the City of London, Mr.
Thomas Bradshaw, and Mr. Charles Edward Mangles,
were bought before the Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House,
charged with the making of improper entries in the books
of the bank, the publication of false balance-sheets, and
conspiracy to defraud the shareholders.
Mr. Lewis, in opening the case, said the prosecutor was
Mr. Lambert, one of the shareholders of the bank. Mr.
Mangles, Mr. Abbiss, and Mr. Bradshaw were from the
eax Hest period directors of the English Joint-Stock Bank,
and were gentlemen of very high position in the City
of London. They were charged with conspiracy to
defraud the shareholders and creditors of the bank by issu-
ing, false balance-sheets and reports, and they were further
charged with conspiring to purchase shares of the bank
with the bank's money, contrary to the articles of associa-
tion; but before stating the facts with reference to these
matters, he wished to call attention to the position occupied
by the defendants. They were adepts in directorship, and
unless they wilfully shut their eyes, they must have been
fully acquainted with all the circumstances of the hank.
Mr. Abbiss, besides being a director of the English and
Joint Stock Bank, was a director of the General Insurance
Company, a director of the South of England Oyster
Company, and the chairman of another company. Mr.
Bradshaw was also a director of other companies ; and
among the companies with which Mr. Mangles was con-
nected as a director were the London and Blackwell
Railway Company, the English and Foreign Credit
Company, the Exeter and Tiverton Railway Company,
the Transatlantic Steamship Company, &c., and he was
also chairman of the Royal Mail Steam-packet Com-
pany,
and of the London and South-Western Railway
Company.
The English Joint Stock Bank existed for eighteen
months, and it succumbed in May 1866, the loss
to the shareholders in the concern being about
£250,000. On the 31st December, when the last
balance-sheet of the bank was issued, the defendants
represented that the bank was in a perfectly prosperous
condition, and that it had made profits amounting to
£14,000, out of which they proposed, and did
pay, a dividend of 6 per cent. to the shareholders.
How far the balance-sheet was truthful would presently
appear, for he would shew that instead of there being a
profit of £14,000, there was a loss of £20,000. A sum of
£50,000 advanced to the bank by the Imperial Mercantile
Company was not entered as a loan, but as a sum due
to their own customers on current and deposit accounts ;
that a sum of £25,000 advanced by the City Bank was
entered in an account headed Kennedy and Co. ; that
£lOO,OOO was paid for the goodwill and premises
of Messrs. Oldings' bank, whereas there was only
an entry that would lead the shareholders
to suppose that only £50,000 had been paid ; that, con-
trary to the articles of association, the defendants pur-
chased £lO,OOO worth of shares with the bank's own money,
in order to raise them to a premium ; that Mr. Finney at
this period sold out 70 shares of the bank which he held.
In 1865 shares were purchased by Messrs. Abbiss
and Mangles and others, with money advanced by the
bank, the money thus advauced not being debited to their
private accounts, but entered in the ledger, under the
heading " Suspense share account ; that £lO,OOO worth of
the bank's trade bills were handed by the directors to
Messrs. Thomas and Co., sharebrokers, to recoup that
firm for the purchases they had made of the bank shares
such trade bills being afterwards recovered.
The evidence taken against Mr. Finney was then read
over in the presence of the other defendants and the pro-
secutor, and fresh evidence was then called.
The Lord Mayor adjourned the inquiry till Monday
week, The same bail was accepted for Mr. Finney as
before—namely, himself in .C 2,000 and one security in
£2,000, and the other defendants were liberated on their
personal recognizances to the amount of £2,000 each.

Sir Travers Twiss gave juJgmcnt in the Con-
ebtery Court on Friday in the case of De. Evans v, Slack
and Smith. It was an application for a faculty or licence
on the part of the rector of St. Mary-lc-Strand to make
certain alterations in the interior of the church. The de-
fendants, as the churchwardens, opposed the grantiagof the
faculty, and it was alleged they were required for Ilitaalistie
practices. Sir Travers Twiss expressed himself of opinion
that the rector had fai4,cl to e,taldish his position that the
altcratiors were required, and on a view of the wjkole cap
he Ivo boned to raw a faculty.