The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-27 00:00:00

TO the POLICYHOLDRS and
R_SHARE-
HOLDERS of the EUROPEAN ASSURANCE
SOCIETY.

You have seen, from the newspapers, that a Petition
has been presented to the Court of Chancery for the Wind-
ing up of this Society, which is to be heard on Saturday,
the 2d of October. This petition bore the names of Mr.
Thomas Carlyle Hayward, a former Director of this
Society, and Mr. Robert Crawford, one of its present
Directors.

Mr. Crawford attended a meeting of the Directors on
Monday last, and took part in their deliberations, and
the very next day, without the slightest intimation to his
colleagues of his intention, he presented this petition.
It is but fair to Mr. Hayward to say that, as soon as he
became aware that he had been improperly induced to join
in the petition, he withdrew at once.
The allegations of Mr. Crawford have been responded
. .

to in the following affidavit, although the first intimation
of his petition was about four o'clock on Tuesday, when
notice to appear before Vice-Chancellor James, at two
o'clock the next day, Wednesday, was served:
" The statement in the said petition that the said Society
is altogether insolvent and unable to pay its debts is untrue.
The moneys available for payment of current claims are
sufficient for the purpose, and the assets and subscribed
capital are and will be sufficient to provide for evety
liability as the same may arise. The said society does in
fact pay its debts, and there is not a single undisputed and
duo policy claim remaining unpaid or which the board is
not prepared to pay, and no debt of which payment has
been asked of the said Society remains at the present
moment unpaid, or which the board is not prepared to
"The books of the Society show that the petitioner,
Robert Crawford, appears a debtor to the Society for sums
amounting to £1,200 or thereabouts, including tte un-
paid call on his shares, and loans unaccounted for, be-
lieved to have been received by him as an agent of the
Society." _ _ _ _ _

The Directors have also issued the following advertise-
ment to the daily papers :
"European Assurance Society.—The Directors of the
European Assurance Society reque,t the policyholders
and shareholders not to be alarmed at any of the reports
which may appear at the present moment, as they are
advisedly, and in full assurance of its sound position,
determined to oppose to the utmost the unwarrantable
attempts to ruin the Society."
Nothing could be more improper than the course pur-
sued. by the petitioner. Had he one grain of the sympathy
he professes for the great interests concerned, his course
would have been to secure the policyholders, first, and
not to rush into Chancery and hand these important in-
terests over to a set of wreckers, whose sole object is to
fill their own pockets at the expense of the Society. It is
now well known that a gang of designing persons has
been occupied for weeks, if not months, in compassing the
destruction of this and other Insurance Companies, and it
is suggested that the policyholders and shareholders
throughout the country should combine with the manage-
ment at the chief office to overthrow these unprincipled
attempts at injury.
With this view, the time for convening meetings being
so short, sheets with headings have been prepared, which
can be signed by either policyholders or shareholders, and
have been distributed to the district managers and agents
in the country, where they can be signed, or at the chief
offices of the Society, 17, Waterloo-place, Pall-mall,
London.

By order of tho Board.
HENRY LAKE, General Manager.