The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-22 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 22, 16NS

to satisfy the parties that it was worth the money. -•
The agent applied for the name of the valuer, but
of that Mr. Thava,ites was net aware, and only knew
that he resided at Stockport. A good deal <f stress
was laid- upon this, but it transpired on cross-
examination that a few days after Mr. Thwaites
sent the gentleman's name and address. The claim
not being paid, Mr. Thwaites threatened an action,
and ultimately an arrangement was come to that
Mr. Thwaites should bo paid the sum of 2,334/.
is. 10d., being 100/. less than his claim. A. deal
of unimportant evidence was introduced having no
reference to the case, until we come to that of the
felon James Holden, who was formerly a carder in
Mr. Thwaites' employ, at 12s. per week, and had
been with him four years the first time, and at out
four months the last. Holden said—" In Nov.
last I went into the office for a 'step' fir an old
scutching machine, when Mr. Thwaites said I must
burn the mill down on Tuesday night, and he would
give me 100/. He said he would be in Manchester
that day, and would come down when he heard
that the mill was on fire, and would appear to be
very sorry. He said it would be a good thing
for the hands, for he should gat 2,6701 , and would
have a new mill in three months, and if it was not,
burnt he should have to stop the mill. He said
he would give me 100/., but only has given
me 61., in one and two pounds at a time. I
wont into the mill 'about ten at night, slept till
about 12, and then struck a watch and set fire to
some old cotton. I saw Thwaites in-the morning,
and he said, It's all right, keep your counsel and
I'll keep mine." The witness on cross-examination
said he had never once asked Mr. Thwaites forany
part of the 100/. since the fire, but Mr. Thwaites
had given him money, telling him it was for setting
the mill on fire. It was on such a declaration as
this, in the first instance made by Holden when in
a state of intoxication, that both he and Thwaites
were apprehended. It transpired that both pri-
soners when in the lock-up at Chorley had been
subjected to an examination which was•taken down
by one of the police—a practice which his lordship
strongly condemned, as the statements extracted
from them were now produced as evidence. His
lordship in summing up said it was a rule in law that
when a case depended upon the evidence of such as
Holden, it was not worth much unless stiongly cor-
roborated, not by collateral circumstances but by
direst evidence, and the only corroboration of the
evidence given by Holden was the examination
the pulic--office. Such evidence aught to be
strongly corroborated, for if it were believed in
its- lf every man would be at the mercy of another
who having committed a crime wanted to shield
himself at the expense of others. The question for
them to consider was, whether Holden was a man
to be believed, and was the corroborative testimony
such as under the circumstances was strong enough
tor them to convict upon.
The jury did not leave the box, and in a very
short time returned a verdict of acquit' al.
A buzz of approbation ran through the court.

TRIAL OF TILE ROYAL B.!
DIRECTORS.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, GUILDHALL,
(Sitting at Niel Pries before Lord Campbell and a
Special Jury.)
THE QUEEN V, BROWN AND OTHERS.
SEVENTH DAY.

[The thllerving appeared in-successive editions of The Sun
of Saturday :

The trial of the information against the directors and
manager of the Royal British Bank for conspiring by
false pretences to defraud the shareholders and cus-
tomers and the public, was this day resumed.
The same counsel appeared 'as before.
Mr George Anderson was called and examined by
Mr. Atherton with reference to the past due billy and p at
due bills book having reference to the advances made
by the bank, most of which had been the subject of le-
quiry in the early part of these proceedings. He stag d
he found the bills had been classified on the sth April,
1853, as follows : good bills, 17,1531 ; doubtful,
4 3171. 15s 41 ; bad, 6.628/. 3s 7d • ' bills in
17 1541. 7s 4d ; and under legal pro.
cess, 4,945/. 55 Bd. The classification commenced on tte
31st Dec„ 1851, between th-ee dates no addition had
been made to the past duet bills, the outstanding accetnit
remaining the same. A " money lodged and lent bottle'
was kept ; all the past clue bills and loans were shown in
it. None of their bad bills were written off as " despe-
rate," but carried on as securities, up to 29th Augu-t,
1853. The amount of past due bills at that time was
24,260/. 163, being an increase of 5,000/. or 6,0001 since
December, 1851 ; the past duel tans were, at that time,
10,7591. 15e 61 from that date to the 18th
June, 1855. On the 31st December, 1853,
the outstanding due bills were 24,706/. 14s 7d ; on 3d
April, 1854, 32,304/. 13s 41 ; on 30th June, 37,0181.
14s ld ; on 4th Sept., 40,3951. 11e 2d ; on 30th Oct ,
50,599/. 19. lid ; on 25th Nov., 56,8981. 4s l i ; on 3d
Jan., 1855, 73,416/. 13s 7d ; on 12th Feb., 78,203/. lsld ;
on 12th March, 82,276/. 6s lld ; on 12:h
83,921/. 18+ 101; on 14th May, 88,0101 14, ; on 18th
June, 88,8441. 191 5d ; and on 21st July, 92,328/. 8s Bd,
including 21,117/ 2s 2d, De Tart's dishonoured bids ;un
6th August, 1855, the past due bills amounted to
68,8581. 133 5d ; lit September, 70,325/. 5s B.i ;
and on 17th Oct., 71,634/. 3s. Past due loan, out-
standing on 18th June, 1855, amounted to 16,3271.
13s lld ; bills continued with collateral security,
3,3261. Os ld. Past due loans on Ist September, 1855,
amounted to 20,4771. 133 lid ; bills continued, &c.,
24,3431. 43 31. Oe 17th Sept. past due roans were
51,073/. 2e 10d; bills on collateral security, 24 3431.
8s 3d. The past due loans at this time, including Mr.
IL Brown's, brought from convertible securities,
amounted to 29,1851. 18s 10.1. Up to December, 1855,
the past due bills were 63,7561. 73 41 ; the past -Le
loans, 17,7421. Os ld. ; bills continued, &0., 24,7841.
lie 9d : making a total of 106,2821. 19, 21. Ti e
"green ledger" commenced earls in 1854, at. d
was kept by Mr. Cameron, junior, and Mr.
Munro. The accounts transferred from the other b.ioks
at first were written by Mr. Crawford. All the offioal 8
had access to it. It contained the names of the hat k
officials only. In it were the accounts of Mr. Bari g
(director), Brown (director), Barnard (cashier), Cocora, e
(director), Clarke (director), Cameron (general manage, ),
Chandler (auditor), Gsynne (director), Kennedy (direc-
tor), Logan (late clerk), Maigregor (director), M'Cioud
(director), Mullens (late solicitor), Napier (late acc ues
taut), Owen (director), Paddison (solicitor), Ruetiin
(director), the two Mr. Valiants ( lirectore), and Wal-
ton (director). During the illness of Mr. Cameron, he
was unable to say if the " green ledger" was from time
to time before Mr. Esdaile.

Mr. Atherton said he wag prepared to show the state
of the accounts for 1850.

Sir F. Kelly, said it waif not required, became
it was not i 9, this information. The amount of
bills on whiCh he calculated iiitere.it in 1855 was
46,389/. 14s 7d, the interest was 2,6741. 2s 10 1, which
was carried to profit. He was directed not t calculate
interest en certain bills after 1855, up to 16,0351.
By Mr. Sergeant Shea—The value of the bills for
calculating interest was ascertained front a knowledge
of the parties.
The witness was then cross-examined on the balance.
sheet of 1855. It was a dry and tedLius process,
utterly uninteresting and unintelligible without the
document-. He adAed that he had bi-, suspicion when
he was told by Mr. Barnard not to value certain bills for
interest in Jane ix Juiy, 1855; that they were bad. It he
had known any part of the bills were bad he should have
gone to the directors and taken their instructions
thereon. A provision was made for bad debts in the
balance-sheet is addition to the reserved fun i ; Mr.
Stapleton joined the bank after the publication of the
balance-itheet in June, 1855. _ .

Sir F. Kelly examined the witness as. to the drawing
up of the balance-sheet of 1855, which was reported to
him, and net a report of vvhicu be took part in producing.
Lord Campbell —There is nothing on the face of this
balance-sheet that would undeceive him. He id not see
the balance sweet bet ire it was pridted, he did not know
who gave i.structions what skould be left out and what
retained.

By Mr. James—He never eaw an item for past due
bills in the reports of Bugli,h Joint Stock Banks ; ti.e
sum of 89,0001. past due bills contained a portion of
Brown's debt, for which the Bank held securities ; it in-
cluded some of Oliver's and.Da Tart's liabilities, 21,0001.
for which th© bank held a second mortgage ; it al,o
included Macgregor's and .Mullens' debt..

Mr. S6rgeant _ Shea—The balance-shoet printed fix
circulation is only an abstraot of the balance-sheet.

The Jury said they were quite aware of that.
Lord Campbell—So far as I understand no objection
is taken to the tom] of the abstract.

By Mr, Slade—Mr. Owen (director) bad a credit
alance of 891. when ti'e bank failed.

By Mr. Huddleston-41r. Brown had advanced to
him at Vie b, ginning of 1854 12,0001. on hills, for which
he gave security, the Helen Lindsay, the Magdalena,
and the Hero, and lodged a bid of sale of them. Early
in March that sum had been paid off, and before the
mortgage was given to Mr. Walton. .
A juryman complaine.., that in crost.,,xamining the
witness allu,tion had been made to other Joint Stocks
by name in compathon with this, relative to the loitu
of their balance-sheet, which he thought a di&hontair.
Mr. James Said he had done so merely to show the
form used.

Lord Campbell said he thought the form unobjec-
tionable.

Mr. James said be used it merely to show that the
forms were such as ought to be used by alt joint-stock
banks as being unexceptional.
Lord Campbell said he thought they had better not
enter on such topics.

By-Sir F. Thesiger—He never knew of the bank writ-
ing off a bad debt. One of the balance-sheets contained
an entry of only 3071. when they am-noted to 3.2171.
There were similar discrepancies in other balance-sheets.
Mr. Barnard was next called. He deposed that he
was cashier to the bank from 1849 to 1856, when he took
the management of the Holborn branch. The witness
deposed to his attendi, g the finance committee and the
meetings of the directors. He had no doubt he had
called the directors' attention to the past-due bills ac-
count end other matters connected with the bank, but"
he could not say who were present on that occasion.
He also spoke of the past-due bills book and
other books being constantly laid before the directors
at the meetings. He made out a list of bills during
Cameron's illness, which he marked bad, doubt-
ful, and good, and be discussed the ma ter
with him on his recovery, there was but a slight
difference in the estimate,. The witness then entered
into detail.,sho wing th,:r various transactions in which he
had persot al communication with the directors and
general manager on the busin-es of the bank.
By Mr. Sergeant Shea —ln May, 1855, he
believed the bank was trite solvent, and he
bad no idea of its • stoppage until within a short
period of it, suepeusion. He bad no idea, in 1855,
teat one quarter of the capital and the reserved fund
had been lo,t. He believed the Wadi works
would ultimately turn out a fortune. The
business up to December, 1855. bad greatly
improved and increased. The lasses were greater aid
the profit.; less in a new concern than one long estab-
lished. The bank were beginning to find out tho,e cus-
tomers, and close their accounts, wholwanted to swindle
them. Mr. Kennedy introduced his brother-in-law' Mr.
Spends, to-the b bilk, and also his mother-in-law,, Lady
*Valiant, wha was a creditor of the bunk to the extent of
6001 •

By Sir F. Kelly—When Mr. Stapleton joined the
hank he transferred his acctrunetnfrtohriba,Baik perc.ltaoypari.til
heCo;:e,,i
paying is 1,178/.19, sd, and ,vh
82rn1.,7e1f81.r friend. to his credit.
He paid 1,0
rodit. He neverhao,ol or
foron his originalmodationior
shares,
calls on them. Mr.
told bad since
Stapleton
d 5.:
eelclot.
t/r.
anda tfhoer
dbiavni
(kie
his proportion of salary as
ds.
ymtandoeshoaurtehrotluwiearss.s.ubmitted
tAofttehre authedbiatolarns
appointed
He a private friend in
1855 to idn the concern from a sincere belief it was a
prosperou 4 one. Mr. &giallo devoted his time
a-siduously f..r the benefit of the bank. The bank had
48,0001. in money when it stopped. They paid away
200 0001. a few days before the stoppage.
By Mr. Slade—Mr. Owen bad a cash balance at the
sk. He slways appeared to evind the greatest anxiety
for the pro-verity of the tank.
By Mr. Hoddleston—lt was at his suggestion Mr
Brown paid in a cheve of 181. 14s. when he opened hi,
account with the bank. Witness asked him to let }run
"clear" it, seeing it amongst Mr. Brow,p's papers. Mr.
Brown had paid 400 0001. in to his credit at the bans.
Till 24th March Mr. Brown's balance was over 5,0001.
By Mr. Lawro s—M'Cloud was inspecting manager
of the branches. He never bad any accommodation
from the bank. His attention was more directed to the
branches than the principal office. He discharged his
duty with a desire to serve the bank.
By Mr. Seymour—He was unable to say if Mr.
M'Cloud invested the money- settled on his marriage
with Miss Cameron in the Royal British Bank shares,
Mr. Cameron's drawing account was generally in a very
good condition. The list of past due obligations were
wade out at Mr. Cameron's request. He calculated the
bad bills at 12,0001., and Mr. Cameron at 21,0001.
Mr. Cameron leaving the bank, and the run that took
plaze on it from the attacks in the papers, materially
contributed to its stoppage. Mr. Brown commenced his
account with the bank with a discount similar to the
course adopted at the Bank of England,
Mr. H. Empeon recalled—Heproved being instructed
to proceed for the recovery of debts owing to the bank.
Sir F. Thesigi.,r_proposed to put Mr. Esdaile's affida-
vit under the Winding-up Act as evidence against him-
self, as to his .knowledge of the affairs of the bank. "
Sir F, Kelly, Mr. Boyill, Mr, James, and Mi, ICen.