The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-06 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

Portrait of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. Photo-
graphed by Lake Price. Lithographed by R.
Lane, &c. _ Mitchell. .

. .
An admirable and life-like portraiture of the heir
to the throne has recently been published by Mr.
Mitchell, the eminent Bond-street bookseller and
print-publisher. It is copied from a photograph
taken by special permission, from the life, at
Windsor Castle, in 1857, by Mr. Lake Price, one of
the most skilled and brilliant of living photogra-
phers. A lithographic plate, precisely the size of
the original photograph, has been produced by the
united ability of Mr. R. J. Lane, A.E.R.A., of Mr.
J. H. Lynch, and of Mr. W. Gauci--the printing
of the impressions having been judiciously entrusted
to M. and N. Hanhart. The dimensions of the
engraving are 16 inches by 11. The production
has been dedicated to her Majesty, by her Majesty's
gracious permission. As a work of art, it is exqui-
sitely finished. As a transcript from nature, it is
scrupulously faithful. It represents the young
Prince in Highland costume—a dead bird in one
hand, a fowling-piece in the other, the chieftain's
feather in his glengarry. Altogether, it is not the
least morsel in the world like that familiar repre-
sentation of H.R.H. as he appeared when a child
of five or six, dressed like a sailor. But then a
dozen years have elapsed since that charming por-
trait was taken—the Prince of Wales being by this
time very nearly seventeen.

THE WESTERN BANK OF SCOTLAND,

Last Monday week Mr. Buchanan, the member
for Glasgow, at a meeting of his constituents, de-
nounced the terms of unjustifiable severity with
which Scotch banking and Scotch trading have been
alluded to during the present year in the House of
Commons and elsewhere, and concluded his oration,
in the style of Sir Archibald Alison when touching
on the same subject, by a proud declaration that,
considering its extensive commerce, Glasgow should
congratulate herself on the triumphant manner in
which she had come out of the late crisis. This
afternoon a copy has been received' of the report
made yesterday to the shareholders of the Western
Bank. Mr. Buchanan, being a merchant of Glas-
gow, must, while he was delivering the address in
question, have had some reason to apprehend the
state of things that would be unfolded by this
document, and an abstract of its contents will ac-
cordingly enable the public to estimate the true
characteristics of the picture which can be contem-
plated with so much complacency. The paid-up
capital of the Western Bank of Scotland was
£1,500,000, and after its stoppage it was found
that, in addition to the loss of the whole of this
amount, the shareholders would have to provide a
further heavy sum, the deficiency estimated being
£304,692. The amount paid on each share was
£5O, and the liquidators made an additional call 'of
£25, one half of which fell due in March, and the
other half in June last. Thus every holder of
£l,OOO in the concern, in addition to the loss of
the whole of his investment, was required almost
immediately to provide a further sum of £5OO. Of
course a number of the shareholders were reduced
to destitution by the first blow, and could, there-
fore, make no answer to the demand, but on the
whole it resulted in drawing in, for the purposes of
the liquidation, £440,000, and is expected to yield
about £65,000 more. But this aggregate of
£505,000 now proves altogether inadequate. The
original estimate of the deficiency was incor-
rect, and, instead of £304,692, it has reached
£1,421,948. Another call is consequently announced,
and this time to the extent of £lOO per share.
That is to say, every holder of £l,OOO, in addition
to the loss of his investment and the subsequent
payment of £5OO, is now required to furnish a fur-
ther sum of £2,000. This payment, moreover, is to
be made promptly, the time allowed for the whole
being only to the Ist of next month. The calcu-
lation is that, out of the 1,300 families represented
by the share list, the utter and irretrievable ruin of
nine-tenths will be sealed by this new compulsion.
And the charges which have led to the increased
gloom of the affair are such as to prove that all
that has been said of the gang who were using the
funds of the deluded shareholders to figure as great
merchants and demoralise the entire trade of the
country, has fallen short of the actual facts. The
liquidators now announce that the loss sustained
through four firms alone—John Monteith and Co.,
D. and J. Macdonald and Co., Godfrey Pattison and
Co., and J. and W. Wallace—will be £833,163, in-
stead of £608,203, as first estimated. In addition,
other insolvents figure also for largely increased
amounts. Watson, Kinnear, and Co., £130,548 ;
William Smith and Co., £34,861 ; Wm. Brown
and Co., £31,458 ; and John Macvicar, £27,671.
The losses at the branches have also swollen from.
£505,333 to £585,026, and that on American ac-
count from £60,000 to £lOO,OOO. It is a mortify-
ing fact at the same time that, owing to the ad-
vance made by the Edinburgh banks in October
having been through sales of Consols, on the con-
dition that the stock should be ultimately replaced,
the subsequent recovery in the prices of the funds
will make an adverse difference of £43,000.
Nothing, therefore, could be- more complete than
the misery that has fallen upon all concerned.
There is scarcely a respectable home in Glasgow,
where either directly or -indirectly some trace of the
affair is not felt, and its sting is greater from the
fact that, while the dream of villany and pro-
fusion was running its course, the mercantile
character of the entire city was exposed to a
degree of corruption which will leave its taint
for many years. Of the disgrace it brought upon
the nation at large every one is aware, as well as of
the fact that it was the principal cause of the con-
vulsion that led to the violation of the currency
laws of the kingdom. The directors, moreover,
encouraged by the mutual toadying between the
aristocracy and merchant princes of the district,
even from the first met the difficulty defiantly by
threatening the shareholders, and have since been
upheld by the Government. But the worst feature
of the history remains, and it lies in the fact, that
all the infamy that has been encouraged and all the
sufferings that have been brought on innocent heads
can serve to some minds as food for self-satisfied
congratulation, and that there are audiences like
that at Glasgow which attended on Mr. Buchanan
ready to cheer their heartless and unconscientious
egotism.—Times.

THE QUEEN IN SCOTLAND.

BALMORAL, OCT. 3,

Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort, accompanied by the Ladies and Gentlemen
in Waiting, attended Divine service in the parish church,
Crathie.