The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-30 00:00:00

The Release of a Convicted Banker

Yesterday a special meetingof the Leeds Chamber
of Commerce was held in that town for the purpose
of considering whether any and what steps should
be taken in consequence of the discharge from Leeds
County Gaol of Edward Greenland, who had been
convicted of making false returns of the paper issue
of the Leeds Banking Company. It will be remem-
bered that in January he was tried at the Central
Criminal Court, to which the case had been removed
from Yorkshire for good reasons, and he was sen-
tenced to .15 months' imprisonment, with hard
labour, the Judge observing that the sentence woul 1
have been penal servitude but for the prisoner's ad-
vanced age and increasing infirmities. The prisoner
was liberated by an order from the Home Secretary
on Wednesday morning last, and great was and still
is the surprise in the town in consequence. Mr. D.
Lupton, the President of the Chamber of Commerce,
in addressing the meeting yesterday, said he never
remembered anything which had affected the busi-
ness men of Leeds so much as this strange release of
Mr. Greenland.frOin prison. lie referred to the
peculiar circumstances on account of which for
some time after the failure of the Leeds Banking
Company all attempts to prosecute Mr. Greenland
failed. At length, however, with the assistance of
the Board of Inland Revenue, though not at all at
their expense, Mr. Greenland was convicted of
swearing to false returns of the yearly issue of paper
money by the bank. These crimes, said the chair-
man, were insignificant in themselves compared with
the greater crimes that all Leeds knew Mr. Green-
land had been guilty of. Ile held in his hand a list
of the shareholders in the Leeds Banking Company.
It was a melancholy list to look over, for there were
no two of them consecutively who were not reduced
to wretchedness or misery, or were dead. At the time
of the stoppage of the bank there were 243 share-
holders ; but now there remained only 51 ; and
there were about 20 estates of deceased persons.
The list had been carefully looked into, and at least
25 had died, directly or indirectly, in consequence
of the losses which they bad sustained. In addition
to that there had been two or three suicides, but
these really did not present the most lamentable
aspect of the case, for there were widows and
spinster ladies who had lost their all, and were now
objects of wretchedness and misery. It was not
necessary to dilate further upon these things. He
proceeded to mention, however, the case of Scaife,
John W. Marsden's cashier, who, he said, was in
Armley Gaol, undergoing a sentence of 15 years',
penal servitude. lle said that man never would
have been in that position but for Mr. Greenland,
and he could not for one moment conceive why if
mercy was held out to Greenland it should not also
be extended to Scaife. Alderman Tatham moved
" That the frauds proved against Edward Green-
land, late a prisoner in the Leeds County Gaol,
were of a most flagrant kind, and this meeting having
learnt that a free pardon has been granted to the said
Edward Greenland, is of opinion that the grounds
on which such pardon was granted should be made
public." Mr. F. Baines seconded, and Mr. Ludolf
supported it. 'When it was carried, Mr. Lishman
proposed that a petition be presented to the Ilouse
of Commons praying it to ask that copies of the cor-
respondence and memorials having reference to such
pardon be laid before it, and further praying it to
institute an inquiry into all the circumstances at-
tending the case. The petition was adopted after
several of the leading merchants had denounced the
mistaken 'compassion shown to Mr. Greenland, and
a desire was expressed that the names of the persons
should be published who had assisted Mr. Greenland
in getting up a case for the consideration of the
Nome Secretary.