The Sun.
London, England, 1835-03-05 00:00:00

KING'S LYNN ELECTION.

A petition was presented from Sir John Scott Lillie, com-
plaining of an undue return for the borough of King's Lynn.

DUBLIN.

A petition was presented from Robert King, complaining of
an undue return for the city of Dublin.
At a Quarter before One o'Clock this morning the House
adjourned to Friday.

LONDON AND WESTMINSTER

BANK.

The first annual meeting of the proprietors of this company
took place yesterday at the Company's house, Throgmorton-
street, for the purpose of receiving the report of the directors.
The meeting was numerously, and we need scarcely add, most
respectably attended.
The meeting was summoned for one o'clock, and at that hour
precisely, P. M. Stewart, Esq., M. P. accompanied by all the
directors, with, we understood, only one exception, entered the
room.

Mr. STEWART, having been called to the chair, addressed
the meeting. He did not, he obsei ved, know that it would be
necessary for him to trouble them with any remarks previously
to the reading of the report, which had been drawn up, and
was about to be submitted to them, but he could not help con-
gratulating them on the first meeting of this establishment,
and, with the exception of the Bank of England itself, the first
meeting of so large a company of banking proprietors in Eng-
land.—( Hear, hear.) It had often struck him with some sur-
prise, that with so enlightened and enterprising a body as the
commercial community of the British metropolis, acquainted,
as it must have been, with the plain and simple system of bank-
ing in Scotland, and attended with so many advantages to de-
positors, some establishment on that plan had not been at-
tempted before the present. One of the chief features of this
new system was that it admitted an indefinite number of part-
nerships, and that at fixed periods it gave publicity to the
state of its affairs—an advantage which, contrasted with the
difficulties that stood in the way of coming at an exact know-
ledge of the state of other large banking establishments, must
be bv i ,us to evt.ry c n who considered th• subject for a moment.
Every gentleman present knew the characteristics of this es-
tablishment—that it admitted depositors to a certain partnership
of the profits of banking; and he need only refer to what was
so well known of the system on which they proceeded, and
which he had stated in another place, to justify him in asserting
that it was impossible that any person confiding their money to
such an establishment could ultimately lose by it—( Hear.)
He would here venture to repeat what he had said in his place
in Parliament when this subject was under the consideration of
the house in the last session. On that occasion he referred to
the opinion of Sir Robert (then Mr. Secretary) Peel in 18.26.
After estimating the failures of the banks in England from
1810 to 1825, at no less a number than upwards of 700, Mr.
Secretary Peel said—" Could any system be worse or more pre-
judicial to every interest in the community than one which,
like the one at present subsisting, admitted of so enormous an
amount of failures ? Let the House now look at what had
beer the case under a different system in Scotland. Mr.
Gilchrist, who had been the manager of one cf the banks
there for many years, was asked (by the Committee of 1819)
how many banks had failed in Scotland within his me-
mory ? His t eply was, that there had only been one, that
the creditors were immediately paid 14s. in the pound as
a dividend, and upon the winding up of the concern the
whole of their demands. If, then, the consequences of the
system of banking had been to produce the number of failures
in England which he had stated (upwards of seven hundred),
while during the same period there had been only one in
Scotland, was not that a strong presumptive proof that the
system of the latter, if not quite perfect, was at least far pre-
ferable to that under which we had been so long acting?"
" This is practical, and as such, very powerful argument, and
bears forcibly upon our present subject in discussion. I dare
say it will be said that the evil stated by the Right. Hon.
Baronet, and the remedy pointed out, had been already con-
sidered and adopted by Parliament, as far as regards the
country which lies beyond the preserve of the Bank of Eng-
land, which includes not only all London, but 65 miles roun
it ; but I answer that the statements of banking disasters made
by the Right Hon. Baronet included those of the metropolis,
along with others throughout the country; and moreover,
for the satisfaction of lion. Members, I will now state in a
few words the failures which occurred in London exclusively
within the same period, or rather from 1810 to 1832. I take
the return from the only public documents I can lay my hands
on for the purpose, and I believe it to be accurate. Of 70
bankers existing in London in 1810, no fewer than 22 have
failed ; 3 only of which paid in full, whilst 19 were insolvent.
The debts proved against these unfortunate establishments
amounted to 7,350,0001., and the average dividend amounted
to only Bs. 3d. in the pound ; so that the public have lost up-
wards of 4,000,0001., sterling in that short period of time. I
would add, that I am not aware that in the same period of time
any failure took place of any bank established in Edinburgh ;
at least I cannot recollect one—l mean a joint-stock bank, and
throughout all Scotland I can learn of only two or three
failures, but all of them ultimately paid 20s. in the pound."
[ln order not to make any break in the above extracts, we
have given them as if they were read at one time, but we may
here state that, during the reading of them, the Chairman was
interrupted, and the whole business of the meeting for a time
suspended, by an alarm that the room was giving way. Some
gentlemen had observed that a lath-and-plaster partition,which
separated the meeting-room from an adjacent apartment, had
sunk from the ceiling about half an inch, owing to the pressure
upon the joists in that part. The Company's surveyor was
sent for, and having examined as.to the cause of the sinking,
reported that there was no danger, but suggested, that as
some gentlemen might feel uneasy under the circumstances, it
would be better to adjourn. An adjournment was then pro-
posed to the London Tavern, but this was rendered unneces-
sary, by the offer of the use of one of 'the rooms in the Auction
Mart. A delay of a few minutes intervened before the room
could be got ready, and in this interval several of the pro-
prietors amused themselves on the cause of the interruption.
Some hoped it was not ominous of the stability of the Com-
pany, others looked upon it as a favourable sign, that at their
first meeting the room was not sufficient to hold the pro -
prietors. On the arrival of the proprietors at the room in the
Auction Mart, the cause of their removal from the former
place was amusingly forced on the attention of most of them,
for an auctioneer (who had previously occupied it) was in the
act of knocking down a lot of houses to some fortunate
bidder.]
Mr. STEWART having again taken the Chair, expressed his
regret at the interruption, but added, that the banking build-
ings in that neighbourhood were not built on scantling calcu-
lated to hold a large proprietary, and it was consolatory to
think that it was to the numbers and weight of their proprie-
tors, that the Company had been for a moment obliged to shift
its position.—( A laugh.) The Hon. Gentleman then went
on with the reading of the extract, which we have given above,
adding, that he had mentioned the statement as to the corn-.
parative failures in Scotch and English banks, for the sake of
their being denied if unfounded, or commented on as gentle-
men might please. He would now call their attention to the
report about to be read, which he hoped would be found sa-
tisfactory. They would hear in it of opposition to the Com-
pany, springing rather from motives of private interest, than
from any principle which interested the public, further than
this—that the public may be considered as interested in the
establishment of a sound and economical system of banking,
and in getting rid, which he hoped they would do in no very
distant time, of all monopoly in money matters, a monopoly
which, though it might have been necessary at an early period
of our commerce, could not be so considered in the present
day. There might be, and there were, jealousies as to the
throwing open of bur foreign trade, but in our domestic com-
merce, and he thought he might class banking under that
head, the public had a right to demand that all who were
disposed to compete, on fair and honourable terms, should
have a full participation. All that the Company asked, was a
clear stage and no favour ; and they did not seek for it longer