The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-23 00:00:00

LIMERICK AND ENNIS.

The Lords of the Treasury have abated the inte-
rest on a sum of £30,000 advanced to the Limerick
and Ennis Railway Company by the Exchequer
Loan Commissioners, from 5 to 4 per cent.

LIVERPOOL AND LONDON LIFE
ASSURANCE COMPANY.
•
(From the Times' City Article.)
The following raises a point of considerable in-
terest for the shareholders of the Liverpool and
London Life Assurance Company :
" Sir,—Among the items, enumerated as assets,
contained in the answer of the Liverpool and Lon-
don Life Assurance Company to Mr. Matthew For-
ster's pamphlet, there appears the following :
' Bank of Liverpool shares, £10,400-;' by this I as-
sume that the Life Assurance Company have in-
vested that sum in the shares of such bank.
" It perhaps never occurred to the managers of
the Lite Office that by investing any portion of the
funds of the company on the security of shares in a
bank they were rendering their own shareholders,
both collectively and individually, responsible for
all the debts- of the bank; yet as the case now
stands such is the fact.
" To illustrate this, take the following example :
—A. life assurance company granted aloan of £2OO
on the security of a policy of assurance on the life
of the borrower, receiving, as collateral security, a
deposit of ten shares in a country joins-stock bank.
" As the loan was not repaid, and as the shares
remained in the hands of the company unproduc-
tive, the manager wrote to the bank claiming the
dividends ; the reply was that, as the shares in
question stood in the name of another party, no
dividend could be made unless a regular transfer
was made.
" This transfer, at the particular request of the
manager of the insurance company, was made, and
very soon after the joint-stock bank failed, when,
to the surprise of the company, they were called
upon to pay £lO,OOO, being a small fraction of the
br
n a
nll
sd
oeof
nd '
c
liability they had incurred by the transfer of the
shares ; and if,' so ran the lawyer's letter, that
amount was not immediately paid, a much larger
sum would be
el
ifsg d
iea only
questionbew bank,
sharene
kNiv,a2wsOhi each,which
hliable
exceeded andfo r alla s
e
the
debts " T
11.11 shares
anddel ir o
£1,000,000,
obligations
it was thought a cheap bargain to be
let off by the payment of £lO,OOO, which was ulti-
mately paid, and a legal discharge given.
" As the law now stands, any shareholder in a
company not chartered is responsible for the whole
liabilities of such company, and as the money ad-
vanced on the security of the bank shares formed a
portion of the funds of the life assurance company,
each shareholder 'further became personally respon-
sible for the liabilities of the joint stock bank ;
consequently, the security in the one case was
materially increased, while in the other it was
considerably diminished.
" The above case will be found in a little handy
book on the law and practice of banking, published
a short time ago by Mr. Effingham Wilson.—l am,
sir, your obedient seivant,
" W. J. LAWSON,
Author of the History of Banking.'
" City, Nov. 21.1' •

A FEARFUL LEAP.—On Friday afternoon last,
while the express train from London to Exeter was going
at the rate of GO miles an hour, a sailor, who was in a second-
class carriage, lost his cap just above the village of Stoke.
The fearless but thoughtless " tar" instantly opened the
caniaNe-door and sprung out after it. The guard who saw
it made sure that Jack was killed, but he turned up shortly
afterwards with only his arm broken. He went on to Ply-
mouth the same night, and appeared to be quite unconscious
of the hairbreadth escape he htAllad.