The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-18 00:00:00

LONDON JOINT-STOCK BANK.

The half-yearly general meeting of the proprietors
wr,s held yesterday at the coinpany s offices in Prince's
street, Mansion 'house. Mr. George Scholeikld oc-
cupied the chair.

The SECRETARY read the following report
" It will be seen from the annexed accounts that the
amount of net profit realised by the bask during the
half-year ending 31st December la:t, is 25,1321. 10e. 83.,
which, with 15,4331. 14s. ld., carried forward from June,
makes a total of 40,5661. 4s. 9d., which is appropriated
in the following manner:--18,0001. for a dividend at the
rate of six per cent. per annum; 22,5004 as a bonus of
seven shillings and six' once per share; and 66/. 4s. 9d.,
to the credit of the guarantee fund, now amounting to
132,723/. 3s. Bd. The dividend and bonus, free from
income-tax, will be payable on and after Friday, V is
25th instant. The directors who retire by rota'ion are
Archibald Hastie, Esq. M.P., William Mitcalfe, Esq.,
Ambrose Moore, Esq., John Timothy Oxley, Esq., and
William Sba'lbolt, Esq. ; of whom Mr. Hasti, , Mr.
Moore, Mr. Oxley. and Mr. Sbadbolt only offer thrir-
st Ives for r -flection. The di: e;itors regret, that owing
t Mr. Mitcall? is unable to tender to the
shareholders a renewal of his services. To supply this
vacancy, the only 0- archelder duly quafified, wi:o 1 a,
given notice tl at he. is a candidate, is Aldt ra as Sir
James Duk,, Bart, Mr.P."

The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report.
The resolutior, seconded by Mr. G. TAYLEE, was
unanimously adopted.
Mr. BORRODALE wished to know whether the dif •
ference between the profits on last half-year, which
were 23,0001., and those of thin, being 25,000/., arose
out of the difference of interest, or in consequence of
bad debts not having been written off at the time ?
He said he put this question because a neighbouring
bank had held their meeting the day before, and he
had read in the papers of that morning that the share-
holders were then told that 60,0001. of bad debts had
not previously been written off; whereas, if he had
been a proprietor of the same bank, he would have
expected them to have been written off a year ago.
After hearing of such things, and now seeing the dif-
ference on the profits of the half-year, he thought it
just possible that in the calculations made by the
bank of their bad debts they had not written off
enough, or had perhaps written off more than enough.
He submitted it to the chairman, and left him to
answer it or not, as he thought fit.
The CHAIRMAN had no hesitation in stating that the
difference alluded to by the Hon. Proprietor arose
almost entirely from the depreciated value of money
—(Hear, hear)—and with regard to the amount
written off for bad debts, he had reason to believe
that they had written off at least the full amount up
to this time. The bad debts of this half-year were
something more than those of the preceding, but they
were not old bad debts.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BORRODALE did not know what opinion was
entertained by the directors, or whether any wish
existed in the meeting to fix any termination to the
increase of the guarantee fund? Already they had
accumulated 132,656/. under that head, and the
board certainly were the best informed as to what
amount was necessary in order to cover the amount
of deposits and liabilities of the bank. He did not
know whether it was desirable to increase it to a much
greater amount; but he admitted, at the same time,
that as the responsibilities of the bank increased, it
would be necessary to add proportionately to the
amount of the guarantee fund.
The CHAIRMAN said, the Honourable Proprietor
must know that the proper object:of theguarantee fund
was to provide for an equalized dividend, so that at
any time, if they should unfortunately meet with a
heavy loss, the proprietors might feel it less in the
current dividend.—(Hear, hear.) So far, therefore,
from being prepared to fix any amount for that fund,
he should rather wish to see it increased indefinitely
in amount.

Mr. BORRODALE thought there was little likelihood
of a loss to such an amount as would entirely sweep
away the bonus, amounting in the present year to
193., and therefore he saw less need for an extravagant
Innd.

An Hon. PROPRIETOR asked what was the amount
absorbed by the 1 per cent. payment on deposits ?
The CHAIRMAN-9,000/.

Mr. Archibald Hastie, M P., Mr. Ambrose Moore,
Mr. J. T. Oxley, and Mr. Wm. Shadbolt, were re-
elected directors ; and Sir James Duke, Bart., M.P.,
was elected a director in the place of Mr. Wm. Mit-
calfe, retired from ill health.

On the motion of Deputy CORNEY and Mr. GIBBS,
it was resolved that this meeting cordially acknow-
ledge the past services of Mr. Mitcalfe, and their
regret at the cause of his retirement from their
service.

The thanks of the meeting were then severally voted
to the chairman and directors, and to Mr. Pollard, the
manager of the bank.
The meeting then adjourned.