The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-18 00:00:00

The minutes of the last court were read and con-
firmed.
The GOVERNOR said that the directors had care-
fully gone through the accounts, and he had to re-
port that the net profit for the year ending August
30th amounted to £584,369 Bs. 9d., making the
amount of rest or undivided profits on that day
£3,610,596 17s. Id. After providing for a dividend
of four per cent. for the half-year, the rest would
amount to £3,028,476 17s. Id. The court of go-
vernors, therefore, proposed that a half-year's divi-
dend be made of four per cent., being at the rate of
eight per cent per annum, and that the dividend be
payable on the 10th October next.
Mr. JONES supposed that after the motion for
the dividend was put from the chair the business
would be finished. Ile wished to offer a few re-
marks and would like to know whether that was
the proper time for so doing.
The GOVERNOR replied that the question before
the meeting had reference to the dividend, and Mr.
Jones, or any other proprietor, would be perfectly
in order in speaking on it.
Mr. JONES would like the chairman to give the
proprietors some explanation of the position of the
Bank. It was a great national institution, and to
his mind- the Governor ought to dilate upon the

mode and manner in which its operations had been
conducted during the half-year, so that the proprie-
tors might be placed in a position to judge how the
governors had served them. To him it seemed a
very defective arrangement that the mere bald state-
ment which the governor had just read should be
the only thing given to the proprietors at the close
of so momentous and pregnant a half-year as that
just concluded. The dividend remained the same,
neither more nor less, but, even at a moment when
they were asked to sanction it, the proprietors did
not know upon how much capital the dividend was
to be paid. He could guess, from what he saw
published in the London daily papers, the amount
of capital, but no man of business liked guess-
work, and he should much prefer having a
short statement of accounts given to the pro-
prietors, showing the capital, and liabilities,
and assets; and he should like to know from the
lips of the Governor whether there was any expla-
nation of their dividend remaining stationary. He
had looked in the papers, trying to find out why he
was not doing the same amount of business as he
used to do ; but he had looked in vain. In one
paper he came across the extraordinary statement
that capital, like other things, was on " strike." If
that were the fact it behoved the Governors to en-
deavour to find out the reason. It was trae that
there were millions of capital lying idle, or nearly
so, and that both the mercantile and industrial ele-
ments were starved for the want of it. He thought
that the directors frightened the public by changing
the rate of discount too frequently, and unneces-
sarily. If money were perishable, like pears, corn,
or potatoes, then he could understand the directors
making up their minds to have a clear-out of the
stores. He thought that a most opportune mo-
ment for the Governor to afford some explana-
tion how it came that while the rate of dis-
count was 7 per cent. in 1866, the Bank held
£34,000,000 securities, and now they bad sunk
down to £31,000,000, and so a difference in the de-
mand for discount of £3,000,000 had made a differ-
ence of 21 per cent. He though the Court should
take steps to get to the direct market where money
was wanted. At present the Bank only did busi-
ness with private and joint-stock banks, and of
course those banks took off the cream, and came to
this corporation asking for the bills to be discounted
at a lower rate than they took them themselves,
and ga left but a small margin of profit for this
corporation. He thought the Bank should offer
facilities to humble individuals like himself to de-
posit a few hundreds, and also for discounting
securities. By so doing they would make the Bank
a truly national institution, and place it in a posi-
tion to do a sound and profitable business, suppos-
ing the Government were to withdraw its business.
He felt that offering the security it did the Bank
of England did not get that amount of money on
deposit which it was fairly entitled to expect. He
imagined that the Court of Governors would do
well to look over the branch establishments and see
whether they could not compete with other banks,
and afford assistance to agriculturists to develope the
resources of the land.

Mr. W. BOTLEY differed from the last speaker.
He had no wish to see this corporation made a bank
of deposit. He thought that bearing in mind the
lo'w rate ruling for money, and the great difficulty
of finding employment for capital, the proprietors
had every reason to feel satisfied with the 4 per cent
dividend. ➢lr. Jones was quite at sea in many of
his remarks, and he felt sure that gentleman had
not well considered the question, or he would never
have supposed the possitility or probability of the
Government, be it Whig or Radical, moving its
business from the Bank of England. As to em-
ploying money in agriculture, every man of any
banking experience knew it was a question fraught
with very great difficulty. There might be millions
of money profitably spent in aiding the development
of agriculture in this country, but it was not the
province of the Bank of England to spend its
money in that way. The landowners might
do a very great deal towards it by grant-
ing long leases, and giving a fair recompense to
outgoing tenants for improvements made during
the time of their occupation. The same remarks
applied in a great measure to manufactures, and
he hoped it would never be truly said of this cor-
poration that it gave an undue and unhealthy
stimulus to either one or the other by offering a too
ready assistance or undue accommodation to those
engaged in those pursuits. He was perfectly satis-
fied with the dividend, and had no doubt most of
his co-proprietors were the same.

A PROPRIETOR wished to know what was the
capital of the Bank.
The GOVERNOR replied that the Bank's capital
was £14,553,000. It was published every week.
The PROPRIETOR knew perfectly well that the
amount was published every week, but he wished
to know whether all the real property of the Bank,
and the rest, or undived profits, were included in
that amount. He should like to know whether the
branch premises were freehold, and whether they
and the establishment they were assembled in were
included in the capital. He also wished to know
about how much ground the building occupied.
The GOVERNOR, in replying to the various ques-
tions, said that the capital of the Bank upon
which dividend had to be paid wa5£14,553,000. All
the rest of the property belonging to the Bank were
the profits arising out of the Bank's operations, and it
was commonly called " rest." The rest was the
undivided profits which the court of proprietors
long since decided should never be allowed to fall
below £3,000,000. The building in which they
were assembled occupied rather over three acres of
ground, and its value was not included in the capi-
tal, but the branch establishments were. As to
furnishing accounts, he could not imagine it possible
that the proprietors could have better accounts
than those which were published week by week by
the Bank, and any gentleman at all conversant
with its affairs and mode of procedure could very
readily find out for himself the true state of the
Bank's affairs. There might be some little points of
detail better known to the governors, but the general
position of the corporation was easily ascertainable.
(Cheers.) IVith regard to the rate of discount
beiag different on long and short loans, gentlemen
of experience must know that a discount was a

short transaction for a short time, and a loan might
extend over a series of years, and the rate must be
different. In 1866 the discount was 10 per cent.,
but the Consols were only 2.1 ; railway debenture;
in some cases, were at 5. There were deposits of a
permanent character, which the board knew how to
deal with, and there were also short deposits, which
they might be called upon to pay, and must be pre-
pared to pay at any moment. As to the Bank not
having deposits, he believed the deposits had never
been so large—not perhaps at that moment of
speaking—as over an average of the last six months.
(Cheers.) No doubt the country would be benefited
by money being lent to farmers, but it was not the
province of this B ink to lend it to them. It could
only safely be done by the local bankers, and even
to them it was a question fraught with grave diffi-
culty. With reg ird to the rate of discount, the
explanation was simple. Every one remembered
that five or six years ago there was a very great
extension of credit, but these sudden and excessive
extensions of credit were not always wise. The first
effect of it was this, that those who embarked in
business were suddenly called upon to pay their
debts, and to do that they had to withdraw money
from the legitimate operations they were engaged
in, and that produced a crisis. What took place in
1866 had been miscalled a panic. It was a crisis
arising from and following naturally upon too wide
an extension of credit, and this crisis out of its con-
vulsions produced panic. Upon the 12th of May
it was a banking panic, when people were seiz
with unreasoning fear for the safety of their money,
and rushed to the banks and withdrew it, in many
instances to- replace it in the same bank, finding
they did not know what to do with it when they
had it in their possession. Then came a railway
panic, when people thought that railway de-
bentures of all kinds were not worth buying. This
was succeeded by a commercial panic, when trade
came almost to a standstill; but through all this
the corporation had steered one steady course. With
regard to the rates of discount, it of course depended
very much upon supply and demand. If there was
a large sum of money to lend and a few borrowers,
the money must go at a lower rate than if the num-
ber of borrowers were greater. Whether the bank
had too much money to lend or two few borrowers
the result was the same. Some said that the Bank
might invest upon some other securities, but they
forgot that the Bank had to pay on demand, and it
would be useless to tell a man asking for his money
that it had been invested in a safe and snug secu-
rity.

The report was approved, and the dividend de-
clared.

A quarterly court was then held in conformity
with the bye-laws, and the dividend of 4 per cent.
for the half year declared payable on Monday,
October 12.

A vote of thanks was unanimously accorded to
the governor and deputy governors, and the pro-
ceedings, which were of an unusual length, termi-
nated.

NAVAL AND MILITARY IN7ELLIGENCE.

On Wednesday the 51st Regiment marched from
Aldershot camp to the Farnborough station of the
South Western Railway, and at half-past 8 o'clock
proceeded thence by special train to Portsmouth,
there to embark on board her Majesty's ship
Simootn, for conveyance to Portland and Wey-
mouth.

The finding of the general court martial, which
assembled at Aldershot on the Ist inst., for the trial
of Ensign Elderton, of the Military Train, has just
been promulgated. The prisoner was arraigned on
two charges of scandalous conduct unbecoming an
officer and gentleman, iu having attempted to de-
fraud one Richard Harris, the messman, by giv-
ing him two checks—the one for £B, and
the other for £lB—drawn by him (the pri-
soner) on Sir John Kirkland, the regiment's agent,
he at the time well knowing there were no funds
in the net- neo hands to DAY ilia checks. To
these charges the prisoner had pleaded not guilty,
and on making his defence strongly denied any
fraudulent intentions. The CJurt, of which Col.
J. Gwilt, 34th Regiment, was president, found him
not guilty in respect to either charge, and he was
honourably acquitted.
The 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment), under the
command of Lieut.-Col. J. S. Thomson, left Alder-
shot Camp on Wednesday morning, and marched
to Farnborough Railway station, whence it pro-
ceeded by special train at 10 o'clock to Portsmouth,
there to embark on board the Himalaya for con-
veyance to Belfast.
The head quarters and remaining detachment
of the A troop of the Royal Engineer Train left
Chatham yesterday for Aldershot. The B troop,
numbering two sergeants, two corporals, and 50
sappers and drivers, with 45 horses, has also left
Chatham to go into winter quarters at Al-
dershot.

The Forte, screw (unarinoured wooden) frigate,
29 guns, 400-horse power, Capt. John IL A. Alex-
ander, C. 8., arrived and anchored at Spithead
yesterday afternoon from the Thames on her way
down Channel for the East Indies.
An Admiralty order, received at Chatham dock-
yard, directs that as there are a numberof vacancies
in the several classes of workmen at that eAablish-
meat they are to be filled up by the transfer of the
workmen from Deptford dockyard, which establish-
ment is about being closed. The order further
directs the entry of pattern makers, furnace men,
and millwrights at Chatham from Deptford dock-
yard.
Lieutenant-Colonel G. D. Pritchard, who corn -
mauded the Royal Engineers in Abyssinia, joined
at head quarters, Chatham, from leave of absence,
to do duty at the Royal Engineer establishment.

A SLIP. Typographical errors are always
troublesome, and a Western paper is usually distinguished
for their number and variety. Occasionally these errors
become matter of considerable difficulty to the editor, and
add one more responsibility to many others. For instance,
a friend of mine got into a little trouble that way. In
a weak moment he agreed to conduct the weekly paper
in a mining village for the editor, who was called
off on other business. All went well until a leading
man among the miners brought in an obituary of his de-
ceased wife, who was about the only white woman in the
village. Now, as items are scarce, it was sent straight to
the printer. On revising the proof my friend found that
it read, " She was distinguished for her virtue and bene-
volence." He concluded that the husband must have
meant virtues. A. proof was accordingly despatched
to the husband, with a request to correct it
and send, it to the printer. My friend went to bed.
Early next morning he was roused by an acquaintance
with a paper in his hand, informing him that Jim So- and-
So (the author of the obituary aforesaid) "was hunting him
(i.e., the editor) all over town." Now, as "hunting" a
man means, in the West, going through all the drink-
ing shops with a huge revolver in hand, shouting,
" Where is he ? " my friend had just reason for
alarm, and inquired what in the world he was being
" hunted" for ? "Oh !" was the reply, " fun is all right,
but you know that item about old Mother was little
too much. She mightn't be just the thing, but still Jem
thought a sight of her !" It was some time before the
temporary editor could understand what was meant, until
the paper was shown him with the obituary intimating
that "Mrs. was distinguished for her virtue (?) and
her benevolence." The husband knew nothing about a
proof, and the printer had treated the query as an editor's
correction. After considerable difficulty the indignant
husband was consoled, and peace was made over " drinks"
in the nearest 11 saloon."—Dickens's " All the Year Round."

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colds, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chronic or spas-
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sent combat and avert future clanger.