The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-11 00:00:00

f BANK OF MANCHESTER.

MANCHESTER, WEDNESDAY.--The Annual Meeting
of this concern took place this morning, at Hayward's
Hotel, and, at length, better fortune\seerns to be dawning
on the proprietors. There was a numerous attendance.
and the chair was occupied by Mr. G. R. Chappell, on/
of the Directors.

The CHAIRMAN said he addressed the meeting vitt)
far different feelings than he had entertained twelve
months ago. Appearances were then against them, but
he had better news for them now than any one could
then have anticipated. The Directors had made every
exertion for the benefit of the Shareholders, and the
report would show them that this disastrous business was
more likely to be brought to a favourable conclusion than
they could have anticipated.—(Applause.)
Mr. W. SMITH, the Managing Director, read the
report of the Board. It stated that, at the last Annual
Meeting, a Committee of Shareholders had been appointed
to investigate the affairs and position of the bank, and
that Committee, on the 12th of February last, reported
that, after going carefully through the accounts and
securities, they had arrived at the result that the balance..
sheet presented to the Shareholders in October last was
a true and accurate statement of the position of the
bank on the 30th of June preceding. They had also
examined the balance-sheet on the 31st of December
last, and it afforded thou, satisfaction to be able to report
that it showed a considerable realisation of assets, and
a consequent reduction of liabilities from 440,936 i. to
314,7781. during the half-year. By the balance-sheet
made up to June, 1843, the accuracy of which was
vouched by this Committee of Shareholders, the liabili-
ties amounted to 440,9364 6s. 10d., and the net amount
of the estimated assets was 388,5774 16s. sd. ; showing
a deficiency of 52,3584 10s. Si!. The following was the
stated amount of the liabilities and estimated assets of the
bank, to the 30th of June, 1844 :

ASSETS.

Sundry accounts
Properties 77,389 18 6
Cash
Bills on hand
Bank of Manchester shares

Total £1,183,677 1 3

le;
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
1'1t02,1 TUE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
STAI:D AI:CO—TUB REVFNUE.—We are most
ii pae le b. ieg able to state that the public revenue
for the quarter ending to-day will show a very con-
siderable increase on the corresponding quarter of
last year. The accounts, hew-ever, not having been
all received, the exact amount of increase cannot, at
the time of our going to press, be ascertained. In
the Customs it is most gratifying to announce that
there is en increase of between 400,0001. and 500,0001.
on the account to be made up this evening, as com-
pared with the corresponding quarter of last
year. In the important department of Excise the
accounts, as far as they have been received, appear
about the same as in the corresponding quarter of
last year. In the Post-office there is an increase,
probably about 20,0001., on the quarter. In the
revenue derived from Stamps and Miscellaneous
Taxes there is little variation. The Property-tax, we
understand, has realised about the same amount as on
former quarters, but there will appear a email de-
crease in consequence of the re-payment of moneys to
parties who had been improperly assessed. On the
whole the revenue for the quarter will exhibit a con-
siderable increase—a certain index that the trade and
commerce of the country are improving.
GLOBE.—The immense pile of buildings long
known as the Fleet Prison, is offered for sale by
public competition. The site occupied by them will,
of course, be appropriated to what are usually termed
" metropolitan improvements." The nature of these
"improvements" will be the subject of grave delibe •
ration. Whether the space thus obtained will be
covered with spacious streets, formed of splendid
Ames, whose windows, bedizened with bur-
nitherl brass, and at night illuminated by gas,
wili he the admired of all beholders; or whether
the favourable opportunity will be seized upon for
providing some much -required means for improving
the houee-accommodation of the labouring classes in
that vicinity, form the topic of daily gossip or of
grave discusslen in many circles. To us the present
seems to offer a favourable opportunity fur improV-
In the physical condition of the labour4,"g poor
ins
of that densely-crowded neighbourhood, who
long made the lines of wretched lanes and
all9ys between Holborn and Clerkenwell their resort.
Previously to the demolition of the many dilapidated
elwelliege whose removal was required for the new
street in a line with Farringdon-street, the numbers
of squalid beings which were crowded into these
houses—two, and in some three, families being the
occupants of a single room—generated fever, and
other diseases which are produced and fos-
tered by filth and imperfect ventilation. The
forced removal of the former denizens of the
destroyed houses has driven them into others
which yet remain. Such is now the crowded
crmdition of these filthy receptacles of the
lower classes, that the parochial officers, and others
_ whale Attention has been drawn to the subject, entere
taro serious apprehensions for the public health
and unless some means of providing suitable dwel-
lings for the surplus population be devised their
fears are likely to be realised. The evidence given
before the Health of Towns Committee, among other
important facts, proved that disease and death have
recently increased in the localities where the lowest
clais of the labouring poor chiefly dwell. Tin-
reason assigned by the medical men who were exa-
mined on. this point is worthy of attention. They
agreed in opinion, that the improvements that have
been made in different crowded districts of the metro
,lie had comp eked the poor people, who chiefly inha-
bited the houses which had been pulled down to mak,
way fur these improvements, to seek admission to simi-
lar dwellinge in the adjacent parts. The addition of 31
many new in .mates to houses which were already mori
than filled with occupants, generated miasma. Thus in-
creased disease and death were introduced; and these
estfeete will continue to result, in an increased ratio,
the cause be not arrested by those who are, or ough
to be, invested with power to watch over and pro
vide for the public safety. Death, to use an Irish
phrase, stalks through many of our streets. The
wonder is, not that his victims are so many ; but that
—with the aids afforded to his ministers by tie
neglect of the mean; by which th ay fey mbe kept
at
bay—the death-strickenare se few. It is in pt
to leeve the question to the consnt and exclu-
sive care of Parliament. The Legtaislature will nol
act a patriotic or enlightened put, if it do not
invest the people with the power of 'nelping themselves
in this, and such like matters. If part Of the mune:
exieended in to slang, oral the care bestoo-id cm im
proveng, great thorougfares, were extended to ;irovid-
ieg nesone for preserving the health of' the poor
partielly tate, by improving the dwellings they in
habit, and .in peovidires others, the occasion for hospi-
tals, supported by public charity, and union houses.
eneintained by compulsory rates, would be greatly les•
eened \Vern Governieents wise; they would dimi
their lebeurs. If they teare actuated by the
purest and roost benevolent inteetions in all matter:
they undertain, to menage, the limit which time sets
to ell heman ex_Ttiene would thwart the honest pur-
paee. There never existed, from the creation oftin
-world till new, a Government of experience so ex-
te, sive and vsrems, or of mind so active and rode
feti-able, as to be able to conceive and grapph
with the manifold wants of the community.
Yet th ; is the impossible undertaking the reepon
sibTty tac which successive administrations have
been arnbitieeis to assume ! There seems to be no
-reason, beyond the reluctance of the rulers of the
land, wily the inhabitants of every locality should no,
lave the power conceded to them of dealing with mat-
ters diet relate to the improvement of the respective
districts. Tne Parliament is barely competent to the
functions of supreme government (if judgment may be
formed by the snail-like pace of its proceedings) where
the general interest of the nation is involved. Cat,
it stop in its course of national legislation to deli-
b:rerate with advantage upon the peculiar condition of
en-feiets ? Such a system resembles the half-fertile.
hilf- desert Egypt. Its great river inundates- and fer-
tilises the country through which it passes; but im-
mense tries beyond are unrefreshed by its bounties.
A country which should everywhere have competesl
local authorities to watch the rising of its wants in.
every quarter, and to supply them, would be as one
'muttered throughout, and at all times, by springs,
streams, and rivers tributary to each other, and by
their resources, covering the face of the land
with fertility and gladness.

HASWELL COLLIERY.

RELIEF FljD MEETING.

(From the Tyne Mercury of Wednesday, Oct. 9.)
Last nire.Lt, a meeting was held at the Lecture-
room, Nelson-street, to devise means for alleviating
the distress of those families whom the recent awful
occurrence at Haswell had left destitute. Mr. Cho'les
Parkinson, a miner, was called to the chair, and the
principal speakers were Messrs. William Mitchell,
Mark Dent, T. Clough (of Haswell), Francis Smith,
John Hunter, Septimus Davies, and Joseph Fawcett.
Forcible appeals were made on behalf of those who
bad been plunged into want by this fear-
lid catastrophe ; and the speakers contended
that it was iinperative that means be taken
to Prevent the recurrence of such lamentable des
truction. A better state of ventilation was neces-
sary, and they trusted that this dread visitation
would urge on humane and scientific men to devise
something for the preservation and safety of life in
:mines. It was represented that the viewers, both in
:Durham and Northumberland, acted quite in re-
verse of the suggestions of scientific men, and the
Davy lamp was used in mines where the rapid cur-
rent of air was incompatible with its safe employ-
Trent. In nine cases out of ten, the casualties in
mines were the result, not of accident, but of wil-
ful neglect. There were mines in the two counties
where it was as easy to introduce air as into that
room, in which the labourers were dying by inches
from inhaling carbonic acid gas. Carbonic acid
gas had slain more men than had ever perished
from explosion. Other evils were adduced, and it
was forcibly urged that legislative interference was
necessary to carry out in the coal-pits the plans of
;humane and scientific men, so that the colliers
rniglit pursue their occupation in perfect safety.
Resolutions were carried to the effect that a relief
fund be started for the widows and orphans of Has-
well colliery; that the fund be entrusted to the ma-
nagement of a committee of five persons, such
.committee to censist of Mr. T. Horn, Market-street;
John Strachan, Barrel-bridge; Mr. William
Cook, Gateshead ; Mr. Robson, Pilgrim-street ; and
3lr. Martin Jude;• and that the Tyne Mercury, New-
castle Cuu-rant, and other Newcastle and Gateshead
newspapers, and the various banks of Newcastle,
:South Shields, Sunderland, and Durham, be re-
quested to receive subscriptions on behalf of the fund,
vontributiona to which might also be forwarded to
the several residences of the committee.
ADJOURNED INQUEST.
HASWELL, WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

The adjourned inquest on the bodies of those who
Il victims to the late explosion was resumed to-day;
and af;.er a very long and minute examination of wit-
nesses, the inquiry was once more adjourned to
I?riday. next.

Prjfessors Faraday and Lyall have been sent down
by the Government to assist in the inquiry. Both
these scientific gentlemen have arranged to go down
:the Haswell pit to-morrow, to inspect the workings.

DIABOLICAL OUTRAGE.—Mr. Thomas Steele has,
durivg the past week, been engaged in endeavouring to
bring some miscreants to justice who bored with an
augur holts in several merchant-Tess: s belongingi to
Wales, and lying at the quay of Limerick. The Head
;Pacificator, vtih most praiseworthy assiduity, having
a clua to the identification of the scoundrels,
cornmlnic..ted With the Limerick magistrates, and an
investigation was immediately held, and a man named
Linnane placed in custody. The investigation was to
have been resumed on Monday.—Dublin Packet.