The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-06 00:00:00

D tru

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

OVERLAND MAIL.

We now give the whole of the Telegraphic Dis-
patch, received from Paris, dated yesterday.
" MALTA, FEB. 28.
" MARSEILLES, MARCH 3.
" PARIS, MARca 4.

"The India mail of the Ist of February announces
the taking of GwOior, after two combats, in which
the British lost 1,000 men in killed and wounded.
[lnterrupted by the night.]
" The loss upon the side of the enemy was 6,000.
No news of importance from Sinde, the Punjaub, or

China."
Gwalior, the fort taken by our troops, is, from
its strength, called the Gibraltar of the East. It
covers the top of a hill, nearly two miles long, but
narrow ; the sides are very precipitous, and the
highest part, which is at the north end, is 342 feet
above the surrounding plain. The rampart con-
forms ito the brow of the hill all round ; and the
area within is full of buildings, reservoirs of water,
wells, and cultivated land. At the foot of the moun-
tain, on the east side, is the town, which is large and
well built. It is 68 miles south by east of Agra.
The British took it by a nocturnal escalade in 1780.
This ascription will account for the severe loss
described in the dispatch.

CHANCERY.-(THIS DAY).

REGISTRAI6 OFFICE.

Mr. STEER, in the course of the morning, complained of
the manner in which he had been treated last night at the
Registrar's office. He applied there about five minutes before
six o'clock to see the papers of the business at the Court for
the day, and he was told by a person who swept out the office,
and who had on a leathern apron, that he could not see them
till six o'clock. He pressed upon the person, it being so near
six o'clock, to allow him to see them, but he would not do so.
He (Mr. Steer) supposed that he had not the papers in his
possession.
The Lozu CHANCELLOR, after communicating with the
Registrar, requested Mr. Steer not to say anything further on
the subject at present, as he understood that Mr. Pym, the
person who made out the papers, but who was not then pre-
sent, had a very good answer to the charge.
Mr. STEER trusted the Court would allow him to conclude
the statement he was making, as the cream of the subject
was yet to come.—(Laughter.) The individual in the
leathern apron, when the cabalistic hour of six arrived, put
his hand into his waistcoat pocket, fetched out the papers for
the business of the Court for to-day, and stuclithem up in the
passage to the Registration Office. Now, he thought, to say
the least of it, this was a most uncourteoes proceeding on the
part of one of the officers of the Registrar's Office.

The LORD CIIANCRLLOR thought that the . officer might
have been a little more courteous, but he understood that the
matter could be. explained. Who the officer was he did not
know.

Mr. Steer said that he knew as little of the officer as his
Lordship, but the description he bad given of him would
enable his Lordship to discover who he was.
• The LORD CILINCELLOR said that Mr. Steer had certainly
Oven a very picturespe account of the officer.—(Laughter)
The matter had at least relieved the seriousness of the usual
proceedings of the Court.—(Renewed laughter.)
• Mr. LEIGH felt bound, in justice to Mr. Pym, to state that
he had often allowed him to see the papers bepore six o'clock.
It perhaps may not be generally known that the papers of
the business of the Courts are put up in the passage to the
Registrars's Office, from six to seven o'clock every evening,
for the purpose of inspection by the members of the legal pro-
fession and the public; but so short a period, it must be
apparent to every one, was infinitely too limited for the con-
venience of the profession, in consequence of the increase of
the members of the Court, and the more speedy dispatch of
business.

LONDON AND WESTMINSTER
JOINT-STOCK BANK.
(THIS DAY-)
- The usual Annual Meeting of the Shareholders and
Directors of this Banking Company was held this day,
at their establishment in the city.
Shortly after one o'clock, the chair was taken by
• PATRICE MAXWELL STEWART, Esq., M.P., who said
that before the Proprietors would have submitted to
them th% Report of the business of the bank, they would
perhaps allow him, on the present occasion, to interpose
himself for a very few minutes, between them and the
reception of that Report. He asked them to do so be-
cauie he thought the present time was one of marked
importance to the establishment in which they were all
so zealously concerned. This Bank had been established
for ten years. The present was their tenth anniversary
meeting ; and in the history of banks, as well as other
things, the close of ten years was held to be a sort of
epoch, at which a retrospect of the past might be taken,
and the prospect for the future considered.—(Hear,
hear.) Within those ten years every joint-stock bank
in London had risen into existence, and he might claim
for the London aad Westminster Bank priority in point
of time, as to its establishment, of all the joint-stock
banks in London. It was the first esta-
blished here, and with. that distinction they
incurred those burdens and incumbrances from which
honours were not at any time quite free—he meant that
they had had to encounter formidable opposition to the
planting such establishments as that was, and all he
would add in referring to that circumstance was to con-
gratulate the Proprietors of the bank on their having
overcome all those obstacles without, he believed he
might say, the loss of one friend or the creation of a
single enemy amongst the class of the private banks of
London, or their' more formidable opponent over-the-
way (the Bank of England.)—(Hear, hear.) In looking
Pack, in order to mark out their best course for
the future. he might observe that the principle
of action adopted by the Directors at an early period of
the existence of the establishment, had been found
to be good and well adapted to all circumstances. As an
illustration, he might remark that money seasons, like
the natural seasons, had their changes, sudden and vio-
lent. In seasons of abundance of money, they had
always avoided hearkening to any temptation to lock up
their fund,, and the consequence had been, that in
seasons of scarcity and adversity, they had
had it in their powr to do that which was
not only sound in the principels of banking, but
also gratifying in a humane point of view, namely, to
help their friends when occasion required it. He might
add that notwithstandinc, the variations of the seasons
through which they had passed—Feasons of scarcity as
well as of plenty they never had had, up to the present
time, occasion to re-discount any one of the bills which
they had in their possession.—(Hear, hear.) The
profits of the bank had been under the present
direction freely and liberally appropriated to the
'use of the Proprietors in the shape of divi-
dends and otherwise. In illustration of that
he would mention that the reserve fund had been
.annually increased, and was now becoming a distinct re-
servoir of security for seasons of need. They had paid
in dividends to the shareholders, during the ten years
past, upwards of 300,0001. So far for the past. In look-
ing to the future, the present was a most important pe-
riod as regarded joint-stock banks. This year would
occur a break in the charter of the Bank of England,
-which had been renewed in 1833. In the speech from
-the throne, at the opening of the present 'session of
Parliament, they had been reminded that there would
be an opening for the consideration and regulation
of the laws which govern the Bank of England
and the joint-stock banks of the country. There were
two matters which they had pressed upon the considera-
tion of the Government. The first was the right irse
parable from a banking establishment created by law,
and upheld, as their establishment now was, by the
interest, power, and voice of so great a proportion
of the community—the right of accepting bills
under a shorter date than six months. In the original
charter of the Bank of England, in 1708, there was
'a clause prohibiting all banks, having more than six
branches from borrowing, owing, or taking up money
on bills payable on demand, or at a,less period than six
months. That clause was aimed at certain speculative
companies, which at that period resorted to the issue of
notes under their common seal. It never could have
been aimed against the exercise of banking privileges by
country banks, drawing, as he might say, upon their
London agents. Ile believed the fact was, there
was not a country bank in existence at the time
acting under impressions of this kind ; their
bank had drawn bills of exchange ; and in
consequence they were followed from Court to Court,
until in 1837 judgment was given against their exercise
'of the privilege by the reason of the clause in the Charter
:of 1708, to which he had referred. Accordingly they
had desisted from any further practice of that branch of
banking. That restriction was unjust to the innumerable
members of the commercial community. It was un-
just to foreign and colonial banks—to joint-stock
-banks throughout the country, and to those
in London. The country was deeply interested in the
'question, but he only touched upon it then as it would,
in the course of the revision which the banking laws of
the country were to be subjected to this session, be fully
considered elsewhere. Joint-stock banks ought not to be
..deprived of the common privileges of banking establish-
Jnents. They could all remember that the failure of the
.bank of Pole and Co. in 1825 brought on the panic of 1826.
•The 'other subject which the Directors had urged upon
the Government was that of suing and being sued in the
names of the establishment. A Committee representing
the joint stock banking companies of the county lately
'had an interview with Sir R. Peel and the Chancellor
'of the Exchequer, previous to which they had trans-
mitted a letter containing detailed views on those points,
and he was happy to have to tell them that interview was
very satisfactory as far as it went. In 1834, when they
had pressed those matters before on the attention of
Government, there was no argument used against them,
'but a promise had been given to certain parties that
.those privileges should not be granted. From Sir R.
Peel's words they were led to, infer that theirs was held to
•be a perfectly fair one, and the Right Hon. Baronet stated
that he had purposely abstained from givingany'promises
to any parties in order that the claims from all quarters
on this important question might be fully considered
"and justly settled at the proper time. He (the Chairman)
had then no doubt in concluding that they_would obtain
•those.privileges, and when the Bank had worked so well
'and successfully hitherto, he thought he was not too san-
tuine in saying that, with an increase of its facilities of
"action, would come an increase of its prosperity. They
'had cooled their enemies and warmed their friends in the
contest in which they had hitherto been engaged, and
he had every hope of a continuation of prosperity to the
'establishment.—(Hear, hear.)
The SECRETARY then read the following Report :