Star.
London, England, 1821-09-21 00:00:00

BANK OF ENGLAND.

Yesterday a Court of Proprietors was held at the
Bank, to consider of 2 dividend.

At twelve o'clock the Governor (CHARLES POLE,
Esq.), with a large body of Proprietors, entered the
Court ; and- the former announced that the present
Meeting was called in pursuance of their by-laws, to
consider of a dividend for the current half year.
After the routine business of reading the minutes of
the last Court had been gone through by the Secretary,
The GOVERNOR said, that he held in his hand a
recommendation from the Court of Directors, that
if the'Proprietors thought fit, a dividend of 5 per
Cent. for the half year ending the 10th of October
next should be ordered.

Upon this motion being pot from the Chair,
Mr. N. GUNDRY (of Richmond) rose and begged
leave to address the Court from a written paper
which he had prepared for the occasion. He pro-
ceeded as follows:

Sta—Before I move, as I propose to do, an amendment to
the motion just read, I beg leave to make a few observations,
and to be indulged, as I am totally unused to speak in public,
with reading them from the paper I hold in my hand.
Though I am in the 75th year of my age, and reside twelve
miles from this spot, I am come here to-day, and whilst it shall
please GOD to grant me life and health, I will come here on every
Isimilar occasion : not that I am vain enough to suppose I have
Italents to produce any effect in this Court, but as what passes
here is usually, by means of the public papers, communicated to
every part of the kingdom, It may not be without its use that the
Proprietors of Bank Stock, resident in the distant counties, may
know what I have attempted to do for their benefit and interest,
and thereby, perhaps, be induced to do something for themselves.
I was a copartner, Sir, In this great trading Company twenty
years before my attention was excited to its concerns, or the in-
jury I had sustained from not having a regular and fair share of
its profits, to which I was entitled, not only from the spirit of
our Charter—not only from two specific Acts of Parliament—
not only from one by-law of your own making—but from the
natural principles of justice inherent in every good and virtuous
mind. In the spring of 1816 I came purposely to town, from
Ramsgate, to co-operate with certain Proprietors of Bank Stock,
who had given me to understand that they were resolved to lay
aside their former apathy and indifference, and take proper mea-
sures to enforce their rights. The first thing that was done was,
at the Court held in March, to propose an increase of the divi-
dend from five to six per cent. The motion for this purpose be-
ing seconded, a ballot was demanded and took place. No success
attended it, and indeed none could reasonably be expected, as
the Proprietors resident in Cornwall ur Yorkshire, or the inter-
mediate counties, were not likely to post away to London: and
unless they did so, what chance was there of successfully op-
posing the will of the Directors, surrounded as they were by
their mercantile friends, resident in London and its environs,
and consequently at hand to attend the ballot without much, if
any, personal inconvenience to themselves? Bet a circumstance,
Sir, soon followed the decision of this ballot, which appeared
perfectly at variance with the preceding conduct of the Direc-
tors, who, in justice to their character, must be supposed to have
resisted the motion for the increase of the dividend, from an
opinion that even the very extraordinary profits of the trade
during the preceding nine years would not justify such an in-
crease; and yet in a month, a little month, as Banda sap,
these same conscientious and faithful stewards granted, all at
once, and without any explanation that I ever heard nf, a bonus
of no less than 25 per cent. on his capital to each individual Pre,
prietor. This was.a measure, Sir, which at the time, and though
I was benefited by it to the amount of more than £3,000• I
thought perfectly unjust, because you gave me what I had no
right to, and must have taken it from those who had a fair claim
to it. I think so still, and therefore hope that this precarious,
uncertain, and unjustifiable mode of dividing the profits of the
trade, will not in future be adopted. In this opinion I know that
I differ from almost all the Proprietors of Bank Stock with whom
I have occasionally conversed, because I find them se delighted
with the magnitude of the last bonus, that their thoughts and
wishes seem wholly confined to the expectation of another.
That of 1816, or something else, occasioned my not being able
to find a single Proprietor who would unite with me in an appli-
cation to the Court of King's Bench for a mandamus, and there-
fore I was obliged to act individually, and was fortunate enough
to obtain a Rule from that Court to the Bank to chew cause.
When the matter came before the Court, not a word was said
indicative of its not having any jurisdiction on the subject, but
fault was simply found with my conduct in not having taken the
proper previous steps at the Bank Court. When in the succeed-
ing year I corrected this error, I renewed my application for a
tentuleases, but not the least notice was taken by the Court of
King's Bench of my having remedied the defects of the preced-
ing year; but I was told at once, that I had applied for redress
to the wrong Court, as it was only to be obtained in the Court
of Chancery. I therefore determined to pursue the means so
expressly pointed out to me by the four Judges of the Court of
King's Bench; but how great was my disappointment to find,
that on consulting three eminent Chancery Lawyers, preparatory
to filing a bill in that Court, to claim a fair participation of the
profits of the trade, its which, as a copartner, I felt myself enti-
tled, not the least encouragement was given int to make the in-