The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-13 00:00:00

MARYLEBONE JOINT STOCK BANK

The proprietors of this bank held a meeting on Wednes-
day, the proceedings of which have been the topic of general
conversation and astonishment in the city. The meeting
was held for the purpose of dissolving the bank and of course
declaring the insolvency. The liabilities were stated :
Due to the Westminster Bank £25,000
To other creditors 5,000

Total
The assets in hand and available are

£30,000
11,000

£19,000

To be made good
Towards the liquidation of which balance there were
assets not exactly so tangible in the shape of pay-
ments or instalments on shares
Doubtful debts including that of the managing di-
rector £16,000
The story of the rise and fall of this bank lies within a brief
compass of words, and would seem to be a sort of one-act
winding-up farce to the grander first five-act tragedy pieces
of the Joint Stock drama, as performed on the Norwich and
Manchester boards with thundering effect. The Maryle-
lebone concern boasts some five or six years of a green old
age, and started into existence with something like a
million of capital—on the prospectus. But from the pro-
spectus the mighty capital travelled no farther, as Mr.
Hannay, the managing director, found, to his dismay, as he
dolefully told the tale, for, when specially retained and
brought express from Scotland " to work a capital of
£300,000," he was saluted, on arrival, with a beggarly ac-
count of a till with only £6OOO of capital stock deposited.
To work, however, the company went, with so much the
more vigour, because of the money vacuum. They appear
to have discounted to the right and the left with persevering
prodigality, and the most impartial ignorance or accommoda-
tion of all comers and customers, for, since the period of his
connection with the bank, Mr. Hannay told the meeting that
" no fewer than three of the directors had become insolvent,
and no fewer than ninety of the customers." Mr. Hannay
himself confessed to having overdrawn his own account by
about £16,000, for which he had deposited security to the
amount of £2OOO only, and that in the shape of bank scrip,
which was unsaleable and valueless then, and must now be
worse than nil. It is fair to add that he proposes a second
mortgage, by way of additional cover on estates in Scot-
land valued at £55,000, but ridden over by a first mortgage
of £ll,OOO, which, it may be feared, would leave but a
sorry remanet for clearing off his debt to the company. It
would be a waste of time to dwell further upon such a joint-
stock banking burlesque as exhibited by such exposures and
such a balance sheet of brazen bankruptcy. The meeting
was adjourned to the beginning of September, after the ap-
pointment of a committee to investigate accounts for further
report, and further adjournment too before a liquidation may
be looked for. It is stated of this joint-stock banking abor-
tion that from first to last it was only able to carry on the
discount of even bills Of paltry amounts without re-discount-
ing them immediately afterwards at whatever rates. Thus
whilst discounting at five per cent. for customers at the
bank, it was often paying five, six, and seven per cent. to
bill-brokers and money-lenders for the re-discount of the
same paper for the next day's service over the counter. And
yet this same banking company declared a dividend, as if out
of profits, in the month of January last only, at the rate of
four per cent. per annum. However the Marylebone bank
does not stand alone, if report speaks truth, in the small
matter of original capital; for a joint-stock affair elsewhere
is said to have manfully started with a capital of £l,OOO only.

£17,000

EXPLOSION IN A COAL PIT, NEAR SUNDER-
LAND, AND MELANCHOLY LOSS OF LIFE.

(From the Sunderland Herald.)
On Thursday night, news was brought to Sunderland by
the last train on the Durham and Sunderland Railway, that
a dreadful explosion, attended with a fearful loss of life, had
taken place that evening, at Thornley Colliery, the property
of Sir William Chaytor, Bart., and partners, which is situate
about two miles from Haswell.

The accident happened at a quarter past four yesterday
(Thursday) afternoon. At this time there were about forty
individuals engaged in the pit, and twenty-four in that depart-
ment of it in which the accident occurred, which is on the
north-west side, and a seam called the " Harvey" seam, the
lowest of the three seams of the colliery, and 165 fathoms
from the surface. No previous warning was given of the ex-
plosion ; but in a moment nine unfortunate individuals lost
their lives, some of them perishing from the explosion itself,
and others from the effects of the after-damp. Immediately
on its being ascertained that the explosion had taken place,
Mr. Heckels, the resident viewer, Mr. Came, Mr. Hedley,
the under viewer, and the overman of that locality, went
down iato the pit. On reaching the bottom of the shaft, and
having ascertained from Maudlin, an overman, who was in-
jured, that the explosion had taken place in the north-west
district, they proceeded in that direction ; Mr. Heckels de-
spatching competent men into the various districts of the pit
to ascertain if the ventilation of the different localities was
proceeding in its proper course. They returned, stating that
the pit was in a satisfactory state ; and they then assisted the
party, whose names we have stated, in taking the men
out of the pit to "the bank," as it is technically called. All
the bodies were taken out of the pit within an hour of the ex-
plosion being communicated to Mr. Heckels, the resident

viewer.
With one exception, the persons killed are boys, the oldest
being about sixteen or seventeen years of age. The exception
is Thomas Haswell, a hewer, who was a married man ; but
whether he has left a family or not, we were unable to learn.
He was a cripple, having had both his legs broken about a
year ago at the same colliery, by the falling of some stones
above the coal-seam at which he was working.
No damage was done to the pit, with the exception of some
wood stoppings or partitions being knocked out. The falling
of these prevented the proper ventilation ; and they were
immediately replaced, and the ventilation, which was neces-
sar y to the removal of the bodies, again restored.
About six o'clock, Mr. Seymour, viewer, of Wingate
Grange, arrived at the colliery, accompanied by his brother.
He proceeded, with Mr. Heckels and the overman, into the
pit ; and, having ascertained the exact spot where the acci-
dent happened, they went into a scrotinous examination into
its cause. They found that a trap-door, wl-lich had been
placed under the charge of Robert Gardner, one of the boys
killed by the accident, had been for some reason which can-
not be explained, or from negligence, left open. The open-
ing of this door had caused an accumulation of gas ; and it
was their opinion that the explosion had taken place either
from a lighted candle on his arriving at the door, or on the
door being shut the foul air had been driven down a passage,
and ignited at the candle of some other individual working
in the pit. We understand that this is, at present, their im-
pression of the origin of the misfortune. Early on the fol-
lowing morning, Mr. Seymour and Mr. Heckles again went
into the pit, and found it in a satisfactory state. The result
of their examination was such as to leave no doubt in their
minds as to the originating cause of the accident.
On Saturday forenoon an inquest was held at the Thornley
Colliery Inn, before Mr. Maynard and a respectable jury.
After several witnesses had been examined, the jury returned
the following verdict :—" That Peter Gradon, and eight
others, on the sth of August, were accidentally killed by an
explosion of inflammable gas in the Harvey Seim of Thorn-
ley Colliery ; but how, or by whut mottos, suc.l, .340.)..i0n was
caused, the jurors cannot say." In the evening the bodies
of the whole of the sufferers were interred together in the
churchyard of the adjoining quiet little village of Kelloe.