The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-24 00:00:00

-nmuni,,y was startled by the an-

nouncement, made at

special meeting of the
shareholders in this wretchedly, if not dishonestly,
conducted affair, that the entire paid-up capital,
amounting to more than £700,000 sterling, had been
squandered in propping up a multitude of bubble,
undertakings and bubble firms ; and that it would

still require an additional call upon the already-im-
poverished proprietors, to the amount of upwards
of £lOO,OOO, to raise it from its position of insol-
vency. We had then statements of assets and lia-

bilities, of bills overdue and accounts overdrawn,
the result of which, upon paper, flattered the de-
ceived victims, whose all had been nearly swallowed

up, that, by a little additional drain upon their
means—a little extra exhaustion of the savings of

past years—they might be

bled to wash their
hands of the trade of joint-stock banking, and sit
down in their poverty, relieved from the fear of cir-

cular letters, slips of parchment, and visitors even
more unacceptable and less easily evaded.
Well, what is the result, as exhibited at a meet-
ng of the same concern, held in Manchester on
Are these flattering promises rea-
etre the affairs of the bank wound up—the
outstanding balances called in, and the liabilities

Saturday last

Not at all ! We are informed, indeed, by
the report just published, that, up to the 30th June,
843, " the liabilities of the bank, including those
ontingent on current bills, have been reduced from
and exclusive of current
bills, from £581,860 to £408,499." The realisation

£801,440, to £440.936

of the assets has progre se'l at a similar tardy rate,
and are now stated at £388,576 ; and although up-
wai ds of £lOO,OOO has been received on account of
the call made at the last meeting, it is now disco-

vered that there is still an " estimated deficiency" of
above £50,000 to he provided for by another call of
£2 per share upon the unfortunate shareholders !
How many more "estimated deficiencies" may
arise before all the bubble accounts which compose
the " assets

" are wound up, and the various mills
and other properties held by the bank are converted
into cash, we know not; but we should be very
sorry to guarantee any holder of stock that he will
not have to put his hand into his pocket to provide
for further "estimated deficiencies."
The total estimated losses are now £937,117, and
may be roundly stated at a million, the bulk of it
the property of the most defenceless portion of the

community, squandered by a clique of schemers to
advance their own selfish purposes of aggrandise-
ment, and no small amount of it devoted to prop up
their own political party in the borough of Man-
chester. Essentially this bank, it is notorious, has
been a political engine, wielded by a faction. Its
credits afforded a ready means of rewarding poli-
tical subserviency. They propped up the beggarly
tools who agitated for the Potters, the Harbottles,
the Dyers, and other of the prime movers in the
various questions which for years past have occupied
the attention of the manufacturing magnates. They
have rewarded the mercenaries who clamoured most
loudly for Incorporation, for repeal of the Corn•law,
and other specifics of Manchester radicalism ; and,
in fact, the total amount lost by the unfortunate
shareholders may be said to have been sacrificed for
the purpose of party elevation.

We are told, indeed, by the directors, that they Again, where would Mr. Evans locate the dock,
have been themselves large sufferers. These gen- now day by day more imperiously called for, for
tlemen point to their own wounds, and assume the the accommodation .of our large Transatlantic
position of unfortunate and guiltless martyrs. We steamers, and, indeed, for our coasting steamers,
grant readily that, as shareholders, they may he, and some of which cannot at present be adequately ac-
doubtless are, considerable sufferers; but is it no- commodated, and for one of which—a Glasgow
thing that as traders, in an age of speculation—of steamer—the entrance of Clarence Dock has had to
manufacturing bubbles and railway and mining be cut down ? Obviously, it is desirable that the
bubbles,—they have been enabled to have funds at north end should be the site of such a dock, and
command to advance their private emolument ? Is that the navigation of the river should not be ren-
it nothing that, during a period of bloated prosper- dered dangerous by the constant passing and re-
ity, when trade was bringing in thousands where it passing of these steamers to and from the south end.
now, under a healthy state of things, brings in hun- But it is not. upon the ground of merely tempo-
dreds only, they were enabled to push their various rary necessity or expediency that we advocate the
concerns to an extent which amazed the world and carrying into effect of this resolution of the Dock
placed them in a few years far above the position of Committee. Such a body, invested with such large
those of their competitors who, trading on solid powers, and having under their care such. vast in-
capital, and within their means, had no such aid to terests, ought to look beyond the wants of the hour
help them ? Assuredly men who have done these —ought to possess that common forecast which in-
things—who have thus traded upon the property of dividuals exercise in the regulation of their private
a number of duped and befooled persons—must not affairs. They have an opportunity now of purchas-
be allowed to shelter themselves behind the fact, no ing the Harrington estate—which no reasonable
doubt a true one, that by the same wretched concern man can deny will at no distant period be wanted,
whose operations towards them,as favored customers, if even the accommodation which it is capable of
have put tens of thousands in their pockets, they affording be not greatly wanted now—at a price
have lost a few thousands as mere shareholders. (31s. 6d. per square yard) which every competent
The fact cannot be lost sight of that for years professional man consulted has declared to be below
oast—since 1836 indeed—these men either were its real value. They have an opportunity, too, of
might have been, aware of the insolvency of the purchasing the north strand to Beacon's Gutter, at
hank over which they presided. They were either a price less than they will be able to do when, as
acquainted with it in 1840, when their flattering jMr. Evans himself states, they will have made that
report represented the concern as flourishing and I strand into valuable land. If such purchases ought
its past losses as amply provided for, or, as a share- not to he made, then we say Mr. Alderman Evans
holder at the meeting justly observed, they must is about as inconsistent a man, and as forgetful of
have squandered a million of money within the his former declared opinions, as any that we ever
space of less than two years. There is no man who met with. Perhaps we may be excused if we call
can credit the latter alternative without believing the the attention of that gentleman to the following ex-
directors during these two years to have been mad- tract from a memorial, emanating from a meeting of
They were not such. The board on the dock ratepayers, held on the 21st of September,
contrary was composed of men who doubted the i 1832 :

solvency of the concern and we believe strove to I 4, When they," the Dock Committee, " made the
avert the evils which impended over it. It was the King's and George's Dock, instead of purchasing for
preceded them to themselves at the outset the strand to the westward of
the Dock Trust, they allowed the intermediate lard, un-
rhose anxiety to prop up their own ascendancy purchased, to be enclosed by the sea walls advanced
a to be attributed the disastrous ruin which into the river at the expense of Dock Estate,"—the
same operation now going on northward of the boundary
has startled all sober men ; and retributive jus- of that estate ; " and after the strand so enclosed had
tice would enact that upon their heads should fall been filled up with excavationsfrom the docks, and thereby
the
basins, Cor-
the loss which has made so many a deserving trades- madegroui,l,dforbuilding,
aonnd :panttoilf it they"
or
ey"
Gor-
man rue that ever a Joint Stock Bank was tolerated por
whicha t.iotnh,ey
hamvaed leetyoff yards
at considerable rents, and on the
by the legislature. part to the westward of the King's Dock they built the
The nuisance however must be abated; and we present Tobacco Warehouse, for which they received
thefiro6mo, , crown and merchants an annual income of
trust that another session of parliament will not pass oo
by without a measure of stringent character being Now, if the Dock Estate had been represented by
applied to avert the dangers attendant upon the tarliiiisztesounddistibncotatfhrolmndth. eteComt
to Common Coutntchiel, a
Co i.. bodyora
e working of the system in dishonest, or reckless, and tion,) it may reasonably be pr'esumeur that these l'imde-
znorant hands. pendent trustees, looking with a single eye to the interest
of the docks, would have had the common forecast to
purchase from the Corporation the strand required for
dock purposes, before it was reclaimed from the waters
mour as to its authorship— has been occupying of the Mersey at the expense of the Deck Trust."
his leisure in the concoction of a somewhat And who do our readers imagine was the most
lengthy article, upon the subject of dock matters, active amongst the very influential parties by whom
which anpears in the leader columns of our contem- this memorial was adopted ? Why, Mr. Alderman
iorary, the Albion of yesterday. In the opinions Evans himself—the same most consistent personaje

liberal " clique who had

Mr. Alderman Evans—according to current ru-