The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-15 00:00:00

BANK OF MANCHESTER

The proceedings of the London Court of Bankruptcy
during the past week have disclosed to the world a novel

feature in the ruinous and scandalous career of the Bank
of Manchester. Whilst that mis-managed concern was
busily engaged in propping up the various mushroom
firms which its own improvident advances had brought
into existence ;—whilst engaged in bolstering up specu-
lation in railway shares, mines, mills, and other bubbles,
—it was, although the public was not aware of the fact,
itself, the greatest bubble of all, supported by the efforts
of its runaway cashier, and a couple of London bill-
brokers, who have confessed to the fact that, although
they were not possessed of a shilling in the world, and
the bank must have known of that fact, they succeeded
in raising for it capital to the extent of between two and
three millions, at a time when its own London bankers
would not discount a shilling's worth of its paper, and
the Bank of England had equally closed its books against
all ungnaranteed transactions with such a ricketty con-
cern. For two or three years, previous to its final blow
up, when the world imagined it a prosperous concern—
when dividends were being paid, and flattering reports
being issued—it was a hopelessly struggling thing, upheld
only by the activity and tact, in staving off an evil day,
of a couple of adventurers, one of whom bad but recently
emerged from the clearing process of bankruptcy, and
neither of whose security was intrinsically worth the price
of the smallest piece of paper upon which his name could
be written.

The facts of the case, as elicited by the shabby attempt
of the bank to deny to these two useful auxiliaries the
remuneration really and justly due for services of such
vast extent are briefly these. Somewhere about 1838, the
Bank of Manchester began to feel a little difficulty in
making the world believe all the fine things which its
half-yearly reports represented as facts. It was in bad
odour with the Bank of England and with its own Lon-
don bankers; and its bills were looked at in the discount
market as very so-so things to have to do with. In this
dilemma we find its manager going up to London and—
not succeediug in dissipating the doubts of either their own
bankers or the Bank of England, but—discovering a
new bill-broking firm in the city, by ehom their bills
were arranged to be got cashed in the general market.
One member of this firm was in 1837 a partner in a bank-
rupt firm in Monument Yard, as a hat manufacturer.
The other was we know not whom ; but both were in the
delightful predicament when they commenced business—
or were started in business for a purpose which we need
not hint at—of being without capital. "We had no capi-
tal," remarks one of the firm who was under examination,
" neither of us. It is the practice of brokers to trade
upon the capital of others." With some joint stock
banks it appears to be the practice " to trade upon" the
credulity of the world at large, and their shareholders in
particular I Well. this firm, which had no capital and
traded upon the capital of others, went forthwith into the
market with a quantity of the flash bills of the Bank of
Manchester; and, in the course of their operations, which
appear to have extended over little more than three years,
succeeded in raising upon them nearly three millions of
money ! One of the partners states that " placing credit
in the statement which was put before the world," that
the paid up capital of the bank was £741,000, " we pledged
our credit and our honour for them to the amount of more
than £1,842,000. We relied upon these representations
of the bank, and we felt bound in honour to see that these
liabilities were run off;" and another partner states that
the total advances procured by the firm amounted to
£2,000,000 or £3,000,000." Ultimately, upon the ab-
sconding of the manager, Burdekin,—who, by the bye,
says that he was " advised to abscond" by one of the pre-
sent officers of the bank,—the useful functionaries were
proceeded against by the very concern which they had so
long plopped up, and now, being driven into the Bank-
ruptcy Court, they are not only denied any fair remune-
ration, but their certificate even opposed on the ground
that one of the parties, relying upon his assumed profit
from all this discounting and advancing of MILLIONS, has
commit►.ed the enormity of expending upon his living the
sum of a thousand a year!
Most heartily we wish the gentlemen who have resorted
to this very shabby proceedure, a joyful contemplation of
the exposure which they have drawn upon themselves ;
and heartily, too, we congratulate the community. Every
ray of light thrown upon such enormities as are here
proved to have been committed, will contribute to fasten
upon the public mind the growing conviction that some
legislative effort will have to be made before long to pro-
tect the commerce of the empire from the dangers entailed
upon it by such bubbles as this very pattern joint stock
bank.

Loss OF THE SHIP MEMPHIS.—This fine ship, re-
cently purchasedifor one of the Liverpool line of packets,
was lost, about thirty miles north of Cape Hatteras, on
the 22d ult. She had stretched a little too far in shore,
and struck while in stays. The passengers and crew were
saved, and a pot tion of the cargo will also be got on shore ;
but the ship will be lost. The Memphis cleared from
New Orleans for New York on the 6th instant, with a
cargo, consisting of 721 bales of cotton, 91 hhds. tobacco,
5863 pigs lead, 1647 sacks wheat, 625 do. corn, 55 barrels
whiskey, 93 do. oil, 80 do. lard, 37 do. flaxseed, and 84
bales hemp. The vessel is insured at the different offices
in New York for 50,900 dollars. The amount of insurance
on the cargo has not been ascertained. She was com-
manded by Captain Allen, for many years of the packet-
ship Sheffield.

FIRE PREVENTION BILL.--A meeting of the occupiers
of Warehouses was held on Saturdry last at the Claren-
don-rooms, I. C. Hallowes in the chair, to consider upon
the expediency of sending a deputation to London on the
subject of the fire prevention bill now before the House
of Lords. It was determined to oppose those clauses in
the bill which required the warehouse keeper to superin-
tend the porters without any charge, but otherwise to
avoid doing anything to prejudice the bill, which, as it
now stands, it was stated, was valued by the Insurance
Companies as so much waste paper. It was stated that
the Warehouse-keepers were the only parties that the bill
bore hard upon ; the Warehouse-owner, the merchant,
and the porter were relieved from those clauses which
were considered hardships. Arrangements were made
to send witnesses, and money subscribed to meet their
expenses, and that of the deputation.

FIRE AT BIRKENHEAD.—On Tuesday night last, about
twelve o'clock, an alarm of fire was given at the Town-
hall, Birkenhead, and the new engine with which the town
has recently been provided was immediately sent out, un-
der Mr. Bowie, superintendent of the night watch, and
soon reached the spot, a newly-built and yet unfinished
house, in Market-street, belonging to Mr. Rae, painter
and gilder. The doors and windows of the premises were
found to be nailed up, so that an entrance could not easily
be effected. The doors ware, however, soon forced open,
and the fire, which had begun below, and was rapidly in-
creasing, was got under by hand buckets. The police
remained for about an hour. The damage to the wood-
work, &c. amounts to about £l2. Besides the nailing up
of the doors, there were other indications plainly showing
that the premises had been designedly fired. No clue has
been found to the party or parties. The house was in-
sured by the London Fire Assurance Comp-my, of which
Mr. Kennedy, Hamilton-square, Birkenhead, is agent.

THE FUNDS, SATURDAY EVENING.—The market for
the public securities has not exhibited any new feature
to-day, and quotations remain much as before. A con-
tinuance of fine weather appears to be the chief support
of the government stocks. Consols for money and the
account left off 91* to 1; Three per Cents. Iteduc,d, 94i
to 95; Three-and-a-Half per Cents. Reduced, 1021 to
102*; New Three-and-a-Half per Cents., 1018 to ; Long
Annuities, 12 13-16 to *; Bank Stock, 1811 to 1821 ;
India Stock, 263 to 264 ; India Bonds, CBs. to 70s. pre-
mium ; and Exchequer-bills, 595. to 61s. premium. The
foreign securities underwent little alteration. Spanish
was a trifle flatter. The Actives closed 183 to 182 ; and
the Three per Cents., 258; Mexican left off 341 to 35i
for the Five per Cents., and 91 to 101 for the Deferred.
Colombian was last quoted 24a to 54; Brazilian, 70 to
72; Belgian, 104 to 105; Austrian, 113 to 114; Portu-
guese Converted, 411 to *; Russian, 115 to 116; Dutch
Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 521 to 53; the Five per
Cents., 1001 to 1001 ; Buenos Ayres, 26 to 27 ; and
Peruvian, 20 to 21.

ST kTE OF TRADE, MANUFACTURES, &C.—We have
again hadan active week in our cotton market, the buy-
ers being principally for consumption, and the prices fully
supporting those of last week. The sales amount to
28,590 bales, of which 6,600 American are on speculators'
account, and 750 American, 600 Pernam, and 350 Surat
for export. In the cotton manufacturing districts busi-
ness has been a little interrupted by the turn-out amongst
the spinners and weavers in the neighbourhood of Ashton-
under•Lyne. A fair amount of business has, however,
been done in the principal staples ; and this seem scarcely
so much to be attributed to the diminished supply, arising
by the stoppage of upwards of 20 mills, and the conse-
quent cessation from labour of more than 12,000 opera-
tives, as to the actual healthy proportion of demand to
the supply of most kind of goods. The turn-out is ex-
pected very shortly to be arranged ; and really it ought to
be arranged, by an agreement on the part of the masters
in Ashton and the
.neighbourhood, to pay the prices cur-
rent in other places, for it is a fact that, owing to the low
pmraicneufaoeftutrheerr:,was material,nevera tthleeasto flate—more
marginopro
than a
fittothet
the present period.

CHARGE FORGERY.—On Wdnesday last a young
man named Thomas G. Rigby, stat eed to be a and
builder, was brought before the sitting magistrates, at the
Police-court, on a charge of having uttered a bill with a
forged signature. Police-officer Lloyd said, that on the
previous afternoon Mr. Smith, chemist and druggist,
Great Homer-street, came to him, and said he had re-
ceived a bill for £47 55., to which his name was forged.
Having learned that it had been paid to another party
previously by the prisoner, he (witness) apprehended him.
A memorandum (relating, it appeared, to other money
transactions, and found in the prisoner's pocket) was
produced by Lloyd, but Mr. Wardle objected to it being
read, as it did not bear upon the present charge. Mr.
Smith said he received the bill on Tuesday, from Mr.
Pritchard, who said he had received it from the prisoner.
The signature to the acceptance, purporting to be signed
by him, (witness,) was not in his handwriting, and he had
not authorised the prisoner so to make use of his name.
The signature was something like his (witness's) writing.
He could not take upon himself to swear that the signa-
ture to the acceptance was in the same handwriting as that
to the bill, which was the prisoner's. Mr. John Pritchard
said he was a timber merchant, in partnership with his
brother. The prisoner had had transactions with them,
and on Tuesday he tendered him the bill, in part payment
of his account. It was dated in May last. It was sent to
the Union Bank, where it was dishonoured. The pri-
soner, it afterwards appeared, was apprehended in his
house in Bootle. The prisoner, on being asked, with the
usual caution, what he had to say, declined saying any-
thing at this stage of the proceedings, and was committed
to take his trial at the assizes, the witnesses being bound
over, in XlO3 each, to appear and give evidence against
him.