The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-11 00:00:00

entirely ignorant of the position and the kind of 1
business doing by the Bank of Manchester, they stand
in their ignorance almost alone amongst their fellow,
townsmen. This fact, however, they were not in
ignorance of, that during the political excitement which
has existed throughout that period, their position as
directors of that concern has materially added to thein-
fluence of certain public agitators. The breaking up of
the Bank of Manchester, twelve months or two years
ago, would have seriously damaged the interests of the
Anti-corn-law League. Deputations composed of men
tainted by the explosion of this stupendous bubble
would not have been likely to have any very weighty
influence upon the judgement of the world, or the
decisions of any government ; and hence, perhaps, in
part, the doggedness with which they have clung to
their elevation, and sunk to "a lower deep" of disaster
and disgrace the interests and the property committed
to their charge. That some such feeling as this has
weighed with them, accompanied with a desperate
hope that, by the prostration of other interests in the
community and the advent of a new era of commercial
and manufacturing frenzy, they would be enabled to
retrieve the shattered fortunes of the adventurers whom
they have trusted with the money of the shareholders,
we venture to predkt, will be made manifest by and
bye ; and that few of the gentlemen who have figured
throughout these exposures Will be seen exhibiting
themselves, for a while, at least, in the Anti-chambers
of Cabinet Ministers, or in Anti-corn-law Conventions
in Palace-yard, or elsewhere !
We conclude our remarks upon this disgraceful
affair with the following extract from the city article of
yesterday's London Times, by which it will be seen
that our own opinion of its disreputable character is
amply confirmed by the opinion of the monied men of
the metropolis. The fears expressed in the concluding
paragraph, that the assets will not realise the amount
at which they are estimated—that the shareholders,
after the loss of the entire capital of the bank, will still
have a large liability to meet, and that the depositors
in the bank are far from safe—we hope will prove to
be unfounded :
" The further report made on the affairs of the Bank of
Manchester has attracted, of course, some share of attention
in the city. 'A more gross case of deceit and presumable
fraud was never exhibited. It was stated recently, we be-
lieve, in one of the local journals, that in Manchester alone,
through this and other joint-stock banks, at least 1,500,0001.
has been lost. Coupling with these 7,000,0001. lost by the
fall of the United States Bank, which consisted chiefly of
English capital, and the conclusion, without going further,
will be a very safe one, that this.is more than has been lost
by depositors through the failure of all the private banks that
ever existed. Such losses, whether they are borne by share-
holders in banks or by depositors, are in an equal degree a
general injury to the community; and if any one were
inclined to doubt the helplessness of shareholders in joint-
stock banks, or to believe in their ability to protect them-
selves, it would be removed by the reading of this and the
previous reports made to those connected with the Bank of
Manchester.

" Without going over the items of the balance•sheet,'
published this morning, it may be sufficient to observe that
the assets, declared to be good, of £1,018,000 in bills on
hand and current is a mockery, since the bank could not hold
anything near that amount in bills not at maturity, and con-
sequently a large portion must be overdue, bad, and doubt-
ful. A long period of distress and confusion must follow the
attempt to realise these assets, and it will soon appear that
the shareholders have a large liability to meet beyond their
capital in the bank, and that even the depositors and simple
contract creditors of this concern are far from safe."