The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-29 00:00:00

honeet man, but a simple one, or he wonld have taken Mary
at seeing one family, the \Vhitakers, set down for .1:6,000,
while others risked so little. _ _

Mr. Wells asked Mr. Lucas's solicitor to what extent Mr
Lucas's friends had obtained accommodation at the bank ?
The Solicitor said about £BOO.
Mr. Wells asked if the bills had been honoured ?
The Solicitor replied he did not know.

Capt. Aaron Smith said he had faith in the soundness of
the Westminster Company, and had discounted their bills to
the extent of £5OO. When the bank closed he held bills to
the amount of £2,000, and he put them into the hands of his
attorney. Among them were bills of Maurice O'Connell,
Dillon Brown, Mr. Bridgman, and one of Mr. Steele's for
£B9. He was told Mr. Steele was at Dublin Castle, pre-
paring to be whitewashed, but he found him at a❑ eating-
house in the Strand, and had him served with a writ.
Steele then became furious, and wrote letters full of gross
language, some of which he left unsealed at the Jerusalem
Coffee-house. To put a stop to this he waited upon Mr.
O'Connell, and sent word up to him to come down and pay
the £9B, and eat his abusive letter. He preferred remaining
up stairs and eating his dinner.

Sir Peter Laurie"said the captain was a shrewd man, and
he ought to have become suspicious when he saw at the bank
only two men—Nicholls and his father.

Mr. Steele, in reply to-the captain, read a letter he had
written to the captain's solicitor, explaining that same of the
bills he had were lodged only as collateral securities, as equi-
valents for an insurance on his life, in case he should die
before his annuity became due.
Mr. Marshall, a shareholder, complained of fraud. He
sent a bill for £4O to be discounted, and after keeping it a
fortnight they closed their doors.

Mr. Nicholls answered that he was a shareholder

Mr. Marshall said, " then, as a shareholder, they had
acted fraudulently towards him by omitting to summon him
to the meeting."
Mr. Cuff, a solicitor in Half-moon-street, Piccadilly, ap-
peared on behalf of a depositor, named Hampson, who de-
luded by the great names printed on the prospectus, and in
advertisements which appeared daily, sold out his little
savings, from years of toil, in the Consols, took it to the
company, and was now ruined. He had now nothing to fall
back on.

Mr. Nicholls said,—Yes ; he would fall back on the share-
holders. There was one behind him worth £lO,OOO (alluding
to a dealer in second-hand clothes.)
Mr. Cuff pointed out that the advertisements spoke of the
society as if it were enrolled as a loan society or savings
bank, but the statute quoted was merely that which suspen-
ded the usury laws in certain cases.
Some other depositors pressed forward, but

Sir PETER LAURIE said he should recommend all the suf-
ferers to unite and advise with Mr. Cuff, whom he knew to
be a respectable solicitor ; he would see how their evidence
could be shaped, and he should recommend them to see
what 24 of their countrymen, sitting as a grand jury, would
say to their tale. His opinion was that some parties had ex-
posed themselves to criminal proceedings. and civil remedies
might be taken against others. They would also consider
whether it would I,e advantageous to at once make bankrupts
of Mr. Nicholls and his father, for the searching examina-
tions in the Bankrupt Court were assimilating it to a police-
court. He was charged with going out of his way in taking
up this inquiry, but he believed such investigations were
useful, and he was determined to be as useful as he could.
After some further c,nversation between Sir PETER LAU-
RIE and Mr. Wells.

Mr. Cuff and the sufferers retired into another room. and
t is said he means to convene a meeting of them.