The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-11-11

Disastrous Bank Failure.

From the following statement, it appear:
they have as heartles rogues among sshon
est" Scotchmen, as any to be found in thi.
land of bogus banks:
The London correspondent of the New
York Commercial s1dUertsser. in his letter d,
the 9TH ultimo, refers to further disreputable
revelations in the progress of the liouida-
ton of the Western Bank of Scotland. lie
I says:-
! The ruin it has spread through Glasgow
is beyond anything experienced from any
financial disaster during the last twenty
years. Thirteen hundred families held in
vestments III the concern which in MANY
cases constituted the sole dependence of aged
professional men, widows, and orphan
daughters. The total paid up capital was
equal to 81 800, 900, and a year or two be-
/ fore the failure, the price of the shares of
$3.50 was S400. When the stoppage oc-
CURED it was soon s,en that the whole of
that property was swept away, and that
those who had nothing else would be re-
duced to dcstitution. 1t was hoped, how
ever, that this would be the worst. In n
little further time it transpired that there
would be adefciency- of 81, 500, 900, in adj
ditIon TO the loss of the whole capital. A
call OF los per share was accordingly en-
forced on all who had anything left. This
was finally paid in June last A lull then in
tervened, and 1t was supposed the end of the
mischief was known. Gradually, however.
1t erept out that fresh misery would be en-
tailed, and 1t was also stated that in the pro-
gress OF investigation II had been discovered
that the delinquencies of all concercd in
the management, could be traced back for
many years. Still it was believed that anv
new contribution that would be demanded
from the unhappy shareholders would be
comparatively moderate.
Complete establishment was therefore ex-
cited the day before yesterday, when it was
announced that the deficiency, instead of
being Sl,500,000, had proved to be $1,000
600, and that upon each share fresh pay
ment of FIVE hundred dollars would be re-
CURED within twcnty-four days \ large
proportion Of the shareholders having been
totally ruined by the previous call. the num-
Der OF those now able to respond in any way
is limited, and it is calculated that out oftbe
200 there will ultimately not be one hun
dred and fifty who will have any property
left. Many of the sufferers have died, some
have become insane children have been
thrown on the charity of friends and strano,-
ers, and there is scarcely family in the
district which Is not to some extent afflicted
One eminent and esteemed merchant, who /
had retired from business and Invested
the whole OF his ample fortune to the con-
Germ, died last months of broken heart 4.
other, who had also retired with $500. 600. /
put $4,000 into it, and when lie has met
the contribution now claimed will find HIM /
self stripped of all but $4,000. Every one |
"a in business circles can narrate au
Ar Az anu the directors, or at
crs that if they were su6jecrcr.-SS atorted a
they would retire and leave the liquidatorS
to Get what information they could. They
relied upon their parliamenty influence, and
the Government has screened them through
out. Among their chief apologists, they
have numbered Sir Archib..~. liSAns the
author of the History of Europe, and Mr..
Walter Buchan, a leading Glasgow merchant
and nember for that city. Contras:ed with
the perseveringprosccutiOn carried on against
the Royal British Bank, nothing could be
more faeitious than the immunity allowed
in this case, and an announcement which
has Just been put forth, that the offenders
are making assignments of their property IN
order to avoid being called even before
civil tribunal, and made financially rcspon-
sible. puts climax to the history. 1t IS to
he hoped. however, that in this last attempt
they will be at least partially defeated by.
some legal measures of which the ruined
shareholders have given notice. ,. q. ase