Failure Of A Country Bank...
The Times, 1824-12-07T00:00:00

LFram the West Briton.1 ST. AUSTELL, DEC. 2. On A?onday last, agrecably to public advertisement, a meeting of the creditors of Messrs. Phillip Balt and Son, of Mevagissey, was held at St. Austell, for the purpose of hearing the pronoiation to be :ubmitted by Mlessrs. Ball's solicitor, for settling the affiairs of the firm. The rcsult of this communication- was, that the creditors have no alternative but to obtain a commission of bankruptcy against the estate. It had been supposed and intimated by AIr. Ball, prec viou1sy to an accurate investigation, that lie would be enabled, by instalments, to satisfy all demands in about two years ; but this opinion has, unfortunately, becn proved to have been formed on a very erroneous calculation. It was stated at the meeting, that the debts then ascettained amount to 75,0001., and that the gross amount of the estate is 60,0901. But of this, real property to the amount of 10,0001. has long been assigned as a security to Jessrs. Morlands, Mr. Ball's London bankers; and a lease of the port of Charlestown, which had been valuedin5,000L,is, from apeculiarclause bywhichthcdeed becomes forfeited on thepossessor'sbeinginsolvent, found to bew orth nothling, thus reducing the estate to the nominal value of 45,0001. Of this total, exclusive of other bad debts, it appears that about 15,0001. consists of mere personal security from individuaIs of Nevagissey, to whom sums were advanced, from year to year, during the late un- successful fishing seasons, with the constant expectation that by the occurrence of a propitious season, the monev would be replaced. As these persons are now circumnstanced, their securities are considered of no value; and the estate is thus reduced to 30,0001. But the property, which at the regular market-price mav be thus estimated, being chiefly of such a kind as at present suffers a great depreciation, it is scarcely expected that the whole effects will realize a sufficient sunm to pay five shillings in the pound. The consequenices of this unexpected failure to the towns and neighbourhoods of Mevagissey and St. AusteU are ruinous in the extreme. The wages at mnost of the mine3 and clay-works contiguous to St. AugstelD were paid in tic notes of the AMeva. gissey batik. In this bank, or the branch kept at St. Austell, most of the tradesmen of the town were accustomed to deposit their floating capital; ard luere many other persons hail vested the whole of their property. Scarcely an individual, rich or poor, has wholly escaped the general calamity; and the few who are not directly involved, must, by the stagnation of trade conseqjuent upon the general embarrassment, feel its effects. At the fair on Tuesday last, which is comminoly the largest in the year, so little business was transacted, that it could scarcely be distinguished from an ordi. nary tlay. Nor is the extent of the evil yet fully known * for every post brings back bills drawn by. or accepted through, MIessrs. BaU, which had been dishonoured when they should have been paid. Mlevagissey presents a east of still deeper, it may almost be said unparalleled distress. For seven successive years the inhabitants have had to endure adversitv, and sustain privationr, resulting from the failure of the pilcliafd fishey. Mlany families, who in former years had been accustomed to the comforts of life, have been compelled to subsist upon the coarsest fare; and of this have often wanted a sufficiency. Another unpropitious season has set before them the cheerless prospect of encountering additional hardships, and enduring more pressing wants, alleviated only by the occasional relief derived from braving the perils of the wintry ocean; but even this hope has been generally rendered abortive. Bv the late storms, the greater pert of the boats, nets, and tackle belonging to the fishermen were destroyed. To com- pletethis climax of their wretchedness, and to involve the poor and their employers in one common lot, the stoppage of the bank, whose notes were almost the only circulating medium of the place, has re- duced the greafer nuniber of the inhabitants to a state of utter desti. tution. It is to be hoped that the charitable feelings of the countrv at large will be roused, to devise a plan for mitigating the wretched- ness which is an inmate of most of the dwellings at Slevagissey. The West Briton says, " the consequences of this failure have been mnost hjuriously felt in other partsof the county. The public, especially the farmers and miners, alarmed by the exaggerateed re. ports that reached them, became unwilling to receive, or retain in their possession, the notes of otlher banks, and a partial run hasbeen experienced by some of the most respectable establislhments in the county of Cornwall." FAILURE OF _ COUNTRY BANK.