Glasgow Courier. — 1857-06-23 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

SEQUEL OF THE FALHIR DEFALCATIONS.  ( From the Falkirk Herald.) When we chronicled the closing scene in the life of the late Mr. Salmon, and endeavoured to point the moral of that melancholy tale, we hoped we should have no farther occasion to refer to his past actions, or to deplore their consequences with reference to others. The litter which he wrote previous to the commission of suicide, and in which he charged two parties not merely as being participators in his guilt, but as having so managed that the whole burden of that guilt should fall upon his shoulders, we set down as the prodnc• tion of a man who, when writing it, was partly mad and wholly malignant. The gentlemen whom he named had been trained under his own eye; and no man in his senses, who had any intimacy with Mr. Salmon, could for one moment suppose that two young .aaen, who from their boyhood had been accustomed . to look up to him with deference, if not with awe, could have succeeded by any devices, secret or open, in compelling him to pursue • Ithe of conduct at variance with his own wishes. Had the letter charged the young men with being merely accessory to hit guilt, and 'with having partaken of some portion of the money which he had appropriated to himself, the public might have had some Intelligible ground for believing in their complicity, however slender; but Mr. Salmon, so far as we could under, stand his somewhat mystic and incoherent statements, seemed to refer to an act or a series of acts of embezzlement distinct from hie own. He said one of the parties had so much, and the other had snob and such • sum, and 'I did not discover it till too late'—as if the young men, following the example of their chief, had been in the habit of doing a large business in the embezzling line upon their own account, knowing that although the agent detected the fraud he must remain silent respecting it because be had been guilty of similar delinquencies himself. It is an ungracious task to criticise the conduct or the motives of the dead. The grave, in ordinary cases, is a sanctuary which ought to shield its occupant from the censure of the living; but It must be remembered that Mr. Salmon, when on its very threshold —when be ought to have striven to be at peace with all men, and to forgive his enemies if he had any to forgive, made a statement which, although true, was no palliation !the grimes which he had committed—which he knew gale. well would have th• effect, if acted upon, of injuring the character of two men who bad been but too blind to his own misdemeanours, and which would bring down a load of misery of the most heartcrushing character upon a number of respectable families. No one, however, believed the etatement—nay, Mr. Salmon had, at the time his defalcations were detected, In the presence of one of the bank officials, given evidence to the contrary. One of the parties referred to, viz., the late accountant in the bank here, Mr. Gentles— asked Mr. Salmon, point-blank, while the official mentioned above was standing by, whether he (Mr. Gentles) had ever received any of the money which had been purloined from the bank, to which Mr. Salmon replied, ' Not one farthing;' and had Mr. Reid put the same question in the same circumstances a similar answer would no doubt have been given. The statements made In the letter were evidently the result of an afterthought. Desperate for some means, however unworthy, of removing some portion of the odium which he knew would henceforth attach to his name and memory, he determined on attempting to involve in the ruin of himself those with whom he had been so long connected, and who, in consequence of the influence he had exerted over them, had imprudently concealed his misdeeds from the knowledge of his employers. The statements made were the result of a malicious policy, and accordingly we feel leas delicacy in referring to them in the terms we, have employed, although their maker is no longer among the living, than we felt in referring to his other actions. We know not whether it be in eonsequenee of the statements made by Mr. Salmon in the letter which be addressed to the bank, that the directors of that establi.hment have been induced to take the steps they have taken with respect to the gentlemen named in the letter. Mr. Reid and Mr. -Gentles were, however, apprehended on Saturday, the 18th inst., and lodged in Stirling jail on the same evening. Taking all tbe circumstances of the case into , consideration, such • proceeding on the part of the I directors of the bank is probably not to be wondered at. Mr. Reid and Mr. Gentles held, for many years, responsible situations in the establishment of which Mr. Salmon was agent, the latter having been accountant and the former teller. A. large portion of the defalcations had been made during their connexion with Sol. (non; and if an inquiry stall was to be instituted, it was no doubt proper to secure all the parties who were responsible for the correctness of the bank monies. We are sorry, however, that the director§ did not determine sooner upon such a line of action. When Mr. Salmon's guilt was discovered he was not only still in Scotland, but, as we are informed, had an interview with the manager himself, to whom, it is asserted, he offered some explanation of the state of matters, and endeavoured to effect some sort of compromise. In ordinary cases, when a man has property stolen, the first effort he makes is to secure the thief. The recovery of the purloined articles even is for the moment lost sight of, and every energy is directed, and every method adopted, in order to catch the purloiner. The directors of the bank, tin. fortunately, did not adopt this common-sense pie. They not only, it is alleged, refused such tutlon as the defaulter before them wee make, their Lion  , . made a I of th