Mr. Banner Oakley, the manager of the Co-operative 'Credit Bank,
was on Saturday sentenced to five years' penal servitude, the jury holding that many of his depositors bad been deceived by a fictitious balance-sheet, and statements made to them which were specifically false. Mr. Oakley may ,originally have been a fanatic or a blunderer, who believed that because a bank can divide 20 per cent, upon its capital it can therefore afford to pay 18 per cent, upon deposits, and there is some evidence in support of this view. The theory was certainly entertained by his dupes, and is not a bit more extraordinary than Lord George Hamilton's theory of interest, as he explained it in the House of Commons ; and Mr. Oakley paid his interest regularly, as long as capital poured in. He undoubtedly, however, attracted that capital in part by misrepresentations, stating, for example, after he had lost £15,000, that all expenses were paid out of profits, and was justly punished, though it seems a little hard that much more successful rogues who do precisely the same thing should escape so easily.
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