24 OCTOBER 1868, Page 3

The Investigation Committee appointed to inquire into the affairs of

the Royal Bank of Liverpool have presented their report, and a most extraordinary document it is. All real power seems to have been monopolized by the two managing directors, Mr. Hutchison and Mr. Shand, of whom one owed the bank when it stopped £103,477, of which £70,000 will be lost ; and the other- -usually owed £20,000, which will, however, be paid. Only these two directors seem to have been cognizant of an astonishing agree- anent under which the Royal Bank contracted to "carry on" Messrs. Wilson and Co., shipdealers, who owed the concern £60,000. Rather than lose that money, or to speak more plainly, rather than call attention to the accounts, these gentlemen bound the bank to pay Messrs. Wilson's debts and all other debts their business might incur in five years, and to release Messrs. Wilson from all demands. Under this arrangement the total debt became 1528,000, and another firm was similarly treated to the tune of nearly £100,000. All this while the bank was represented as most flourishing, and the board congratulated the shareholders on the flourishing character of the statement. And then we send betting sharpers to prison, and inflict the treadmill for petty larceny !