A meeting of the creditors of Messrs. Smith, Fleming, and
-Co. was held on Wednesday, and Mr. Fleming was allowed to address them. He made some astounding statements. He de- -Oared that early in 1870 his firm had a capital of £400,000, but in a few months this was swept away, by the failure of their Liverpool correspondents, and the severe depression caused by 'the Franco-German war. They could, however, have stopped, without great injury to anybody, and proposed to do so ; but the City of Glasgow Bank, to which they owed £148,000, fully secured, prevented them. The Bank carried them on, and other firms dependent on them, knowing all the while, from monthly reports forwarded to the Directors, that they were insolvent. In Tune, 1878, the firm owed the Bank £1,500,000 more than they could pay, and were quite aware that nothing short of some enormous good-fortune could ever enable them to clear themselves. They represented the exact state of their affairs to the Bank, but the Bank, through Mr. Stronach, would not allow them to stop, but went on advancing. Mr. Fleming considered that, with the enormous debt to the Bank, the firm had become its servants, and were not entitled to stop without its consent. Of course a statement like this must be investigated, but Mr. Fleming stood a severe cross-examination by Mr. Abrahams, the creditors believed him, and the estate is to be liquidated by arrangement, instead of being thrown into bankruptcy.
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