The last hope of the unfortunate Trustees who happen to
hold shares in the City of Glasgow Bank among their trust property has disappeared. On Monday, the Law Lords—seven being present—decided unanimously that although, as Lord
Cairns said, it was "impossible adequately to express their sympathy with those who had been overwhelmed by losses incurred for the benefit of others," the law was clear, and the trustees must be pronounced shareholders, with unlimited. liability. It was incompetent for the Directors of the Bank to transfer the shares to them upon any other con- dition, and the unbroken weight of judicial decisions was upon that side. The liquidators upon receipt of this decision immediately issued a call for £2,250 a share, which will, of course, ruin all but a few shareholders, who will subsequently be struck by a still heavier call. There is, in fact, no hope for any shareholder or trustee in the institution. The total amount to be made up beyond the assets exceeds, the liquidators say, £6,000,000, while no project of compromise has had the smallest success. Indeed, it is very doubtful if a compromise is legally possible, the largest ereditors being corporations, which, in the interest of their own share- holders, must exact every penny. It is stated that the panic among trustees created by the decision has led to the most pre- cipitate sales of Bank shares, but the fall in them has not been of the rapid character that might have been expected.
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