THE DANK.
A general quarterly meeting of the Proprietors took place on Thurs- ay ; it was very numerously attended—more so, it is said, than any ieeting since 182.5. Sonic preliminary discussion took place on the uestion of excluding the reporters. A person whose name was un- clown, and who refused to give it,* objected to any one but Proprietors eing present,—forgetting that there are of necessity always twice as 'any Proprietors absent as present, who, in defect of the newspaper mount, must of necessity remain in ignorance of what has been done, nd that, supposing the mere public not to be at all interested in the tank, their convenience calls for a report. The motion for excluding porters, which was seconded by a Mr. Nixon, was lost by an immense lajority.
The Governor then proceeded to state the object of the meeting,— amely, the declaration of the usual dividend of 4 per cent. for the alf-year ending on the 10th October next. Mr. Young, who has been for several years worrying the Directors it information, and calling for a full disclosure of their affairs, made long speech in condemnation of the publication of the evidence of the directors before the Secret Committee; which, he contended, the Di- actors ought to have protested against. Mr. Young argued, that if he information there given had been allowed to ooze out by degrees, it -Would have been eminently useful, but that the burst of information iven in the Report was most injurious. The nameless mover of the exclusion of the Press (who described imself as one of the largest Proprietors in the Company) eulogized the ianner in which the evidence of the Directors had been given ; but se- erely reprehended the conduct of the late Mr. Huskisson, in at one ime calling on the Bank to advance four millions for the public service, nd then, as soon as they were in some degree of difficulty, advising hem to put tip a notice on their doors that they were unable to meet heir engagements. Mr. Selwyn joined in complimenting the Directors for their conduct : he secrecy hitherto observed, he said, was the act of the Proprietors, vho uniformly negatived all motions for breaking through it—not of
he Directors, who deserved a statue of gold to be erected to them. SelWyn spoke of the spirit of a certain Mr. Grundy (a mistake of 're press for Mrs. Grundy, we presume) hovering over 'Threadneedle ;treat, and rejoicing in the change that had taken place in the conduct • The Tines reporter says—" The reporters endeavoured, by inquiries of several %oprietors, and of some of the Directors, to get the names of the gentlemen who moved td seconded the exclusion of the Press, but they both seemed to be little known in the .Hirt. At last one of the reporters asked the gentlemen themselves ; the seconder s without hesitation; the mover refused, adding, that he did not wish to be up the b—y old rotes and other rascally papers the press had bees the curse of this
tuttiy." . . .
of its natives. [We had always understood that Mrs. Grundy was ra- : ther an enemy to change.] On the mention of a statue of gold, an honourable Proprietor sug- gested, as an amendment, a • statue of paper; in which Mr. Selwyn seemed inclined to concur, for he expressed considerable fear whether the state of the bullion in the Bank coffers would justify the ordinary dividend. His fears were removed, however, by the assurance of the Governor that the " rest" [the balance in favour of the Bank] had considerably increased since February, the date of the last statement.
A Proprietor, amidst considerable Interruption, made a strong charg against the clerks of the Discount Office, of having accepted bribes for the discount of certain bills. It was from this cause, he alleged, that so much loss had been incurred in that department, particularly in the discounting of West Indian bills. After some conversation on the subject of the renewal of the Char- ter,—in which Mr. Blackburn argued, from the silence of Ministers, that they meant to &Si hardly with the Corporation,—the dividend was agreed to. Mr. Young moved a resolution, to the effect that the losses of the Bank were mainly attributable to political causes—which was ultimately negatived. •
Mr. Lloyd junior moved an address of thanks to the Directors— It was impossible, he said, to read the evidence given by those Directors who had been examined, without corning to the conclusion that they had long studied the duties that appertained to them in their twofold capacity as servants of the Proprietors and of the public. With respect to the system they had now adopted, it was no doubt a matter requiring great deliberation ; but no person could doubt, looking at the state of the public mind, but that the evidence given by the Directors had been the means of removing very erroneous opinions from men's minds, which had been formed with respect to the conduct of the Bank, and had raised it much in the public estimation. Amongst the reflecting por- tion of the community, it was now allowed that its affairs were conducted with great attention and liberality, and with every attention to the interests of the public. After the publication that had been made, he thought the meeting could not separate without having made some expression of their opinion on the conduct of the Directors, who had acted so nobly, especially after the sneers which had been thrown out that day. To the honourable gentleman in the chair, lie thought the praise and thanks of the Court were especially due, for the manner in which he had given his evidence, and for the ability and sound discretion with which he had so very properly declined the responsibility which it had been sought to throw upon him. (" Hear, hear !") That honourable gentleman had already sufficiently answered the charge which had been brought against him, of being instrumental in the publication of the disclosures made to the Secret Committee; he had distinctly stated that neither directly nor in- directly was he a party to it. That the publication of those disclosures could not possibly produce mischief, appeared to him as clear as the sun at noon-day. On the contrary, he thought it would form the basis of a system which would place the whole monetary system of the country on a firm footing, and render it more secure than it ever had been before. It would produce that unanimity so much to be desired between the Proprietors and the Directors ; and, in Ins opinion, it was calculated to produce a right and proper understanding between the Bank and the Public, and would produce more confidence in the establish ment than it had ever enjoyed at any former period.
The versatile Mr. Young again maintained, that the recent disclo- sures had effected a world of harm, and that a much better charter might have been gotten had they never been made. Mr. Selwyn—" Since the publication of these documents, has there been any drain upon the treasury of the Bank? " . The Governor—" If you mean a drain of gold, I answer, none what- ever. On the contrary, the accumulation of gold in the treasury of the Bank has been unprecedentedly on the increase since." ("Hear, hear)") Mr. Lloyd's motion of thanks was carried, with only two dissentients ; and after a few words of acknowledgment from Mr. Palmer (in which he stated, that the motion for excluding the reporters was brought for- ward without the concurrence or approval or knowledge of the Direc- tors), the meeting separated.
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