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APSLEY PRLLATT—A STUDT IN BANKING.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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between men who nave no public claims and men -whose names belong to the history of liberal reform . We say this without any disrespect to the new members . They hare their careers before them ; they may be brilliant ; they will probably be meritorious . We might have been glad to see them in Parliament could they have been returned by unpledged constituencies ; but to -witness tlie abasement of Manchester by a coalition of " Whigs and Tories , with a mass of random brawlers halloed on by ribaldry and libel , is
indeed what we . had not expected . Mr . Cobixen ' s defeat isless unintelligible . It is well known that . Sir John Ramsden , a moderate Ministerialist , has recently become -possessed of a preponderating influence inHuddersfield , which , during the late election , was exerted ah favour of Mr . Akhotd ; but is Huddersfield , in future , to return Sir John Bamsbew ' s nominee •?/ If so , Mr . Cobden ' s reverse implies no public condemnation of his policy , but simply that he mistook his ground when he canvassed the householders whose rentals
flow into Isyrani Hall . It had long been known that a combination was going forward in Rochdale to oppose the re-election of Mr . MiA-LIi ; the Oldhmn Chronicle had not left us unprepared for the failure of Mr . JFox ; but we could scarcely have anticipated that the ministerial candid ate at Ay lesbury Would have plotted with a nameless Tory against the return of Mr . Laiabd , a spirited , independent , valuable member of the late Parliament
whose only fault was that he displayed too much zeal , and too little timidity , in efforts to secure the public service against corruption . As to the Tower Hamlets , we welcome Mr . Axeton , but we regret Sir WntiAM Clay . "Why was Sir John Sirai ,-iiET—a Liberal after [ Lord Palme stop ' s own heart—left wholly unopposed at "Westminster ? "Why is a ^ Reformer of that stamp allowed to enter Parliament by the soft ascent of an uncontested election , while Sir Joshua
Waxmsley is expelled from Leicester ? There has been conspiracy somewhere ; and our' only consolation is that the men whose absence from the House of Commons we de ^ - plore , although we have often opposed them , will not sink into private life , but will raise forces to fight the lleform battle ; they are not men lost to the State ; they -will make their power felt ; and it will yet be seen whether Manchester and the industrial cities of the north will not virtually be represented by Gibson , Bright , and Coisden .
They have a great part to perform . The Times says " there will be a prodigious cry , " but there will be no collapse . Some of the ablest members of the defunct House of Commons will continue standing face to face with the electors and non-electors . It -will be for them to organise and to conduct an overwhelming agitation . With a Liberal majority in Parliament , and a band of distinguished politicians out of doors , we may auticipato a period of activity and advance . Prom this moment the old distinctions are revived between tho friends and the antagonists of Reform .
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WHITE-HANDED NON-EKECTORS . A . very proud lady once kissed a doubtful elector of Westminster , and secured his vote . Nothing so wrong has happened , bo far as we havo ascertained , during the recent contests ; but the law that put down flags ought to put down pocket-handkerchiefs , and tho act that prohibits the presence of the military at elections should be put in force against those
white-handed Lilys and Lucys who , with r flutter of IVonch cambric , inspire tho dashing candidates , and , with lips like those on the Anacreontic portrait , * painted like Persuasion ' s provoking akisa , " condemn the plainci men , whatever their princi p les may bo . Nc Legal guarantees are in existence to protoct the HouHO of Commons from tlioue nneonatitutional influences , wherena -voters are bc-
Apsley Prllatt—A Studt In Banking.
meraal independence ; a member of the Legislature . How -was ifc that he managed to reconcile hia presence and his signature with actual complicity in falsehood and fraud P He managed it by virtue of inattention . he accepted what others told him as proven fa « t ; he signed papers as a matter of form ; and he did not let himself know what the officers
under him were doing . In fact , he sat at the ' Board * because it sat in a fine room , in a big house , well furnished , was called a " Bank , " and in . one way or other handled large sums of money . And in , that very house where he was sitting- with the pious Manager , there was that huge , criminal , beggarly swindle , the Royal British Bank . Now let us go back to 1855 , before the Bank stopped . There was the institution , with its handsome houBe in the Strand
lookfortunate gentleman for whom a subscription is now getting up to save him from starvation at Boulogne ; we have all known how , through Mr . John Macgbegor , the Bank was fortunate enough to obtain Mr . Htrcra Ittneb Camehon as IVfanager ; how when he was appointed , Mr . Cameron , instead of simply returning thanks , offered up a prayer that he might be strengthened for the performance of his duties ; we know how Mr . Camerok and others managed to borrow for themselves out of the Bank some thousands of pounds—the qualification of the President himself being a simple manoeuvre on paper . All that is an old tale . But some facts come out in the
examination of Mr . Apsley Peixatt which , if not entirely new , confirm everything that we have said touching the painted sepulchres that pass amongst the most respectable firms . . l £ r . PeiIiATT ! himself stands above suspicion . He took no money out of the Bank ; he only put into it . It was while he was Director , however , that a minute was recorded
authorizing Munzies ' s expedition to Newcastle for the purpose of getting shareholders ; that a prospectus was put forward representing the Bank as established on the principle of "" limited responsibility ; " that an advertisement was published , declaring all the capital of the Bank to have been subscribed ; that a petition was presented to the Crown declaring half the amount on each share to have been
paid up ;—all of these statements the exact reverse of the truth . Mr . Pellatt was not only Director during this time , but to some of those statements he put his own signature ; his name was appended to others in the advertisements . He appears , therefore , as giving liis counter-signature to direct falsehood . How was this managed ? Por managed it was . Mr . Macgregoh toldhim one thing , and he "believed it . Some things he did as a , matter of form . He put his
signature to a document without reading it . Other things lie knew not at all . It was Mr . MACOfiEaon who told him that the Act had been duly complied with . He Avas not aware that Mr . Mknzies was Secretary . He knew nothing of the mode in which Cameron had raised the wind as the capital of the Bank . Mr . Ph ^ ato : was present at tlie dinner of congratulation , but took no note of the prayers that Cameron" offered up . And as to the liability , he had a " notion" that it was limited to double the amount of the
shares subscribed for ; he thought that the law was in " some bill" passed " by Mr . Cardwniiii , or Mr . Lowe ; " though there is scarcely a grown man , in or out of Parliament , who could not have told Mr . Pet ^ latt that tho law of limited liability , ia itself excessively limited , did not pass till years after his retirement from the Bank . His retirement was peculiar . Ho became alarmed because the Ba"nk bought those Welsh mines , down which so much capital had been thrown : he thought it " an imbankingtransaction . " Besides , Mrs . Pettlatt was unwell ; ho had to go out of town ; he was compelled to surrender at least one of
APSLEY PKLLATT—A . STUDT IN BANKING . This week , as ivc anticipated , Mr . Apsj / ry Peixatt has sat as a representative of the British Bank , but not as a representative of Southwark—in tho Court of Bankruptcy , but not in tho House of Commons . Wo arc by this time pretty familiar with tho commercial institution itself , tho typo of ho mnny others that exist at our day . We havo long known how Mr . John Mknzies set it going ; how Mr . Muij . kns nmde John Mhnziks Secretary and himself { Solicitor ; how thoy made Mr . Jonx Macgreuoii President—that
unthe mercantile boards to wliich he belonged ;" and after mature- deliberation he made up hia mind that it should be the Royal British Bank . " But ia retiring ho expressed " satisfaction at having done what little was in his power to aid the Bank , and the friends of the Rank , in bringing into : ictive operation a sound , practical ,- and benevolent commercial establishment" for tho accommodation mainly of middle-class shopkeepers . Thus the Bank lu-ul INlr . Pki . latt ' n testimonial from firHt to lust , hi . s name , bin money , and Iuh signature . . He was at the head of an eminent glassnmnui ' uctory in Soutlnvark , —anum presumed to be distinguished for political and
coming up King " William-street , its establishment in the City , its branches in other places ; take the London Directory and you will find " PelIi / ltt and Co ., glass manufacturers to her Majesty , Falcon GHass Works , Blackfriars-road . " Xook at "Webster ' s Moyal Med JBook , and yow will see " Pei / lait , Apsubt , Esq ., M . P ., Beform Club , Staines , Middlesex . " Take down the Parliamentary Companion , and there again you will find " Peliatt , Apslet , Southwark "—one of the most respectable and independent men in the House . How could you distinguish ; him from , any other commoner P How would it have been
safe to say of him , That man is connected with fraud and swindling ? The assertion would have been news to him ; for he was not in the slightest degree aware of it ; and that is part of the case . . Just so was it news to Mr . Chapman , of the firm of Gubnet , Oveeeitd , and Co ., to discover that the two gentlemen who stood before him , with whom he had been so long connected in business—men who had dealings tothe extent of hundreds of thousands , or even millions , were compromised . Now we say that you . cannot take the jParlimnentami Companion
or the Directory and run your iinger down the whole list of names without the certainty that that same finger will touch swindlers and their accomplices , —the swindlers , the knowing ones that aid in the fraud , and the innocent men who are at once gulls and de-. coys . It would not be safe before these disclosures to point out a John Sadleir , a John Macgbegor , a Humphre y Biiown , or an Apsley Pellatt ; it would not be safe in tho Directory to mark with , the proper characteristics , a Windle Cole , a Gordon , Jl JOHN DeAIT PAUIi , RlSDPATH , Or Ko"BSON ; but before the disclosures all these criminals
and their unwitting coadjutors were what they were ; and there are others , we persist , in the Directory , in tho Court Gtuide , iii all numerous lists of men who are getting on in life , that are at this moment swindlers , accomplices , and deeoys .
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April 4 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 327
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 4, 1857, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2187/page/15/
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