On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    AraiE 4,1857.] THE LEAPBR. 327

  • 

    APSLEY PELLATT—A STUDT IN BANKING. This ...

  • 

    WHITE-HANDED NON-ELECTORS. A vehy proud ...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Political Ostracism. We Said, When The D...

    "between mei * yrho have bo public claims and men whose names belong to the history of liberal reform . We say this without any disrespect to the new members . They have their careers before them ; they may be brilliant ; they "will probably "be meritorious . ~ We migfcfc have been glad to see them in . Parliament could they hare been returned by unpledged constituencies ; but to -witness the abasement of Manchester by a coalition of Whigs and Tories , with a mass of random 1 brawlers halloed on by ribaldry and libel ; , is

    indeed what we had not expected . Mr . Cobdeh s defeat is less unintelligible . It is well known that Sir John Ramsden , a moderate Ministerialist ,, has recently become possessed of a preponderating influence in Huddersfield , which , during the late election , was exerted in favour of Mr . Aebosd ; Imt is Huddersfield , in future , to return Sir John- Ba . 3 CSdjen ' s nomin ee ? If so , Mr . Cobden ' s reverse implies no public condemnation of his policy , but simply that lie mistook Ms ground ' when he canvassed the householders whose rentals

    flow into . Byram Hall . It had long been known that a combination was going forward in Koehdale to oppose the re-election of Mr . MrAXii ; the Oldliam Chronicle had not left us unprepared for the failure of Mr . IFox ; but we could scarcely have- anticipated that the ministerial candidate at Aylesbury would have plotted with a nameless Tory against the

    return of Mr . IiAYARD , a spirited , independent , valuable member of the late Parliament , wh < ose only faiilt was that lie 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 . Aybtoit , but we regret Sir William Ciit . "Why was Sir John SheliiEir- —a Liberal after Lord Paimeston ' 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 W-OjMsley 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 deplore , although we have often opposed them , will not sink into private life , but will raise forces to fight the Reform 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 Gibsou , Bright , and Cobden .

    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 n Liberal majority in Parliament , and a band of distinguished politicians out of doors , we may anticipate a period of activity and advance . Prom this moment the old distinctions are revived between the friends and the antagonists of Reform .

    Araie 4,1857.] The Leapbr. 327

    AraiE 4 , 1857 . ] THE LEAPBR . 327

    Apsley Pellatt—A Studt In Banking. This ...

    APSLEY PELLATT—A STUDT IN BANKING . This week , as we anticipated , Mr . Ai > si , ey Pellatt has sat as ' a representative of the British Bank , but not as a representative of Southwark—in the Court of Bankruptcy , but not in the House of Commons . We are by this time pretty familiar with tho commercial institution itself , the typo of so many others that exist at our day . Wo . have long known how Mr . John Mjsnzies set it going ; Low Mr . MuLLima made John Mknkiks Secretary and himself Solicitor ; how they liiadi : Mr . John MAcauisaon President- —that

    unfortunate gentleman for whom a subscription is now getting tip to save Mm from starvation at Boulogne ; we have all known how , through Mr . John Macgbe & ob , the Bank was fortunate enough to obtain Mr . Hfgh Iitotes Cameron as Manager ; 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 Ms duties ; - we knew how Mr . Cameroif 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 Pe : llatt which , if not entirely new , confirm everything that we have said touching the painted sepulchres that pass amongst the most respectable firms . . '¦ -. ¦ . Mr . Pjeelatt 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 wa 3 recorded authorizing Menzies'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 . Pei-xatt 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 his counter-signature to direct falsehood . How was this managed ? For managed it was . Mr . Mac gkre gob told him 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 he knew not at all . It was Mr . Macgreqor who told him that the Act

    had been duly complied with . He was not aware that Mr . Mewzies was Seci'etary . He knew nothing of the mode in which Cameron had raised the wind as the capital of the Bank . Mr . Pella-TT was present at the 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 . Cardwemi , or Mr . Lowe ;'' though there is scarcely a grown man , in or out of Parliament , who could not have told Mr . Peixatt that the

    law of limited liability , in itself excessively limited , did not pass till years after his retirement from the Bank . His retirement was peculiar . He became alarmed because the Bank bought those Welsh mines , down which so much capital had been thrown : he thought it " an unhanking transaction . " Besides , Mrs . Pellatt was \ inwoll ; ho had to go out of town ; lie was compelled to surrender sit least one of

    tho mercantile boards to which he belonged ;" and " after mature deliberation he made up his mind that it should be the lioyal British Bank . " But in retiring he expressed " satisfaction at having done what little was in his power to aid the Bank , and the friends of the Bank , in bringing into active operation a sound , practical , and benevolent commercial establishment" for the accommodation mainl y of middle-class HhopkeeperH . Thus tlic Bank had Mr . Pem . att ' b tostimoninl from first to

    In . st , his niuno , his money , and hia signature . lie amis at the head oi' an eminent glassmanufactory in iSouthwnrk , —a man preatimed to be distinguished for political and

    commercial independence ; * member of the Legislature . How wa * itr that he managed to reconcile lis presence and hris signature with actual complicity in . falsehood and fraud t He managed it by virtue of vnattentioqi : he accepted what others told him as proven fact ; he signed papers as a matterof form ; and he did not let himself know what the officers under him- were doing . In fact , lie sat at the ' Board' because it sat in a fine room , in a big house , well furnished , was called a

    " Bank , " and m 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 house in the Strand looking up King William-street , its establishment in the City , its branches in other places ; take the JLondon Directory and you will find

    " PEiiiiATT and Co ., glass manufacturers to her Majesty , Falcon G-lass Works , Blackfriars-road . " [ Look at "Webster ' s HoyalMed Book , and you will see " Pei ; : latt , Apslbt , Esq ., M . P ., Reform Club , Staines , Middlesex . " Takedown the J ? cvrlimientary Companion , and there again you will find . Pexl att , Apsi / ey , Southwark "—one of the most respectable and independent men in the House . How could you distinguish him from any other commoner ? How would it have been

    safe to say of him , That mail is connected with ¦ ' fraud and swindling ? The assertion would have been news to Mm ; 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 . Ohatmaw , of the firm of GKtrney , Ovdbend , and Co ., to discover tlia , t the two gentlemen who stood bef ore him , with whom he had been so long connected in business—men who had dealings to the extent of hundreds of thousands , or even millions , were compromised . Now we say that you cannot take the ParlimWsntary Companion

    or the Directory and run your finger 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 decoys , It would not be safe before these discloBures to point out a John Sadleir , a John Mac & regor , a Humphrey Brown , or an Apsley Pelxatt ; it would not be safe in the Directory to mark with the proper characteristics , a Windle Cole , a G-obdon , a John Dban Padi ,, Redpath , or Robson j but before the disclosures all these criminals

    and their unwitting coadjutors were what they were ; and there are others , wo persist , in the Directory , in the Court Guide , in all numerous lists of men who are getting on in life , that are at this moment swindlers , accomplices , and decoys .

    White-Handed Non-Electors. A Vehy Proud ...

    WHITE-HANDED NON-ELECTORS . A vehy proud lady once kissed a doubtful elector of Westminster , and secured his vote . Nothing so wrong haB happened , bo far as we have ascertained , during the recent contests j but the law that put down flaga ought to put down pocket-handkerchiefs , and the act that prohibits the presence of the military at elections Bhould be i ) ut in force ngaiuBt those and

    white-handed Lil ^ s Ltjoys who , with a flutter of 3 i \ rench cambric , inspire the dashing candidates , and , with lips like those on the Anacreontic portrait , " painted like Persuasion ' s provoking a kiss , " condemn thoplaiuoi men , whatever their principles may be . JN " c legal guarantees are in existence to protect the House of Commons from theao unconstitutional influences , -whereas voters arc be-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 4, 1857, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04041857/page/15/