was to qualify the other directors for their seats
upon the board. These qualifications were to
have been paid in "money or shares," according
to the terms of the undertaking with which each
director was furnished by the promoter. Had
the value of the shares risen—or even if they
had been maintained at par—the directors would
have been happy to accept the value of what they
had to receive in this security. But it so
happened that, in the City, rumours had got
abroad respecting the rash, speculative—and
even worse—nature of our business, and so our
shares were unsaleable, save at an immense
discount. The directors then stuck to the letter
of their contract, and determined to receive
their qualifications in money, and in money
only. To this our promoter objected. Was he
to give a hundred pounds for what he could
obtain for fifty? Our shares would only cost
him one-half of the amount he had to disburse,
for they were at a discount of fifty per cent, or
even more. On the other hand, the directors
said, why should they receive as a hundred
pounds what they could only sell for fifty?
Thus disputes entered into the board-room, and
set the directors by the ears. Some of these
gentlemen had been "squared" by our
promoter, in order that they might by a majority
carry the proposition which had been put before
them respecting the payment of their qualifications
in shares instead of money. Unfortunately
for himself, as well as for the prospects of peace
in our board-room, Mr. May had overreached
himself. In "squaring" certain of the directors
he had not made use of money, but had given
undertakings to pay certain sums by a given day.
These undertakings he had not fulfilled, and of
course those who had received them—and some
of the directors, being more or less needy, had
endorsed them to third parties as security
for money borrowed or otherwise owing—were
not a little angry at faith not being kept with
them. One or two of the directors then resigned
their seats at the board, and this fact getting
abroad made our position in the City all the
more shaky. Our manager declared that he had
the greatest possible difficulty in getting any of
the bills which he had taken re-discounted at
any of the banks or discount houses. More
than one of the few good customers we had,
quietly withdrew their accounts from the bank.
Occasionally, if a heavy payment had to be
made, there was a want of cash in the till, and
parties had to leave notices of drafts, and even
sometimes of cheques. In short, things looked
altogether so bad, that the three gentlemen whom
I had brought on the direction resigned their
seats, nor could I in conscience request them
not to do so, although they were the only friends
I had on the board, and their absence greatly
altered my position for the worse in the office.

Even at this stage of our affairs there was
time to save the bank; and if such of our
directors as were left, had been honest and
solvent men, the concern might yet have pulled
through. But your true joint-stock company-
monger can do nothing in a straightforward
manner, or rather he can—or does, which comes
to the same thing—do nothing without having
what in his slang he calls his "pull" out of the
affair. Tottering as our bank was, a wealthy
well-known City merchant, of the very highest
respectability, offered to join the direction,
provided the present board, as well as the solicitor,
resigned, and six friends of his own—all men of
some standing in the mercantile world— together
with six more gentlemen, who were to be
selected by the shareholders at large, joined
him in the direction. To this, three of the
four directors left of our present board agreed,
on certain conditions; these conditions being
that each of them should receive two thousand
pounds in hard cash, as compensation for the
loss of his seat at the board. The fourth
director, Mr. May, as well as his brother, the
solicitor, altogether declined to resign, but
intimated that they had no objection whatever to
serve with the new board. To this the gentleman
who had offered to re-establish our credit,
objected, and at once withdrew his proposition.
So the proposition fell through, and was no
more thought of.

To make matters worse, commercial matters
throughout England began just at this time to
look very queer indeed. More than one of the
firms whose bills we had discounted to a large
amount, and had then re-discounted at other
banks, failed, and we had at once to find money
for these engagements. To meet these and
other liabilities, a call of five pounds per share
was made upon the shareholders, and, wonderful
to say, the call was at first pretty well responded
to. In the course of a fortnight, some ten or
twelve thousand pounds were paid into the
bank, and served to stave off the evil day
for a time. But the commercial crisis got worse
instead of better. Some of our shareholders
wanted to realise upon their shares, but found
it impossible to do so, unless at a loss of something
like seventy-five per cent. Many sold at
this price, rather than risk losing the whole,
and as these sales were very soon known, the
value of our stock became still more depreciated.
Our directors held on bravely for a time, knowing
that their case was all but desperate. As
the Bank of England's rate of discount went up
week after week, our manager's courage went
down. Of business we had little or none doing.
Mr. Francatello was every day, and all day, in
and out of the manager's room.  More and
more of the paper he had endorsed and
discounted with us, kept coming back upon him,
and to meet it he had no funds. His brother
directors—being themselves very much in the
same fix, only in a smaller degree—allowed the
amount of these bills to be carried to his debit,
in what was called a "Suspense Account," and
he allowed the same to be done for the liabilities
which came back upon them.

Whilst this was going on, the shareholders
began to murmur. The scrip they held had
become utterly valueless in the market, and they
feared greatly, from what they heard outside,
that the bank would go to the bad, and they