THE CITY OF GLASGOW BANK : A REMARKABLE SPEECH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5335, 21 December 1878, Page 6

THE CITY OF GLASGOW BANK : A REMARKABLE SPEECH.

At the meeting of the shareholders of the City of Glasgow Bank, the Rev. Mr. Robertsou is reported to have said: —We meet under adverse circumstances. We are called upon to face a crushing calamity, and must acquit ourselves like brave, courageous and honourablejmeii. (Respecting the directors I scarcely dare to speak. I must endeavour to restrain my just indiguation and speak calmly as a minster of religion. Sir, these gentlemen have been faithless to high office, disloyal to truth and the iirst principles of morality. What, with reßpect to some of them, deepens the discredit is that they trod the streets of the city arrayed in the garmeuts of religiousness, making prayers, while desolating widows' houses, erecting churches while wrecking homes. Their honour is tarnished, their reputation stained ; but the day of reckoning has already dawned. The majesty of the law is now vindicating its claim. (Cheers). For my part I wish that no sorrier, heavier punishment than that they be hauntedj night and day with the ghastly vision o£ the hundreds of happy live 3 they have wrecked and blighted till the feeling of remorse is kindled within their hearts and they are driven to their Maker's presence to seek His forgiveness, and that they may leave His presence determined to spend the utmost energies of their remaining years in some poor measure to undo the evil they hare done. (Applause). Iho report is a sorrowful document, but it gives a few gleams of light. The assets of the bank, miscellaneous as they are, have great value; further, the investigators have not credited the dividends which may be drawn and the bankrupt estimates, which may be very large. We entertain the expectation that one estimate alene will yield something exceeding £500,000. We, it seems, although ignorant of it before, are possessed of an American railway in which these gentlemen or their predecessors were good enough to sink a million sterling, and called it banking. We possess some forty thousand acre 3 of land in New Zealand which the directors last year purchased, which they have stocked aud taken to the task of farming instead of the task of banking. Still that ground ia valuable. Then there aro life insurance policies for £000,000. They aro of value ; even wicked men sometimes die. Here is my proposal. Organize a company, called the "City of Glasgow Bank Assets Company," with a capital of £2,000,000, £1,000,000 of it consisting of ordinary capital, the other £1,000,000 consisting of debentures. Let the company purchase from the liquidators whatever assets they are prepared to throw in the market at full market value, or rather above market value. If this scheme should ba carried thiough you would, jwithin a year, be able to hand over to the liquidators £2,000,000. Many speak harshly of the position I have chosen to occupy. They may say lam mingling too much in secular affairs. I reply that nay opinion, welldoing isreligiousS3. (Loud applause). If the directors believe that religion consisted less in solemn phrasing than in right doings, serving God in their day and generation, we should not today be placed in these calamitous circumstances. For my part I am not disheartened. If my services be of any value in promoting the scheme I shall, saving my sacred office, devote my time and attention to forwarding its success, believing that in so doing my humble little to lesson the pressure of the calamity ou many suffering heurts, I am serving my Maker and Master as well as when preaching His blessed Gospel. In God's name and by Go l's blessing let vis bravely and faithfully struggle through and emerge with honour untouched and reputation unshaken. (Chceis.)