THE CITY OF GLASGOW BANK A REMARKABLE SPEECH.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 76, 15 March 1879, Page 2

THE CITY OF GLASGOW BANK A REMARKABLE SPEECH.

At the meeting of the-shareholdors of the City of Glasgow Bank, the Rev. Mr. Robertson is reported to have said: — We meet under adverse circumstances. Wo are called upon to face a crushing calamity, and must acquit ourselves like brave, courageous and honourable men. Respecting the directors I scarcely daro speak 1 must endeavour to restrain my just indignation and speak calmly as a minister of religion. Sir, these gentlemen have bcon faithless to high ottice, disloyal to truth and the first principles of morality. What, with respect to some of them, deepens the discredit is that they trod the str-ets of the city arrayed in the gsnacnfci of religiousness, maki;',r prayers, while desolating widows' houses, erecting churches wh :, n wrecking homes. Their honour is nished their reputation stained; but day of reckoning as alread dawnsd. i ,; ■■■ majesty of tb.3 law is now vindicating i:s claim. (Cheers). For my part I wish that no sorrier, heavier punishment tlian that they l« haunted night and day with the ghostly vision of the huudreds of ha; fy lives they have wrecked and bhgiited 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 have done. (Applause). The assets of the bank, miscellaneous as they are, have great value ; further, the investigators have not credited the dividends which may be drawn aud bankrupt estimates, which may be very large. We entertain, the expectation that one estimate alone will yield something exceeding $500,000. We, it seems, although ignorant of it before, are possessed of an American railway in which the gentlemen or their predecessors were ; good enough to sink a million sterling, aud called it banking. We possess some forty thousand acres of land in Now Zealand which lite directors last year purchased, which .they have stocked and taken to the task of farming instead of the task of hanking. Still that ground is valuable. Then there are life insurance policies for £(100,000. They a e of value; even wicked men sometimes die. Here is my proposal. Orgauize 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 at the market value, or rather above market value. If this scheme should be carried through you would, within a year, be able to hand over the liquidators £2,000,000. Many speak harshly of the position I have chosen to occupy. They may say 1 am mingling too much in secular atl'airs. I reply that in my opinion, well-doing is religiousness. (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 to-day 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 ottioe, devote my timo and attention to forwarding its success, believing that in so doing my humble little to lesson the pressure of the calamity on many suffering hearts, i am serving my Maker and Master as well as when preaching His blessed Gospel. In God's name and by God's blessing let us bravely and faithfully struggle through and emerge with honour untouched and reputation unshaken. (Cheers.)