The Colonial Treasurer and the Collectors of Colonial
to receive the Notes of the Bank, revocation could have exposed The Bank & sufferers injury from the distrust that it would have
the public, the Bank's request His
Grace to defer
inganateral i
the minds of
6.65
to
the transmission of such instructions until they have
opportunity of laying before
Your Lordship full explanation on the points on
which
Your Lordships appear to have formed an adverse opinion to the Bank, which the Directors were confident they should
be able to
They have the following remarks to
respectfully
address
to Your Lordships which we
beg to do.
We feel's letter after acknowledging the receipt of His Grace's letter states, that your Lordships have no objection to the recognition of the Notes of the
"Chartered Bank
of
India, Australia,
and China "etc.
that the Agra
Bank
was Incorporated by Royal Charter and they presume that the paragraph in question
had reference to the Charter of
the Agra Bank
and the Charters of the Oriental Bank and the "Chartered Mercantile Bank" - but it will be found on
reference
to the charters of the three Banks in question, that the only distinction is, that the Charter of the Agra Bank conferred unlimited liability to the shareholders, whereas the Charters of The Oriental Bank and of the Chartered Mercantile Bank limited the liability of the Shareholders of those Banks to double the amount of
their shares.
The Charters of all three Banks were alike.
Her Majesty
with the prerogative, and the Agra Bank only obtained limited liability by subsequently registering itself under the 21 & 22 Vict. Cap 91
permitting limited liability to Banking Companies, and it is competent
for
a Bank
incorporated
by Royal Charter to obtain limited liability.
The Directors would have inferred from that paragraph of Mr. Peel's letter, if it had stood alone, that your Lordships
considered
that
"The Agra and United Service Bank Limited" was not incorporated by Royal Charter, but the next paragraph of Mr. Peel's letter informs His Grace that your Lordships received from the Bank of India, Australia, and China on the 5th of August 1851 "a petition praying for the
grant of a supplemental Charter authorizing them to issue
Notes in
Her Majesty's Colonies on the ground that -
under the Charter of Incorporation they possessed that power", so that it appears that your Lordships
were aware
that
the other Banks had
provisions
in their Charters
to issue Notes.
It appears by the Draft of a supplemental Charter by the Bank to the Board of Trade dated 30th January 1861, that
it was not stated in
the Ground of the petition
in Mr. Peel's letter "that they had ascertained whether under their Charter of Incorporation the Bank possessed the power" but that their Charter contained
express power
to do so, which their Solicitor had advised them to obtain because there was
some doubt.
such
express power
was found
in the Charters of the other Banks alluded to, but as His Majesty's Attorney & Solicitor General were clearly of opinion upon
the
questions
being submitted to them upon a case, that the
Agra
...
Page 293