§ MR. CONINGHAMasked the Attorney General whether it was the intention of the Government to prosecute the Directors of the Royal British Bank.
THE ATTORNEY GENERALI have watched the proceedings with respect to the Royal British Bank from their commencement with considerable anxiety; and a long while ago I requested Mr. Linklater, whose great ability, judgment, and perseverance in conducting the examination of the Directors have been so conspicuous, that as soon as the examinations were completed, he would transmit to me copies of them, and such other papers as he deemed requisite for unfolding the affairs, and forming a correct judgment as to the conduct and management of that Bank. Considerable difficulty has, however, been produced by the provisins of the Act 7 and 8 Vict., c. 111, which enacts that, in the case of the Bankruptcy of a Joint-stock Company, the Commissioner shall, after the final examination of the Directors, transmit to the Board of Trade all the papers relating to such failure, to the formation and management of the company, and to the conduct of the Directors and other officers; and that the Board of Trade shall then, if they think proper, lay these papers before the Attorney General, whose duty it shall be to say whether or not a prosecution shall be instituted. That enactment is so worded that the proceeding of the Board of Trade cannot take place till after the final examination of the Directors. That final examination has not been fixed for an earlier date, I believe, than the 24th of June. I have, however, ventured to think that this particular directory enactment does not supersede the ordinary power and duties of the Attorney General. I have, therefore, desired that the papers shall be transmitted to me by the solicitor of the assignees as soon as they can be completed. The House, however, must be aware that, though the law throws upon the Attorney General a great number of duties, it has provided him with no ma- 311 chinery, no instrument, no agent wherewith to execute them; and, in the present instance, I shall be indebted entirely to the courtesy of Mr. Linklater, the solicitor to the assignees, for the papers which I shall ultimately receive, and which will be supplied at the expense of the creditors. When I receive those papers I shall lose no time whatever, with all the best professional aid I can obtain, in investigating the matter. If I shall feel any reluctance in instituting a prosecution, that reluctance—supposing a case for prosecution exists—will be due entirely to the reports and statements which I find repeated day by day in the public newspapers, and which, if continued, will render it almost impossisible to expect that, when individuals are indicted for an offence so ill defined and so elastic as that for which these persons can alone, according to my present apprehensions, be indicted, they can meet with a fair and impartial trial while the public mind is kept in its present highly excited state.