STATE OF NEW-YORK. IN SENATE, APRIL 13, 18 3 3. PETITION OF PALMER CANFIELD, ON THE SUBJECT OF OTTERIES. Page 5. At the end of the 12th line, insert the words; including the scheme of the Milford and Owego Road Lottery, drawn in the city of New-York, in the year 1818, so as to read; which annual average amount of schemes, including the scheme of the Milford, and Owego, &c. Same page,-second section-7th and 8th lines of do.; for,-" "that said last mentioned sum was also, as your petitioner believed,"-read;-that said last mentioned sum was, as your petitioner also believed, &c. Page 6th. 20th line;-instead of the words-" exceeding the annual amount of sales,"-read;-exceeding the annual average amount of sales made in the &c. Page 20. Bottom line ;--instead of-" after the 5th of April 1832,"-read ;--after the 5th of April 1822. Page 29. Lines 31, 32 and 33--instead of "An act to authorise the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of New York to dispose"-read ;-" An act to authorise the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of Albany to dispose of their public lands," &c, Page 31. At the end of the 34th line, insert the words, under color of providing for existing Lotteries; so that it shall read thus;-unless upon a careful review of their provisions it shall plainly appear, that under color of providing for existing lotteries, they have in fact authorized an extension of the system."— Page 32. 12th line;-after the word "State," add the word, and—as well as repeat the words, "of gross injustice to the State," so that it shall read;-and of gross injustice to the State, for the reason &c. IN SENATE, April 18, 1833. MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE Of the president, directors and company of the Com mercial Bank against the passage of the bill to subject said corporation to the provisions of the act to create a Safety fund. To the Legislature of the State of New-York, in Senate and Assembly convened. The memorial and remonstrance of the president, directors and company of the Commercial Bank of Albany, respectfully shews? That your memorialists have observed with great surprize the introduction into the Senate of this State of a bill, proposing to subject your memorialists to the operation of the act to create a bank safety fund, and to change entirely the fundamental principles of their act of incorporation. The introduction of the measure without any application, on the part of your memorialists, and without any previous notice which could have enabled them to submit their objections to the committee, renders it necessary that they should present to your honorable body their reasons for earnestly and respectfully remonstrating against the passage of the bill. The act incorporating your memorialists was passed soon after some serious and alarming failures of banking institutions häd occurred, and the vigilance of the Legislature was thus strongly excited to devise means which should protect the community against any possible loss by securing a perfect and undeniable responsibility for the redemption of the bills, and other evidences of debt, which your memorialists should issue. A Legislature composed of some of the ablest and most ingenious men of the State, among whom it [Senate, No. 111.] 1 is hoped it may not be deemed invidious to name the late Comptroller, the Hon. Silas Wright Jr., and the Hon. John C. Spencer, now a member of your honorable body, devoted their best faculties to the perfection of a system which should attain the great object before mentioned. The principal feature of that system was the provision by which the stockholders of the bank were made individually liable, jointly and severally, for the payment of all notes issued by the incorporation. This provision was essentially that of the Scotch banks, which have been universally considered the soundest institutions in the world, and which have maintained their credit amidst all the convulsions of the money market and the wrecks of other institutions organized and conducted upon different principles. In effect it made the stockholders of the bank co-partners in loss, as well as in profits. It proceeded upon the principle that those who engage in any business for the sake of profit should run the risk of loss, instead of the members of the community who did not participate in the profits; and as the profit would be individual, so should the loss fall upon the individual who invoked the confidence of the public. Other provisions, novel in their character, and casting heavy responsibilities upon the officers of the institution, were also adopted, and human ingenuity seems to have been taxed to its utmost, to provide securities for the public. It was an experiment which many of the great capitalists in the State refused to encounter, and which the stockholders of the Commercial bank approached not without great apprehension; but believing, that with three-fourths of its capital stock actually paid in, in specie or its equivalent, with strict fidelity to the terms of their charter, with perfect integrity and with unceasing vigilance, they might comply with the severe terms imposed, they ventured upon an untried field. And your memorialists speak but the plain and simple truth, when they declare that under their organization the experiment has completely succeeded. It is not for any purpose of vain boasting, but solely to exhibit the facts of the case, that your memorialists remark that the credit of their notes, long before the enactment of the safety fund law, was established, and was equal to that ever possessed by any monied institution of this State. The interest which the stockholders felt that all their co-partners should possess undoubted responsibility, has, as might be expected, caused the stock to be held, not only exclusively by citi zens of this State, but by those who will retain it, and are able to retain it, and to meet all the liabilities imposed by the charter; and thus an extent of individual responsibility has become pledged for the engagements of the bank, utterly unknown to any monied incorporation established upon different principles. And this has also led to a mode of conducting the business of the bank different from that of other banking institutions; for in order to retain stockholders of the description required, and particularly those who are directors, it has been indispensable to give them all the banking facilities which their business required and their ability justified; the further effect of which has been to deprive your memorialists of the means of extending their discounts so indiscriminately and so extensively as other banks. In fact, the features of their charter required a peculiar system of business adapted to them, in order to attain the great object of the Legislature-security to the public by means of the liability of responsible stockholders. Your memorialists presume not to institute a comparison between the system devised by the Legislature, which granted their charter, and that devised by a subsequent Legislature. They only say that theirs has worked well; that it affords perfect security to the public, and that they therefore do not perceive any necessity for substituting any other system for it. Men may doubt whether the payment by banks of three per cent on their capital to constitute a safety fund, affords more protection to the public than the individual responsibility of the directors and stockholders. Into that question your memorialists do not enter. They only say that if the public are as well, if not better protected now than they could be by any other system, there should exist considerations of the most imperative nature to induce the Legislature to destroy that security which is admitted to be adequate; to derange a business that has grown up on the faith of the public pledge; to change the relations existing among the stockholders, and to alter the terms of the contract which have been entered into between the bank and its creditors. Previous to inquiring into those considerations which are supposed to justify the proposed alterations, your memorialists respectfully beg leave to call the attention of your honorable body to the effect of these alterations in their charter, upon engagements already made. The creditors of the bank now possess, in effect, the ob |