On the 3d of January, 1862, the announcement was made in the _Times_ newspaper that the Bilston bank had come to a sad end, and that defalcations to the amount of 8,840_l._ had been found out in the accounts of the treasurer of that bank. How these frauds, which extended over several years, were accomplished, and how they were found out, remains to be seen. We will reverse this order, and speak of the exposure first. In the spring of 1861, Mr. Tidd Pratt, the energetic Registrar of Friendly Societies--whose name indeed seems almost synonymous with such subjects--visited Bilston, and delivered a lecture on "Benefit Societies." In the course of that lecture Mr. Pratt alluded to the cognate topic of Savings Banks, and spoke of the necessity for regular accounts and regular returns in connexion with them. He then took the opportunity to refer to the "very irregular manner" in which the accounts of the bank in their own town were kept. Now, it must not be supposed that Mr. Fletcher had forgotten his returns; he was far too careful for that; he knew the penalties attaching to such neglect. It seems that both weekly and annual returns, although they were habitually and carefully "cooked," were regularly forwarded to the National Debt Office. The "Returns" to which Mr. Pratt appears to have pointed, were those called for annually by the House of Commons, with the object of improving the law of Savings Banks; and these returns, from 1855 to 1861 the factotum of the Bilston bank had constantly neglected to send. Mr. Pratt, in continuation of his statement afterwards, confessed he knew nothing of the circumstances of the bank, further "than that his suspicions were always aroused in cases where he found any accounts were not properly rendered." There can be no doubt about it, that this reference roused the "reverend defaulter" to a sense of his danger; for it subsequently transpired that not a penny was abstracted unlawfully from the bank after the week of Mr. Pratt's visit and lecture. Furthermore, not only was the culprit aroused, but the trustees were awakened to some sense of their responsibility, and very soon afterwards there was a movement amongst them for a change in the management and an overhauling of the books of the bank. In a very few weeks after Mr. Pratt's visit a new set of managers and trustees were proposed, and Mr. Fletcher was deputed to see them, and endeavour to get them to act. In July the appointments were legally made, including that of Mr. Hawkesford to the post of actuary. Then quickly followed the disclosure which indeed, sooner or later, was now inevitable. The new actuary got the books from the parsonage--the bank being held in the school-room of the church--and was not long in finding out some of the discrepancies with which they abounded. On first discovering the frauds the actuary spoke to the treasurer, who promised to confer with him about them; on finding out the magnitude of the defalcations, he again mentioned the