The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-11 00:00:00

OUR OONI'EMPORARD23.

(THIS DAY.)

THB CONVICTION Ol rill MANAGICR OT THE JOINT-STOCK

DISCOUNT COMPANY.

The conviction of James Freeling Wilkinson,
says the Herald, followed by his sentence of five years'
penal servitude, marks a new era in the history of limited
liability. Subsequent inquiries in this particular case
completely confirmed the heavy charge. made last year
against the management ; but Mr. Wilkinson has not
been convicted for recklessly wasting the resources

of the company, but for fraudulently applying
• portion of its funds to his own benefit. When
pressed in August by his stockbrokers he paid them
fora bulling operation on his own account by one of the
company's cheques, signed by himself and one of the three..
tors, entering the amount as loans to the firm for which
they paid no interest and gave no security. The next
month 4,0001. of the sum wiui got rid of by writing against
it the word " repaid," and by transferring the debit from
the stockbrokers' account to that of • Mr. Kiernan, who is
said to have been " of very great service to the company,"
the value of his help being indicated by the fact that he
owes the company 180,000 f., and is not now to be found.
The rest of the sum remained standing in the books until
the time of the stoppage, but when claimed from the stock-
brokers by the official liquidator, ►ll liability in respect of it
was promptly repudiated. Further inquiry proved that the
firm were perfectly right, and thence arose the prosecution.
The conviction of Wilkinson will teach the lesson that the
obligations which bind the employes of private firms, and
whose applicability to the lower grades of company officials
has never been disputed, are not altogether to be ignored
by managers, secretaries, directors, and chairmen. There
appeared, indeed, some danger lest we should drift into a
bold and brazen recognition of mercantile immorality as a
system, wh it was practised on a grand scale and
for a sufficiently gigantic prize. For the present, at least,
this illusion is dispelled. To the many who have parti-
cipated in the wholesale plundering and shameful
spoliation which has been but too rife since the
abuse of limited liability became general, the result of
yesterday's trial will come aa an unwelcome reminder of
the risks they run. If public justice is to be *stir
led and outraged men tatile morality vindleated, there
are many in whom Mr. Wilkinson's fate ought to awaken
the liveliest apprehensions.

The Telegraph observes that no attempt was made to
show that the purchase of the shares was carried out in
bebop( of the company or were ever treated as the pro-
perty of the company. Indeed, the utter badness of the
case was such that even the genius of Mr. Coleridge
could make nothing of it. In passing sentence yesterday
Mr. Baron Pigott said, in • very meaning way, that he
took the amount named in the present charge to be the
full amount of the misappropri►tion ; although the
sudden increase of Klemso's debit in one month from
30,0001. to above 100,0001., advanced without security of
any kind, bore a very questionable aspect. No doubt it
did ; but the case, the Telegraph fears, was only one of
several.