The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-22 00:00:00

Sin,—l,
for one, heartily thank you for showing up in
your last number the " Great Onslow Consolidated" which,
take it all in all, is the most disgusting bubble of the day,
because, in addition to having been hatched in fraud has
been carried on in hypocrisy under the garb of philanthropy.
The reports which you have published make known that
the " Onslow Mine" was an old affair which had been
abandoned in 1847. Why ? Clearly because it was worth
nothing. It was at first called "The Great Mitchell Con-
solidated Copper Mines," of which it was agreed to sell
1000 shares at £3 each. This not answering the purpose
of the projectors, on the 6th of March, 1851, the name was
changed to " the Great Onslow Consolidated Mines," and
in January, 1852, the train having been in the meanwhile
laid, the shares were increased to 50,000, of which 10,000
or as many as were likely to produce £15,000, were sent
into the market at 30s. per share. By June 1852 a con-
siderable portion of this sum was professedly realised ; that
is, if the accounts kept by Messrs. Bennett and Carr were
any way near the truth; I don't say they were; but such,
I repeat, was the profession of the managers. They now began
to develope their design upon the public. In that month
they declared a dividend of 2s. per share upon the 50,000
shares, amounting to £5,000, while at the time not an ounce
of copper had been produced, and the gross receipts (for
mundic) amounted only to £1,527 16s. 4d., the outgoings,
besides this spurious dividend, amounting to thousands.
This dividend was telegraphed down to Liverpool; fabri-
cated statements of imaginary success in the working of the
mines, as to copper and silver lead, were got into the Daily
News, by what means, and at what cost, the parties con-
cerned best know. Of course, the public were grossly taken
in. Shares were sold at a lari,,e premium, and by whom they
were chiefly sold may. be readily guessed; that is, by the
chief operators in the juggle. The accounts establish that
Messrs. Bennett and Carr, besides their other pickings, put
into their pockets by the sham dividend out of the capital,
£1,812. Subsequently, when the bubble had burst, and it
was seen that there was no copper, nor none realiseable for
years to come, if ever, (see Capt. Vivian's report,) Messrs.
Bennett and Carr were constrained to relinquish their gripe
of the £1,812. And even with this, Mr. Begbie, the ac-
countant employed to investigate the affair, by order of a
general meeting held at Liverpool last August, shows that
the amount of the entire receipts for sale of mundic to
June 30, 1853, a year after the dividend was made, were
insufficient to make up the amount %of the dividend by
£230 7s. ld., notwithstanding that at the time Messrs.
Bennett and Carr had the face to assure the shareholders,
and the share-buying public, that the whole £5,000 was
the produce of the mine in copper, mundic, &c., no copper
having from first to last been found sufficient to make up
change for a silver sixpence ! On the general account, as
stated by Mr. Begbie, a balance is carried forward in favour of
the shareholders to the nominal amount of £2,616 16s. 10d.
But as there was no bank account, and the books were withheld
by Mr. H. Carr, Mr. Bennett's coadjutor, it was not known that
a single shilling lay in store. Taking it at the best, the pro •
duct of the 1,000 shares at 60s, namely, £3,000, and that of the
10,000 at 30s, to wit, £15,000, has been all swallowed
up, save that insignificent sum, and those who were trapped
into taking shares at first at par, and those who were cheated
into purchasing subsequently at a premium, awoke one fine
morning at the beginning of the present month, when the
report of Messrs. Harrison and Hopkins saw the light, and
found that the shares which they had flattered themselves
were a little fortune were no better than waste paper ! There
was a meeting at Liverpool-on Friday arising out of this
report. I did not attend. I was too much disgusted, and,
indeed, felt sure that by going I should throw away good
money after bad. I have, however, seen a copy of the reso-
lutions said to have been passed there. It is enough. Mr.
H. Carr is banished to the Red Sea; Mr. Bennett presided ! !
The mines were newly constituted. That is, were drest in
another garb, the old one being too well known. The share-
holders present agreed to differ as little as possible. Let us,
said one, not cry st--0 6 fish. The advice was taken.
There is to be an issue ofnew shares, if anybody will have
them ; and the best of the joke is that 1000 are presented
to Mr. Bennett for his great and faithful services and the-
prestige of his name ! ! How Mr. Harrison and Mr. Hop-
kins could agree to this hocus-pocus surpasses My power of
comprehension. But whatever the gentlemen who assem-
bled at Liverpool on Friday may fancy, they may depend
upon my word when I assure them that the public are
wide awake

The secret history of this very shameful bubble is at once
amusing and melancholy. It originated in a back-room
behind a celebrated biscuit shop in the Strand. Here the
plan was discussed and matured. The abandoned old mine
was voted to be a California of wealth,—provided the
Public could be induced to bite. Showy offices were fitted
up in the city ; and at the west end one of the operators
opened a splendid mansion, brilliantly furnished, and plenti-
fully provided with gorgeously arrayed livered servants.
Here were proofs of prosperity ! If the Great Onslow
Consolidated produced such fine things for B. and C., why,
of course, it was argued, they would produce similar fine
things, in degree, for those who might be so happy as to
Obtain the favour of a grant of shares.
Yet, somehow, the Londoners were not to be had-- they
did not rush in crowds for. the Great Onslow Consols ! They
knew Moorgate-street pretty well, had heard of Capel Court,
and some of the more penetrating
i had got scent of the back-
room behind the biscuit shop n the Strand. Well, the
game was, "Try Manchester." Manchester was tried, but
was found wanting; nobody would touch. The story of the
back room in the Strand, had evidently been told, though I
had not at that time heard of it; nor had I heard of tran-
sactions of a similar kind, which years before had set Man-
chester Exchange in an uproar, and led to repudiation and
expulsion, thoug the whole was set forth at the time in the
Manchester Guardian, a copy of which I will send you in a
few days. The next dodge was, " Try Liverpool " There,
by dint of the dividend, the Daily News paragraphs, and
telegraphic dispatches of discoveries, of lodes of copper, a
tolerable haul of flat-fish was secured. Messrs Bennett and
Carr appeared in the full bloom of affluence. They aLso
went to Carlisle, I remember. They were there hailed as
beings of another sphere. They attracted a literal crowd of
" favoured" ones at the Temperance. A few days after-
wards, I met with a friend from
.Carlisle, who was present ;
he was in raptures, and considered his fortune made. He
described to me the proceedings. Mr. Bennett presided ;
Mr Carr displayed a gold chain—quite a set-off to the thing
worn by the mayor of your city when he wishes to look par-
ticularly magnificent. The " Great Onslow Consolidated"
was expounded in rapturous terms ; shares were doled out as
an especial benediction; and those who could not obtain
all • they wanted of tNat splendid undertaking were graciously
accommodated with any number of "Ferran Consolidated"
at £2 per share, or were offered slices of " Penquean Slate
Quarries" at £3 each. My informant told me that none
but " particular friends " were admitted to this meeting; it
was almost exclusively, if not wholly'so a "liberargathering.
It wa s proposed by ,in astrainoiedifving-piety and phi-
lanthropy, thatagiven number ofshares should be secured for
the local public charitable institutions, which might, he