The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-05-09 00:00:00

18s. and 195., that is 11. 1596
From 11. to It. 4s. 56$
11. ob.

576
From 11. 51. to 1/. 95.. 21G
1/. 10s. - 51;2
From 11. 10s. to 11. 131. 144
11. Ik. - 2111
21. and 21. 2*. - 612
From 2/. 2s. to 21. 191. GU

Prom 21. 19s. to SI. 19s.
1. to 41.195.

144
- 120

9s. . - - 1152 1 51. . .
10s. - .. - 3456 From Si. to 61. -
12s. - - - 1'1752 From 6!. including 71.
14s. - - - 489 7/. including M. and 91. 96.-
. - WO 10/. - . - 132
16a. - - - 176 And above that, so near as pos-
17e. - - - 336 Bible, about 541 in the course of
18e. - - - 216 a year.
" ' What month of the year have you selected ?—The month of
sty:
• Can you state the expenses and profits of the business for
Stay year?—For the hat tire years.
• • State to the Committee the result of that statement 7—There
has been lent, from July 1819 to 1823, 108,441!. 14s. 6d., and de-
livered 104.5564 171.
- . Pledges returned back to the owners?—Yes; the interest has
been 8,378/. Is. for the last five years. The tickets also for the
Are years 474/. Oa. tlid.; the capital 71,9111. lie. On the sum of
34,5561. 17s. received, the profit, 8,9791. Is., that is, 8/. th. and
lair a farthing per cent. upon total amount lent doting the year.
On the consolidated capital employed to produce that interest, it is
at the rate of IV. 6s. 24d. and 1-lodt of a farthing per cent. gross
profits, from which all expenses are to be deducted.
II" The net profit is what you have before expressed, M. 2s. and
half a farthing per cent. ?—Yes, having taken off fiye per cent. as
Interest on the money, our gross profits are 7/. 63. 20., from
which all expenses arc to be 4educted, for house-rent, taxes, and
so forth'."
The Author then proceeds—" This is the famous extract upon
which the Pawnbtokers and their friends mainly rely, and from
which their able defender in the Jo/,t Bali draws the logical cud.
elusion, that • the boon offered to the poor by the Equitable Loan
Hank Company is the loan of money at eight per cent. instead of
about seven and one-third, at which the Pawnbrokers now in fact
land ie."
Now we assert, without the slightest halliard of contradiction,
tor we shall prove it to demonstration, that a more barefaced trick
to mislead a pohlic body engaged in an important inquiry war
never before attempted, than *as practised by this same atatemunt
a Mr. Basset.
The first objection to it is, that though the data on which it pro-
ceeds include only a period of four years, they are argued upon as if
' they extruded over a period of live years, and the interest and profits
in four years being extended over live, appear one filth less
,its they really are. The witness says there has been lent front
July 1819 to 1823 such a sun). Here are only four years spoken
of, and it is clear, he could not mean five, because five year* front
July 1319 had not expired at the time he was giving his evidence
' (which was on the 10th of June, 1824). Besides, the witness talks
' Illf a meolidated capital of 71,911!. to produce the interest and profit
In illoactibod, in ti .e years. If this were so, the average capital ter
use yore( that period must be about 14,6022 ; but this WIN not
I Ia p. 169 (of the printe I evidence) he says that it was ".nearly
71,911/. as he has de.-
,:ger. arl:lrrpitillir forl.
o( no ef y4e.haosr,efobrlininaesanswerthetowitanrieniesstwioun asePeethinagiteacvet.
rltyhel
ecribull. We must, therefore, take the 8,3761. he speaks of as Me
386,,e00t1yea,1.;
wasidlf this were weemre
interest of the capital tor four years, and not for five. But evert
.o,facount. then the
dthneocot consolidated capital for
this will not be a fair statement of the fact. According to his own
is, from July 1819
od in that time
3,81141. 17s. 0.1. On the goods redeemed there socrued a profit of
utteshoicilwmosinft,olosthther.e4ellwi.nasioul4l
se: 6
dt
oi
tn..
latuhned,sfourr. yeah
i7ws..entearedermh:ba a
difference
of
11.378/., but there still remained a balance of "Weiss sold, or un.
redeemed, to the amount of 3J1841. 17s. Gal., Wilett, added to tho

• ... &metro 12s. and 14s. tberi ruay be same Us., b
are se earn I have shads Meta 145.'.".

! T.

oirt 'NS arts sx_

11;

fillifill41191111‘11511".11.111.5111R"Pmalat, - as the rat for the capital for the
ante We *yeah ROW according to the statement of Sir.
2i39•0 'emir.
Islookwe ems to pocket cut the want of fairness and common
1'°4441, in linalint ill that statement, we cannot avoid observing
„P neitin pew and palpable imposition in the conclusion drawn
hop le . .
Prniat4=l7es'eskihiVis"ar the "n:rit.ll7l,l!teri:nloeytedentti:
of *imhckik OM edema. aceinsell:„Lapr mt. grass proles."
Tbism.preeemes Co lis ehmatelly ; we shall pore it ro
noun the witemea owns Measet.
'The fallow of Zia inhume willies seen from the following table
(Dire-fiera sea given). There were in the whole year
26
,I 4 " A.m.,' the "kin' Pr IlartiorlavtiezOTlnterest
Lent. Month. Per Annum.
• ender Is. (say Bd.) . - 75 per cent.
44 - Is. . d. . 50 do.
3744 - Is. 6d. - d. - 32 Gs. ild.
Q. - 2s. - • d. - 25
Id
lii: . 3e. - - . . 2s
- do. - - cl I- - 28
41* .at an Mope moils!' from 75 to 25. 28,584 at 20 per
cent. issawalifit ollispees higher, but in no case less), end
686 01 et iambs ter U punt. ; and yet, with those fans
en fil, NS OR ilecrieset, be has the hardihood to sweat,
iheh.. 11:tif the Pawnbrokers are only 121. Cs. 214. and
~.. , cent. !il How will the opponents of
taw E reconcile these inconsistencies )
We=4:iiheree leaked at the notable " extract," taking the
statements far es the mount to be correct ; but we deny that it
in comm.-end maletsla, that as a document purporting to show
the real illiableassewees of the establishment, in which the witness
acme cwt of r), is a journeyman, it contains
* Po
aties
it the The calculation is made upon the
seem dye soh particular pledge was in fora year. But it
hi nO sautipome the slge of the Three Golden Balls, that the great
eOf dm pledges circulate three or four times in the month,
latl!trieJlet elle in twenty remain a whole year in the Pawn.
broker's seelleibeese As an illustration of the very unfair manner
(to MIA Of it ie the mildeat terms) in which this statement is
given re the CANWIIdWeIe, we will just suppore—that a Pawnbroker
/ends 21. es it sedief sloshes or any other article pledged at the be-
g a seek, which are redeemed on the Saturday, and that
inawy creek to the end of the year. if at that time
ad. of the Pawnbroker's business were taken, it would ap-
pear pear not 21. was borrowed and replaced 52 time., hut that 1041.
wisioni. sod the interest would appear as the interest of that 1041..
emitter as she latsest of the 21., which in reality was all the capital
advamed. Thee n, a two shilling pledge is put in every Aloe-
day, and > es Saturday (and thousand% of these coos
occur every week in the yaw):, it will appear from the brooks that
82 two-shilling pledges have been taken, on which a sum of 11. 4a.
has bete advanced. sod a profit of only 2s. 24. been made. This, of
course, eseill appear to wake a very miserable remuneration for
the Paeseileolor, whweas, Is feet, the 2s. 2d. should be set down as
the peek Of the Pe.; the wily capital ever employed, and which,
by as teemesd sassing, produced an interest of upwards of cent.
per mt. It le, however, in this way that 11r. Bassett has made
up has esitestaist red his calculations. Let not the public be duped
by the apeweettly large capital embarked, and the apparently small 1
resin*. lac lir. Benet, when he next comes before the Corn-
mites, net erdy say how essay shillings, half-crowns, and live
shinier, his wester lent ea pledges; but how often he lent those
sums on the same identical articles—that is, let him state how often
each article circulated to and from his shop in the same year, and
then some correct idea may be Named of the real capital employed
and the profits it produced. Then, also, will be established the
trlsaond of the John Bars conclusion, that the Pawnbrokers
charge only seven an& oue third per cent. on their advances to the
poor.
Bet, independently of the internal evidence of its inaccuracy,
the testimony of Basset was positively contracted by more than two
respectable and impartial witnesses, one of them a pawnbroker,
who had been two-and-twenty years engaged in the trade, and who
still carries it on.
We do not say that the witness Basset swore that which he he-
lieved to be false; but we say he was an interested witness. The
law of England supposes that even the sanctity of an oath will not
prevent an interested party from having a bias unfavourable to the
elicitation of truth, and it therefore wisely prohibits him, in many
casts. from being received as an evidence. There are, however,
a variety of instances in which the strictness of that rule is. for the
Pereosen of justice, necessarily relaxed, and ao interested witness is
allowed to be examined ; bat in all such cases the evidence of that
patty is received with great caution, and in no case is it ever al-
lowed to wegh against the direct and positive contradiction of other
witness. (if uaimpesched character), upon whose mind no im.
proper bias is believed to exist. If we can prove, from the tea-
titoony of such parties, that the profits of Pawnbrokers are more
than threefold greater than what the witness Basset states them,
his evidence must fall to the ground, and with it must vanish the
inferences drawn by the writer in the Julia Ball.
In order to put the subject in as clear 3 point of view as possible.
we shall place what the welter in the Jahn Ball is pleased to call
••• the Principal Allegations of the Equitable Loan Company " into
one column, under the head of " Allegations," and the evidence
by which they are supported in the opposite column, under the
head of " Proofs." (To prevent mistakes, it may be here neces-
sary, once for all, to observe, that the evidence quoted was taken
before a Committee of the House of Lords last session, and was
ordered to be printed in the present session. The extract given in
the Jobs Ball is from the same evidence, though by mistake it
is mentioned as taken before a Committee of the House of Com-
mons.)
The author quotes the following extracts in support of hit al-
legations:—
ALLEGATIONS.
It is asserted, that the Pawnbrokers make enormous profits, great
part of which Arne from extra charges, such as, " backing" and
charges fir fractional parts of a month, not allowed by law ; also
from managing the loans of small sums, so as to bring them within
the rate of interest charged upon higher sums.
(It may be right here to remark, that no charge for "hacking"
is allowed by law—yet the practice of making a charge of Id. at
least, and in many cases of 24., 3d., or even q., is invariably fol-
lowed in the trade.)