The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-12-03 00:00:00

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JOINT STOCK *COMPANIES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ISRITISH PRESS.
Sin—Your inserting my former communication
on this subjeet, sufficiently evinces that tour publi-
cation, unlike many other venial prime of the day,
is open, (es indeed the litirisu niece always should
be), to bah sides of a question. I will, therefore,
beg permission to say a few words more on this
impottent subjea, which I hope will satisfaaorily
prove that these Companies are esteemed*gal by
men the most intelligent and well-informed.
It is generally for the purpose of obtaining a re-
arms of grievances, or So effea some work of mag-
nitude, that associations are established ; but if
found to tend to the injury of the community, to
lessen the revenue, or any other mischievous pure
pose, the Legislature very properly interposes to
prevent such consequences. It was, no doubt, with
the laudacle intention of preventing fraud, similar
to the South .Sea scheme, lay which the public mate-
ritslsjr that the aa of George the First, re-
:the.; to Companies, was passed ; and any person
eee, refuses it with en impartial eye, will soon per-
ee.ve c its is the real intention of it. Since the pas-
sing that a&, some hundreds of Companies have
been termed, to none of which fraudulent motives
attach, and a large majority of them have afforded
very handsome dividends to the shareholders. But
a new eiterested persons, brewers, distillers, and,
among the rest, a person sanding the lumen: of a mil-
ler with that of an tirillOP and Pt.priel.-r old Alsreeing
Prot, well knowing, from their evil praftiees, and
wants= charges, that the establishing Compa-
nies would prevent their raising the price of their
commodities, And expose their mai-presences, have,
at a great expense, insetted various Articles in news-
papers, persisting that uncautered Comp inies are
pernicious and unlawful, and many have been
=red by these spccioss arguments.
1 rementber, anout twelve yea.% since, when re-
sideut in Lincolnshire, there was, in theme parts, a
general complaint of the badness of knead ; it was
indeed very bad, and searcelf eatable. This evil
arose from the reesery of the millers; for, let the
corn re ever so good, they either changed it for
bad. or mixed it with what they pleased, and the
farmers and bakers had no sadism It was pro-
posers, ihat a Gt IMMO FlAor and Bening GunlpilA;
should be, estebitshed bat this not being effeded,
' Swing to tee machinations of the maitre, hand-
Mills, on an improved email udion, wets projeatd,
an a variety of tes se useful engines have 'been since
n. -1 in Yesiotts gaits of the country; whereby,
thouLli i.el evil Ct adulteration is not totally de-
feat..., et it is in many instances obviated. In
slier were can scarcely exist a doubt but that a
Ueiteso k LOUR Jinn kimono Comr•sv, honestly
cond idled, aid uncnnneeted with the present rogues
ingrani, would prove of the utmost public utility ; as
parents would then be able to num for infants us-
arlaillerat.d Breed, and ;lam eoy prevent the deaths of
thousands to
_children, who daily tall vietuns to its
being mixed with droll, Winn, and tow ash. s.
Perhaps there cannot be a better argument in sup.
port of the legality of companies in general, then
reßeeting that the late enlightened and distinguished
Mr. Pitt was at the head et one of them ; and that
many noble personages of the present day, such as
Earl Romney, Earl Camden, Lord Soames, Loid
Thane', Lord Gwydir, Lord Auckland, Sir Edward
Knstchbull, SirVilliam Geary, Sir William Raw-
lins, and sway others of equal rank, are members
of =chartered companies; and of course never ee-
terteined the smallest doubt of their being lase iul.
The dissolution of these wcuhl be attended with
serious corosequenees, particularly such as are
established for the faineance of Imes, the redudion
of which would occastea incalculable distress to the'
widow and Whales:. It may be tautly presumed,
that were such institutions illegal, they would not
have their respective Solicitors; for as ieele Geode-
men must possess a competent knowledge of the
law, it is not probable. Nene companies realty ob-
noxious to it, they woul7.'have any thing to do with
them.
Since their legality has been questioned, the ma-
nagers of severel companies have deemed it rape-
dame to take tl.e opinion of Counsel on the subted,
*nd among those I remember to have seen, winch
are decidedly in favour ~t the legality of companies,
are Sir Thomas Plomer, Solicirnr-General ; Mr.
Lichens blc. Comyn, and Mc. Po:lock• Should,
however, these Learned Gentlemen be wrong in
their opinions, and the decision of a COW tof J tr.cice
be given against all the numerous unchartered com.
panics established since the act alluded to, I am
convinced it will be a decision materially hurtful to
the Revenue, bereave the widow and orphan, and
eventually occasion to thousands distress, bank-
ruptcy and ruin. I am, Sir. yours, &c.
[le.!, 1807. C. E. W.

! I

The Adjutant-General has addressed a circslar
letter to the Commander in Chief of the Hampshire
ciisuiet, requesting es that a stop may be put to the
inapeSinn et the Volunteer Corps until the Ist of
March MI; ; also to reduce the number of inspec-
tions in each year to fowl- ; which are to take place
between the Ist of March and the lst of November."
This regulation is not to interfere with the number
of dal s' exercise for which pay is allowed wishiu the
ye sr..
List week, Mr. Easel'', of Stroud. in company
with Mr. Home, of Chatham, were in London, and
emended to return to Chatham by the sir o'clock
coach ; and to prevent their rising too late, had
desired a watchman to call them at the lon. In
the morning, according to their request, the watch-
man came so their room and awoke them: they tra-
velled in the coach as far as Welling. where they
stopped, when Mr. ERRATT, taking out his pocket-
book to have a note changed, discovered that he bad
been robbed of notes arucninting to upwards of
thirty pounds; being assured that his property was
tote when he went to bed, suspicion instantly fell
upon the watchman. and he and Mr. Hoes ireme-
dia4dy returned to town, and 6eding the watchman,
wa{him before& Magistrate; cone of the property
was, however, found on him; but on examioing his
lodgings, by virtue of a search-warrant, a vast num-
ber of articles were discovered, which are supposed
have been stolen from persons at the Inn, as thee!
were of such a description as he could not have
come honestly in possession of. He was committed
-;,rn till the owners can be found.