The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-05 00:00:00

the unsound basis upon which a large portion of the
mercantile community rest their dealings. It is easier
to signalise the evil than to suggest the remedy ; but ihe
evil undoubtedly is that undue facilities for credit are
given by house§ Which ought to he perfectly acqui rated
with the private circumstances of every establishmt nt
which applies to them for accommodation. Their only
thought, however. appears to be, "Are we secure our-
selves?" So that they can answer this question in the
affirmative they szetti ntit at all concerned to prevent the
terrible consequences which the extension of their assis-
tance to speculative or bankrupt concerns may entail
upon others. They will look keenly enough into the
validity of the securities placed before them, but there
their inquiries seem to stop short.
We have been lee to this subject by the revelations
which have been made in the hideous case of Strahan
and Paul, now under investigation at Bow-street as
well as at the Bankruptcy Couit. Yesterday Sir John
Paul and Messrs. Strahan and Bates were again placed
in the dock before the sitting magistrate, and Mr. Bod-
kin, for the prosecution, proceeded with sach evidence
as he had been able to procure since the last ad-
journment. The principal feature in this was
the negotiation of a loan for 27,0001. by Paul in
April last with the house of Messrs. Overend and
Gurney. This transaction may be taken as a fair
sample of the kind of trading we have already pointed
out. We think it tainted with many marks which
would have aroused suspicion in minds generally
less acute than those of the gentlemen who manage the
business of the firm which made the lcan. We certainly
cannot lay claim to the vast commercial experience of
Messrs. Overend and Gurney, but we should have ima-
gined that the mere fact of a banker presenting himself
with a pressing request for accommodation to so consi-
derable an amount should have necessitated very search-
ing inquiry. There are times, of course, when a panic
takes place in the money-market—times of reaction
from mad speculation and commercial mania—when
the fairest trader may be hardly pressed to realise
securities of unquestionable value,; but last April
was not such a season as this. Messrs. Overend
and Gurney appear to have felt a certain degree of
suspicion, but their suspicions were very lightly allayed.
The loan was negotiated through Mr. George Young,
a solicitor in Sise-lane. Paul required, at first, a
loan of 30,0001., and for this he tendered a parcel
of Dutch and Danish securities. Overend and
Gurney refused to advance more than 27,0001. on the
securities offered, and this smaller amount was greedily
•caught at by the embarrassed banker. It was then that
the money-dealers asked to be informed of the name of
the real borrower, and were content with the slender
satisfaction to be picked out of the note contained in the
following extract from evidence :
" My dear friend,—You will greatly oblige me by rais-
ing as much money as yon can upon the securities I handed
to you, for throe months, pending the purchase of an es-
tate. You know the purpose for which the money is
required, and also my reason for my name not appearing
in the matter.

" Yours faithfully,

J. D. PAUL."

Now, nothing can be further from our desire than to
cast any reflection upon Messrs. Overend and Gurney,
but we trust our public mention of the subject may elicit
the judgment of commercial men upon this transaction.
Does this method ofdealing receive the sanction of public
opinion in the city ? If so, we of course can have nothing to
say against the men—it is the system which is atfault. For
ourselves, we cannot but think that Messrs. Overend
and Gurney must regret their share in tlm transaction,
when they calculate how vast an amount of human
misery might have been saved bad the hank been driven
to extremities three, or even two, months ago by the
denial of accommodation. The disclosure of ruin was
staved off for a time by the loan, but at what a cost !
Times.