The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-24 00:00:00

AN

(From the 0:d Merchants of New York City. By Walter

Barrett.)

Thomas H. Smith built an enormous tea-store in South-
street, up by Dover. It extended through to Water, and was
100 feet wide. It was the wonder of the city when it was
built. The docks near it were named lathe-wharf. Smith
also built famous stores at Perth Amboy, and had his tea
ships land cargoes there. The travellers to Philadelphia by
the old route must ottenh tve wondered what those immense
stores were doing in such an insignificant place as Perth
I Amboy. Thomas H. Smith, besides being the greatest tea
merchant of his day, was also the greatest Spreeite of his
day. He:was:the president of a club called "The Fire Club."
It held its meetings in Franklin-square, on the corner of
Dover-street. Boys have a mode of amusement called " fol-
low your leader." This was adopted by the club of which
Smith was president. Many men who are now aged and re-
spected, or dead, belonged to the Fire Club. Joseph Foulke,
a trader at Curacoa, a Dutch island in the West Indies, and
the Staggs. There was old Peter Stagg, cashier of
the City Bank, and John and Benjamin Stagg. There
was Matthias Bruen, and many more whose names
were on the club list. They gave grand suppers, end
their entertainments were very expensive. They would
invite a guest to these suppers, explain the rules, and if
he refused to join, or could not carry out the idea, the fine
was one dozen of champagne. These fines were occasioned
by a refusal to follow the leader. On one occasion a great
cotton merchant from New Orleans was a guest. He agreed
to all the conditions. It was late in the evening,in the dead
of winter. The ice in the East River was floating up and
down with flood er ebb of the tide. " Follow leader," shouted
Smith, and from the warm, luxurious club-rooms poured the
members of the club. Out of the square, round the corner
into Dover-street. " Follow leader," and on rushed Smith,
the president of the club, with 30 men behind him, down
Dover, past Water, past Front, into South, and thence on
to the pier. One of Smith's own ships lay at the dock. A,
lighter lay inside of the main wharf. The ice was loose
and dashed up around the vessels. "Follow leader," ex-
claimed Smith, as he plunged from the dock into water.
Some drew back, but others followed the leader, who suc-
ceeded in getting out of the ice water, on to the lighter,and
from thence to the dock; and shouting " Follow leader,"
he led off with frozen clothes, up Dover, and into the room
of the club. Plunge, plunge, plunge, one after another,
and so on until all had successfully accomplished the ter-
rible and dangerous feat. The Southern cotton merchant
was last. Some of the regular club members remained un-
til they saw him reach the dock again safely, and there
they left him shivering. He did not remain long. As he
walked up from the dock, he noticed a large store open,
in South street. He entered. It was a wholesale and
retail ship-store. " I have met with an accident—give me
a glass of cognac, hot, with sugar and water." It was done,
and he drank it. "Do you keep gunpowder," he asked.
Receiving an affirmative reply, he bought and paid for half
a keg, and then took his way to the club-room. At the door
were standing Mr. Lowe and Mr. Town, two members of the
club. The latter exclaimed, " Bravo, Southern stranger—
you have passed the ordeal safely. You are now leader, and
we are deputed to place the club under your command, if
you choose to exert your sacred privilege." " Thanks, my
friends, I shall do so, but I will not ask you to go out of the
room this cold night, Let us drink!" and as he entered the
room he sought a side closet where hung his cloak. There
he placed the keg, and then returned and took a seat at the
long solid mahogany table. President Smith called the
club to order. The stewards for the night opened a dozen
of champagne amid shouts, calls, and songs of the most
stirring character. " Order, come to order I" exclaimed
President Smith. When order was partially restored, he
said :—" Members of the club, our guest has passed the
icy ordeal. He has now the right of becoming leader for
the balance of the night, or until a failure in our sacred
rites. What says he I The cotton merchant took from.
his bosom a bundle of tow and laid it on the table. All
eyes were fixed upon him. " I accept the command. I
will lead now. Wait until I give the word, and then do
as you see me do." By this time he had spun the
tow into a string that would reach from the table to the
grate. He placed a tumbler on one end of the tow, to
hold it on the table, and then passed the other to the pan
under the grate, and made that fast with a piece of coal
from the coal scuttle. Not a word was spoken. All felt
that something unusual was to occur. Cotton merchant
now deliberately went to the closet, and returning with
the keg took his seat. Then he went to work and removed
the hoops until he could take out the head of the little keg.
Nut a soul moved. Then he took a very little of what ap-
peared to be black sand in his hand, walked to the fire, and
flung it in. The considerable explosion that followed
startled all, " Powder, by Jupiter," exclaimed Smith.
Cotton merchant took the end of the tow line from the
glass, and pushed it down deep into the powder in the keg,
and there reseated himself. "Now, Mr. President, and

the members of the club, I wish you to hear what I have
to say. You have tried my pluck; I come from a hot cli-
mate, and you have made me go through an icy ordeal. It
is my time now, but I will not be so cruel. I will give you a
fiery ordeal to g through. If you stand it you will never need
more wine ; and if you do not, the fines will amount to a
small fortune, and you will have wine enough to last your
club a year. Look at me." He walked to the fire, kicked off
the coal lamp, and placed the other end of the tow-line in
the red-hot coals. Then he walked back, and as he brought
his fist down upon the table said in tones of thunder as he
sat down, " Keep your seats, and thus follow your leader."
The fire curled up in fitful spouts from the burning tar
—it burnt over the grate-pan, and began to crawl along
the carpet. It had 'IS feet to go. Sixty and odd single eyes
watched the burning train. One rose from his seat, then
another ; finally one exclaimed, " we shall all be blown to

old Nick," and made for the door. The panic increased.
Down stairs the club members plunged like a flock of sheep.
Even old Smith, the president, was among the first to bolt
from the room. Before the tow-line had burned as far as
the table, all were gone but the cotton merchant. As soon
as he saw that he was alone, he placed his feet upon the
burning tow and extinguished it. Then he opened the
window and emptied the keg into the snow, and again re-
sumed his seat. He waited long for the return of the club
members ; one by one did they come back. 'there Cotton
sat, until Smith took his seat as president. " Now call for
the fines," he said, and a severe lecture he gave them for
their follies and real cowardice. The club died long ago.

The Consolidated Fund.

Perhaps a recapitulation of the charges sustained by this
fund will possess some interest to the reader. Her Majesty's
Privy purse absorbed £385,000 in 1861-2, as compared with
the same amount in 1860-1; pensions per Act Ist Victoria,
cap. 2 (class 5)-not a very clear definition, it must be ad-
mitted-119,261 in 1861-2, as compared with £19,160 in
1860-1; the allowance to his Royal Highness the late Prince
Consort, £28,103 (to Dec. 9, 1861) in 1861-2, as compared
with £30,000 in 1860-1; her Royal Highness the Duchess
of Kent, £5,833 (to March 16, 1861) in 1861-2, as compared
with £30,000 in 1860-1; her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Cambridge, £6,000 in both years ; her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, £3,000 in both years ; his
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, £12,000 in both
years ; her Royal Highness the Princess Mary of Cambridge,
£3,000 in both years; her Royal Highness the Princess
Royal, £B,OOO in both years; and his Majesty the King of
the Belgians, £50,000 in both years ; making a total of
£520,197 in 1861-2, as compared with £546,395 in 1860-1.
Naval and military pensions absorbed £37,997 in both years,
pensions for civil services, £36,000 in 1861-2, as compared
with £38,078 in 186 A-1; pensions for judicial services,
£71,859 in 1861-2, as compared with £72,571 in 1860-1 ; the
hereditary pension to the Duke of Marlborough, £4,000 in
both years ; the hereditary pension to the heirs of the Duke
of Schomberg, £2,160 in both years ; a moiety of the Earl of
Bath's pension, £1,200 in both years ; servants of George
111., Queen Charlotte, and Queen Caroline, £2,534 in 1861-
2, as compared with £2,621 in 1860-1; pensions formerly on
the civil list of George IV. and William IV., £31,127 in
1861-2, as compared with £33,254 in 1863-1 ; pensions for-
merly on the civil list (Ireland), £9,108 in 1861-2, as com-
pared with £9,584 in 1860-1, and miscellaneous pensions,
£1,039 in 1861-2, as compared with £1,072 in :860-1, mak-
ing a total of £177,025 in 1861-2, as compared with £202,537
the Controller-
in 1860-1. The salaries paid out of the Consolidated Fund
were as follow in the two years :-The Speaker of the
L 5,100 in 1861-2, as compared
House of Commonsb,o/th6,2oyeoarsin; both years ;
General, £2,000 in the Commissioners for the
1860-I;Aun Accounts,
Lunacy Commissioners, &c.,
wAiutdhitLosf3sPlabinlic
£11,929 in 1861-2, as compared with £12,278 in 1860-1 ; the
augmentation of Scotch clergy stipends, £17,040 in both
years; ecclesiastical establishments in the West Indies,
£20,300 in both years; the civil government, Isle of Man,
£10,468 in 1861-2, as compared with £10,132 in 1860-1; the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, £20,000 in both years; the
Maynooth College, £26,360 in both years; the Queen's Col-
leges (Ireland), 121,000 in 1861-2, as compared with £20,987
in 1860-1; and miscellaneous, £15,462 in 1861.2, as com-
pared with £15,285 in 1860-1; making a total of £155,859
in 1861-2, as compared with £155,933 in 1860-1. The other
payments out of the fund :-Diplomatic service £174,424 in
1861-2, as compared with £172,468 in 1860-1; Judges and
officers of courts of justice, £69,790 in 1861-2, as compared
with £700,575 in 1860 .1 ; interest and sinking-fund on Rus-
sian-Dutch Loan, £78,993 in 1861-62, as compared with
£80,761 in 1860-1; interest and sinking fund on Greek loan
£47,213 in 1861-2, as compared with £47,306 in 1860-1;
Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, £20,000 in both
years; secret service money, £lO,OOO in both years; im-
provement of harbours, Isle of man, £23,038 in 1861.2 (this
item does not appear in the accounts of 1861-2) ; expenses
of constructing certain fortifications, 80.4070,000 in 1861-2,
as compared with £50,000 in 1860-1; wine drawback allow-
ances, nil in 1861-2, as compared with £288,218 in 1860-1 ;
compensation for the loss of duties on tin, &c., £17,633 in
1861-2, as compared with £22,247 in 1860-1; and moiety of
expense of revision of rateable property (Ireland), £5,400 in
1861-2 ; making a total of £2,042,491 in 1861.2, as compared
with £1,391,566 in 1860-1. The aggregate payments out of
the fund were consequently £2,895,572 in 1861-2, as com•
Pared with £2,296,428 in 1860 -1.

,The Rev. C. R. Holmes, M.A., late Scholar of
Clare College, Cambridge, has been appointed Vice Prin-
cipal of the Oxford Diocesan Training College, Cullum.