The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-18 00:00:00

FLAGRANT MISCONDUCT.

One of the moat flagrant cases of misconduct yet
recorded in the history of public enterprise seemed
likely to be passed over without even a warning
being deduced from it. Yet its features, so far as the
injury it has occasioned is concerned, are as bad as
those which during the past year or two have given
notoriety to such persons as Mr. Peter Morrison,
Colonel Waugh, and others. The case is that of the
West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Company,
which was started in 1852, and which has been
brought to a condition of ruin that has necessitated
Parliamentary interference. For a long time charges
had been circulated against the management, and
especially against the conduct of the chairman, Mr.
Ralph Ward Jackson, but they were of a character
so serious that no one could assume the responsibility
of making them public without such legal preols as
it is always impossible to obtain in the case of great
railway companies, who hold control of their own
books, and can consequently defy assailants to pro-
duce any figures that shall be positively accurate.
Moreover, the parties interested, as well as all out-
side observers, were blinded by a resort to the old
plan of securing the appointment of a friendly corn
mittee of investigation. Mr. Thos. Sturge was chair-
man of this committee, and his character as a respect,
able merchant induced all partiets to receive with
confidence a report which amounted, on the whole,
to an approval of the directors' management. This
report was issued in 1860, but the actual state of
the concern could not be much longer concealed,
and in 1862 a bill in Chancery was filed, which re-
sulted in a receiver being appointed by the Court.
This session a bill has been brought into Parliament
to enable certain arrangements to be made for the
future administration of the property, and a com-
mittee of the House of Lords has just reported upon
it in terms which may happily prevent a series of
most iniquitous proceedings from being altogether
condoned. The committee announce as the "aston-
ishing results" of their inquiry that whereas the
company were legally entitled to borrow only
£337,224, they had issued up to Dec. 31, 1861,
debenture bonds and debenture stocks to the amount
of 12,721,722, exclusive of debenture bonds and de-
benture stocks deposited with creditors as securities
for loans to the value of £161,000. After such a
gigantic instance of malfeasance, carried on delibe-
rately, and even defiantly, for years, it is evident
that the investors in railway debentures of all kinds
hold their property subject to the possibility of the
most unpleasant discoveries, and the Lords' Commit-
tee, " having regard to the ruin which has been
brought upon innocent lenders and shareholders by
the illegal proceedings of the directors of this com-
pany," recommend the house to devise means to
prevent their repetition for the future. Finally, after
detailing the manner in which a large portion of the
immense sums thus raised was illegally expended,
the committee submit that a searching inquiry
should be made, " and if it should appear that Mr.
Jackson, his co-directors, and the persons who
acted as auditors of the company and certified to
the false accounts, are guilty of the charges brought
against them, that the authority of the house
should be exercised to secure their prosecution and
punishment." If the evidence laid before the com-
mittee be found to be substantially true, " Mr.
Ward Jackson," it is remarked by their Lord-
ships, " and his co-directors have for a series of
years wilfully contravened the provisions of their
acts of Parliament, and have concealed their ille-
gal course from the shareholders and creditors of
the company and from the public by the con-
tinued and systematic publication of false ac-
counts. The affair was, however, on the eve of
being hushed up, but the authority thus exercised
has now brought it to a position in which it cannot
without public scandal be suffered to remain.—
limes' City Article.