The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-15 00:00:00

invalid-chairmakers, of Soho ; then Barwise
and Co., watchmakers, of Piccadilly. True,
these firms exhibited the drawback that
Mr. Stephens was a partner in all of them,
and that their custom consisted in exchanging
their paper for the solid tank of the Bank. But
Mr. Stephens had another partner. He had en-
gaged with Colonel Waugh in forming the
Branksea Clay Company, which was to turn
Branksea Island, Dorset—the property of Colonel
Waugh—into an. English El Dorado, And for a
time the experiment was successful ; for on the
22d of March Colonel Waugh lodged his acceptance
with the bank for £2,630, on the strength of which
he drew out in six days £2,779, and by May he
had increased his debt to £17,000, and by July to
£50,000. In that month, by virtue of his " large
stake" in the concern, he became qualified for a
seat at the board, and on the 16th was elected a
director. This, of course, gave him and Mr.
Stephens full play for their abilities. As the
Colonel's bills became due they were met by new
ones; and from the interest on these and similar
transactions, paid out of the money borrowed from
the bank, the directors bad soon the gratifying
duty of declaring a very handsome dividend, and
the shareholders had the happiness of believing
that they had invested their money in a magnifi-
cent speculation. But while the hank was thus
scudding along with a wet sail and a flowing sea,
suddenly was beard the cry, " Breakers ahead !" In
September, 1856, the Royal British Bank came to
grief. In spite of all the ingenuity, lying, and
daring of its manager and directors, that sublime
mixture of piety and rascality broke up with a
crash which was felt in hundreds of families, and
gave a shock to public confidence in all joint-stock
speculations. Banks which were safe invited in-
vestigation into their accounts and position. The
London and Eastern was not safe. But its
directors met, and passed a resolution that
for the future no sum should be advanced
to any director without such security as
would be required from an ordinary customer ;
and that no turlher advance should be made to a
director already indebted to the extent of £5,000,
without the sanction of the weekly board. But
these was a charm in Colonel Waugh's account
which no resolutions could control. On the 25th of
November two of his bills for £4,000 each were dis-
counted by the bank ; and on the 30th of December
two other bills for £lO,OOO each were discounted
without the sanction of the weekly board. Every-
one knows that if you stop a heavy body which is
moving with great velocity, the consequences will
be serious. The colonel's debt answered this de-
scription ; and Mr. Stephens declared, before the
Edinburgh Bankruptcy Court, that it was impossi-
ble to stop it suddenly. And thus when, in January,
1857, the books were made up to the end of the
previous year, it was found that Colonel Waugh
was indebted to the bank in £196,310; and this
enormous sum was increased by further discounts,
between January and the 11th of April, to £244,000,
or within £6,000 of the entire subscribed capital of
the company. And now came the smash. But Col.
Waugh was gone before it came. He had feathered
his nest. He had transferred his Branksea El Do-
rado to the copper mines of Valverde, in Spain; and
there for a while he remained lost to the world.
But he had plenty of money at command—the spoil
of the London and Eastern Banking Corporation,
which he had plundered of a quarter of a million
sterling. He invested between 10 and 15 thousand
pounds in Spanish mines, transferring his shares to
a member of his family, and negotiating with his
agents in England for a loan to the tune of several
thousands. His patient creditors in England re-
peatedly consented to the enlargement of his time for
surrender under the adjudication of bankruptcy, upon
the plea that he was " sick, and ill, and like to die."
But the colonel was in rude health. He ate and drank
with an appetite equal to the voracity with which he
had devoured the substance of the London and
Eastern Bank. He visited England and Paris to
consult his London attorney ; and on one occasion he
rode 160 miles over the rugged mountains from Se-
ville to Valverde and back, a journey of two days'
and nights' duration, and "requiring," says one of
his viedms, " the stoutest heart to accomplish." All
this while he was sending " sick certificates" to Eng-
land. But the Spanish mines did not prove so pro-
fitable a speculation as the London Bank. 111-got,
ill-gone. The money out of which the Colonel had
swindled the shareholders of the London and
Eastern Banking Corporation seems to have dwindled
away till he and his family were obliged to adopt
the humble life of cottagers. And now, when all
is gone, Colonel Waugh comes back to England
to have an operation (performed on his eye, no
doubt by that celebrated oculist, Mrs. Elizabeth
Martin. He returned to an ungrateful country in
August -last. In due time he was arrested and qon-
fined in Whitecross-street. And very recently he
petitioned the Court of Bankruptcy, praying to be
allowed to surrender under the adjudication of the
13th April, 1857-
SPECTATOR.—The entertainment at the Guildhall
to the Prince and Princess of Wales on Monday last
displayed a magnificence that recalled the splen-
dour, without the beauty, of the " Arabian Nights."
The cost of the gigantic and gorgeous tickets of
invitation alone is said to nave been near £2,000,
and the additional insurances, as we mentioned last
week, were for £50,000. The Princess was in more
than usual radiahee, and her manner, so English in
other respects, ac' un-Englishly cordial, is rapidly
making her the pet of the country. Her expression,
kind, cordial, delicate, and innocent, was touched
with a twilight archness that seemed to depre-
cate the formality, while it heartily accepted the
enjoyments, of these festivities. No wonder
the Worthy aldermen flapped themselves about
in an agony of delight, and basked in her
smile like their turtles in the Ben. They had even
risen into the sublimity of a sentiment. On the
way from the robing room to the hall lay a trans-
parency representing the home of the Princess's
youth—which was the pearl of aldermanic delicacy.
Her Royal Highness dances well, and though her
evident want of familiarity with the Lancers threw
her back on the counsels of her husband, this did
but add a new grace to the many graces of her
manner. The. feelings of the City Corporation were
not soothed by the presence of any of their recently
vanquished political foes, for Mr. Disraeli was the
only statesman present, and very sleepy and lionlike
he looked as he towered on the dais above Prince
and people. The peeresses were in good force, and
might be described as the Royal British Life Guards
of the regal beauty,
so well and largely did they
enchance the little gem of Denmark.