The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-28 00:00:00

EVENIN G SUN

the hilts charged in the indictment as signed by him ;
as indeed how would it be possible for any one man
to sign ten or mere millions worth of bills, each at
stated and within certain limited perhids of the year.
Mr. Aslett escaped upon that count therefore, but was
coneietteeTand imprisoce I for two years upon a minor
ceuninirf stealing to the amount of forty shillings, in the
shape of the value of the paper on which the bills were
drawn. That person, it is reported, is yet living in
Paris. Ia his case likewise, the robbery was owing to
stock speculations and the payment of gambling losses
of enormous amoumts.
To show the loose system of transacting business at
the Exchequer 8.11-office, it may be noticed as being
reported that a few years ago only a parcel of bills to
the value of about 100,0001. held by a certain corporation,
was discovered to be without the regular stamp of
what is called the " portculiis," being part of the arms
of the city of \Vestrninter with which the regular bills
should be stamped. They were carried to the bill-
office and submitted to the clerks to ascertain if
genuine. One and all, upon careful examination and
collation with the books, pronounced them genuine.
The omission was then pointed out to their surprise,
acknowledged as such, and rectified.
In the !es; 1831 or 1832 similar frauds to the pre-
sent were committed and detected in Paris. We re.
collect the name only of one of the delinquents, a
person of the name of Kessner. He also was deeply
involved in stock speculations, and being irretrievably
compromised in the tremendous fall of French stocks
consequent on the revolution of July, abstracted or fa-
bricated Bows Royamr, answering to our Exchequer
Bills, to the prodigious amount of seven or eight mil-
lions of francs before lie was detected, We do not
exactly remember the particulars of his fate, but rather
think that after apprehension and during imprisonment
he managed to destroe himself*.
From these remarkable instances of successful fraud
the necessity becomes apparent and urgent of more
stringent guards and checks for the safety of the
public purse, and above all of the nicest circum-
spection in the selection of individuals for fulfilling
such important trusts.
C H RON IC LE.—The Chairman of the Committee
of the Stock-Exchange, along with a deputation of
holders of Exchequer Bills, had an interview with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to-day at the Treasury,
for the purpose of ascertaining the determination of the
Government regarding the spurious Exchequer Belie.
The answer made by the Right Honourable Gentleman
was, that he and his colleagues were anxiously en-
gaged investigating the subject, and so soon as they
had made up their minds on it the public would be in-
formed. Whether the measures to be adopted in this
matter are to remain over until February, like those
attending the general financial embarrassment of the
coettary, we not presume to foretel. The only
point, hnwever, known at present is that the Cabinet
is deeply engaged in the matter, and that the public
will be duly informed of the result of their delibera-
tions. In the meantime Exchequer Bids are scarcely
saleable, and the public mind is left in the greatest de-
gree of alarm, the holders being tot,lly in ignorance
whether their securities arc to be acknowledged as ge-
nuine, or to be divutiel by the Crowe.
• The party in custody, Mr. Beaumont Smith, of the
Comptroller-General's cffice, is understood to be the
cuates of the bills, but not one of the three func-
tionaries authorised to sign by the Act of Parliament.
It is not known whetter the Government admit that
the spurious a;!!‘ heir the genuine signatures of the
parties authorised to Itign, or whether they are to be
challengee on the ground ef forgery, but in whatever
light the case mai; be viewed, the looseness of the prac-
tice of the Exchever 1311-office is undeniable. It is
now thirty-aix years since the system ef authorising
certain persons to sign Exchequer Bills originateth and
the tee Act, we believe, merely continued the old
practice, while it abolished the office of auditor, and
appointed the comptroller in his place. It is therefore
quite absurd to endeavour to throw the blame of the
fraud upon the late adniiniAration. It has been carried on
for several years, and with considerable caution and
dexterity, as the principals always took care to use
the spurious bills merely as a deposit in security,
stipulating that the identical bills should be returned,
and thus they were enabled to call in all their issues
annually about a fortnight before the period of payment
in March, and to issue June bills instead. There was
a new act of fraud, therefore, committed every year,
and it is quite &e n. that the principals must have had
several confederates. The question of Government
liability is much agitated to-day, and the general im-
pression is that the public must be kept safe (torn ltas.
The point, however, is one of considerable difficulty,
and on which, under our present knowledge of the
facts, it is impossible to speak with confidence. There
are certainly some strong grounds for maintaining the
case of the holders. There is the general liability of
masters for the acts of their servants ; which rule ap-
plies so far in this case, because the bills have all the
Government stamp, and bear official mark?, which
prove that they have emanated from a Government
office. Supposing, therefore, that the signatures could
be proved to be forgeries, the hahility of the Crown
might be stiff contended for. But in that ease—that
is, in the ease of a clear proof of forgery in the 6:na-
ture—we should apprehend that the Crown would have
strong grounds tor di,putiog their liabilities, because,
although masters are liable for the general acts of their
servants, they ;,re not responsible for their crimes. The
Crown would no more be liable to pay Exchequer Bills,
forged by any clerk in a Government office, than
hankers to pay notes forged by any clerks in their em-
ploy. But there are great doubts entertaiced whether
the parties authorised to sign could be able to distin-
guish genuine from fictitious signatures, and the test
applied to some bills sent up seems to strengthen that
impression. We allude to the rejection of bills because
they have not been found to suit the indenture of the
check. Such a test is evidently fallacious, and not
likely to have been adopted if the authorities had
been able to detect false from genuine signatures.
Supposing that the triplicate bills were aid before
the comptroller and his deputies authorised to sign, we
believe it is acknowledged on all hands that they could
not tell the false set from the genuine. And it may be
doubted, even if Mr. Smith himself (supposing he were
to confess that he had signed the names) could select
those which he had fabricated from the genuine class.
There is great room to doubt whether any Jury would
give a verdict for the Crown against the holders in such
a trial. Besides the point of Government liability, the
means of detecting the extent of the fraud, and of re-
moving all further doubts as to tho validity of the out-
standing bile have been anxiously discussed. The
Government, it is maintained, ought to possess the
means of asaertaining the extent of the fraud, and the
books in tho Exchequer Bill-office ought to furnish
them with the necessary data to do so immediately ;
but if' Fee truth cannot be ascertained in that way,
there the whole bills outstanding must be called in
by public notice. Granting even that step to be
taken, the Government have still to consider how
the Crown and the public are to be protected
against the commission of sinelir frauds in time to
come. The whole question is full of difficulty, and un-
less speedily set at rest, threatens to produce a most
serious decline in the
value
of tae unfunded Securities.
The B.lls have fluctunteti
The quotations for
considerably, having been 8 9, and 11. premium. Toe
extent of the fraud, as far yet known, is 200;000h,
whereof 135,000/. hashee as yet
and the amount is
fortunately iu very few hands.
Sir James Shaw, the
City Chamberlain, lent 40,0001. part of the spurious
bills, but whether the money belongedon to the Corpora-
known eapi-
tion or not we have not learned.
.for 1,800/.
talist sold 2,0001. Exchequer Bells towhelaili
paper is lodged in
Upwards of 60,000/. of the spurious
the Treasury to wait the result of the
The
alarm cleated by this affair prevented the public from
making their usual investments in Exchequer Bills, and
induced them to turn their attention to the funded
debt; instead, which has created a considerable demand
for Money Stock, and Consols have in consequence
(and from the increased impression of a favourable ter-
mination of MiLeod's trial) improved to 881 to -a for
the Account, and 81 to 4 for Money_
POST.--The interest taken in this part of the me-
tropolis in the investigation going on at the west end of
the town of the circumA inece connected with the Ex-
chequer Bill conspiracy, ter so, we believe, we arc per-
fectly warranted in designating that affair, has in no
degree dhninished in point of intenshty. The ordinary
operations of trite are interfered with by the startling
facts tt•at have been disclosed. Every respectable man
of business is anxious, therefore, not only that the case
should be probed to the core, and the authority of the
law completely ,indicated, but that me ewes of the most
effective and stringent kind should be taken to prevent
a recurrence of the evil. An equal anxiety is expressed
that the entire system pursued by the money-dealeas
and Stock Exchange people should undergo a revision
at the
hands 01C the Government, and that a salu-
tary restraint should at once be put upon the
man-contracting fraternity, without any respect of oar-
tics or of names, however high and imposing. The
connexion is one and the same, and unless the transnc-
tiona a the whole be considered in relation to each
ether, it will not be long before some fresh outage
Upon public confidence will be perpetrated in a
differ-
toteahshavar . The individual in the City who was said
been taken into custody yesterday, has, we
rath think ,
of heir s
chhure been seen at large to-day, but the report
eaningd`Pli,he Again very current towards the
B. Smith,
whose
clerk of the Comptrollers-office, Mr. E.
of so wholesale a depredations would appear to have been
stripped his tracter as to have completely out-
two, or three recollectionhundredof thousand pounds, and who
was in the receipt
will, no doubt, heesatnvfeere y dealt with ; but it is under-
stoodel liberal salary of 600/. a year,
that he has
presently
all that he knows, and, if so,
we dare say it will be found that he has been
little else than anAnumber
instrument in the hands of more prac-
ti
circle wised offenders
the Cit.
of others moving in the same
th y operator hinted at, have, we are in-
formed, the eye of thwepholree.upon them. They affect
to treat the matter it
tion as much as possible erv'ty, so as to divert atten-
such a policy should be reso the subject ; and that
rted to by men in their un-
met

enviable predicament is very natural ; but the impres-
sic n it, that several of them are permitted to be at
liberty only upon sufferance, and under guarantees
to Government to be forthcoming whenever they
shall be wanted to give evidence, or for purposes more
seriously affecting themselves. It was mentioned in
yesterday's paper that one of the principal brokers in
possession of bills lodged with him under questionable
circumstances was believed to have delivered up to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer 50,000/. of the property,
to be dealt with as Government shall think fit. This
turns out to have been the fact. The broker referred
to, a gentleman of acknowledged respectability, who
had acted, it seems, for parties in their speculations on
the Stock Exchange, receiving in deposit, or making ad-
vances upon a large parcel of Exchequer Bills to cover
stocks purchased for account, proceeded without hesita-
tion to the Treasury and delivered them up, at the same
time giving every information in his power respecting,
those from whom he obtained them that was calcu-
lated to further the ole;ects of the inquiry going on.
The gentleman alluded to received a letter in the
course of the present forenoon, requesting his attendance
in the after part of the day on this unpleasant business,
and we doubt not, if all persons innocently implicated
in it, directly or indirectly, will act with the same good
faith and fearlessness that he has done, the whole of the
mystery in which the subject is still involved will soon
he unrevelled. It seems but proper we should add that
Ns gentleman is a broker of long standing in the City,
and that his father enjoyed for many years before him
tire same high character that he does himself in the
same branch of business. He has probably been
too confiding, but of his probity not the smallest
suspicion is entertained. It has been his misfor-
tune to become identified with an exploded instance of
the very objectionable traffic that is carried on at the
Stock Exchange unler the modern system. An evening
Paper states that a certain toll-contractor of the Jewish
persuasion holds a very large amount of the unauthorised
bills, intimating that he had made advances upon them
at the rate of 7 per cent. interest. We are assured
that this person obtained no more than from 4 to 5 per
cent. Another party has been named as having re-
ceived 7 per cent. In his case, however, the charge
was but nominally this, the transactions undertaken by
him for his principal being of a mixed character, con-
nected with the Foreign Stock Market.
During the inquiry into the circumstances of this ne-
farious transaction, which is still proceeding, the Con-
servative statesmen upon whom the painful duty of
prosecuting it has devolved, have taken due care that
neither from themselves nor from persons officially con-
nected with them shall any revelations, as to the pro-
gress of the investigation be elicited. This cautious
and prudent reserve ie highly meritorious, springing as
it does from the apprehension that premature diselo-
sure3 might impede the single object in view, that of
doing substantial justice to the public as well as to
every individual whose character or interest is in any
manner involved in the transaction.
But if we may judge from the article, which appeared
in the Globe of last night (inserted in the last page of
The Sun, under the head of "Spirit of the Public
Journals"), and in which it is impossible not to perceive
at least glimmerings of information which must have
been derived from persona concerned in the iaquiry, it
would seem that the same anxious and scrupulous re-
serve which Ministers have imposed on themselves and ,
those who are subject to their authority has not been
maintained everywhere.
The article seems to us an overstrained attempt to
show, not only that Mr. E. B. Smith, the senion clerk
in the office for issuing Exchequer Bills, is, what we
are told he confesses himself to be, the only official
person chargeable with moral delinquency, but that
there are no grounds for the imputation to other official
persons of the minor offences of negligencd or incapa-
city. In so far as it attempts this, we cannot disguise
our opinion that it signally fails.
It will at once occur to every reader to ask what can
be the use of a Comptroller-General at the head of a
department, with a salary of two or three thousand a
year, if the power is to be left in the bands of a cl, rk
of that department, with a salary of 6001. a year, to
issue from it fictitious securities to the amount of two or

three hundred thousand pounds ?
There is no longer, unfortunately, any doubt that
" the position of Mr. Smith gave him every facility for
the fraud," which is precisely the circumstance of which,

as it appears to us, the public have a right to complain.
If it was "a part of his duty to insert the numbers and
dates upon the bills," and if the fraudulent bills " are
cmsequently upon the proper paper," surely it was " a
part of the duty" of somebody else to see that " the
proper paper" for the manufacture of millions of money
was not given out to this clerk at 6001. a year without
meaaure or limitation, or record, or memorandum of
any kind ; and we think we are entitled to say on behalf
of the public that it might not unreasonably have been ex-
pected of a Comptroller-General at the head of the office,
with a salary of 2,5001. a 3 ear, and very little to do, to sea
that this duty was not entirely neglected. Why Mr. Levy,
the toll contractor, to whom we suppose one passage
in the article refers, takes better care of " the
proper paper" which he gives out to the mea at his dif-
ferent Yates to represent the twopences and three-
pences he is entitled to recei‘e. And we are almost
compe'led by the statement of the Glube to wish that
Mr. Levy instead of Lord Monteagle had been Comp-
troller-General of the Exchequer, as in this case pro-
bably the calamity that has taken place would hive
ben averted.

There is much of the article which we do not per-
fectly understand, perhaps from the circumstance, in
all respects an unfortunate ene, that we are not very
Ittmiliar with the form and appearance of Exche-
quer Bills. Does the Globe mean to intimate, when
it uses the word " signature" in the singular
number, that the genuineness of these important se-
curities is attested only by a single signature ? Of,
when it speaks of forgery, does it mean to say that,
there being more signatures than one, all were forged ?
We really ask these questions for the sake of informa-
tion, although they may serve at the same time to show
the extreme inconvenience of premature and imperfect
disclosures upon a subject like the present. In refer-
ence to the word " forgery," we will only remark fur-
ther, that if the Globe have any sufficient warrant for
having employed it, the nature of the transaction dif-
fers very materially from what the public have hither to
supposed. The general impression, both in the City
and at the west end of the town was, and is, that the
offence of Mr. Smith, though not less than forgery in
moral guilt, cannot be properly described by that term.
The Globe speaks of the system of the office in
which this offence has been perpetrated as being the
same now as it has always been. This, if it be true,
is a very inadequate defence of those who have had
the dominion of the office for the last eleven years ;
' for, if the system be a bad one, which we do not know,
the greater fault is theirs, Reformers as they were, for
not having reformed it ; and, if the system be a good
one, the results it has produeel in their hands show,
what scarcely indeed required any such proof, that no
53 stem, however good, can supersede the necessity of
vigilacce and prudence on the part of those who are
charged with the duty of superintending and controlling
its operation.
S L.-N.—According to the old adage "it is an ill wind that
blows nobody good," and hence we find that as Exche-
quer Bills, until the extent of Mr. Smith's fraudulent
issues is ascertained, are not likely to be in favour with
the public, Consols and the heavy Stocks must be had
recourse to, in order to invest surplus capital. This has
already occasioned some improvement in the latter.
Consols were quoted 83 to 881 for Money, and SBa to
88,1 for Account. Exchequer Bills fell to 9s. and 11s.
premium,
for the 1,0001. Bills, in which only a few bar-
gains were transacted. India Bor.ds were at ls. discount
to 2s. premium. The New Three-and-a-Half per Cents.
realised 97i to 981 ; and the Three per Cent. Annuities,
86 to 87+. India Stock was dull at 243.
The Market for Foreign Securities continued very in-
animate. Spanish Active Bonds were depressed at 20i
to I ; Portuguese New Five per Cents. were heavy at
29i to 291 ; the Old Bonds at 494 ; Mexican at 23,1 to
24i, and Colombian at 181 to 4. Brazilian rose to 57
and 58, and Dutch New Five per Cents. to 961 and 97.
Some of the Shares rallied a little, but others were
weaker. Great Western impe
_"ed to 1 lit and 12 prem.
Birmingham receded to 66 and 665 prem. Brighton,
after touching 11-1-, fell to 13-4-discount, and South Wes-
rn ranged from 131 to 124 prem. North Midland
Shares were 35 and Blackwall 16:1 dis. In Banking
Shares no business.

F4Oll Tilt MORNING PAPNRS OF THIS PAY.
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
HERALDOO.O--rroOonue of those cases of fraud which
the attention of Geyser"
involves so
amount of capital as to force
of loeg neglected duties
smors to the instant discharge
the economy of their financial
and reform in
been detected, under circa en'
service, has just now
stances peculiarly impres-
sive. By a chain of discoveriesn (of which we beg to
prepared account, to the
refer the public, for a carefully
in this day's
emr ma l ud n, i
andc a t i o
ton ofao ourart i
eCI
ei t,
ydated correspondentfrom
tho the same quarter,
communication
in our publication of yesterday), actual issue of an
immense aggregate of Exchequer Bill
their character; has been traced to a 11'I not
genuine in
the Chief Clerk for issues in the (AN:. E.
B. Smith,
Comp-
troller-General of the Exchequer. Whether
the
gate amount be to 100,000/., to 000,0h0e0rItbe ague_
to 300,000/. this gentleman declares ,
that
even
is unable to state I How long the wthati he
career of misappropriation, fraud and deception
which he has been engaged, may have continued,
neither his employes nor his friends appear to be, as
yet, prepared to state for him. Nor is the distressing
uncertainty which exists, as to these points, the onl3
aggravation of the frightful mischiefs which must ensue
from such iniquitous operations. It seems very doubtful
whether innocent helders—private individuals—in no
way cognisant of the original fraud which had tainted
these securities—may not be left without any virtual
relief in the shape of a claim for value, upon the
Government by whom the bills purported to be issued.
Mr. Smith occupied, it should seem, precisely that
Position in the Comptroller-General's-office which gave
him every possible facility for originating, and keeping
up, undetected, the issues of Exchequer Bills over and
above those actually ordered, or designed, or under-

stood, to be issued—by the Government authority.
He was the chief clerk " for issuing and making
out Exchequer Bills ;" and in that capacity the
duty was coafided to him of filling in the numbers
and dates of the Bills issued. These latter, as may
he readily imagined, were genuine as to paper—of
nhich a peculiar quality is used, exclusively, we beltsva
for this service—and as to print. Whether they were
also genuine as to signature seems to be at present a
question of very great uncertainty, as it is most assu-
redly of very grave importance. An accredited organ
of the late Government, in its fair and succinct account
of the facts of this case, hazarded, last evening,
an incidental assertion that they are not. From
that very statement of facts, and on the further con-
siderations we shall presently submit. we are much
inclined to hold—propounding this view, only, as the
best opinion we can form on the evidence at present
before the public—that the signatures are genuine.
If they be—if in law, they be such as to gibe a
holder of these bills (in the absence of any case
against him of fraudulent possession), a lien on
the national treasury ; behold a new legacy of em-
barrassment, of financial difficulty, of further deficit
bequeathed to the present Government by their incom-
petent and improvident predecessors in administration.
The counterfoils,—that marginal portion of the book
which is left after the bills are cut away,--(like the
docquets of a check-book) have deteced the fraud.
Of course the entries on the counterfoils do not corre-
spond with the bills, issued in excess ; and which ex-
cess-bills it must bare been a part of the scheme
adopted, to take up and cancel, if possible, before
being brought in. They appear to have been, for the
most part, deposited as securities for moneys ad-
vanced to gambling jobbers in foreign stock spa-
eulations, for the purpose of making good diffsr-
ences on time bargains, as wall as for conducting ex•
tensive dealings in such funds ; and also with other
parties who lend their money at enormous interest.
Upon the facts before us, tl el, we come to these con-
clusions :—That there is a salaried officer of her Ma-
jesty's Fxchequer, called a " Comptroller-General,"
with 2,0001. a-year for the discharge of his duties in
that post. That there is a " Chief Clerk of Issues of
Exchequer Bile," under him, but over whom the
sa'aried officer with 2;000/. a-year exercises no sort of
control at all. That this Clerk of Issues, with (as we
have shown above), 1. the power of putting out i❑ dug
form, and in a condition, hitherto, to pass, as unques-
tionable Government securities, any amount of new
Exchequer Bills filiatzvcr ;-2. with the power of
evading detection in his malpractices, in the (ffice itself,
by the fabricated ar.d adapted docquets on the coun-
terfoils of the bill ; and, out of the (sloe, by being,
hivs-
se the party to whom any doubting holder of these
excess-bills (as we call them for the sake of the dis-
tinction), would be referred, for "information," and
whose testimony would of course verify and con-
firm the character of such bills ;—that this Chief
Clerk, with a practical power of issuing.' which the
comptroller's power could not touch, was a dis-
contented officer, being paid, in consideration of all
this fearful responsibility to the public, six hundred
pounds a year.* Tnat a practice has prevailed, in the
office of the Comptroller-General, of that officer's dele-
gating to no I:ss than two other individuals the power
of subscribing that very remarkuble signature which lie
himself is paid 83 liberally for (among other things)
affixing ; namely—lds own. That to this practice, ab-
surd in the abstract, is directly attributable the practi-
cal mischief of an issue of spurious, or at any rate of
excessive and fraudulently-circulated Government se-
curities to the amount of from one hundred and fifty
thousand to three hundred thousand pounds. Of the
conduct of the offender himself, Mr. Smith, this is nct
the place—perhaps not the season—to express our
opinions. If the most forbearing judgment should pra-
nounce his duplicity to the Government which trust d
hiM, and to the public whom be has defrauded, to have
been of the blackeA character, the severest tribunal
must commend him (if our own information on this point
be correct), for the distinct and ingenuous confession
which he has made of the principal circumstances con-
nected with so deep-laid and extensive a scheme of
fraud. That confession his duty to the public un-
questionably demanded. Heartily do we hope that it
may prove to have been all that we have heard it really
was. It may be the means of exposing to a vigorous
Government, and of enabling them to counteract some
of those profligate conspiracies to plunder the re-
sources of the State and the wealth of private capi-
talists, which are daily concocted within and without
the Stock Exchange by bands of unprincipled jobbers.
as they are called, who swarm in every commercial
capital of Europe, and rob, like hornets, the hived
treasures of that useful industry, in the honest labours
of which they have never contributed. The object of
those unsuccessful operations which are presumed to
have precipitated the catastrophe of this discovery,
seems to have been Spanish Securities. To these—
as to every thing connected with the present social
and political system of that distracted country, in all
its domestic and foreign stations ;—its characterless
aristocracy, its ricketty constitution, its vain• glorious
legislature, its blood-thirsty and treacherous chieftains
—the same disastrous principles in all their unity
and all their sharee applies ;---to wit, inconstancy and
failure ; perpetual fluctuation and permanent dishonour.
Lot us picture to ourselves, fbr a moment, the over-
whelming extent and maJnitule of the "jobbing"
which (with all the advantages of a sluice-gate to the
issue of exchequer, to be raised at pleasure ..without
being once detected in—we know not how many years,
say four or five, however, and for two or three of these

unmarked, even by the well-paid vigilance of Lord
Argus Monteagle)—must have been operated by the
capital thus lavishly furnished to adventurers of this
unprincipled stamp. What must have been the balances
alternately realised and paid on "settling days" in the
Foreign House, on speculations which, being abruptly
interrupted, discover surreptitious appropriations of from
one hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand
pounds ? And how little of these appropriations, in all
probability, ever reached the coffers of this unhappy gen-
tleman, whom the necessity for raising a loan of a very
few hundred pounds, in order to meet the necessities
entailed upon him by his bad management of an al-
ready inadequate income, is stated to have first thrown
into the hands of one of those pests of society, who
have infested this vast metropolis in shoals ever since
the repeal of the Usury-laws in respect of bill trans-
ac'ions under certain circumstances ; namely, your
bill discounters "on liberal term,"—and to have
afterwards made the reluctant but intimidated agent
of the wholesale villaoy of associates, possessed of
fatal secret of his past weakness ! Pity that some
sense of what was due to the naive he bore, and the
renown of his illustrious relative had not inspired him
with some portion of that kindred courage and moral
energy which would have snapped asunder the bonds
that bad men had bound him down withal, while there
was yet time, by a great effort, to retr:eve himself ;
and before the "iron" hal yet " entered his soul 1"
One word, before we have done, on the permitted
subscription of the names of responsible officers of
Government, by Secretaries, Deputies, or Clerks,
without the addition of any symbol to indicate the
substitution, or bespeak the authority of a procuration.
The practice is highly reprehensible, and should be in-
stantly abolished: throughout all the public depart•
ments. It is, in itself, an ingenious device for effectu-
ally extinguishing security to the public. In its exer-
cise, it is an admirable means of deceiving the very party
whose subscription is counterfeited by another. The
Globe indignantly denies that Lord Monteagle was una-
ble ti state whether a signature on one of the bills
shown to him was or was not his own: but the effect of

this denial is quite abolished by its admission at the
same time, that the party authorised to sign " Moatea-
gle" for that paragon of comptrollers, could not tell
whether or not it was his. That difficulty is all that
was wanting to show the danger and folly of the cus-
tom. Besides, we can undertake to say, of our own know-
ledge, that under no former Government has the prac-
tice of Secretaries and confidential clerks in the depart-
ments, accurately imitating, in notes written in the third
person, and in the signatures to the superscriptions of
official letters, " the sign manual', of their principals, as
it did under the last Government. It was a fashion, al-
most universal, among them, in the same way as the
attache: to some of the foreign legations at this Court are
observed to copy, with amazing accuracy, the character of
the band-writing of their chiefs. It is surely unnecessary
for us to add that we offer these objections to the prac-
tice without meaning the slightest disrespect to any of
the individuals whom we allude to. The foreign gentle-
men who form part of the embassies to the Court of St.
James's have uniformly maintained, for a long time,
most honourable distinction by their general deport-
ment : and we believe that in no country of Europe are
the " public offices" filled by functionaries, high and
low, combining a greater aggregate of respectability,
intelligence, and integrity, than in this. Yet with these
convictions on our mind, we cannot see that the force of
our objection to the practice of signatures by unacknow-
ledged or ?inapparent delegation is at all removed, or
even invalidated.

C H RON IC LE.—lt is highly cuditablo to the cha-
racter of the British Preis that there is•no'. one ii.fla-
catial or respectable journal—at least that we have

* We derive this information from the following pas-
sage of a leading article in the Globe, already referredl
to ; and quite agreeing with our Contemporary s no-
tions of the policy of remunerating responsibility as well
as actual labour, have only to regret that he did not
enforce the same doctrine on the Whig-Radical Par-
liament which were so prone and so proud to follow out
the theories of Joseph Ifume, "on the reduction of
office salaries to infinitesimal quantities."
" The salary of Mr. Smith was, we believe, 6001. a
year, which he had anticipated would have been ad-
vanced to 700 L; but his hopes being defeated by the
economy that has been carried of late into all the pub-
lic offices, he had recourse to forgery as a temporary ex-
pedient ; and from a sum of 500/. has been led by those
qbuyenthtley febweenhotthires
of whom it is believed he has been the dupe, to the
enormous amount of his forgery which we have above
stated. Surely remuneration should be regulated not
stuii:pflrye-
but b y the amount of trust andthe extent of
TofrctaiTueryrestnnirdendr—ti required—which
neh_as
reposed,
integrity required."