The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-16 00:00:00

INDIVIDUAL DLSIIONESTY CO-EXISTING WITII

'UGH NATIONAL CREDIT.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
When English newspapers and mercantile men
turn up their eyes in horror at the proceedings of
Fist( and GOULD, and point disdainfully to the
United States as tainted by the dishonesty thus pel"
witted, it is natural to inquire if they are saints
who have loaded themselves with stones to throw at
the reprobate. It is then with surprise the inquirer
perceives that mass of corruption seething in the me-
tropolis of England, which cas!s all the New York
proceedings into the shade. Pour upon them a
true light, and these saints assume the deep-dyed
hue of sinners ; hypocritical, mean, lying thieves,
in comparison with whom FISK'S daring, open, auda-
cious attacks on the community are like the pro-
ceedings of a CLAUDE DU Vats as contrasted with
those of what is called in America " a sneak thief,"
a pickpocket, or a swell-mobsman. We ask any
of our readers to glance through the Law Reports of
the daily papers, and they cannot fail to obtain some
insight into the horrors which otherwise have been
carefully cloaked by the press. There is scarcely
a family in England that had moderate means at its
command at the commencement of the decade now
closing, which have not been victimized in .a greater
or lesser degree by the dishonesty of their country-
men. The ruin wrought may be estimated by get-
ting au idea of the number of Joint Stock Com-
panies which have disastrously failed, as well as
those still dragging on a miserable and unprofit-
able existence. Many of the latter are given in the
daily lists published, more especially that headed
" Miscellaneous." In the figures there represented
scores of millions sterling are shown to have disap-
peared, but beyond that, the coast is strewn with
innumerable wrecks, the waifs and strays from
which are constantly turning up in the Courts with
the name, of what once appeared in its possessor's
eyes a noble ship, branded on the pieces. And
how was it that these rotten concerns, these crazy,
unwholesome craft were freighted with all this gold,
and precious lives as well ? Here it is that we come
to the nightmare of dishonesty revealed by the
fraud panic—a dishonesty which has so stricken
English credit at home that men have lost their
faith in each other, that the word of a gentleman
is now a scoff, while even the bond of a merchant,
if it can be evaded, is regarded as little better. Al-
though the press is silent, society is pierced with
the crimes ; and the belief is now general that no
men, however honourable may be their character
or high their social standing, can be trusted to tell
the plain truth, while on a Joint-Stock board. Their
• morality is simply this, that if FISK and GOULD lie
and cheat in their, corporate capacity, they are justi-
fied ; but if they lie and cheat in their individual
capacity they deserve censure. There appears to
be no notion of a code of honour in a board of
direction, nor any limit to the latitude it allows
itself. It is necessary to misrepresent with a skill
almost scientific, successfully to float a bubble coin-
pany, yet they were launched in England literally
in hundreds, and worked with a disregard of the
interests of the shareholders, which, if the vice and
recklessness were fully revealed, would appal the
world. The English press has managed to rivet at-
tention on that affair of OVEREND-GURNEY, and then
to gloss over the whole, by dwelling on the strong
points of the defence and the failure of the attempt
to punish the undeniable fraud therein committed,
the innocent and the guilty being huddled together
through iaexperience in a confusion fatal to the pro-
secution. But OVEREND-GURNEY is a mere incident,
a prominent spec in the huge stsin, though not the
blackest. It is true that a company in hepelessiosol-
veucy frattiulently transferred the weight of its debts
on shareholders who implicitly trusted in the honour of
a great name. Bat there were hund reds of worse cases,
though none more disastrous in the amount of the
ruin wrought. In railways, in finance companies,
in banking, manufacturing, hotel and other build-
ings, in shopkeeping, in farm-producing, and indeed
in every conceivable form, the public were merci-
lessly plundered. The names of the directors ranged
from the occupier of a suburban semi-detached villa
up to an earl in his mansion in Belgravia. The
financial forecasts of the Credit Foncier of England
were signed by a Right Honourable as Governor.
Nearly every such concern floated had for its keel
au M.P. The well-known City men, suggestive of
heavy money bags for ballast, were conspicuous as
the figure-head, fools supplied the ribs, and they
were covered with a planking of knaves. False
glasses were put into the hands of the public to give a
seeming substance to the phantom ship, and all
were invited to partake in the gains of a prosperous
voyage. The illusion was complete, for was not the
eloquent member at the bottom, the well-known
financier at the prow, and the skilful pilot at the
wheel ? These things were constructed and sent off,
freighted with that portion of the fortunes of fa-
milies which the trusted promoters did not manage
to steal before the ship was under way ; the rest
went where most of its projectors knew it would
go—to the bottom—with bits to be cast up along
the coast as prey for the lords of the manor, repre-
sented by another set of thieves. This may appear
strong language, but it is too well known through-
out England for contradiction ; and though men
are silent in public, in private, from one end of the
country to the other, the curses are loud and deep.
Yet what has English law done to punish the guilty
or to protect hereafter the wool again growing on
those sheep that were shorn,not flayed,by the thieves?
Not an effectual move has been made, nor could be
made, for the veriest thief of the lot had the law on
his side. Judges strongly censured some atrocious
cases when the facts were revealed, but the victims
were on the register of shareholders, and therefore
had to pay. Sometimes the frauds by which the
names had been inserted came out in glaring co-
lours, but seldom did any person on that account
escape. There was, however, one case the other day
which concerned two gentlemen, and it may be taken
as a sample of how these things were done. Two
officers of the British army, belonging to a well-
known Club, met on its steps. "I want you," said
one who had drifted into company-concoction, "to
lend me your signature ;" and the other, who be-
lieved he was addressing a man of great wealth, wil-
lingly complied, supposing that he required him to
act as a witness. A dozen blank transfer certificates
were placed before " the innocent," who scratched
his name on all as directed, and thought nothing
more about the matter. Happily for him the sig-
nature was a scratch,' for in vain the attempt was
made to decipher his Christian names, and they
were wrongly entered on the list for the shares he
had unwittingly secured. When applied to for
the heavy calls resulting from the disastrous failure
of the company he indignantly denied ever having
possessed a share, but his astonishment was in-
creased by the bundle of certificates showing a whole
series of applications with his undeniable signa-
ture. A transfer, however, requires a witness to its
execution, and here transpired another little epi-
sode in the plot—there was the signature testifying
that the document had been signed and sealed in
that person's presence, who, when questioned,
acknowledged that he was in the habit of thus at-
testing a signature. Had the name been entered
correctly on the register, the weight of the failure
would have fallen in ruin on the officer, yet this case
was never alluded to in the press, because such are
so common, and all so much desire to reach the end
of that terrible period of stagnation which has told
alike against capital, enterprise, and industry.
Now no one will deny that the National credit of
England is the best, while the foregoing assertions
cannot be contradicted ; hence our conclusion, that
a natien may have a vast number of rascals in the
c)mmunity, yet earn and retain high national cre-
dit, and what can the 7 imes say in answer ? Per-
hays that the English cheat each other, not fo-
reigners, who have no right to criticise, as they are
not asked for any loan nor to invest in any British
securities, a distieetion to which we are alive, but
it does not diituib our argument.

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