The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-16 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Times gives the following sketch of Mr. Cave's
case, and his Cornish mining speculations :—" Mr.
Thomas Saunders Cave was originally a clerk in a public
office. What were the leading features of his earlier
career, and what combination of circumstances even-
tually rendered him such a distinguished proficient in the
art of bubble projectorship, :we do not care to inquire.
Our knowledge of him begins with his first attempt to
set himself up as an extensive dealer in mine shares ;
and it appears that about seven years ago, having
arranged his plans with consummate address, he
suddenly presented himself as the principal owner
of the Rospeath and Wheal-Bolton mines—two in-
valuable possessions in Cornwall, for the profitable work-
ing of which it was said to be necessary that his own
resources should be extensively assisted by a large acces-
sion of co-proprietors. To obtain this new proprietary,
and their corresponding advance of capital, Mr. Thomas
Saunders Cave betook himself to a series of artful expe-
dients, unprecedented, if we mistake not, both in the
audacity of their character, and especially in their
seductive influence upon many infatuated dupes. By
means of the most fraudulent representations as to the
productiveness and profits of the mines—representa-
tions which no prudent capitalists could have been
expected to confide in, without satisfactory inquiry
—the indefatigable share-seller succeeded very
speedily in inducing 54 persons of talent, credit,
and respectability to subscribe no less a sum than
368,0001.' The respective amounts invested by these
subscribers varied from 5,0001. to 20,000/. Printed cir-
culars, embodying the most glowing lures, such as arc
often resorted to by colonial land companies, were exten-
sively disseminated by Mr. Cave's hired canvassers.
Pipes of wine, outfits to India, costly velvet dresses,
money accommodations, and all sorts of acceptable pre-
sents were profusely given by him as baits to his in-
tended 'victims. Nay, the enterprising mine-owner
even employed a foreign traveller whose peregrinations
in hawking his glittering ware, actually extended as
far as Algiers. Ten per cent., at the lowest fraction, was
the promised profit. Respectable people, in temporary
straits, were drawn into his net by pecuniary loans.
One particular friend of his mortgaged a very considerable
property for the sake of being admitted to a participa-
tion in the promised spoil. Meanwhile, in the absence
of any actual dividend, his credulous co-partners were
assured, even when Mr. Cave knew his bubbles were on
the eve of bursting, that these 4 magnificent interests'
yielded a lar,,e remunerative return, which would soon be
realized, and might be stated in round numbers to be
worth from two or three millions of money. Of course,
after what we have mentioned, the signal failnre of
these projects will occasion no surprise; but our
readers will hardly expect to learn, what was distinctly
announced by Sir Charles Williams, that when the
bankrupt's splendid chimeras hal ended, his whole
balance was, in one case, 1/. 45., and in another, about
4/. and a fraction ! The consequence is, that a large
number of respectable persons, whose avarice outwitted
their prudence, are either reduced to comparative poverty,
or irretrievably ruined. Now, this extraocdinary affair,
which certainly administers an instructive lesson to our
countrymen, is in truth only one of a numerous class,
exhibiting, more or less, precisely the same characteris-
tics. To comment upon particular instances of a similar
kind, still in progress and not yet blown up, might
be both invidious and dangerous. Suffice it to ob-
serve in general, that there are, at present, innume-
rable schemes afloat, partly referring to emigration,
and partly to home investments, which, like Mr.
Cave's Cornish mines and the West Middlesex In-
surance Company, and sundry more specious adventures
that might be mentioned, habitually parade the most
inveigling snares, but cannot furnish a bit better security
for success, than the wretched imposture which Sir
Charles Williams has so powerfully and seasonably ex-
posed. As long as monied men or intended emigrants
can be found so wholly devoid of ordinary foresight as
to peril their funds in such crazy speculations as these,
it is absurd to complain of the extensive want of confi-
dence now subsisting in the mercantile world. Incau-
tious investers, whose lamentations upon this point
are always loudest, are themselves the chief cause of
the evil they deplore. Let them learn wisdom by ex-
perience ; and then the existing facilities for swind-
ling, so injurious to sound commerce, will be soon
superseded by a more healthful state of things."—
This singular case is another instance of how much may
be done by a clever, scheming projector, who falls in with
the world's notions of respectability. Mr. Cave took
care to cultivate a-well-to-do air ; hence his success.
From appearing to want nothing, he gained every thing.
It was not so much the plausibility of his project that
enabled him to turn it to account, as the conviction on
the part of those who had faith in him, that he
was a man of substance—one who stood well in the
Money-market. His pictures—his wines—his good
dinners—and seasonable presents—were so many
vouchers for his respectability. Who could doubt
the character or capabilities of a man who could give
his four or five courses, and exhibit an imposing ser-
vice of plate? We draw from Mr. Cave's case this in-
ference, namely, that wealth, or the appearance of it,
which is much the same thing, is, in the world's estima-
tion, virtue, integrity, station, talent, and sagacity. How
different would have been this gentleman's luck had he
sceemed or speculated in a coat out of the elbows !
Though his projects might have been twice as plausible,
they would then have been universally cried down as
preposterous. We honestly confess that we have not the
slightest sympathy for those who have lost by him. They
provoked, and have deserved their fate.

The Post, still harping on the Derby Conference,
says :—" Some mortified political flatterers of the worthy
dealers in cotton and woollen hosen who conferred'
the other day at Derby, appear to be excessively sore
at what we have taken the liberty of saying about the
said Conference. We always suspect people who are
annoyed when plain truth is spoken in a plain but not
discourteous manner. We thought that the manufacturers
assembled at Derby entirely mistook their vocation, and
we said so. But we said nothing harshly or unkindly
of those persons. We have no angry feeling towards
them. We believe they are very unwise to fret them-
selves about matters they do not understand, and to
lose time in attending to the business of legislators
which might well be employed in attending to
their own business of stocking and glove makers."—
As the Post is so bent on giving advice to the delegates
at the Derby Conference, we will in return give our Con-
temporary a little advice. Let him cease to discuss
questions of political economy; of which he has not the
slightest knowledge, and confine himself instead to mat-
ters more congenial to his nature, such as chronicling
fashionable arrivals and departures, and giving the
earliest and most authentic information of the proceed-
ings at the last party at Buckingham Palace or Windsor
Castle. Here he is quite at home, and displays a tact
and industry infinitely to his credit. But as to matters
of trade or finance, he has as much acquaintance with
them as a lady's maid has with the doctrines of the
Puseyites.
The Herald says :—" Could we have conscientiously
announced an opinion that the mischievous folly or pre-
sumption of Puseyism, was on the decline,—that the
infected places of Oxford were becoming once more pure
and healthful,—and that the Protestant reformed religion
of our Establishment was once more supreme in her own
venerable metropolis ; her antiquity and purity unchal-
lenged—her authority unimpeached,—we should not
have felt ourselves justified in again pressing upon the,
public attention a subject so distressing ; a discussion so
protracted. But the evil has become, like an un-
extinguished though retarded fire, only the more
virulent and dangerous from the inadequate checks
which, as yet, have been applied to it. Our
path must still be trodden over cineres dolo-
sos,' until the ,sense of the Prelates of the Church,
of our Protestant Universities, and of the vast majority
of the British public which has hitherto remained within
the pale of that Church, (satisfied with and confident in
its protection)—shall have been manifested in some
mode sufficiently emphatic and decided to quench the
last sparks of the schism which has been so perversely
lighted up."—The reason that the Church does not