The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-09 00:00:00

rHE SUS, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 9, 1870.

being erected in Pimlico, on the estate of the- Mar-
quis of Westminster, to contain about 110 tenements,
accommodating about 600 people. The rent received
from the previously-built tenements is very satisfac-
tory, and the enterprise seems to be beneficial to the
workincr, classes, who are thus enabled to live in clean
and well-built houses at a moderate rent, and also
to the shareholders, who have been granted a divi-
dend of 5 per cent.

TELEGRAPHIC PUNCTUALITY.
A. correspondent of the Evening Standard com-
plains that the new telegraphic authorities exhibit
too much zeal in the delivery of messages
the instant they arrive. The mischief such a
letter aims at, and is actually calculated to accom-
plish, is not concealed by the veil of flimsy jocularity
with which the writer describes how he was
roused in the night to receive a telegram,
the consequent negligent conduct of the
housemaid, the inability of the cook to perform her
accustomed duty with regard to the eggs and bacon,
all the accompaniments of the fearful ordeal of having
to get up in the night, are related in a man-
ner that cannot fail to convince the public that
the only remedy for poor " W. C." is to agitate for
the speedy abolition of such an iniquitous system.
Now, this narrow mode of reasoning might cer-
tainly apply to the delivery at night of a
business telegram of an ordinary character, but all
telegrams are not of this description. If it is annoy-
ing to be roused up. in order to hear that sugar in
Edinburgh is quiet, or corn in York flat,
it is of not the less importance to know
that it is indispensable for the receiver
of a message to leave his place by the first train, or
that he has only a few hours' chance to see a dying
relative. Such a want of interest in the
punctual delivery of a telegram might easily
lead to less alacrity on the part of those to
whose care it is entrusted. The notion is hurtful,
and if anything can equal the almost culpable folly
of anyone complaining of too much zeal on the part
of the new telegraphic authorities, it certainly is the
weakness of a journal devoting a leading article to
the cqvide:ation of such a complaint.

FIYANCE COMPANIES.

(From the Angles American Times.)

The Report of the London and Brighton Railway
Co. is worth reading, and keeping, for future read-
ing. The first question it suggests is—Were the old
directors selected from a lunatic asylum ? The next
—Were the shareholders idiots, and the directors
smart men ? That the latter were not smart appears
on the face of the report, if it is to be credited, for
every one seems to have lost. But did all lose? Could
£4,000,000 sterling have been so invested as to entail
on the company an annual outlay of £35,000 to keep
the work going constructed by the four millions ?
Were any American asked to believe that an ordinary
board of directors could have carried out such a
business without profit to a single individual he
would laugh derisively, well knowing that all un-
derneath must have been a mass of dishonesty and
corruption, of that cruel, relentless, voracious charac-
ter wh'eli sacrifices everything to the one object of
immediate and personal gain. It matters not that
the money is worse than wa-ted, entailing an annual
charge instead of making a return, if only the con-
tractor can extract a large profit; and SmiTir and
BROWN on the direction are mainly interested in
what their pickings are to be. Yet if these people
could realise the result of such work many of
them would be touched with compassion, and, like
JUDAS ISCARIOT, throw down their ill-gotten gains
and go and hang themselves. But they are mainly
composed of two classes; those utterly callous, per-
haps having a fiendish enjoyment in the ruin, and
those who have no imagination, therefore not com-
prehending the work till it presents itself in some ap-
palling form, when their object is to escape the sight,
to dispel the horrid phantom. Strange, too, the public
have little or no sympathy with the ruined families,
and on the whole rather support the fraudulent
directors. The reason is, that, when such people are
brought to account, their distress and suffering
being forcibly depicted and presented to public
gaze in individual cases, move compassion, while
the victims are an impalpable multitude, nowhere
to be seen ; and to excite sympathy there must be in-
dividuality. The directors, too, are an active body,
who work hard in their own interests, and know
how to move the Loudon press. In consequence,
acts as disgraceful as any committed by the Erie
clique have been carried on in London iu defiance of
English law, or rather in connivance with it ; indeed,
little less so than with the celebrated New York
Board. We are glad to see a periodical like the
Quarterly Review* come out as it does in the Janu-
ary number with these telling remarks :—" Sup-
pose that a great blunder has been committed, a
great loss incurred, and that the shareholders pro-
pose to bring the directors to book. The directors
can at once release themselves of their office by sel-
ling their shares, and thereby disqualifying them-
selves as directors; or they may resign their seats,
and there will probably be an end of the matter, so
far as they are concerned. Thus some of the most
disgraceful blunders and extravagances of recent
times have been committed. Let the attempt be
made to 'attach blame to individuals—to fix respon-
sibility somewhere—and see what will be the re-
sult ? The unfortunate directors will receive gene-
ral sympathy ; they will be dismissed from the
presence of the judge with congratulations, perhaps
with cheers ; and, though a thousand families may
have been ruined, it will usually be found that no-
body was to blame ! Not only joint-stock blunders,
but positive frauds have come to be committed with
impunity, under the presidency, and with the ap-
parent sanction, of men of the highest rank. But
sitting as one of a number upon a Board, seems, as
it were, completely to alter the character of men.
In disposing of their own money they may be most
scrupulous, but in dealing with the money of others
they will be found risking it upon schemes in which
individually they would not risk one farthing. Men
cf honourable position shrink from telling a lie, but
collectively they are found affixing their names to
accounts that are inaccurate and deceptive, if not
positively false. Indeed it has almost come to be
recognised that there is one standard of morality
for private persons, and another for the directors of
public compauier. The exposures that have taken
place during the last few years, more particularly
in connection with railway and finance com-
panies, would furnish ample proof, if proof were
needed, that this is no exaggerated statement."
The companies it is our intention to discuss are those
financial concerns to which the Quarterly alludes,
more especially two, whose half-yearly meetings are
about to be held. One of the excrecences produced
by the inflation which ended so disastrously in 1866
was the establishment of such concerns as the Lou-
don Financial, the Imperial Mercantile Association,
and the Credit Foncier, one of which has disas-
trously failed, while the other two drag on a miser-
able existence, practically in liquidation, having for
years ceased to pay dividends. They were heralds dto
the world as the bright dawn of a new financial era ;
our fathers in commerce had been unmitigated
fogies, through whose thick atmosphere but few
rays of any science of economy had ever penetrated.
The first glimpses long ago fell upon Mr. LAW, shed-
ding their lustre over Paris, but the darkness in which
the world was then shrouded could not by them be
dispelled ; that was reserved for the directors of
these financial luminaries. They were not young
enthusiasts who led in pursuit of this ignuus fatuus,
indeed such would not have suited the floaters of
any mere bubbles. JOHN BULL requires heavy re-
spectability ; the heavier, the greater the confidence,
and nothing could exceed in weight the ponder-
ous humanity around these boards. The heavy re-
spectability of the London Financial became pro-
verbial, and the reply to any doubt, to any asper-
sion, to any questionable transaction, was the re-
spectability of the direction. Through promises which
ought to be read by the side of the performances to
understand the difference ; through prospectuses
altogether at variance with the workings promised;
through annual statements and addresses, neither
more nor less than misrepresentations; from a pre-
mium of 100 per cent. down to a discountwhich swal-
lowed thepaid-up capital, and call after call as quickly
as made ; from dividends of 20 per cent. per annum
to these calls following one after the other in total
disregard of all assurances to the contrary, and leav-
ing a wide track of ruin behind—this company held
on its disastrous road, covered the whole way by
its respectability. " The gentlemen directing our
establishment are no Admirals and Generals, Baro-
nets and Honourables, who do not understand busi-
ness, but experienced and respectable City men,
unlikely either to be deluded or to mismanage
what they undertake." The Imperial Mercantile
had a still stronger board of City men, as it re-
presented two amalgamated companies. it was
established in 1864, and paid dividends till within
three months of its disastrous failure; indeed its
last meeting was the most encouraging of all, 20
per cent. being divided, and a fair sum carried to
the reserve, figures and talk bespeaking a flourish-
ing business and ample resources; yet, could a share-
holder have paid three times the amount he had in-
vested in the company to have had his shares can-
celled cn the spot he would have made a good bar-
gain. The Cr6clit Foncier is the best known of these
concerns from its outspoken, audacious announce-
ments. The Directors, with the utmost confidence,
were in the habit of forecasting the financial future,
and sketching the financial horizon. Dividends of 40
per cent. were freely forwarded, beautifully wrapped
up in papers containing the words of wisdom. The
delighted shareholder treasured the brilliant pro-
spects, the gratifying results of his own foresight
in selecting such a company and in upholding such
managers. In big letters was laid before him, " the
effect of these measures will be practically to make our
shares a minimum 20 percent. stock;" and although 20
per cent. was little over half the cust ornery dividend,
yet it was only the minimum which he might calcu-
lateon, as the funnolder on his Three per Conte., for
were not thefuuds whereon the company relied, real-
iz d? These were the financial lights which dazzled
London, though really emanations from Paris, and
the instruments used were the old, " well known, and
highly respectable citizens of London." The Impe-
rial Mercantile vanished in its utter rottenness, and
it is worth the while of English investors to preserve
the names of the men who formed the Board, for future
reference; for these people will again be coming up
when they imaginethatwhat the Quarterly calls " their

* Quarterly Review. January, 1870. "On Life Asourance
Companies."

disgraceful blunders and extravagances" have been
forgotten. The public, however, may rest assured
that there wassomething more disgraceful than blun-
ders in this work. Lord REDESDALE gave the clue
to all concerned shortly after the establishment of
these companies. Of course he was called an old
Tory fogey, long behind his day, but he happened
to be the Chairman of the Peers Railway Commit-
tee, and he happened also as a man of discernment
and practical knowledge of the world, to have an
insight into some of the under currents of villainy,
when he bluntly told what these Finance Companies
were. It is remarkable, and worth noting, that
on their being analysed, they are found to be linked
with bankrupt railways, chain within chain, wheel
within wheel. The public had no notion what rail-
ways had to do with Finance Companies, therefore
men were slow to believe the truth of Lord REDES-
DALE'sstaternent, that these electric lights, promising
so much and stirring the hearts of the investing
English public were neither more nor less than the
creations of a set of railway contractors, notorious
schemers, corruptionists, and speculators, to use as
reservoirs for drawing the money of the public, to
give them the greater facilities for the construction of
such lines as ruined the London and Brighton Rail-
road, naturally one of the most valuable and profitable
of English properties. Our space is too limited now
fully to sketch the career of any of these Financial As-
sociations, which we will reserve for another number.
Indeed there are a few facts connected with their his-
tories which ought to be impressed on the public
mind, for it is, a truth which cannot be too often re-
peated to use the words of the Quarterly; " it has
almost come to be recognized that there is one
standard of morality for private persons, and ano-
ther for Directors of public Companies."

POLICE INTELLIGENG'E—Yesterday.

THAMES.

THE ROBBERY IN THE Dock.—John Jones, aged
30 years, a dock labourer, was brought before Mr.
Lushington, charged with stealing four ounces of
tea in the West India Dock. The prisoner was
stopped by Peter Smith, a dock constable, as he
was leaving the dock at the import entrance, and
he was ordered to take off his boats. in which four
ounces of tea were found. The tea wits perfectly
clean, and did not consist of sweepings. There
acre thousands of chests of tea on the quays, and
some of them were broken.

The Pri-:over —lt's all true what the officer says.
Mr. Lushington—You have been led into temp-
tation, which you should have resisted. I sentence
you to 21 days' imprisonment and hard labour.

DA RING ROBBELCY IN A SEAMEN'S LODGING-HOUSE.
—William Everest, a sailor boy, aged 16 years,
was brought before Mr. Lushington, charged with
stealing 255., the money of Henry Coffin, a seaman
of No. 260, Cave-street, St. George-in-the-East.
The prosecutor slept in a room last night in
which three other meu and the prisoner were sleep.
ing. He got up this morning at five o'clock and
left the room for a few minutes. On his return he
discovered that his trousers, which he left on the
bed, had been displaced, and were on the floor.
He missed a sovereign and two half crowns from
the pockets. The boy was in bed close to the
prosecutor's bed, and he was at once suspected and
accused of committing the robbery. He stoutly
denied having touched the money. An immediate
search took place, and the two half-crowns were
found under the prisoner's bed and between the
bed and the mattress. A police constable named
Soper, 43 K, was called in, and he asked the boy
what he had done with the sovereign ? " Sewn up
in the bed," was the prisoner's reply, and it was
found in the bed among the feathers.
The prisoner pleaded guilty.
Lushington—You are young, and take warn-
iag. You will find it does not answer to commit
acts of dishonesty. You are sentenced to three
months' impriso: ment and hard labour.