The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-01 00:00:00

STATEMENT RESPECTING STOCK HELD
IN TRUST BY WRIGHT AND CO.

For the better part of a century the house had alaays
held, in the names of one or mere of the partners, a c )n-
-sidcrtble amount of stack purchases by order int 3 the
names of the firm, and held i s trust for wrlous parties. It
is well known in the money market, that while the rate of
inter st on Exchequer bills and other floating securities is
frequently very high, thet on stock in the three per cent.
mauls money may be obtained at an exceediegly low rate
of inte est. Indeed, in some instancas, from arc met day
to account day, for nothing, and it has happened often, as
ewe banks wi I show, that we have received prafit on the
loan of stock, instead of paying interest on the loan of mo-
ney. It was this state of things which probably induced
Mr. Wright, about fourteen years ago, to introduce a sy,t,sm
of taking up temporary loans on the deposit of this trust
stock. In every instance in which these sales were made,
up to a recent period, the stock so sold was invariably
purchased back for the account. This practice always
met with the deciled disapprobation both of Mr. Selby
and if my father, whom I have known to withhold his
signature for weeks to a power of attorney, from a re-
luctance to confer tao power of any liberty being taken
with the stock so held. As respects myself, I will at
once avow, that :hough I could not aeprove of it, yat
knowing thee at that period the-e was no possible sista
and that we always held Exchequer bills or India bonds
to an amount very much more than sufficient to replace the
stock at an hour's wa-niiv, I regarded it then as a matter
of comparative indifference. Not so, however, for the
last two years ; when the dacultiss of the house became
apparsot, I felt the deepest anxiety to have the stock re-
placed, and frequently spoke to Mr. Wright on the sub-
ject, particulatly when the danger became more immi-
nent, when I urged him to have this done immediately,
even if t' ..e house should be obliged to stop the next day,
and Mr. Jerninghorn and l had determined that, haprea
what might, to re-purchase the whole deficient capital on
the day before the December shutting. Sanguine, how-
ever to the last, and deceiving us, and probably himself,
by the prospects which be held out to us of the successful
issee of negotiations for immediate powerfal assistanc-,
he allowed the ti:re to pass by, and destruction came upon
the house so rapidly in its last moments that it could not
be done.
I have spoken only of sales made for the use of the
house. There were two instances of stocks sold by Mr.
Wright and appropriated to hi: own pnrposes, of which I
knew nothing for a long time after these transactions oc
curred.
Subjoined is a statement of salas and purchases of stock
made for the use cf the house since the 17th of July.
1830, on which day the whole had been bought back, and
stood in the names of one or more ef the firm, with the
exception of 10,090/. Consols sold aasin on that day.
Subjoined also is a. statement of the claimants of stock,
tnd of the amount unsold, and in what names it stands ;
and further, of what investment may have been made sub-
sequent to any sale, or otherwise " ear-marked."
It should be observed that stock stood sometimes in the
joint names, and sometimes in indivithial names of the
firm, and sometimes in the name of the stock-broker for
the convenience of transfer, and our books cannot show at
what period these changes took place.
THREE PER CENT. CONSOLS.