The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-23 00:00:00

I 41, VE

.2 :3 85 6

it always does in these cases. But
market MI,
Bank
itld the good fortune to dis-
jumt then the w property, which,
available without
cover tt coal mine in their.
however, they could not matir,:"
an outpit, and " slips," and a vent ; so they set to
work, and through these outpits, and " '2lPs, and
vents their money flowed apace, and we ,:1-0 not
wonder that, as Mr. Esdailo told the sad tale, ho
became suddenly conscious of a peculiar appearance
of inward suffering—of pain of mind. In 1853 a
Mr. F. Clarke took the works, and speedily threw
thorn up for want of money ; with 10,0001. he
would make hi.; fortune. So the works returned
to the Bank, like Hunchback, or a bad shilling.
By this time, 1853, including the original debt, and
the purchase of the seccod and third mortgages,
with the equity of redemption, the cost was about
S'),000/. Nothing daunteu.'• the Bank went on,
and by this time the works I.,save cost it 106,0001.,
exclusive of interest on the various advances.
But we appeal to the British aris.tocracy. Is there
no youthful millionaire who wish es to add to his
country's wealth and his own at the .same time ? Is
there no noble student of economic geology wh•
has nothing else to do with his time ai_ul money ?
It is true these iron-works are now, Mr. Coleman
informs us, " a complete property," buy`' let us
hope there. is still room for investment and enter-
prise. As the property has swallowed up in, ineY
for the last six years at an average rate of abtlut
16,0001. a year, there is, doubtless, still scope ft ,r
expenditure. On the very best mining authority
Mr. Coleman informs us that it can now be made
to yield a profit of 16,0001. a-year. If we set the
authority of this nameless gentleman against th
experience of the Royal British Bank, the property
is worth, in Algebraic phrase, x x 16,0007.• x x
16,0001. • 0., and we should think it au Act of
great courage to take the works at only 2i years'
purchase.
With half the directors, the solicitor, and one of
the auditors deeply in debt : with vast works goin
on in Wales ; with the directors shutup in the par-
lour, and the real accounts in his own desk, Mr.
Cameron was in command of the position and could
do what he liked, not only with his own, but with
everybody else's. So infact he did. His own trifling
debt of 30,0001. was on the strength of securities
said to be worth as much, but, as 2t now appears,
only worth exactly one-tenth, and already mort-
gaged over and over again. Indeed with this gen-
tleman's power of coining money out of nothing,
he ought to have done something for the Bank. On
the contrary, the Bank, like the property in Wales,
the more money there was spent upon it, the less
was the real value and the higher the vominal.
When the Bank was absolutely insolvent the
directors were paying six per cent. dividends,
and inviting new directors and new applications
for shares on the strength of their unexampled
and exuberant prosperity. " You have beeii in
existence seven years," says an exasperated
shareholder, who, poetical in his wrath, compared
the concern to the black waters of Erebus,
" and during the entire of that period you have
been expending a sum of 1,5001. a-week, or 2001.
a-day. Why, our connexion with such a concern
was more dangerous than would have been deal-
ing with tomahawking savages, for the latter would
have been our avowed enemies." This was not the
only burst of feeling, as the shareholders fixed first
on one, then another, supposed author of their
wrongs. The sticks and stones flew about, and
Alderman Kennedy, among others, was the object
of many a savage, many a piteous appeal. But
when that vir pietate gravis rose, amid profound
silence, it was only to explain that he had been
just as great a dupe as his colleagues, and knew
nothing about the concern of which he was a paid
director. These are ,candid confessions, but, as a
death bed repentance is all that the direction is
capable of, people must be content with it. The
company, of course, is dissolved ; a call of 501. a
share has been made ; and in a few weeks the
Royal British Bank will have resigned itself into
the arms of Chancery, with what result to share-
holders and depositors time only can show—Times.