The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-30 00:00:00

e o • (of Overend and Gurney
directors by the Lo ...Mayor, last Wednesday, on
a charge of conspiring to defraud, is the great event
of the week in London. To understand the feeling
excited in the city the position of these gentlemen
now to be tried on a criminal charge should be
known. They were at the bead of the greatest
discount house in the world; their name, like that
of Rothschild, was synonymous with wealth ; they
were city dignitaries ; they were county magnates,
combining an overwhelming influence in Lombard-
street with vast estates and princely establishments
in Norfolk and other English counties. The
nett profits from their bill-braking business
alone exceeded £120,000 a year on an amount
of paper annually discounted of between fifty
and seventy millions sterling. No business is held to
be more safe only requiring a keen knowledge of the
men with whom to work. It appears almost incre-
dible that a sober, respectable firm so long, so well,
and even grandly established as to have become an
English institution, should have deliberately left
their broad, smooth, easy path of fortune for the
tortuous, miry, intricate byeways of speculation,
chicanery, concealment, and ruin. The world, how-
ever, furnishes examples in such numbers that
people ought not to be surprised at any case crop-
ping up, and, after all, they are easily explained. A
long tide of prosperity gives security, security
causes neglect, and neglect, where large sums
of money are concerned, leads surely to dis-
aster. The Gurneys lived .ou their estates in
the enjoyment to be derived from their high
position, leaving affairs at the " corner house" to
run on in the well-worn groove. They were con-
tent to receive reports from those they trusted, in-
stead of going through the labour of investigating
and working out the figures for themselves. The
profits for the senior partners were ample, but
probably there were those below in whose hands
then lay the power who desired to increase these
lit4fits so as to leave a larger tuargip,for th • t,:;•
,•
inire—pirirciiriVitibut the sPerioa o t.O
change in their business, was infested with a class
who called themselves financial agents mere
sharpers and adventurers whose business it was
to procure funds for contractors, for schemes in
a state of collapse, for bubble companies, and the
endless varieties of conspiracies against the pockets
of the public. These were the most prominent
actors in all the seoundrelism which in so short a
time has fixed a stigma on the commercial cha-
racter of England, ruined thousands of families,
and dissipated countless millions. When the Li-
mited Liability Act was passed the City to them
became a field of golden harvest. Companies by
the hundred were formed, directors procured,
secretaries appointed, and the different enterprises
launched. The public now find it difficult to
understand what could have become of the money
paid up on the shares of these companies, and how
the enormous liability beyond that was incurred.
L2t them imagine a comfortable back office in which
si.s a secretary of one of these companies and a
financial agent. " I assure you it will be a mine of
wealth," says the latter, " we only need the few thou-
sands I mentioned. Of course, there will be ex-
penses in starting the company, and we can afford
£2,000 to you to be used as a portion of the Pi e-
liminary Expenses." From that moment it becomes
the interest of the secretary to further the scheme.
What lie has to do is to carry one or two of his
directors, as he calls them, with him, and presently
a portion of the shareholders' money has been ex-
changed for worthless paper. Indeed it would be
well if these men stopped there, if they did not
pledge the credit as well as dissipate the funds of
the unfortunate persons who trusted them. Does it
surprise, that secretaries with no character or stand-
ing in the commercial world, dealing with the money
of persons unknown to them, should frequently have
given way to such temptation, when we see a pros-
perous, old-established firm like 0 verend, Gurney,
and Co., thus ruined. They left the vital interests
of the business in the hands of those open to such
temptation, and the tcmi ters come like maggots in
neglected cheese. They grow there ; and men
who, but for the neglect, might have remained
honest, fall. It was au easy matter for the firm of
Overend, Gurney to make larg.e profits from their
honest bill-booking business ; but it was not
an easy matter once they got off the track
to get back. It is -a fatal delusidn to sup-
pose that they could try a speculation and
throw it up on finding it did not answer. A lady
might as well begin the process of being made
" Beautiful for ever," and abandon the glorious
vision at the threshold. The folly that brought her
there would carry her through, and all the more
surely that she had overcome the shame and repug-
nance of the first step. Once Mr. Edwards was
admitted, the result could not be doubtful ; but we
are appalled at the swiftness of the ruin. Mephis-
topheles, at least allowed Faust to realize his fan-
cies, though they were mere delusions, but these
financial agents gave nothing. They were dis-
graceful to come in contact with, they were
not even alluring further than their lies could
colour attractively the sepulchre. They worked
on the broad principle, that all men have their
price, from kicks to halfpence, and they considered
that it was an exception rarely to be met with when
the price was not half-pence. What gave these
men their strength was that generally they dealt with
persons managing companies who only disposed of the
money of others, and unfortunately for the gentle-
men committed last Wednesday, unfortunately for
the large body of shareholders upon whose heads fell
the consequences of their neglect, this firm prior
to the conversion of the business had allowed itself
in a great measure to drift into that category. The
public appear to be astounded at the evidence
wrung from such men as Edwards. Why, it is a
notorious fact, known in every bank parlour that
the city was filled with such men, and one of the
hardest tasks of honest banking and financial
establishments was to fend of their attacks ;
the more so, as at that time competition for
business was strong, and they often could get
the ear and support of some one influential
in the establishment. We desire more to allude
to the cause of this extraordinary failure than to
touch on the case, which must be tried in a criminal
court; but, from the examination before the Lord
Mayor, the public can form a broad opinion of the
circumstances. The first thing which strikes us is,
that the men who wrought the ruin have escaped,
and the men who trusted them are the victims ; and
t
this has been almost invariablytheeonreuerlens. Thee
in h
collapse of all these Joiut-Stock
Gurneys trusted to others, and theyte w
betrayed ; the public trusted Gurneys
uand
y
to the
have smarted for it. The
means and agency were employed
t asts,
rtuhiantedthenesaarmlye
all the Joint-Stock concerns wh i
n which
thefailed
sayingduring
the crisis, which may be explained
that they "fell among
"Incredible I"
exclaim the shareholders,
"that men
in their senses
should do such business." Let them inquire what
how they distributed the
the secretaries got, and
• ht and simple path to the truth.
who are gazing in astonish-
ment Let the shareholders,
go moneyo
n tfhoer straight g the incredible business, and they
g
at the mad management, take the hint, and
they will find out ttat it was not such pure folly
after all, for while they are now tramping
through the mud the men who really managed
are rolling carriages among the " swells "
of
Rotten-row. We
say,
again, let them when
in
easy
they desire to be on the right road, inquire in this
direction and prosecute these inquiries with as little
mercy as these men have shown them. But we
fear to US3 a vulgarism they have now " got the
wrong sow by the ear," though it is more than
probable that the trial may direct them aright,
and we can only regret that the prosecution
does not go a step higher to the source •of the
evil. Through great individual suffering good
can scarcely fail to result, and the catastrophe oc-
curred to the house best calculated to point the
moral so sharply that it penetrates every breast ;
for, when the Gurneys are sent by the Lord Mayor
for trial in a criminal court, who are the commercial
men in the metropolis that endeavour to make the
public atone for their own neglect of business who
can hereafter consider themselves secure ?—Anglo-
American 7 Imes.