The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-18 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, FEB. 18, 1869.

A more striking instance of the uncertainty of
human calculations has seldom been afforded than
that which was witnessed on the opening night of
the new session. Who does not remember the excite-
ment which prevailed when the first notes of the
election warfare sounded, and the eager anticipations
with which all looked forward to the great political
skirmish? All has been changed, however, and a
more tame commencement to a session has never been
heard of. Perhaps it is all for the best, and so the
country will think when the first disappointment is
over. There has been enough, and to spare, of words
of late, and the whole of last year was wellnigh

wasted in idle recrimination of one kind and another.

Great credit is certainly due to the Opposition leaders
for the tone they assumed, and the Government, to

_ .
do them justice, seemed to appreciate their modera-
tion. Mr. DISRAELI has neverbeen a factious politician,
and be showed on Tuesday night that he was quite
at home again at the left hand of the Speaker. To
begin at the beginning, the Royal Speech was care-
fully framed, and thus a good example was set.
Lord CAIRNS commented on this in his inaugura-
tive speech as leader of his party in
the Upper
House, and he wisely declared that they had better
not follow the plan of other years, and waste their
time till Whitsuntide. This was a good reminder,
for what with the delay in commencing the session
and the early arrival of Easter, it seems as if one
interruption after another would intervene. The
only exciting episode of the evening in the House of
Commons was when Mr. GLADSTONE gave notice,
amid much cheering, that on the Ist of March he
would move that the house go into committee on the
acts relating to the Established Church of Ireland.
Mr. DISRAELI came to the point at once, and said that
the absence of controversial topics in the Address was
very fitting in the case of the present Government,
which had come into office from the unmistakeable
wish of the country to have the Irish Church question
disposed of. The right hon. gentleman briefly dis-
posed of this part of the subject, by declaring that
the House ought to have the case put before it in an
entire fashion, and not in a partial and incomplete
form. Mr. GLADSTONE'S first speech to the House
as Premier, if not one of his most brilliant
displays, was certainly characterised by great
caution, and exhibited a statesmanlike bearing that
promised well for the future. He expressed his sense
of the moderation and fairness of the opposition
leader in appropriate terms, declaring that in his re-
marks on the question of the day the right hon. gen-
tleman had acted in a spirit worthy alike of its in-
trinsic importance and of the high position which he
held.

We cannot rely upon the promises which Mr.
GLADSTONE made at the conclusion of his discourse
being carried out, because circumstances may be
against him, but so far it must be admitted that he
speaks fairly and with a sense of the gravity of the task
before him. He declared that in prosecuting the work
of dealing with the Irish Church establishment the
Ministry would use every means in their power to
settle it satisfactorily, and not to provoke any hostile
feeling. Re hoped that the House would treat the
question in a comprehensive spirit, and not so much
with a view to carry out any scheme at first proposed
as to conciliate various opiuious, and thus let all
parties co-operate in the settlement which had been
declared necessary. Considering the imperious

manner in which in which Mr. GLADSTONE was
wont to address the House when he was last before
it in the capacity of leader, it would seem as if he
had employed the interval to some purpose. At any

rate he has begun his arduous work in the right spirit,
and apart from party feeling and political prejudice,
all must admit that he is fully entitled to the proud
position he now holds, alike from his ability and from
long devotion to the public service of his country.
In the secondary portions of the debate, we
may discern an active spirit of reform, and there
seems little reason to fear that this session will be
wasted as too many have been. Mr. GLADSTONE
emphatically declared that physical impossibility
would alone prevent them from carrying out all their
wishes, but that the house must accept the mention of
Scotch education as an earnest of their desire to have
the whole question brought forward as soon as pos-
sible. The ratepaying question must be looked to,
he declared, without reference to party conflicts.

The public will have seen with satisfaction that Mr.
BRUCE, in the course of yesteriay's sitting, ob-
tained leave to bring in a bill for the more effectual
repression of crime. This is a step in the right direc-
tion, and it is fortunate that the right hon. gentle-
man has had his attention called to it so soon, as we
may now have a chance of seeing some legislation
taken place on the subject, a consummation earnestly
to be desired. The new Session has commenced
calmly, but with more dignity than might have
been expected, and it seems suitable that at an ex-
citing juncture like this the two great party
chiefs should abstain from irritating encounters, and
turn their thoughts entirely in the direction of the
public interests. They may fail after all, it is true,
in persuading their followers to keep within due
bounds, but meanwhile we should accord just praise
to the ex-Premier for this graceful recognition of the
claims of his rival, and to the present possessor of
the confidence of his Sovereign for the spirit of mo-
deration which he has displayed in a time of much
temptation. But really great statesmen must always
rank their country's interests higher than the passing
chances of the hour, which bring defeat or victory
alternately in their train.

"FALSE, fictitious, and fraudulent" commercial
,ransactions, as Vice-Chancellor MALINS alliteratively
terms them, are becoming a drug in judicial reports.
The history of companies worked for the sole benefit
of 'directors, and of private firms eking out theirnecessi-
ties by instalments from the public purse, is drearily
uniform. The expedients by which responsible persons
appropriated the money entrusted to their care, and
yet managed to steer clear of the criminal law, are
varied, and exhibit much ingenuity, but are all
founded upon a common basis of falsehood. And
yet it is only at the present time that this great
national evil is likely to be seriously dealt with. The
disclosures are now being made; public indignation
is daily recruited by fresh revelations ; the losses to
many thousands of all classes are still unrepaired.
If the new phases of fraud in the guise of commerce
do not receive serious attention now, they are likely
to remain neglected. But certainly the directors of the
company of which Mr. HARVEY LEWIS, M.P., was one
of the chosen guides, have succeeded in realising all
that is possible in the way of commercial originality.
The suit in which the member for Marylebone figures
so prominently has revealed " arrangements " of
more than usual complexity. Mr. HARVEY LEWIS
and others got up a company to buy the bank-
ing house of LAFITTE and Co., Paris. They
intended to do an extensive business at both
the great capitals, and they designed that their
company, like a huge magnet, should attract " other
banking and financial companies," which were to be
incorporated with the old. One of these was the
Ottoman Company, but as the proprietor of tha
Paris Bank would not give up his property until
40,000 shares in the new company had been taken,
and as the assets of the Ottoman Company were not
ready to meet the claim, an extraordinary manoeuvre
was resorted to. The International Contract Com-
pananaythweaps aosffsisertedth Ottoman
toe
givethe Company,
directors of
araisskbedanitroer
this company £25,000 if they would raise the 40,000
shares. The matter was further involved by the
National Bank, of which Mr. ll.tEvEv LEWIS was a
director, consenting to discount the promissory notes
of the International Company to an amount sufficient
to enable that company to takethe 40,000 shares in the
new company. It was arranged that the National Bank
should discount the promissory notes, but that the new
Paris and London banking company was to keep a
balance sufficient to cover the advances made on these
notes. This arrangement, with various fees and pay-
ments, was carried out. When the directors of the
new banking company applied on the Stock Ex-
change for a settling-day, they produced a letter,
signed by the sub-manager of the National Bank, and
certifying that the new company had a balance in
the National Bank to the amount of £337,000.
It now transpires that the guarantee was worthless ;
the greater part of the sum in question was held, but
held only to be applied to the liabilities of another
company. Money had been paid into the National
Bank for a specific purpose, and yet the directors,
Mr. HARVEY LEWIS and others, allowed it to be
quoted on the Stock Exchange for an entirely
different purpose. The transaction was one which
entirely justified the VICE-CHANCELLOR'S dictum
that all the parties concerned ought to be turned out of
court. And few persons will question a judgment
which represents Mr. lIAnvEY LEWIS and his col-
leagues as guilty of acts " false, fictitious, and
fraudulent," which will give Marylebone the
opportunity of electing another representa-
tive, and which holds the National Bank liable
for the whole amount of the false guarantee on
which these transactions were based. In point of
fact, the shareholders of that bank are punished for
the deeds of their directors. It was to obtain the
j 325,000 that this falsehood was employed. Mean-
while, whatever benefit Mr. LEWIS and his colleagues
may have derived from their manufacture of docu
mentary authority, it is the old story with the share
holders. All the companies are being wound up.

THE formal statement of Mr. WATRIN EDWARDS
in the Bankruptcy Court must possess a certain per-
manent value. As it is uncertain when the charge
against the directors of the great discount company
will come on for hearing, or whether the eccentrici-
ties of British law will ever allow us to hear the last
of it, so clear and lucid a statement of an important
part of the case must be of great service. The
special jurymen must be thankful for a
document which will save them so much trouble.
No amount of evidence-weighing could put the
history of Messrs. OVEREND, GURNEY, and Co., so
far as Mr. EDWARDS was concerned in it, in a clearer
light. What may be the effect of this narrative
upon the future position .of Mr. EDWARDS it is for
the LORD CHANCELLOR to decide; but, as a matter
of fact, the nature of the official assignee's explana-
tion does not admit of the remotest doubt. The
evidence given before the City magistrates told its own
tale. The explanation is simply another edition of the
evidence, softened in some places, but very materially
embellished in others. The public may charitably
allow Mr. EDWARDS the full benefit of his illness in
1867. There can likewise be little dispute that his
examination before the magistrates was severe, and
that he met with " great hostility from all parties,"
meaning that public feeling was unanimous on the
subject of his transactions. Nor is it worth while to
contest the point whether Mr. EDWARDS attended the
meetings of the Atlantic Company once or twice a
week, whether the absorption of time in this sort of
business was so great as is generally believed, whether
his emolument s were so far reduced by the Bank-
ruptcy Act of 1861 that his embarking in trade was
only to recruit a diminished income. The conclu-
sions drawn from the evidence of Mr. EDWARDS
were, that he became the paid adviser of the discount
company whilst official assignee at the Bank-
ruptcy Court—that he was connected with many
firms with which the company had dealings, and
he received money from both sides; that during his
period of advice the ruin of the great house was ,