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

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3

OFEJIE'ND, GUILVEI, AND CO.

The committal of the Overend and Gurney
directors by the Lord 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 head 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 Lombarcla
street with vast estates and princely establishments
in Norfolk and other English counties. Tho
nett profits from their bill-broking business
alone exceeded £1.20,000 a year on an amount
of paper annually discounted of between fifty
and seventy millions sterling. No busineSs is heta 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 lone, so well,
and even grandly estas)lished as to heves become an
English institution, should have deliberately left
their broad, smooth, easy path of fortune for the
tortuous, mil, indicate byeways of speculation,
concealment, anti ruin. The world, how_
ever, furni,lies 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 susas
of money are concerned, leads surely to dis-
aster. The Gurneys lived on their estates in
the enjoyment to b 3 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. Tiles -
profits for the senior partners were ample, but
probably there were those below_in whosesbaada
then lay the power who desired to increase these
profits so as to leave a larger margin for themselves.
London, more particularly about the period of the
change in their business, was infested with a class
who called., thenisalves financial agents mere
sharpers atelidventurers—whose business it was
to' procure fit#tis for contractors, for scheny% in
n 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 scOaddrelistn which in so short a
time has fixed a stigthis 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 haise become of the money
paid up on the shares of these companies, and how
the enormous liability beyond that was incurred.
Let them imagine a comfortable back office in which
sits 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
4,000 to you to be used as a portion of the Pre-
liminary Expenses." From that moment it becomes
-the interest of the secretary to farther the scheme.
What he 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 theth. 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 Overend, Gurney,
and Co., thus ruined. They left the vital interests
of the business in the hands of those open to such
temptation, and the tempters come like maggots in
neglected cheese. They grow there. ; and men
who, but for the neglett, might have remained
leanest, fall. It was an easy in titer for the firm of
Overend, Gurney' to 'Mike, large profits from their
honesst bill-booking business ; but it was not
an easy matter once they got off the track
to get back. It is a fatal delusion to Bur-
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. Mephii-
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
person s man agi ug companies who only disposed of the
money of others, and unfortunately for the gentle-
men committed last Wednesdsy, 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 bad 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
that the men who wrought the ruin have escaped,
and the men who trusted them are the victims ; and
this has been almost invariably the rule in the
The
betrayed
of all these Joint-Stock concerns.
t rtuh set epdubtloi ottrhuesrtse,da ntdo t tthihsee,y ‘Gy eurren
eysa cruellyn d
that the same
bGeatrranyeyeds
ed as ruined nearly
mhaevaeessameadrtaegdeefeoyr iwt.er.eTehmepineyex
which
i nf a
ti lheed duringsaying
eras
explained
theall theerisis, Joint-Stockw hiehtnayc
be
concerns
etxhaeltainithetyhe
Let them inquire what
"fell
amongthieves." "Incredible !"
shareholders, "that men in their senses
how they distributed the
tshoulde dr
eot
as
rui ce bguest naen. "
money for doing the incredible business, and they
go on the straight and simple path to the truth.
Let the shareholders, who are gazing in astonish-
ment at the mad management, take the hint, and
they will find out that it was not such pure folly
after all, for while they are now tramping
through the mud the men who really managed
arc rolling in easy carriages among the " swells "
of Rotten-row. We say, again, let them when
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 US•3 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?—Angle-
America» lim
es.

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