The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-20 00:00:00

THE -JOINT -STOCK COMPANY MANIA.

The 'history of the Joint-Stock Company Mania,
when, rwritten, will prove interesting and instructive
to the careful student, for it will give a record
of English life more loaded with dishonesty and
crime, more widespread in disastrous results, than
the annals of any other country could furnish.
Ir 6deed, on it the story should be based of " All
fo r Greed—and Nought for Love." The mania was

co ilimenced by a gang of unprincipled impostors,
it was continued by the foolish and unscrupulous,
and it is now being wound up by the cruel and vo-
racicals. The Act of 1862 limiting the liability of
shawholders in a company, opened the gates of
trade to all classes. One of its first effects was a
curious alliance between men fertile in imagination,

unprincipled in action, and as deceitful as needy,
with those who possessed names and characters, to
be used as decoy-ducks to allure the public into the
snare. The revolution iu trade inaugurated by the
Act was almost instantaneous. There were lords

and baronets; there were admirals and generals ;
there were M.P.'s and professors, who, through

the opened gates, saw bright visions of wealth,
heightened by every illusion the promoters could
devise ; and how this combination worked, all Eng-
land can tell. Prospectuses filled the columns of

newspapers, the creations of the fertile imagina-
tions of the unprincipled gang, and lay on the
breakfast-table of every man who had any means.
New things came thick, promising fabled wealth to
those who would invest small sums, and even the
sceptical were beguiled by the array of names whose
possessors vouched for the truth of the attractive state-
ments. At last, England, after a career of a thousand
years, had hit on the Royal Road to Fortune. Our
blundering forefathers had shackled trade, while
society, built on the effete notions of feudal times,
had degraded it, but a new era had opened. Gentle-
men who had never done anything useful, who had
hitherto been rather an obstruction and a nuisance

in the world, now came forth to solve most intricate
problems of finance—to construct and conduct
gigantic hotels—to rebuild cities—to colonise wastes
—to reclaim submerged districts—to open out new
channels for barter—and all on a scale so vast, with
means so simple, with a return so immense, that the
imagination of every one was captured. Those who
held back saw their more adventurous neighbours
pass over their heads in the scale of society. The un-
believing BROWN beheld the believing JONES move
to a better house—a more fashionable neighbour-
hood—start a carriage, and keep a footman. The
explanation was easy. JONES had embarked in a
good thing. His 4 per cent. was now 20, and his
capital doubled. Henceforth BROWN'S natural
jealousy was aided by the comments of his women-
folk at home. JONES was a man of enterprise, of
ability, everything he touched prospered ; but they
who were hampered with the foggy, obstinate
ideas of BROWN remained in the dark, and thus
spurred, he began to read more carefully the allur-
ing prospectuses which appeared in his newspaper,
awaited him at his club, or covered his breakfast
table. His first timid step met with so gratifying a
result that more bold ones followed, and BROWN
presently again became JONES'S neighbour, and the
ladies in their own equipage haughtily recognised
their old neighbour. There is nothing more fasci-
nating or more demoralising than making huge
gains without any exertion. Money to these lucky
ones loses its value ; labour loses its dignity ; vanity
takes possession of the mind ; for the strokes of for-
tune are conclusive proofs of the excellence of his
judgment and of the enterprise of his character. Nor
can it be wondered at, as the world grants the pre-
mises. BnowN and JONES, everywhere spoken of as
shrewd, excellent men of business, go on their
way rejoicing, having simultaneously made a for-
tune and a character by a few investments in " good
things." That society should run mad when such
instances were numerous is not surprising. Com-
panies came out like mushrooms. The proprietors of
every concern on the eve of insolvency, by the simple
conversion into a Joint-Stock Company, retired
men of wealth, taking in exchange for the load of
their debts, the hard coin of their unhappy dupes.
The gorged promcters became reckless in the under-
takings they launched in proportion as the voracious
public showed the inclination to swallow all. But
there is an end to the gorging capacity even of a
boa constrictor. The cooks who had hashed up the
dishes knew what an indigestible mess JOHN BULL
had bolted, and that when lie awoke to conscious-
ness, after his intoxicating feast, he would open his
eyes to a griping reality. So they prepared for ano-
ther phase when the symptoms became apparent,
for another little game remained, to play. The
stuffing may be the more agreeable and profitable,
for the victim is in a fool's paradise, but there was
for the cook still a scarcely less remunerative part.
He may call on the suffering patient with spectacles
on nose, and gold-headed cane in hand, learnedly
to discuss the evils of a surfeit, the folly of a disre-
gard of the laws of health, the wisdom of modera-
tion and abstemiousness, and administer pills and
draughts. The men who had been most active in
promoting these companies were the foremost in
smashing them. Those best acquainted with the
utter rottenness of the institutions combined merci-
lessly to destroy them, and it became their interest
to work the reaction from the greatest height, down
to the lowest depth. In the first place, their profits
were in proportion to the rise into the clouds to
which they could float their balloons ; in the second,
it lay in the depth into which they could sink them in
the ocean of ruin ; and in both they were aided by the
folly of mankind. The most sanguine are the most
desponding. Those who rush with the greatest
credulity into the danger rush most panic-stricken
to get out of it ; and the same fertile imaginations
that had pictured such gratifying results were those
that spread the prognostications of evil. The na-
tion has made the notable discovery that a title, is
no proof of a man's qualification for business—that
an act of Parliament does not alter the laws of trade
—and that profitable and successful undertakings
are gounded on the necessity for their creation, and
the honesty, the economy, the industry, and the
ability of their management. If a private firm fails
to conduct a business to a success, that success is
not likely to be attained by Tom, BROWN, and
HARRY combining to work it. We have now
arrived at a third stage of the disastrous
period we have attempted to sketch. Another
gang of harpies arc at work on the wrecks left by
the storms of 1866-67. The law which smoothed
away all obstructions on the road to ruin conducted
the vehicles which ran over it to the Court of
Chancery. So lined was that road with plunderers
that few of them arrived there with much left ; but
that little is being carefully sifted and gleaned.
The machinery of the Court leaves nothing to be
desired by those who live on plunder, and as little
to be hoped for by those entrapped in its meshes.
Over its portals should be written, " All who here
enter, must abandon Hope." It is sure to be the
interest of some to avail themselves of the obstruc-
tion processes, which Chancery technicalities invite,
and it would be an instructive lesson if the history
were given on reliable data of the cases adjudicated
upon during the last eighteen months. The Joint-
Stock Discount, Barned's Bank, the Contract Cor-
poration, are noticeable instances. Every penny
for which the shareholders were liable has been
called up. Failing the existing proprietary, it is
contemplated to go back through the list of those
who held shares during the twelve months preced-
ing the stoppage. The case of the Contract Cor-
poration is absolutely astounding. 'The liability
was for £lOO per share, of which £lO had been
called up when the concern stopped. By an order
of the Court a call of £55 per share either has been
cr will be made ! Who can wonder at the utter
stagnation which has marked this disastrous year,
when such companies can run such careers—almost
without comment? Men are too apt to set it down,
when the course of dishonesty appears to be uni-
versal, thatit is in obedience to a law of nature —that
they are victims to their ignorance of this law—and
that they would only display their own folly, by
entering an indignant protest against it. —Anglo.
American Times.
.st

The Postmaster-General has accepted offers for
carrying the mails during 1868 from the United States to
Great Britain from the Hamburg American Packet
Company, the North German Lloyd, and the Inman line.
A contract is also to bo made with the Cunard Company,
and four mails weekly will be sent from 4merica
during 1868.