The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-10 00:00:00

HAY.

SMITHFIELD.—Moadow hay, £3 10s to £4 ss; clover,
£4 lOs to £5 16s Od ; and straw, XL 16s to .£2 4s per load:
Inquiry limited.
CUMBERLAND.—Meadow hay, £3 10s to £4 lOs Od; clover,
£4 10s to £5 15s and straw, £1 18s to £2 4s per load.
A moderate demand.

WfirrnenApELA—Meadow hay, £3los to £4 5s ; clover,
£4 12s to £slss Od ; and straw, £1 16s to £2 4s per load.
Trade slow.

THE SCOTCH IRON MARKET.—The iron specula-
tion in Glasgow in the beginning of the year is evi-
dently destined to become famous. The examina-
tion of the now really eminent Alex. M'Ewen, of
the firm of M'Ewen, Bryson, and Co., iron mer-
chants, Glasgow, throws a flood of light not only
on the speculative operations in question, but on
the actors engaged in these recent most unwarrant-
able "rigging" transactions. According to Mr.
M'Ewen, before even any combination had been
formed, the members composing the league had
actually bought warrants for over 500,000 tons of
pig-iron, while the whole warrants in existence re-
presented only some 370,000 tons of this most im-
portant raw. material. In buying iron warrants
the members of the combination were well
aware that they were purchasing docu-
ments which the sellers without assistance
could not deliver ; for had not, the holders of the
500,000 tons of pig-iron met in Liverpool in
solemn conclave, by special appointment, in the
Board-room of the ill-omened Barned's Bank, and
there bound themselves on their " honour as gen-
tlemen and good faith as men of business," not only to
make their further purchases for joint account, but
to hold the warrants which they had already ac-
quired as sold " to the combination at the price of
68s. as at the Ist of February last ?" This cannot
by any straining be characterised as an ordinary
mercantile venture, inasmuch as it was the inten-
tion by numbers and capital to force up to an in-
ordinate value certain iron warrants, of which the
members of the combination had the sole control.
The association for enhancing the value of Scotch
pig-iron was formed on Jan. 29, when the price for
warrants was 625. cash. By the end of February,
owing to the operations supported by this secret
combination, the quotation had increased to 735.
By the end of March the price had further
risen to 765., and in the course of April the
maximum of 81s. was finally reached. In
about three months, it would appear, M'Ewen,
. Bryson, and Company, as their share of the
adventure, had acquired iron warrants representing
about 420,000 tons. But during all that time they
were not only purchasing, but making sales, and,
accordingly, had actually disposed of 720,000 tons.
The price of the purchases is given at £1,500,000 ;
and the proceeds of the sales, supposing them all
realised, would have amounted, it is said, to
£2,500,000. These were only, however, it must be
remembered, the simple transactions of M'E wen,
Bryson, and Co. The other members forming the
combination—some 11 in all, including two brokers,
were, of course, also buying and selling, some less
and some more, according to their connections and
opportunities. The brokers, too, as may be sup-
posed, had a most important part in the manage-
ment of this most unjustifiable " rig." They, no
doubt under the agreement, were left at liberty to
execute all ordinary orders that might come to
them ; but then they were to give " neither hint,
advice, nor information" as to what was going on
behind the curtain, under taking, moreover, to give
to the combination the first offer of their regular
business transactions before executing them. in the
market. This condition of pre-emption by the brokers
was undoubtedly a most extraordinary stipulation
—indeed almost incredible, were it not found con-
tained in the remarkable agreement produced by the
trustee on the occasion of Mr. M'Ewen's last exa-
mination. But, notwithstanding the monopoly of
the iron warrants, the powerful and secret combi-
nation, voluminous and friendly statistical reports,
and an unlimited number of purchases and sales,
the attempt to take money on a great scale out of
the pockets of the uninformed and unsuspecting
fairly broke down. In April Barned's Bank failed,
and iron warrants, of which there were known to be
large holders, became discredited. The bills of the
iron speculators, too, began to fall due, and, in the
imminence of the money crisis, could not be renewed
on almost any terms. A number of the parties to the
combination, as well as some of the houses to whom
they had given credit, next got into difficulties ; and,
finally, when the great failures supervened in Liver-
pool and Glasgow, this well-conceived scheme was
at length seen to be abortive. But while Mr.
M'Ewen was thus unfortunate in his iron speculation,
he would appear to have been equally unfortunate
in preserving the book in which his various ven-
tures were recorded. • His transactions were enu-
merated in a letter-book which usually was kept
locked up in a private desk. On the 28th of
August last this letter-book, it is stated, was wanted
about a bill ; 'but somehow it had disappeared, and
after a careful and. anxious search it could not be
found. Some two or three days after a boy named
James M'Kenzie—a distant relative of Mr. M'Ewen,
and in his employment—gave a message to the
cashier of the firm that this same letter-book which
had been lost was required for some purpose or
other. He was desired to go and look for it, and
accordingly went into the room where it was kept,
and came out in due time with a book under his arm.
This book, which has been since missing, notwith-
standing the most careful and diligent search for it in
all quarters, is admitted to be of the highest import-
ance to the bankrupt estate, containing, as it does,
a reliable narrative, made up at the time, of Mr.
M'Ewen's various iron and other speculations. The
boy M'Kenzie was apprehended and judicially exa-
mined, but without any useful result, for some-
how it happened that, though of average intelli-
gence, be all at once became seized with a complete
loss of memory. Like men in trouble, Mr. M'Ewen
on this occasion would appear to have resorted to a
wise woman, a celebrated Glasgow clairvoyante
named Mess Townsend, for counsel and assistance.
As may be supposed she told the afflicted man much
that was wonderful, though, it may almost be sur-
mised, very little that was new. But, what
.wasi
important, she at once removed the perplexing
mystery about the missing letter-book,. for,
8 house
of de-
scribed the place where she said it was in
of Mr. Armstrong. Armed with this valtuaitebhle y
information, Mr. M'Ewen, with
de-
spatch, waited upon the Superintepniesntwoofr
house
obtained a warrant, caused Mr. Armstrong's
to be searched ; but again the fatesh were
suonmperhopoiw-
tious, for the book, if ever. theedr.e, had
Such are the
again most mysteriously vanished.
facts brought out in Glasgow in this 19th century
on the occasion of a solemn judicial examination
arising out of transactions having their originin
pig-iron transactions !_-Abridged from the Scots-
man.