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London, England, 1850-06-13 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
CIIRONICLE.—The reader will find, under the
heading " Court of Bankruptcy," a compendious
summary of one of those narratives of reckless
adventure and merited disaster which, from time
to time, the judicial annals of insolvency offer to
the student of human nature. The main outlines
of this almost fabulous-looking tale of a squandered
fortune will be found in the private examination
of Edward Thomas Delafield, a considerable portion of
which was yesterday read by Mr. Commissioner Fane,
in pronouncing judgment on the bankrupt's claim
to a certificate. It is needless to remind the reader
that Mr. Delafield had a start in life such as fortune
vouchsafes only to her most favoured children. In the
month of January, 1845, when this young gentle-
man completed his 21st year, he found himself
absolute master of upwards of 100,0001., together
with a share in the profits of a long-established and
lucrative brewing business. Of this noble fortune,
with all the fine opportunities and prospects apper-
taining to it, nothing now remains except assets to the
extent of 1,090/., towards a dividend on debts
amounting to between 30,000/. and 40,0001. That is
to say, in the space of little more than four years, Mr.
Delafield has spent, lent, given, lost, or other-
wise run through his original capital of 100,000/.
plus the interest and profits thereon accruing
during the continuance of his partnership in
the brewery (being a further sum of upwards of
14.0000, plus the amount of his unpaid debts—the
whole amounting, in round numbers, to upwards of
140,000/. The first question that one naturally asks,
on hearing of so magnificent a ruin, is, where is
the money all gone ? What picture galleries,
museums, or parks has this unfortunate gentle-
man presented to the nation ? What hospitals,
colleges, or churches has he built and endowed ?
For what princes, peers, ambassadors, savans and
literati has ho kept open house ? Or what " provi-
sionally registered" Grand Direct Junction railways
have numbered him among their directors ? No! it
is none of these things. Mr. Delafield was neither
a Meecenas, nor a virtuoso, nor a " founder," nor an
entertainer of princes, nor a railway speculator. Nor
was he a "gambler," in the conventional sense of the
word. His case comes within none of the well-
known categories with which the statistics of insol-
vency have made us familiar. His habits were more
than sufficiently expensive, even for the possessor of
100,0001.—but that was not it. He was, at times,
preposterously and culpably good-natured to his
friends—as when he made an actual present of no
less a sum than 5,0001. to one Mr. Arthur Webster—
but it was not his generosity that ruined him. After
deducting all items that come under the head of per-
sonal extravagance (including the Willow Bank
affair), there remains a vast residuum of loss yet un-
explained. • To cut a long story short, the simple fact
is, that Mr. Delafield took it into his head—or had it
put into his head—to become the lessee of an Opera
House, with no other qualification for the business
than the command of money and a passion for music;
and he thereby succeeded in getting rid of 81,300.
within somewhat less than two years. To this may
be added some minor operatic and theatrical losses, to
the extent of about 8,0001. more. Perhaps the most 1
extraordinary part of the whole story of Mr. Dela-
field's connexion with the Royal Italian Opera is the
beginning of it. The following is his own account
of the affair, as given in his private examination :
" I know Thomas Frederick Beale, of 201, Regent-
street. I first became acquainted with him in the
spring of 1847; he was then engaged as acting ma-
nager of the Royal Italian Opera House, CJvent-
garden, for Signor Persiani, who was at that time
the lessee. Some time in the month of July, 1847,
Beale came to me when I was in my box at the
theatre, and told me Persiani had left, and that money
was required to pay the artistes, or else the theatre
must close ; and said, if I would lend him my pro-
missory note for 3,000/., the Union Bank or his
father would discount it ; Si promieingi• with
Chappell, his solicitor, who was then- pteAnt, tgiarof
vide for it at maturity. I consented 4this, atscißtave
my promissory not the following day. . . .
No part of this 3,000/. was ever repaid to me,
either by Mr. Beale or his attorney. When I
gave h bill, I had no connexion with the theatre
beyonaving my box there. I had Jim motive
in giving this• bill, except assist th concern."
This almost pa4s..th..who • belief. extempore loan of
itio
3,000/. to a man sil acquaintance was
but of a few weeks' standing, for the mere purpose
of bolstering up an insolvent concern, whose respon-
sible head " had lefc !" After such a commencement
nothing is incredible. We learn, almost without
surprise, that before that summer was over the in-
fatuated youth was induced to join his new acquaint-
ance as a partner—vainly attempting to limit his liabi-
lities, by a special agreement, to the sum of 15,0001. ;
and by this insane proceeding, and other arrange-
ments made in pursuance of it, he rendered himself
legally answerable for the whole of the existing en-
gagements and liabilities of the concern, amounting
to about woo/. There is no occasion to go into
the details of what followed. In the ensuing month
of December, Mr. Delafield formally assumed those
plenary and personal responsibilities which he had
previously incurred unwittingly. He dissolved his
partnership with Beale, and took upon himself all the
debts and engagements of the theatre past and future.
The result may be briefly told in his own words.
He says, in his examination—" I was, in fact, en-
tirely ruined at the end of the season of 1848 ; my
balance at my bankers was quite exhausted, and I
began the season of 1849 by a loan of 2,0001. from
my bankers." For this " entirely ruined" man did
not feel it to be his duty to decline incurring further
liabilities which he was totally without the means of
discharging, or to deny himself costly personal indul-
gences, which from that period could only be
en-
joyed at the expense of his creditors. Ruined though
he was, at the end of the season of 1848, he went on
through the season of 1849, and increased his deficit
by 25,000/. more. In the course of the spring of that
year, after having assigned over the remnant of his
available property to Beale, to cover advances made
by the latter for the purpose of carrying on the
theatre, he retired to Brussels to avoid arrest, and on
the 12th of July he became a bankrupt. Such is
a summary of that series of transactions respecting
which Mr. Commissioner Fane thinks, "on the
whole, and upon full consideration of all the
circumstances," that "he shall best discharge
his public duty by granting the bankrupt a
common certificate, without attaching any con-
dition." It is not our wish to say anything which
may needlessly wound the feelings of a gentleman on
whom the natural penalties of his faults and follies
has fallen so heavily, and we abstain therefore from
fully commenting on those features of the case which
might have seemed to justify, if not to compel, a
somewhat severer judgment. But whether the Com-
missioner's decision be right or wrong in substance,
the greater part of the reasons on which he professes
to ground it are, in our opinion, alike fallacious and
mischievous ; and they excite our utter amazement as
coming from the lips of an authorized and judicial
exponent of the principles of commercial morality.
Mr. Commissioner Fane, it will be observed, bases
his lenient view of the bankrupt's case (inter alia)
on his '' extreme youth, on " the circumstance that
he could hardly be deemed a trader," and on " the
deceptions of which he had been made the victim."
Of the nature of these " deceptions," and how far
deception was practised on Mr. Delafield
against which the merest common sense ought not to
have been a more than sufficient preservative, every
reader has ample means of deciding for himself. The
two other pleas which we have quoted from the Com-
missioner's judgment are really monstrous. The law
of the land declares Mr. Delafield to be of full age—
absolute master of his property, and absolutely re-
sponsible for his actions ; it also declares that he is
to be "deemed a trader," to all intents and purposes,
as much as any merchant, banker, or shopkeeper in
Great Britain ; and when Mr. Commissioner Fane
takes it upon him, in administering the law of which
he is a sworn servant, to pronounce the bankrupt al-
most a minor, and " hardly a trader," he takes a
liberty which is alike unwarrantable and indecorous.
More flagrant still, if possible, is the inventive in-
genuity which this judicial advocate displays when
he urges, in the bankrupt's favour, that " he might
have thought that, in inducing Beale to furnish funds '
to go on with, he was doing the best he could for the
creditors"—a suggestion which (if the principle were
carried out) would give license and impunity to
every imaginable description of mercantile
reckless-
ness and gambling. Perhaps Mr. Commissioner
Fane will take an early opportunity of. informing
the commercial public, first, at what precisespideerriosdthoet
a man's life, after the 21st birthday, he considers
irres:sonsibilities of nonage youth" to
or ' extreme
cla-ses of
be at an end—secondly,
,wheatto
precisebe henceforth "
traders within the statute," are
thirdly, what pre- ,
re-
garded asirregularity are to
"hardly traders"--and ers
rise descriptions of coinil-1
ground that a
be deemed henceforth justifiable
ercalonirrtleige
thought" so-and-so. As the
have
bankrupt "might
matter stainlFl
an only say of this extraordinary
judgment, that f
'''vte is ,'fatally calculated to confound the
fundamental principles
e
‘f• mercantile laws and morals.
TIMES..—The —s • .—The decision given by Mr. Commis-
sioner Fane, in the case of Thomas E. Delafield,
appears at first sight remarkable fur its leniency,
when we consider the enormous extent of the baek-
rupt's liabilities ; the short time in which these liabi-

~~~~-%

were contracted ; the reckless nature of the
; and the absolute deficit of assets at its -
ion. It cannot be urged in palliation that
)lafield was the victim of any of those unto
icissitudes either of legislation or of the seasons
which will sometimes contound the beet matured
plans, and involve not merely thJ speculator, hut
the merchant, in irretrievable etnbarrasment. The
nature of theatrical property is well known. It is
proverbially dangerous, as is every species of pro-
perty which depends for its value upon the arbi-
trary fluctuations in public taste. Men are found,
however, who do " make a living," as the
phrase runs, and a handsome one too, out of
enterprises of this description. Nor can it be
said that the persons with whose assistance Mr.
Delafield and his advisers attempted to carry out their
views appeared ill-fitted for the object proposed. The
singers engaged at his theatre were the same persons
who for many years had attracted the attention of the
town, and who almost possessed a monopoly of the
performance of the Italian lyrical drama. Certainly
there was no reason for supposing that the annoy-
ance of an additional ten minutes' drive would keep
away an audience which had been long habituated to
hang upon the strains of Grisi and Mario. Mr.
Costa in Covent-garden was the same efficient direc-

tor of an orchestra as Mr. Costa at the Haymarket.
The " artists" employed by Mr. Delafield were old
and well-tried favourites with the public, ao that the
speculation was dpvoid of hazard in one important re-
spect. Whence, then, the appalling crash which has,
ruined Mr. Delafield, erased his name from the list
of the money magnates of his time, and left him in
the condition of a dependent for life on the bounty of
those with wham he should have lived upon more
equal terms ? The answer is quickly given, and must
serve as a key to the judgment pronounced by Mr.
Commissioner Fane in awarding the certificate of the
bankrupt without any conditions of unusual severity.
Towards the conclusion of his judgment the Learned
Commissioner is reported to have said—" I look upon
the general body of creditors in this case as co-spe-
culators with the bankrupt, and as the speculation has
been a total failure, and he the greatest sufferer, all
ought to bear their share of the misfortune without
repining." Is not this so ? From first to last this
foolish man—he has not yet, we believe, completed
his twenty-fifth year—was a mere catspaw in the
hands of men of sharper wit, and of a body of
dissatisfied singers. We will not go so far as to
say that Mr. Delafield's ruin was contemplated by
those who attracted him into the concern, but, at
least, he was the capitalist who was to furnish them
' with the means of realising the dreams of their
fevered imaginations and to bear the brunt in case of
reverse. The speculation which commenced in July,
1847, by Mr. Djafield's consent to hand Mr. Beale
his promissory note for 3,0001., has terminated in June,
1850, by the allowance of his certificate as bankrupt
to this misguided young man. He was but twenty-
three years of age when he took the first fatal step—
at the end of 1848 he was a ruined man. Now, let
us see what was the sum actually lost, and therefore
what the implied adjunct to the bankrupt's certificate.
On coining of age, in the year 1845, Mr. Delafield
was entitled to a fortune bequeathed him by an uncle,
which, with its accumulations, amounted to upwards

of 100,000/., and, furthermore, ton reversionary in-
terest in 6,0001. under his father's will. On coming

of age he was admitted a partner in the brewery, and if
we understand aright the statementwith which we have
been furnished, by investing his capital in the concern
he received interest upon it at the rate of 5 per cent.,
together with his share of the profits, 2,5001 per an-
num. In the commencement, then, of 1846, Mr.
Delafield was in possession of a fortune, well secured,
of 7,500/. a year ; by the end of 1848 he was a
beggar. The last year and a halt' has been spent in
a succession of painful embarrassments and legal pro-
ceedings—in a flight to the contirient—in a re-ap-
peerance at the Bankruptcy Court, from which he
was dismissed on Tuesday with nothing in his pocket
hut a certificate, to make trial of that hardest of all
fates—dependence upon others. We have already so
amply--Rte may add, so frequently, discussed the
circumstances and figures of this bankruptcy, that it
is not our intention to try our readers' patience any
more with details. It is but right, however, that so
enormous an instance of a young man's folly and of
the vicissitudes of fortune should receive some brief
notice at our hands, now that the lawyers have
done with it. The example of Mr. Delafield may
serve to deter others from engaging, at so early an
age, and in so reckless a manner, in speculations
which demand a long experience of business and
a sharp penetration into motives and character.
The downfal is so great that it must appear miracu-
lous to any but one of that infinitely small section
of the community which lives without a care upon
the accumulations of its progenitors, how a man
can throw from him in mere wantonness those
means, which, if they cannot secure happiness, may
at least deliver their possessor from many a bitter
trial and heart-ach. Yet this is just what this
foolish end unfortunate young man has done.
Enjoyment, even in its lowest sense, he can
have received none in exchange for this
enormous sacrifice. To preside nominally over
the engagements and jealousies and squabbles of a
parcel' of singers and dancers for a couple of
seasons is at least so poor a compensation that we
refuse to take it at all into account. And now be is
left to test the value of the obsequiousness of a few
transitory parasites and dependents, and to discover
how much of the regard paid to him was given to
himself, how much to his fortune, and to his sup-
posed means of advancing the fortunes of those around
him. Either the world is changed, or the few men
who would have stood staunchly to him in his hour
of trouble are the very persons he missed at his table
in the heyday of his festivities, when the opium
dreams of continuous fortune and splendour were at
their highest. If Mr. Delafield be doomed to inevi-
table disappointment in one sense, let us hope that
he may meet with assistance and a helping hand
from others on whose regard he may just now sup-
pose himself to have but slender claims. There
is one ;point in the judgment of the Commis-
sioner, however, which we would notice be-
fore dismissing this subject for ever from our
columns. It appears that expectations had been
entertained that some conditions for future payment
mould be affixed to the bankrupt's certificate because
he was known to possess rich relations, who, as it was
supposed, would not be likely to leave a member of
the rich family of Delafield under the sharp pressure
of money difficulties. The suggestion operated with
the Commissioner in a way contrary to the one in-
tended. There was so much good sense in his re-
marks, and the point is one of so much public
importance, that we will here reproduce a brief sen-
tence or two from our report of yesterday:—"lt may
he said that the bankrupt has rich relations. Perhaps
he has ; but if it were true, this argument is one
which will never weigh with me. I will never be a
party to the establishing of any such doctrine as that
ich relations are under any obligation to pay the
debts of extravagant connexions. A contrary doc-
trine is a far more wholesome one." The case is one
of such common occurrence that too much stress
cannot be laid upon the point so forcibly insisted
upon by the Commissioner. A more cruel injustice
cannot be conceived than to place the prudent and
well-conducted members of a family under the necea-
airy of paying the debts of a foolish young spendthrift,
who never would have obtained the credit but for the
reliance placed upon their fair fame and delicacy of
feeling. This point is of rarer occurrencelmsisi
hoenfeorgre, the
Bankruptcy than the Insolvency eon
there we meet with it as an every-day matter. It' is, of
course, more difficult to deal with it in the latter
than in the former case ; but, yet, something may
be dune by facilitating the passage of foolish
young spendthrifts through the court who have
fallen the victims of a practice as common as it is ne-
farious. Be this, however, as it may, it appears from
the judgment of the Commissioner that not tl.
slightest
,personal complaint was made against the
bankrupt; that the expenses of his private living did
not exceed the limits of the income to which he might
suppose himself fairly entitled ; that there was no
technical obstruction to the granting of the certifi-
cate ; and finally, that none of the creditors insisted
upon the addition of conditions. Under these cir-
cumstances few persons will be disposed to quarrel
with the decision whieh grants to a youth who has
forfeited by his folly so princely a fortune the com-
mon papers of a certificated bankrupt. bankrupt.

goonl
dm,goldgini
gives
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3
oilu.noe4epie.orr
ex-
changei'l'.llll76 perolE f 2dM5. mills,spA 1 I
r ‘
ounceaEwnTdi i the hhTe, forhaet
exchangesPt Englishthraeenmdlatir
dm
a at Paris on London
it follows that goldperis
e,-nt. dearer in Paris than in London. By advice from
Ilamburgh the price of gold is 4361 per mark, Which,
at the English Mint price of 31. 17e. Mid, at short being 25.55,
standaru gold, gives an exchange of 13.101; and the ex-
change at llernburg,h on London at short being 13.11,
it follow,. that gold is 0.11 tier cent. dearer in London
than in Ilaruburgli. Tl.e courso of exchange at New
York on London for bills at 60 da) a' sight is 110
percent., and the Plr of exchange between England and
America being 109 23.40 tier cent., it follows that tho
exchange is nominally 0.42 pa-r cent. in favour of Eng-
land, and after making allowance for diflertnce of
interest and charges of transport, the present rate
leaves a small profit on the importation of gold from
the United States.
CoNsvcavrtoN OF A CHURCH IN SOUTHWARK.—...
On Monday morning the Bishop of Winchester consecrated a
church in Southwark under somewhat peculiar circum-
stances. The building, which is one of ancient date, stands
in St. George's-fields, and has been known as a chapel in
connexion with the Philanthropic Society. The removal of
the society's premises to Redhill, near Reigate, rendered the
chapel useless for the purposes to which it had hitherto beta
devoted, and arrangements were consequently made with
the Rector of St. George's that an ecclesiastical district
should be assigned to the chapel, and that henceforth it
should become one of the parochial churches. In order to
carry out this object the ceremony of consecration was ren-
dered necessary, and Monday was appointed by the Bishop
for that purpose. The Bishop has licensed the,,,Rev., G.. E.
Tate, M A,, late curate of Great Worley, Essex, to be the
first incumbent of the new church.