The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-25 00:00:00

strated the internal trade of the country, now the

gold operation interrupted its foreign trade.

The

price ran up 4 per cent. in two days ; 1 pclr cent. a
day interest was paid for its loan ; the exports and
imports, as well as foreign exchanges, were stopped,
and many foreign merchants involved in heavy losses.
Having effected this—a mere interlude—a sort of side
issue, the commercial freebooters were ready to re-
commence their regular business on the Stock Ex-

change with freak spirit and enterprise. By this
time they had succeeded in purchasing nearly all

the Erie shares in the market, aswell as the contracts

of"bears"whoagreed to dclivercertain amounts at low
prices, especially thoae of Mr. DREW, apitist whom

- -
as a former confederate, who had turned an enemy,

they were very Litter. Delivery of the shares
was claimed; an among them, from many foreign
banking houses, who hal legitimately sold for
constituents abroad, though they had not yet re-
ceived the shares from Europe. Now as most of the
available shares were in the hands of the com-
binatien, the outsiders had to procure them in
scores of thousan Is from the combination at 55
to 60, to be delivered to the combination at 35
to 40. The directors had first defrauded their
shareholders to get the means of plundering others;
having it, they next plundered all the legitimate
investors, who thought that great railway a valuable
property. Incidentally, they were enabled to
sweep through the Gold Room, and at the ex-
pense of the foreign trade of the country gather
up an immense profit ; but there still remained a
class untouched—indeed who had shared the ill-
gotten gains—and down upon them they fell like
an avalanche, crushing DREW and all the " bears"
who had before acted in conjunction with them-
selves. In these operations the business of the
country had been arrested for nearly two weeks,
the banks had been brought to the verge of sus-
pension, the national credit had been seriously
threatened, and the reputation of American in-
vestments had been damaged to such an extent
that probably millions upon millons will be re-
quired from Americans to induce foreigners to aid in
enterprises wherein a repetition of such conduct is
risked. All this had been done without a man raising
a hand against it except the Secretary of the Trea-
sury. The Nation says " that at length a wealthy
foreign banker, Mr. BELMONT, had the courage to
bring a civil suit against them," and the result
showed the reason why no one had done so before.
Mr. BELMONT is a man of great political influence,
of great wealth, and of high character, yet he was
almost overpowered by the combination, though he
hal the cunning speculator, the skilled DANIEL
DREW, to work with him, who, as an oil confede •
rate, knew all their tricks, and was able to give
crushing evidence in the courts. The injunction ob-
tained by Mr. BELMONT was met by a similar injunc-
tion which the clique had obtained against themselves,
which appointed the direc tors receivers and custodian,
of the funds, they were enjoined, from further misap-
propriating. Not content with this, as they had a
judge and a court of their own, they procured an
order authorizing the receiver to buy b Eck at his
discretion on account of the Erie Railroad the whole
or any part of the over issue of 200,000 shares at
the regular market price, not to exceed par. Con-
sidering that on the last settling day, the 19th
Nov., that the directors were overloaded with stock,
this gave them a ready means of disposing of it.
But the " lame ducks," which comprise almost the
entire community, who flattered themselves that
the burdna of these shares would yet break the
backs of the successful speculators, had little idea
of the resources still left to the Erie clique. What-
ever may be the manipulation in Wall-street the
Erie is a magnificent railway, and the directors,
entering into an agreement to lease the Atlantic and

Great Western, commanded t he whole line from New
York to Dayton, a railway centre in Ohio, border-
ing on Indiana. The PRESIDENT'S Report, issued
on the sth inst., speaks in the highest terms of the
company's future. Steel rails were being laid, of
which 80 miles were already down. A third line
to connect with the narrow gauge system of the
West had been arranged. He concludes by asserting
that when the public are fully acquainted with what
has been done, the course of the present direztors will
be highly appreciated, and we are neither prepared
to dispute this (as that course has been pretty ac-
curately explained i❑ our remarks), nor his other as-
sertion that the Erie will be the most perfect line in
the United States. The litigation has, as we anti-
cipated, got into a hopeless muddle. Mr. BEL-
MONT'S influence has been sufficiently strong, backed
by the indignation caused by the enormous loss the
community has suffered, to get a round robin signed
by the dealers and brokers against trafficking in the
shares until the public have the full assurance that
no fraudulent issues can again be made. But bad
as has been the conduct of the directors in using the
power entrusted to them to defraud all parties out
of vast sums, it does not follow that the Erie Rail-
way has suffered, and it is to this we especially wish
to direct the attention of English shareholders.
The directors in charge of their property may be
very unscrupulous men; they may, in furthering
their own selfish interests, have struck a villainous
blow against the security of American investments ;
yet it is clear they have been wonderfully success-
ful, and in that success we cannot see injury to the
line itself. The shares have been manufactured and
kicked about in Wall-street as a foot-ball, but the
directors have thereby swept into their pockets huge
sums while recovering all the fraudulently issued
shares. We do not seek to deny tl:at the share-
holders are shown to be at the mercy of a set of
conspirators, that theirproperty was in imminent jeo-
pardy while the Erie battle raged, but now the risk
is only in future operations, which mayor may not be
undertaken, not in the past, wherein the directors
gained a complete victory. They may estimate for
themselves the dangZr, but if the writer held Erie
shares, as things stand at this moment, he would
be very sorry to press them for sale. W hat the
Erie executive intend to do with the enormous plun-
der they have piled up remains to be proved, but those
who take it for granted that they will, if they can,
make victims of their shareholders, do so, we think,
without sufficient warrant, for, but one coarse re-
mains to them to save even a shred of character,
and that is to satisfy the shareholders that, how-
ever unjustifiable their management, it vtas in a
arse mcasure taken in the interest of the property.