The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1844.

are subservient—is, after all, a benefit dearly pur-
chased at the price inevitably to be paid for it ; for,
the test of present experience, and the records of all
history show, that the price consists in the displace-
ment of many thousands of families from a position
of comparative competence or ease, and the sacrifice
of many more in the competition between the exclu-
sive privileges of the distinguished few, and the sordid
wants of the indigent multitudes, which seems to wait,
like a shadow, on the march of opulence and refine-
ment. No State on the globe, perhaps, exhibits a
more remarkable instance of these conflicting elements
of extensive pauperism and accumulated capital, than
Great Britain. But it is not our purpose to write,
at present, of her extraordinary, her almost incon-
ceivable wealth. We may, indeed, epitomise the idea
of it by stating, on the authority of Mr. PORTER'S
last Statistical Paper, that the total sum paid by
railway passengers, last year alone, on the several
working lines of the United Kingdom (58 in Eng-
land and Wales, 10 in Scotland, 2 in Ireland),
amounted to 3,063,0001. sterling ! Our wish at pre-
sent is to direct attention to the enormous pressure of
poverty and destitution on our social system ; and this we
may evidence in three words, by a statement of the
last authenticated Poor-rate aggregate return (Ses-
sional Paper, H. C., 1844, No. 63). From that paper
it appears that the total amount of money levied for
poor-rate, for the year ending Lady-day 1842, was
6,552,8901. for England and Wales, alone I
The most disastrous aspect which this pauperism
presents is, that it " grows by that it feeds on." In
Fur short years, as we lately took occasion to show,
the levy for this rate has increased one million ; on an
average, at the rate of 250,0001. per annum for Eng-
land and Wales only. There have been, in the same
interval, railroads and other mighty public works in
full activity of construction ; yet the market of labour
has been so greatly overstocked that at no former pe-
riod, probably, was the number of able-bodied paupers
larger than it is at the present moment. In the ma-
nufacturing districts the demand for labour has fluc-
tuated as usual, and just now may be somewhat more
active than for some time past; but it is not even pre-
tended that this improvement is one for which any
permanency can be safely anticipated. And, indeed,
as to manufacturing labour, we see nothing, either in
the general state of trade, or the bearings of improved
commercial relations with foreign countries, to induce
us to look for any other but the usual circle in which,
from some cause or other, our manufacturing energy,
seems destined to revolve,—sudden excitement ; in-
tense activity ; rapid and unparalleled production ; de-
clining, because glutted and overstocked, markets ;
lassitude, panic, decay ; displaced labour, on a scale
the most appalling. We are• now once more com-
mencing this series of phases ; and we wish we could
add that, with our still crippled system of commercial
polity, aggravated by the mischief's of our monetary
system, we could look forward with any confidence
to the cessation of those fatal sequences which have
so often followed close upon the same cheering pro-
mises of a largely increased demand for labour.
The real remedy for this destructive tendency of
our pauperism to re-produce and multiply itself co-
incidently with—and as if in mockery of—capital,
would be an extended permanent demand for able-
bodied labour. If any plan could be devised by
which able-bodied pauper labour, in its snore simple
forms, and without the requisition of extreme manual
dexterity or technical facility of manipulation, could
be, at all times, largely employed throughout the
country, the market of independent, in contradistinc-
tion to pauper-labour, would be proportionably relieved,
and the wages of those able-bodied pauper labourers
would be paid by municipal and other communities,
not in the shape of an unproductive and annoying tax
upon their own capital or incomes, but of a legitiniate
consideration for value received.

investigation of a Committee of the House
of Commons than the mode in which such as-
sociations are concocted, organised, brought out,
financed, conducted, and wound up ! Such seems
to be the skeleton-history of those more epheme-
ral companies, to the cases of which the labo-
rious attention of the Select Committee was
more particularly directed. The details and
particulars, and " filling up," as the artists
call it, are to be found skilfully traced,
and vividly coloured, in the evidence appended to the
Report. Of that Report we can spare room, to-day,
for little more than a very succinct compendium ; but
this will be found to embrace matters, the importance
and interest of which it would not be easy to exagge-
rate. They well deserve the most serious attention
of every reader; and on Monday we hope to publish
this document in full. The evidence and appendix,
occupying 350 folio pages, will be of course too volu-
minous for any purposes of abstract.
This "Report," after stating that the Committee
had perused the Report prepared by Mr. BELLENDEN
KER on the Law of Partnership (presented to Parlia-
ment in 1837), and on which was founded the existing
Letters Patent Act, 1 Vic., c. 37, adverts to the de-
positions they had taken of "other persons conversant
with joint-stock companies as to their operation and
the improvements that may be made in the
legal and equitable remedies at present available to
them, and their directors and shareholders ;" and to
the evidence they had received, " in connexion with
certain bubble companies, touching a few remark-
able cases of miscarriage or fraud." In order to
confine their inquiries within practicable limits, the
Committee divide bubble companies into three classes;
namely, 1. Those which, being faulty in their nature
(founded on unsound calculations), cannot possibly
succeed : 2. Those which, whether with good objects
or bad, are so ill constituted as to render it probable
that the miscarriages or failures incident to mis-
management must attend them: 3. Those which are
faulty or fraudulent in their object, being started
only to create shares for the purpose of jobbing in
I them, or to create, under pretence of a legitimate
business, the opportunity and means of raising
funds to be shared by the adventurers who start the
company. All the companies of this last kind,
adopt, to the utmost practical extent, all the charac-
teristics of the best companies : an array of directors
and officers—a large capital announced—plausible
statements issued propounding excellent purposes;
intimating that they are sanctioned by Act of Parlia-
ment—publishing their addresses in some conspicuous
places of business respectably situated, and employing
throughout the country respectable agents and bankers.
These pretences, of course, are, many of them ficti-
tious. To remedy the evils of this class of projects
in future, the Committee deem an easy affair—
" Publication of the directors, of the share-
holders, of the deed of settlement, of amount of capital,
and whether subscribed or not subscribed, nominal
or real, would baffle every such case." The
class of companies, No. 2 in the above reca-
pitulation, the Committee anticipates more diffi-
culty in dealing with ; and the class No. 1, "faulty
in their nature," it deems to be " beyond certain
cure by the Legislature." The general remedy it
proposes, in respect of the other classes, is the regis-
tration of new companies' prospectuses, circulars,
sec. The bubble companies, which were the imme-
diate occasion of the inquiry, having been con-
cerned in effecting assurances and granting annui-
ties, the Committee's attention was naturally directed
to such associations. Its " summary " includes-
1. The cases examined, and the character of their
objects, concoctors, and managers ; 2. The modes of
deception adopted ; 3. The duration of the compa-
nies ; 4. The amount and distribution of the
plunder ; 5. The circumstances of the victims ;
6. The impunity of the offenders. " Exami-
nations by which the character and conduct of
individuals were implicated, and which are therefore
excluded from the evidence annexed," relate to ten
companies, viz., seven insurance, annuity, and loan
companies, three mining and general ditto. In
eight of these the concern was represented to have
been founded by mere adventurers, on schemes evi-
dently fraudulent.
The history of some of these companies, arid the
processes of fraud by which dishonest managers,
lirectors, &c., realised large sums, will be perused
with astonishment. We can quote at present only a
passage or two from this portion of the Report. An
insurance office was established by one or two per-
sons, one an uncertificated bankrupt, on terms highly
advantageous to himself as resident manager, and
shareholder of 100 shares : but which, owing to dis-
putes among the parties, was dissolved after effecting
insurances to a considerable extent. "On behalf of
this company a prospectus was issued, containing
highly respectable names. It appeared from some
legal proceedings that the number of shareholders
was only eleven—who: were all directors." Under
Direction of Companies " we meet with this Anec-
dote :—" Another company existed for four years,
the manager having deluded the directors, by flourish-
ing statements of accounts, until some of them be-
came suspicious, and, on examination, found they had
no funds. They were obliged to pay the manager
2,000/. to induce him to remove, there being, in the
deed of settlement, a provision that he was to have
1,0001. a year." And under " The Amount and Dis.
tribution of the Plunder," we have this :—" One of
the least creditable of these concerns obtained, in the
course of two or three years, frOm about 120,000/.
to 150,000/., and another at least 100,000/. By
another, the shareholders lost about 100,000/. ; by
another, 80,000/. were lost in London, and 10,0001.
in Edinburgh. In two cases, where the chief actors
had been bankrupts, no books or accounts were forth-
coming. In another, the clue was, the enrolment of
annuities." Here, for the present, we must close.

Sirene, with the special missionaries sent by the French Go-
vernment to the China Seas, left that port on Feb. 23, for
the Cape of Good Hope, in company with her consort the
Victoricuse corvette. All on board the two ships were in
good health. •
The. French Funds had advanced a little, the Fives
closing at 122 f. 35c., and the Threes at 83f. 65c.
THE BOURSE—THURSDAY, APRIL 18.

First 'Highest Lowest

Price. Price. Price. Price.
French Five per Cents.•.... 121 85 .. 122 20 .. 121 85 .. 122 20
Four per Cents— 106 30 .• 106 30 .. 105 GO .. 106 30
Three per Cents.•••• 83 GO .. 83 G 5 • • 83 55 • • 83 63
Bank of Prance 3095 ..3100 •.3095 .•3100
Latlitte Bank, I,ooof. Sliaresll7o ..1170 . • 1170 ..1170
5,000 f. Bharessoss .. 5055 .• 5055 —50,55
Belgian Bank .. •••• • • • • . 700 • • 700 .• 700 .. 700
Belgian Fives, 1831.•
1840
1842 .. 107: •• 107: •• 107: 107:
Spanish Active •••. • • • ... • • 341 • . 341 .. 34: .. 34:
Threes •••••. • . • • • • 371 • • 371 .. 371 • • 371
Passive •. 61 .. 61 .. 61 •• 61
Portuguese Five per Cents.. 461 .. 461 .. 461 • . 461
Neapolitan.. • • ••• . • • .. 101 50 .. 101 90 .. 101 50 .. 101 90
Roman ....

RAILWAY SHARES.

St. Germain .

...... 832

.. 832 50 .. 830

.. 831 50

Versailles, L.I

.. 235

.. 232 50 .. 232 50

Rotten .. :.......... ....... 9G2 50 .. 960

.. 962 50 .. 965

Rouen to Havre......•..... 707 50 .. 707 50 .. 707 50 707 50

Orleans ....

950 50 .. 951 25 .. 950

.. 950

Strasburg to Bale.. .... 277 50 .. 281 25 • • 277 50 .. 281 23

RAILWAY SHARES, FOR THE ACCOUNT.
St. Germain 830 .. 832 50 .. 830 832 5

Versailles, L 8... •..• 235 .. 235

Rouen ..

............... 970 .. 970 . 965

Rouen to Havre.. ..... . 710

- 710

Orleans ........... •• •••••• 951 25 •• 952 50 .. 950

Strasburg to,Bale

. 230

• • 2 85

We are much disposed to think that we can see in
the further progress of the efforts of the " Committee
for promoting the greatest attainable cleansing in
the public thoroughfares, courts, and alleys of
the metropolis"—a deputation from which, a
day or two since, had a satisfactory conference
with the LORD MAYOR, on the mode of car-
rying out their objects—the germ of some such
permanent demand for able-bodied labour. Mr.
C. COCHRANE stated that the object of the deputa-
tion in waiting upon his Lordship was to read to him
the substance of resolutions which had been passed at
a meeting at the Hanover-square Rooms, relative to
the immediate employment of the able-bodied
poor, in the hope that ho would assist by his
powerful co-operation, in accomplishing an object
calculated to do the most important service to the
physical and moral condition of the public—
keeping the streets free from mud and dust, according
to an experiment which had been most successfully
tried in Regent-street and Oxford-street. No objects
immediately connected with the ornament, salubrity,
and pleasantness of all large towns, as well as of our
own noble capital, could be suggested more legitimate
in themselves, or more easy, we should think, of
practical attainment. The report proceeds thus :
" The cleanliness of the thoroughfares would, it
was needless to say, lead to the moral, healthful, and,
as the Bishop of LONDON had stated, to the spiritual
improvement of the people."
We have high- authority enough in the testimony of
St. PAUL himself that " next to Godliness, cleanliness
is a virtue," without applying to the Bishop of LON-
DON for his Lordship's private opinion on the matter.
And any one who has admired, as we have done—the
dexterous accuracy of our sleek diocesan—(when he
does walk)-:---in skipping over impromptu puddles de-
posited by water carts, or shirking gutters that have
not yet come under the supervision of his New
Churches Building Committee, will be apt to suspect
the Bishop of somewhat too decided a personal solici-
tude as to these objects, to attach much importance to
his views of their public influence. Of much graver
import to the country is the question whether the
anticipations entertained by the Committee, as
expressed in that part of the Chairman's speech
which follows, would be realised. Mr. COCHRANE
proceeded to remark—" The experience the Com-
mittee had had convinced them that the most
effective way of keeping the streets clean
was to prevent the accumulation of dirt by re-
moving the manure immediately after it was depo
sited by the passing cattle. Hundreds and thousands
,of able-bodied labourers would thus be employed, and
the pauper would be converted into an independent work-
man, and the great losses to which shopkeepers were now
subjected from the masses of mud and dust, would be
immensely diminished by a comparatively insignifi-
dila outlay. The shopkeepers of the two great
thoroughfares at the west end, to which he had
sAluded, embraced with delight the proposition, and
,the efficacy of it far exceeded their expectations."
Without pausing to consider how far the City of
London might be justified, under the circumstances
touched upon by the LORD MAYOR, in cancelling an
ill-executed contract for the cleansing of its streets
and thoroughfares, we have only to express our
most anxious hope, that the municipal aathorities of
all the other great commercial emporiums of the
kingdom may set about investigating the extent to
which they can apply the same principle of
means of permanent employment for their able-bodied
poor. The scheme appears to us so simple, yet of
such grave moment, so singularly important, that no
time should be lost in bringing it into general ope-
ration all over the country. It might be made to
embrace so extensive a proportion of those whose
labour is at present useless to themselves and to the
State—to relieve so largely the burden of the poor-
rates—and to exalt so beneficially the feelings, the
character, and the social relations of the parties to be
employed, by restoring them to the ranks of honest
and independent labour, that we await the further
development of the plan, and, we trust its early
experiment, with equal curiosity and impatience.

Madrid journals, of the 12th instant, have been re-
ceived, and if any credit could be given to their
statements, the BRAVO Ministry increases in public
favour and strength every day. They have the entire
confidence of Queen CHRISTINA, who is virtually
Regent. Some changes were anticipated relative to
the Church. The Minister of Justice had interviews
with several Archbishops and Bishops, who were on
their return to their dioceses, and the latter were
stated to have retired from the interview highly
satisfied with the views of the Government. The
Church and martial.law are to be the main springs of
the Government under the new system.
The Three per Cents. were done at 3.51 for cash,
and 36i at 60 days ; the Four per Cents. at 22 for
the 6th of June; the Five per Cents. at 22i for cash,
and 231 at 60 days.

The Paris papers of Thursday bring the conclusion
of the debate in the Chamber of Peers, the result of
which we have already given. Great preparations
are in progress for a combined attack on the " Man
of Ghent" by the Right and Left of the Chamber—
the Liberal (if-any ,party in France can be called
Liberal), and the Tory parties. One of the organs of
the former section states that the Deputies of M.
ODILLON BARROT'S party held a meeting on Wed-
nesday, to deliberate on the re-election of M. CHAS.
LAFFITTE, and the questions to be put to Ministers on
the Otaheite affair. It was decided that the annul-
ment of the election should be insisted upon, but no
determination was come to as regards the part to be
taken by these Deputies in the debate about to be
entered on as to,the disavowal of the measure taken by
Admiral DUPETIT Tuoms. It is confidently ex-
pected that M. THIERS Will take part in the discus-
sion. It is affirmed that they have resolved to call
upon the Government to produce all the papers trans-
mitted from different officers in the Pacific, and
in case of refusal (of which there can be no doubt), ,
they would protest against such policy, and, pro-
bably, move a vote of censure. The Legitimatists,
under the guidance of M. BERRYER, had concurred
in these plans. In reference to the Otaheite affair
M. THIERS' paper makes these sarcastic remarks :
" It is announced that numerous promotions are about to
take place in the navy. For the first time the nomination of
a Lieutenant de Vaisseau to the grade of Captain de Corvette
has become a Cabinet question. It is M. Leine who gives
the importance of an affair of State to a simple question of
promotion. If this officer shall consent to leave M. Dupetit
'l'houars, under imputations which the Ministers have cast
upon him; if he preserve a silence which a proper sense of
duty does not impose upon him ; if he consent to sacrifice his
superior and friend, M. Reine will be Capitaine de Corvette,
and perhaps be made an officer of the Legion of Honour ;
otherwise he will not."
The Journal du Havre of Wednesday states that accounts
have been received from Hayti of the 14th ult., according to
which the disturbances in that country have assumed a still
more serious aspect. All the army and the National Guards
were preparing to march against the insurgents, and a de-
cisive affair was expected. The Government appeared con-
fident of being able to put down the revolt. -
A letter from Rio Janeiro announces that the frigate
,‘

It is long since we have opened a Parliamentary or
Sessional Paper of more extensive importance and
interest than the " First Report of the Select Com-
mittee" (appointed on 16th February last) " to inquire
into the state of the laws respecting Joint-stock
Companies (except for banking), with a view to the
greater security of the public." This " Blue Book"
(No. 19 of 11. C., 1844) comprises the Report of the
Committee in question ; a detail of their proceedings
de die in diem ; minutes of evidence ; an appendix ;
alphabetical heads and analytical digest of the evi-
dence taken, &c. &c. Joint-stock companies are, obvi-
ously, such powerful means for accomplishing signal
good, or producing incalculable evil, in all the varied
fields of enterprise upon which it is proposed to launch
private capital for lucrative investment, that no more.
legitimate object could have been propounded for the