The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-22 00:00:00

Tientn "Ain+

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 184 s.

In the case of Mr. GIBBS, formerly an " eminent
bill-discounter and money-broker"—in the parlance
of the day, an " attorney and scrivener," profes-
sionally speaking—we observe that Mr. Commis-
sioner HOLROYD has refused the bankrupt his cer-
tificate. To those who will not be at the trouble
of reading the report of this judgment, the decision of
his Honour may appear somewhat harsh. We confess,
with pain, that we think it a most righteous and salutary
decision. Without the slightest desire to bear hardly
upon the unfortunate individual, who has been thus re-
fused an indulgence which the law rarely withholds from
parties in his situation, we must say that Mr. GIBBS is
but one representative of a class of bill and money-
dealers, the whole of whom it would be well for the in-
terests of society to see removed and absolutely shut out
from any further pursuit of their calling. What can
be expected by the victims who advance moneys for
profitable investment to the custody or employment of a
man v+ ho raises other moneys for his own use, at the
enormous and most avaricious rate of 40, 50, and 60 per
cent. interest ? Mr. Commissioner HOLROYD declined to
enter into the consideration of the question, whether, in
these days, when bankers and brokers are as plentiful as
blackberries, there be a necessity for permitting the
business of a scrivener (the ancient substitute for both
the one and the other) to be any longer carried on. We
are sorry that his Honour did not go into this question.
If the " no necessity," which his observation thus
glanced at, were once made out, on such authority, to
the satisfaction of the Legislature, we should not have
another session of Parliament pass by, without getting
rid of a whole colony of legal vultures, who, at present,
less honest or more prudent than Mr. GIBBS, raise
fortunes for themselves on the ruined fortunes of other
men—their clients or their customers. Every hour in
the day one may see men reclining at their ease in their
carriages, with unabashed and insolent effrontery, who
have stepped into them only by means of the basest
chicanery, and the most profligate turpitude which
cunning bad men can commit, within the safe limits of
the law. Every clay the public journals teem with re-
ports of cases, in which improvident young men, the
absolute possessors of property, or entitled to it in re-
version or expectancy, are found to be irretrievably
ruined by their unhappy connexions with discounting
attorneys, or " accommodating" money brokers agents.
The exigencies of the moment, relieved by consenting to
enormous and utterly unwarrantable sacrifices, is conti-
nued by a series of " accommodations" (as they are
termed in bitter irony), extended through some months,
or one, two, three years, as the case may be, but surely
terminating in the permanent ruin of the deluded bore
rower. He is tempted by the-offers of a " discount"—
he is played with, and his business is delayed until that
which was but an inconvenience, more or less grave, be•
comes an inexorable necessity. In proportion as his
wants assume this formidable and imperative shape, the
coat of relief, the amount of the sacrifices ro ba made,

are carefully and cruelly enhanced. Thus he is led on
till a knife may be said to be at last put into his hand
wherewith he is compelled to cut the throat of his own
fortunes, absolute or contingent, and not for his own re-
lief after all, but for the benefit of the callous usurers
who have brought .him to this moral suicide. Look at
the case of the creditor of GIBBS, resident at Ostend.
Whether designedly or inadvertently, we know not—but
actually, it is evident, one of Mr. GIBBS'S most
unfortunate victims—his embarrassments have been
extended, his anxieties accumulated, the penalties of his
misfortunes trebled and quadrupled by a species of tor-
ment greater and more exquisite (we hope for the
honour of the old Greek " Onyth ") than any which
TANTALUS himself experienced. Forced to live out of
his native country—constantly applying to GIBBS for
more prompt and for larger remittances—amused by
the scrivener with driblets only, doled out from time to
time, to keep him quiet and prevent his importunate
barking—this unfortunate man appears to have been
compelled to play the part of a useful but unrewarded
puppet in GI ms's hands. Then he makes applications
to GIBBS, under GIBBS'S instructions, for advances of
money, which money GIBBS obtains from third parties
on the strength and exhibition of those applications:
bills are drawn to carry out the appearances needful to
give a genuine character to the scrivener's proceedings.
Bils are discounted in one batch to the tune of 5,0001.
The proceeds (4,8001. and upwards) are actually re-
mitted to the Ostend victim, and he is obliged to go
through the tragic farce of returning them, sub rosa, to
Giliss, on receiving another similar remittance from
that party, so as to withdraw the bank-notes trans-
mitted for the first transaction, those of the second
being submitted to a similar course of operations, and
then—converted into gold; the poor gentleman at
Ostend all the while deriving precisely as little benefit
from this evidence of the convertibility of the bank
paper into bullion on demand, as this country has ex-
perienced from Sir ROBERT PEEL'S convertibility nos-
trum in the working of its currency system—that is, he
gains a loss.

We earnestly hope that this remarkable judgment will
be extensively perused and studied. We know of nu
more disorganising and demoralising influence, affecting
the peace and welfare of society in this country, than
the practices of these money-lending and bill• discount-
ing attorneys of whom we speak.

Letters from Tripoli state that if the Ottoman Govern-
ment had ever entertained any idea of an expedition
against Tunis, it bad now finally abandoned it. Two
French ships of war still remained at Tripoli.

Madrid papers of the 14th and 15th have been

received.

In answer to an address from the Commissioners of
the Mercantile Society of Madrid, praying fora modifi-
cation of the the tariff, the Minister of Finance stated
that it was his intention during the ensuing session to
present a project of law on the tariff to the Cortes.
The QUEEN and her Mother left St. Sebastian for
Mondragon on the 16th. The Infante LuisA remained
at St. Sebastian.

General CAMINERO bad orders to remove to Almeira

El Heyaldo mentions that several merchants and shop-
keepers called at its office, and stated that if the Minister
of Finance did not yield to their complaints, or make
some modification in the new law of taxation, they would
close their establishments. It disapproves of the measure
contemplated by them, and advises them to lay their case
before the Cortes as soon as they meet, and in the mean-
time make every effort with the Minister.

General O'DONNELL refuses to give to the English
Commissioners at the Havannah a house for the use of
the freed negroes. lie maintains, that it is to the
Mixed Commission, and not to the English portion of
it, that the house is to be given, instead of the old three-
decker.

According to the TienTo, Don N. PRATE, the uncle
of General PRIM, had been arrested.

Great dissatisfaction is expressed in all the papers at
the arbitrary conduct of NARVAEZ. With one excep-
tion, the whole press is against the NARVAEZ Ministry,
and it is thought probable by the well-informed that
some modification of its composition is at hand.
The 15th, being the feast of Assumption, was kept as a
holiday at the Bourse.

We have received the Paris papers of Wednesday.

They contain intelligence from Leipsic to the 16th,
up to which day everything had continued quiet there.
There is, in fact, owing to the precautions adopted by
the municipal authorities, but little probability that the
tranquillity of the city will again be interrupted. The
Municipal Council has published a proclamation, recom-
mending the communal guard and students to c)ntinue
acting together in maintaining tranquillity, inasmuch as
it is highly important that the news of the restoration of
order should reach foreign countries quickly, in order
that the interests of the fair of St. Michel should not be

compromised.
A statement appears in the Ceurrier du Havre to
the effect that Queen VICTORIA would visit King Louis
PHILIPPE at Eu, on her way back to England from

Germany.
A tremendous hurricane raged on Tuesday, which
did great damage at Paris and at Rouen. It is stated
that at Rouen 200 persons had been killed or wounded
by the blowing down of a large factory.

The Three per Cents. closed at 84f. 40c. ; the New Loan
at 84f. 65c.; the Five per Cents. at 121 f. 90c. ; Orleans
Railroad shares, 1,320 f. ; Rouen, 1,110 f.; Vierzon, 812 f. 50c. ;
Havre, 915 f. ; Avignon, 1,085 f. ; Basle, 286 f. 25c. ; Spanish
Three per Cents., 38i.; Ditto, Passive, 7.
The following are the quotations of the new lines:—

Orleans and-Bordeaux, 2251. premium ; Boulogne, 140 f.
premium ; Troyes and Montereau, 55f.; Paris and Lyons
(Laffitte), 36f. 25c.; ditto (Pepin), 14f ; ditto (Decan),
14f. 50c. ; ditto (Calon), 61. ; ditto (Ganneron), 13f. 75c.;
Northern Line (Laffitte), 58f. 75c.; ditto (Rosamel), 291. ;
Tours and Nantes (Mackenzie), 161. 25c. ; ditto (Drouil-
lard), If. 50c. ; ditto (O'Neill) 7f. 50e. ; ditto (Jacques
Lefevre), lf. ; Lyons and Avignon (Lecointe), 201.; ditto
(Talabot), 41f. 25c.; ditto (Compagnie Meridionale), Bf.
50c.; Bordeaux and Cette (Mackenzie), par; ditto (Rape-
leta), 15f. ; Creil and St. Quentin (Carette), 6f. 50e. ;
Paris and Strasburg (Ganneron), 131. 75c.; ditto (Bechet).
10f. ; ditto (Hottinguer), 15f.; Dijon and Mulhouse, par;
Dieppe, 351.
LYONS, Auu. 16.-Avignon and Marseilles, 1,062 f., end
of August; Paris and Orleans, 1,2801., ditto; Paris and
Rouen, 1,0631., ditto; Orleans and Vierzon, 778 f., ditto;
Orleans and Bordeaux, 715 f., ditto; Nismes and Montpelier,
565 f. ditto.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Auo. 21.
Boulogne and Amiens.. 10% Orleans and Bordeaux 12
Bordeaux & ed t erran Over Yssel •••
Bordeaux and Toulouse ;Paris & Lyons (Lafitte)
Do. and Cette 2% ! Ditto (Ganneron's).
Dutch Rhenish
Derure Valley - 5034
Dieppe & Paris Junct. Paris and Rouen 426A
Dijon and Mulhouse ... ;Paris and Strasburg
East Indian
Grt Northern of France .Do. (Compte de L'Est)
(Latlitte's)
Ditto ( Rosamel's)
Great Paris and Lyons 2% !Royal North of Spain. 3
Jamaica Junction — ISambre and Meuse .... 8%
Do. North Midland — !Strasbourg and Basle .
Louvain and Jemeppe 4%
,Tours and Nantes
Lyons and Avignon 2% i (M'Kenzie's)
Luxembourgh 2% Do. (Lefebvre's)
Namur and Liege 4% Verona and Ar cona....
Orleans and Vierzon 17 West Flanders 4l