The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-21 00:00:00

LITERAT URE.

THE CITY; or Physiology of London Business with
Sketches on 'Change and at Cofee•houses.
The author of this book has scarcely done justice to
himself in his title—his aro not mere sketches, they are
daguerrotypes of the city and its inhabitants. It is one
of the most readable books we have lately met with ;
and at the present moment, when every one is interested
in the proceedings of the Stock Exchange and the share •
market ; when the novel reader leaves his novel for the
romance of the railways ; w hen the youth no longer
talks of love but of lines ; and, when even the clergy
themselves are deeper in the study of scrip than of
scripture, such a book as this cannot but be most useful
as well as amusing. Do yon wish to be introduced to
the Bank directors, and to the principal London ban-
kers and bill discounters, our author will introduce
you to their intimate personal acquaintance. He will
act as your cicerone in the awful bank parlour, and
accompany you to the clearing-house; he will initiate
you into all the mysteries of: the Stock Exchange,
teach you to know a broker fr.an a jobber, to distinguish
between a bull and a bear, and after that hunt you
a stag, and explain to you lois physiology. The follow-
ing account of the changes induced in the Stock Ex-
change by the death of Rothschild, and by the intro-
duction about tbe same time of pigeon expresses, will
be found interesting, and will at the same time enable
the reader to judge of the style of the book.

" When ,the late Mr. Roth;Child was alive, and business
ever became flat and unprofitable in the Stock Exchange,
the brokers and jobbers generally complained and threw the
blame upon this leviathan of the money market. Whatever
was wrong was always alleged to be the effect of Mr. Roths-
child's operations, and, according to the views of these
parties, he was either bolstering up, or unnecessarily depress-
ing, prices for his own object. An anecdote is related. of
this great speculator, that, hearing on one occasion that a
broker had given very strong expression to his feelings in the
open market on this subject, dealing out the most deadly
anathemas against the Jews, and consigning them to the
most horrible torments, he sent the broker, through the
medium of another party, an order to sell 600,0001. Consols,
saying—*As he always so abuses me, they will never suspect
he is Bearing the market on my account." Mr. Rothschild
employed several brokers to do his buisness, and hence there
was no ascertaining what in reality was the tendency of his
operations. While perchance one broker was buying a certain
quantity of stock on the order of his principal in the market,
another would, at the same moment be ,instructed to sell;
so that it was only in the breast of the principal to know the
probable result. It is said that Mts. Rothschild tried her
hand in speculating, and endeav,Jured by all her influence to
get at the secret of her husba'jd's dealings. She, however,
failed, and was therefore not -eery successful in her ventures.
Long before Mr. Rothsch;:td's death it was prophesied by
many of the brokers, tb.at, when the event occurred, the
public would be less 3:l`arnied at the influence of the firm, and
come forward more freely to engage in stock business.
They have, notwilbstanding, been very much mistaken; for
although several years have elapsed since his demise, the in-
tervening period, till the present railway speculation, has
been one of most unexampled dulness. Now he is dead,
many, no doubt, wish he were alive again, to impart activity
to business, as well as increase their own resources by the
handsome commissions he was in the habit of paying.
"Mr. Rothschild is said to have generally speculated as a
Bull, and a great portion of his large property was obtained
by such operations. At a party which he one gave at his
mansion on Stamford-hill, one of the guests, in order to pay
a compliment to his host, introduced upon the supper-table
the figures of a Bull and Bear in violent conflict with each
other. The Bear, however, appeared to be nearly subdued
by his horned antagonist ; and the device, which was
thoroughly understood, was honoured with the approbation
of the company.
" Among the various plans adcpted of late years for
securing early intelligence fer Stock Exchange purposes,
none have proved more successful than that of ' pigeon
expresses.' Till within the last seven or eight years the
ordinary courier brought the news from the Continent; and
it was only the Rothschilds, and one or two other important
firms, that ran' intelligence in anticipation of the regular
French mail. However, about ten years ago the project was
conceived of establishing a communication between Paris
and London by means of pigeons, and in the course of two
years it was in complete operation. The training of the
birds took considerable time before they could be relied on ;
and the relays and organisation required to perfect the
scheme not only involved a vast expenditure of time, but
also of money. In the first place, to make the communica-
tion of use on both sides of the Channel, it was necessary to
get two distinct establishments for the flight of the pigeons
—one in England and another in France. It was 'then
necessary that persons, in whom reliance could be placed,
should be stationed in the two capitals, to be in readiness to
receive er dispatch the birds that might bring or carry the
intelligence, and make it available for the parties interested.
Hence it became almest evident that one speculator, without
he was a very wealthy man, cou!cl not hope to support a
' pigeon' express. The consequence was, that the project
being mooted, two or three of the speculators, including
brokers of the house, themselves joined and worked it for
their own benefit. Through this medium several of the
dealers have made large sums of money ; but the trade is
scarcely so profitable as it was, because the success of the
first operators has induced others to follow the example of
establishing this species of communication. The cost of
keening a ' pigeon' express has been estimated at 6001. or
7001. a-year ; but whether this amount is magnified with
the view of deterring others from venturing into the specu-
lation, is a question which never seems to have been properly
explained. It is stated that the daily papers avail themselves
of the news brought by these expresses;' but, in considera-
tion of allowing the speculators to read the dispatches first,
the proprietors, it is understood, bear but a minimum propor-
tion of the expense. The birds generally used are of the
Antwerp breed, strong in the wing and fully feathered. The
months in which they are chiefly worked are the latter end
of May, June, July, August, and the beginning of September;
and though the news may not be always of importance, a
communication is generally kept up daily between London
and Paris in this manner.

"In 1837-38-39, and 1840, a great deal of money was made
by the pigeon-men,' as the speculators supposed to have
possession of such intelligence are familiarly termed; and
their appearance in the market was always indicative of a
rise or fall, according to the tendency of their operations.
Having the first chance of baying or selling, they, of course,
had the market for a while in their own hands; but
as time progressed. and it was found that the papers, by
their second editions,' would communicate the news, the
general brokers refused to do business till the papers reached
the City. The pigeons bringing the news occasionally got shot
on their passage ; but as aflock of some eight or a dozen are
started at a time, miscarriage is not of frequent occurrence.
At the time of the death of Mr. Rothschild one was caught
at Brighton, having been disabled by a gun-shot wound;
and beneath the shoulder-feathers of the left wing was dis-
covered a small note, with the wor.ls "Il est snort," followed
by a number of hieroglyphics. Each pigeon establishment
Was a method of communication entirely their own ; and the
conductors, if they fancy the key to it is in another person's
power, immediately vary it. A case of this description oc-
curred not long ago. The parties interested in the scheme
fancied that, however soon they received the intelligence,
there were others in the market who were quite equal with
them. In order to arrive at the real position of affairs, the
chief proprietor consented, at the advice of a friend, to pay
101. for the early perusal of a supposed rival's pigeon ex-
press.' The express' came to hand—he read it, and was
not a little surprised to find that he was in reality paying for
the perusal of his own news! The truth soon came out—
somebody had bribed the keeper of his pigeons, and were thus
not only making a profit by the sale of his intelligence, but
also on the speculations they in consequence conducted. The
defect was soon remedied by changing the style of characters
employed, and all went right as before."
We would earnestly advise all who may be inclined
to dabble in accommodation lAN, to read the chapter on
" Petty Bill Discounters, and the manner of doing a Bill."
It is an admirable exposure of an infamous system of ex-
tortion. He gives us a very lively description of a meeting
of railway proprietors, and an admirable portrait of Mr.
Levy, the great pacificator at all these meetings, and a
"great man in the City." He next introduces us to the
Royal Exchange and to its " Lions," the Rothschilds,
Barings, and Salomons; and then, ascending the staircase,
he conducts us to Lloyd's, and introduces us to the
underwriters, merchants, and captains. From thence we
go in company with some of these merchants to the
North and South American Coffee-house, where we
find the City correspondents of the various newspapers
busily engaged in preparing the "City article.' On
leaving the North and South American Coffee-house
we go to the Jerusalem, the resort of those engaged
in East India or Australian commerce. One person fre-
quenting this place deserves especial notice,
" And that is the indefatigable gentleman, Lieutenant
Waghorn, by whose exertions and plans the overland route
was first adopted. He has now started an agency for the
conveyance of parcels overland, and is, in some small degree,
benefiting by the undertaking, since he is well supported by
the majority of the merchants, who, knowing they can rely
on his punctuality, patronise him in preference to numerous
other firms who are following the same description of business.
"Lieutenant Waghom is rather an eccentric man, and,
though excitable, is undoubtedly an honest British seaman.
A story is current in the City that " Tom Waghorn," as he
is familiarly called, can do nothing without the Pacha of
Egypt, and the Pacha of Egypt nothing without him. This
statement, it is commonly understood, originates from the
strong friendship existing between these two great men.
Waghorn is said to be Mehemet Ali's fides Achates, and
every reason exists for believing that the influence the one
possesses over the other has done much to ensure the safety,
and facilitate the passage of the mail across the desert.
"It will be recollected that, at the time of the war in
Egypt, Mr. Waghorn took up the cudgels in one of the even-
ing papers in favour of the Pacha, and was replied to (as Mr.
Waghom will always have it) by Lord Palmerston, in the
Globe. Mr. Waghom vigorously defended the Pacha against
(as he imagines) the assaults of the ex-Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and to this day he takes no little credit to himself
for so thoroughly vanquishing (as he thinks) his mighty op-
ponent. The project of a railway across the desert, and a
variety of the local improvements in Egypt, are by many of
Mr. Waghorn's friends attributed to his influence with the
Pacha; and such a distinction, if only earned by a tithe of
what he is supposed to have done, must afford such an
ambitious man, as Mr. Waghom really is, some reason for
self-congratulation.
"The rapidity of Mr. Waghorn's movements is a great
feature in his bustling character. You meet him one day at
the Jerusalem ; and the next, or the day after, you see him
announced as arrived in Paris, on his way to Marseilles—of
course en route for Egypt. You are perhaps, in a day or two
afterwards, surprised to find, rushing up Cornhill or down
Birchin-lane, the individual who, you would have thought,
could scarcely have reached Alexandria; and when you
say, Ah what ! back again—why you've never seen the
Pacha?' Yes, I have though—when we travel we don't
do things by halves.'
" It was not many months ago that Mr. Waghorn was off
on one of these flying visits, and he then reached as far as
Bombay. On his return, he was asked how he liked the ap-
pearance of affairs there. He replied, Not at all—no im-
provements going on there as in other parts of the world--
the Parsee!, the Jews of the place, are eating up all before
them.' This eccentric individual is about fifty years of age ;
he is, we should say, five feet six, with a robust constitution
and intelligent countenance, the latter much tanned by his
frequent voyages to, and excursions in, Asiatic countries. He
is a regular attendant at the Jerusalem when he is in town,
and has large connexions with many of the first merchants
in the City. The only remuneration Mr. Waghorn is under-
stood ever to have received from Government for the interest
he exhibited in promoting and directing the route of the
overland mail, was the concession of the title of Lieutenant
R.N.,' for which he sought several years before it was allowed.
The merchants in the year 1839-40, however, very hand-
somely subscribed a considerable sum, and presented it to
Mr. Waghom, to enable him to push his agency, both at
home and in India, which then required more capital than he
could readily command. Since that date, although compe-
tition has made a dead set against him, he has gone on pretty
successfully, and so continues up to the present time.
"Within the last two months the merchants hays COM.