The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-31 00:00:00

TUESDAY iIIORA ING, DEC. 31, 1844.

The close of a year of successful enterprise im-
pels us to the performance of a grateful duty—the
acknowledgment of the kindness and support which
we have received, and continue to receive, at the
hands of our friends. In the performance of this
duty, we shall not permit ourselves to be betrayed
into the indulgence of a boastful spirit. We shall
not vaunt of prosperity which we do not enjoy, nor
of influence which we do not possess. The test
has been withdrawn by which the truth of such
vaunts could be tried. The Government returns
of the circulation and advertisements of the press
of the country, are no longer issued; and we shall
not take advantage of that circumstance, and
thereby incur the possible suspicion that we are
anxious to claim a position amongst the journals of
our town and county, to which we are not justly
entitled. The rapid increase of our circulation,
and the advertising favours of our friends, afford
us, as men of business, the best proof which can
be afforded, that the influence which we possess
with the public is too fully felt and acknowledged
to need from us more than the expression of our
sincere thanks.

How far we have merited the support which we
have received, it is not for us to say. We have
striven, however, to merit it, by rendering the
LIVERPOOL STANDARD, to the best of our ability,
a faithful and honest record of passing events, and
by advocating in its columns those principles and
measures, which we sincerely believe to be most
conducive to the wellbeing of cur fellow-townsmen
and the public good. if we have not succeeded in
our efforts—if we have come short of the expecta-
tions of some of our friends, or gone beyond the
views and wishes of others, the fault has been one
of judgment, for which we are sorry, and not of
intention or unworthiness of motive.

With respect to the future we make no professions,
beyond that of a perseverance in the effort to ad-
vance the best interests of our town and of our
country, and to abide, at all hazards, and under all
circumstances, by those principles which we have
hitherto profissed, and which we feel to be those
best calcula ed to advance the permanent happiness
of our fellow men. We are going to perform uo
miracles of ability or of liberality. We are neither
going to issue any extraordinary statistical docu-
ments, for which the world is to be filled with rap-
tures of gratitude, or to supply our paper gratui-
tously "to all the hotels in Lancashire, to every
commercial room in the kingdom, and to all the
principal places of resort, public offices, &c., in the
empire." The first great feat we leave to be per-
formed by contemporary, whose opinion of his ca-
pacity for it is greater than our opinion of our own ;
and the second is happily unnecessary, inasmuch as
the LIVERPOOL STANDARD is already supplied to
most of the hotels in this and the surrounding
counties, and to the newsrooms of all the leading
towns in the empire. Our effort shall be only to
advance its usefulness and circulation by every le-
gitimate means, and every legitimate sacrifice of
time, labour, and means.

With these remarks, and repeating the expression
of our gratitude, we take our leave, wishing to each
and all our readers " a happy new year," and to
our fellow-townsmen and the country, a continu-
ance of that prosperity which has dawned upon them
in the year now hastening to its close.

For some time we have observed going on, in
this town and other resorts of speculation, a trade
which we know to be a most hazardous one to some
of the parties engaged in it, and, generally speak-
ing, to those who have money and a standing in
life to lose, and who are the least aware of the pos-
sible difnculties and losses, into which, without the
exercise of great caution, they may be led, and the
most anxious to act fairly and honestly. The trade
to which we refer is that in the shares of the new
rai.tvay undertakings; and the parties, on whose
account we fear danger and ultimate loss, are those
to whom such shares have been originally allotted,
or who in purchasing such shares have taken upon
themselves the full responsibility of the original
holders; and we cannot reconcile it to our con-
science, as faithful journalists, any longer to forbear
offering to them a few words of advice and caution
upon the subject.
The position of an individual to whom shares in
any railway undertaking are allotted, is, from the
first moment of the allotment, one of liability for, not
only the deposit but, the whole amount of such
shares, inasmuch as he binds himself to sign the
parliamentary and subscribers' deeds for such
amount, which on the passing of the act become a
register of the shareholders. The existing practice
is, on the deeds being so signed, to issue scrip to
the parties, which forthwith become saleable in the
sharemarket. passing from hand to hand, at pre-
miums or discounts varying daily and sometimes
hourly. Having parted with his scrip, perhaps at a
tempting profit, the original allottee and consequent
signer of the proper deeds imagines that he has ac-
tually realized the money which he has put into his
pocket, and that he is exonerated from all further
interest or risk in the undertaking. Past expe-
rience, however, which in the fever of speculation is
too apt to he forgotten, has feelingly assured thou-
sands that such is not the case. Such original al-
lottee, when selling and parting with his scrip, can-
not effect a legal transfer, and thus be relieved of
his responsibility, in any undertaking for which an
act of Parliament has not been obtained; and he
remains still, to all intents and purposes, a share-
holder until such legal transfer is made.
A practical instance will best show the result of
neglecting, in such cases, the proper precautions.
A B has had allotted to him fifty shares in some
promising or well-puffed line of railway, and, having
signed the usual deeds, receives his scrip, and sells
such shares at a thumping premium to C D, of
whose respectability and prudence he may or may
not be assured. C D sells to E, who sells to F,
and so on through the alphabet. In the meantime
the Act of Parliament has been obtained, possibly
on not such favourable terms as were originally an-
ticipated ; the rage for speculation subsides • sales
from hand to hand are no longer readily eecte ;
further calls are looked forward to; and, as the
result of some or all of these causes, the shares fall
below par. Who, in this emergency, is, in the eye
of the law, the shareholder ? To whom do the
directors look for funds to carry on their under-
taking ? To him only who is registered. But he
has sold his scrip ! True; but where is it ? and
where is the party who is to take upon his shoulders
the original holder's liability ? In too many cases
of this description he is non est inventus, or, not
being legally bound to accept of such liability, he
refuses to come forward.

It is the unpleasant and possibly ruinous predica-
ment here described which we wish our readers
carefully to avoid. Many men, with the best inten-
tions, in such times as the present, take upon them-
selves liabilities greater than their means will war-
rant, in the expectation that they can be readily
absolved from them. In the majority of cases we
have no doubt every thing will go on smoothly;
but we know that there have been cases where such
has not been the result, and we grt ally fear that
there will he again.
Respectfully, therefore, we urge upon our readers
the exercise of due caution. We have no wish to
repress that legitimate speculation without which
new railway undertakings cannot be got through
their initiatory stages ; but let those who incur
liability in such speculation take care that, before
they grasp at and count their profit as realised, they
have assurance of being legally relieved from such
liability at the earliest possible period.

A few more hours will bring us to the termina-
tion of the year 1844; and before we take our final
leave of it, we shall briefly glance over its claims to