The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-12-19
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
The Way Of the TransgressOr.
GenteeI Crime i'm England.

" defaulters' whose names are known IN this
country.
WALTER WArTs.-The result of the extraor-
binary success of the joint stock principle, within
the last twenty years, has been that plumbers of
persons of humble origin, of Indifferent moral
principles, have been brought into contact with
enormous sums of money, the appropriation of
which has been extremely easy, and these persons
have appropriated enormous gums, careless about
detection, and ready to pay the penalty of their
liberties or their lives, if detection should follow.
The first case to which / think it right TO call
attention, is the case of Walter Watts. He was
a clerk in the Globe Insurance Company in Lon
don, at n salary of 600 per annum. Between
the months of August, 1874. and February, 1850,
be abstracted f70 900. When he commenced
the system of defalcations, he was only p years
Of age but the life be led during his six years of
public plumber was remarkable. In 1914, the
name of Walter Watts suddenly became asso-
ciated with fashionable and Corinthian life in
London. He became a patron of art and pleasure
in its most extravagant form he kept an estab-
lishment at the West End, and a country house
in Brighton he had one of the best cellars in
London, stocked with the rarest Sintages; he had
some of the best horses in London he was a
devoted attendant on the theaters. In lS47, he
became lessee of the Marylebone Theater, and
during that year the celebrated Mrs. Warner
appeared there as the star of the unsuccessful
legitimate drama.
During the season of 1S4S and 1849, Mrs.
Mowatt and Mr.. Davenport, two American art
lists, PLAYED at Watts theater. Watts spared no
expense. Mrs. Mowatt's dressing-room beneath
the stage was fitted up like a bower of the Genii
in The Arabian Nights" In fact, the bril-
liancy of the expenditure of the Marylebone
Theater was the subject of conversation all over
London during the year 1919. The only persons
who knew nothing about it appeared to be the
Directors of the Globe office, in which Watts,
spending &c. 900 a year, was n clerk at G20O n
year. In 1919 he opened the Olympic Theater,
but the extravaganza and splendid management of
this Temple of Thesis only lasted a few months
before his frauds were detected. The defalcations
during the year lS49 alone amounted to Els 600.
In the receipt department of the Office there was
no effective check against fraud, although, owing
to the integrity of the officials, no fraud took
place, and in the accountants Office, in which
Watts was employed, the lax practice prevailed,
of making the bankers pass-book the foundation
OF the entries in the books of the company, in
stead of the documents referring to the payments
ordered, SO that if the persons having the custody
of the pass-book chose to falsify it, the false
entries were transferred to the general books of
the Office, and thus made To cover distractions
effected through the bankers. Watts, being tried
and convicted, committed suicide.
john SADLEIR.-The next case of n similar
character is that of John Sadleir. John Sadleir,
in 1886, was admitted as an Irish attorney, and
practiced with success in the country and in
Dublin. In 1S47, he was elected a member of
Parliament. In 1853 he was appointed Lord of
the treasury unOer LOru ADeTuccn. IL looked
forward to be Chief Secretary for Ireland, or
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and had a fair
chance of either of these great offices. All this
pVs'';on he owed to the fact of being
enabled to Use the money of the Tpperary Joint
Stock Bank. lie himself was a man of simple
and inexpensive habits, and the only relaxation
he took was hunting, which he did not carry ON
in an extravagant manner. His resignation of
his place at the Treasury, and retirement from
the government, were followed by his resignation
of the post as chairman of the London and County
Bank. His credit was then gone in London.
His forgery of the title deeds of the Irish Encum-
bered Estates Court was detected and, on the
10th February, 1856, John Sadleir committed
suicide at the age of forty-two. From the Tip
perary Bank John Sadleir distracted over f2OO.-
900. As Chairman of the Royal Swedish Rail-
way Company, he issued false shares to the
amount of ESQ 900, the whole proceeds of which
he appropriated. The most singular part of John
frauds is this-that over a quarter of a
of money he received is unaccounted for;
that is, there is no tangible method of explaining
how the money was spent, or who received it
from him.
The BRITISH BANK DIRECToRs.-The Royal
Bank was started in the year 1850, with
a capital of 9100 600, one half of which was
paid up. The board managed its affairs in the
way every dishonest board in every joint-stock
bank can do if they please. Mr.. Cameron, the
became indebted to the amount of
f3O, 600. Mr.. McGregor fS ,000, Mr.. Mullins
Ct 600, Mr.. Gwyn (another of the old directors
and original projectOrs,) Gl3 200, of which no
was rendered to the shareholders, and of
it is extremely p~roblematical whether the
have recovered one penny. And one of
the auditors who, it may be presumed was a little
too prying, found it more convenient to accept
IN advance of 50, 600 than to enter into disagree
able questions of vouchers and cheques. Mr..
Humphrey Brown, NJ. p, ON the day he opened
his account paid in 91S1 14s., and he drew
money until he was debtor to the company to the
amount of e70 900. The bank stopped on the
Sd of September, 1856; during its existence Of
six and a half years, it exhausted the whole of
the E15S 900, subscribed by the shareholders,
md left them besides half a million in debt. The
Bank directors were tried for a conspiracy
20 defraud, and they were convicted. Still the
heaviest sentence was twelve months, and there
ire thousands of persons who would submit to
Twelve months imprisonment for ESQ 900.
WILLIAM JAMES ROBSON has immortalized him
in the annals of crime, by his frauds on the
Palace Company. In 1858, he obtained
salary there at II per week, and in June, 1854,
ne vas appointed chief clerk IN the transfer de-
1artment, at n salary of only ESQ per annum.
But Robson was a well educated, refined, and
,entieman-like man, "a years of age, with literary
the author of several plays, and having n
arge circle of expensive acquaintance in London.
The simple plan by which he obtained E27 900
" false pretences was this-Robson directed a
Sir. Clement, a stock-broker, to sell 100 shares
ii III cOmIdny, anu ~ oTOheT dccOTulHSiy sOiu
hem-ffty to a Mr.. Joseph Lowe, and fifty to
mother person. For these shares the broker
eceived EOS, which he paid over, less commits
ion, to Robson. The document by which these
hares were transferred purported to convey the
hares from johnson to the purchasers. The
ignature to the deed, where the name of the
ransfer should be, was that of Henry Johnson
rominally, of course, written by that gentleman,
rho, however, had no existence, the whole thing
ENG a forgery on the part of Robson. Like
Robson lived in a most extravagant style.
EEoPoLD REDPATH-Commenced his career as
lawyers clerk; he then was appointed a clerk
n the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company.
.eaving his Office he set up business as an insur-
nee broker, but shortly afterwards failed for
IS 900. About the age of 35 he obtained the
of clerk in the service of the Great
snrthnrn Railway Cnmnanv and in that nHica |