The Portland daily press., 1863-01-06

him an annual salary, and the house of G. G..
Duncan & Co. was established in 1853. The
new house was successful. and brought In much
American business for Lindsay d Co. To Liv-
erpool Messrs. Duncan & Co. honestly wrote,
"Your own connection is so extensive that we
feel we can do little to improve it." The cor
respondence of the three houses, quoted in
part in Mr. Pearce's pamphlet, proves conclu-
sively that partnership in fact, if not in law,
existed, and was acted upon, according to the
terms of the agreement made in 1852, by the
Liverpool party at least. In a judgment de-
livered in the Lord Chanccllor''s Court on the
10Th january. 1860, Lord Campbell said, 81
am at a loss to conceive what better evidence
could be furnished, of the memorandum in
question having been concluded and acted
upon, than is afforded by these letters"
In few years the account of the two firms
became very much confused. In 1855, Messrs
Pearce & Co tried to get settlement, and
were met with pointblank reputation Of the
partnership, on what ground, pray? Why, on
this-that the written document, on which the
action of the firms had for three years been
based, had no names TO IT,! These are Mr..
Lindsay's own words, and neither he nor Mr..
Stringer, in the absence of documentary proof,
could remember an agreement so important
aud, to them, so profitable. "Do not waste
time which must be valuable to you" was their
reply to a proposition to refresh memory
thus weakened by the lapse of three years.
They refused to submit the case to arbitration ;
there was absolutely no remedy left, except in
the Court of Chancery; and there in spiteof the
judgmentof Lord Campbell and of the Lords
Justices, that Messrs. Lindsay& Co. have acted
dishonesty to say the least of it," in spite of
pointed illusions from the same distinguished
sources to ''the painful discrepancy between
allegation and evidence" and their 'remarka-
BILE inaccuracies in swearing" such is the fell
city of Chancery practice in England, that "a
cause which," as Mr.. Kenge well says, "could
not exist out of that free and great country"
stil drags its slow length along interminably
The death of William Pearce in 1851, and the
establishment of Mr.. Duncan in Liverpool in
1858, as the agent of Messrs. Lindsay q Co,
according to Mr. Pearce's representa- on, and
at any rate as rival of Messrs. Pearce d Co.,
have augmented the difficulties with which the
plaintiffs had to contend.
The publication of Mr.. Pearces pamphlet
cannot fail to affect seriously Mr.. Lindsay's
reputation in England. He was beaten in the
parliamentary canvass of 1852, elected by a
majority of barely seventeen in 1854, and with
out opposition, successful as ever, in 1857. How
ho bac horna bnnsaif in
this country within the last twelve months
many Americans well remember. His Ameri-
ban business was nearly ruined when, in the
progress of this suit, such elegant extracts
from his letters were made public as "Put it to
the Yankees" squeeze the orange" &c, &C.,
referring to brokerage fees which were to be
exacted. 1t was then that Mr. Duncan was
established in Liverpool aud Mr.. Stringer be-
came the ostensibie head of the house in Lon
don; his name is less conspicuously offensive
than Mr.. Lindsays. We are told that the
guano charters for Antwerp, taken by SO many
American ships during the last eighteen
months, ARE obtained in Englandihrough Mr.. f.
P. Stringer, and in the United States through
Messrs. c. c. Duncan e. Co., of New York Ia
branch of the house of Duncan d Kendall in
Liverpool) and their correspondents in Boston
and Portland, in either case swelling the COM
missions of the same unprincipled firm of w.
| S. Lindsay & Co. On the other hand, careful
inquiry reveals a very general belief that no
connection, beyond the merest forms of COM
mercial courtesy, exists between the firms, and
we have heard the supposition, that Mr.. Dun
can could endeayor to sustain the American for
tunes ofMessrs. Lindsay & Co. secuted as incon-
| ceivable. The testimony to the integrity of
| Mr.. Pearce is unanimous. 1t would be well IL
the charge of completely with Messrs. Lindsay
& CO., contained by implication at least in his
pamphlet, could be publicly met by Mr.. Dun
can. Mr.. Lindsay is now in his forty-sixth
/ year. lie will need watching therefore, accord
ing to the usual computation for twenty-f five
/ years to come.