The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-02-21
ENORMOUS FRAUDS.
Expose Of the Memphis and FL PasO Rail-
road Swindle-HOw French Capitalists
Were Robbed to the Tune Of Several
Mlilions-The Then FRENCH Government
"a Party to the Steal.


MiiIions-The The Frenc !, Government
Party tn the Steal.
The New York San of the 18th has the
following facts regarding another series
of enormous frauds which are on the
eve of investigation
We have been panied 1T rumors, cir
culated during the last three or four
years, accusing Gen. John &. Fremont
of dishonesty III the sale III France of
six or eight millions of bonds issued in
behalf of the Memphis and FL Paso, or,
as it was more commonly called, the
Transcontinental Railway" Suit has
been instituted in the French courts,
which will bring the matter TO the test
of judicial investigation. These trans
actions occurred nine or ten years ago,
when the Government of Louis Napo-
leon was still in possession of despOtic
powers. There were circumstances of a
most remarkable nature connected with
the affair. The managers of the under
taking, whoever they We're, gained by
means a surprising hold upon the French
Ministry. They secured for their bonds
admission to the Paris Bourse, n privi-
lege which cannot be accorded in France
to any foreign railway securities with
out express authority from the Govern
ment. These bonds were put upon the
market, and, under the sanction of this
official guarantee, they were advertised
in the journals, and special weekly
newspaper, called the TrdnScOntjncnt0i,
was established to commend them to
favor. 1t was even represented in this
paper that the United States Govern
ment had guaranteed the payment of
these bonds. Another suspicious Incl
dent was the presentation to the Bourse
III Paris of a certificate, signed, sealed
and apparently certified to with every
necessary legal formality, stating that
the Transcontinel bonds were regularly
delt in and sold in the New York Stock
Exchange-this being contrary to the
truth, and all the signatures, seal and
everything being forgeries.
Gen. Cluseret, at that time French
citizen, published attacks upon the
scheme, and he was at once summoned
before the Minister of the Interior, and
by way of punishment ordered to quit
France within twenty-four hours.
The Courier des Etats Unis, journal
long established, and of high respecta-
bility, likewise ventured to criticise the
project, and the result was that it was
Immediately excluded from France, and
deprived. of the important benefit of
circulating in the French West India
Colonies.
1t cannot be supposed that all this
was accomplished without the payment
of brides to an administration SO corrupt
as that of the Second Empire. What
these brides were have never been pre-
cisely ascertained, but it is notorious
that the Transcontinental bought a
large quantity of iron and supply of
locomotives from NJ Schroeder the
great manufacturer of Creuzot, who was
then President of the French Legislative
body, paying him enormously. The
nominal value of the bonds sold to the
French amounted, we think, to between
seven and eight millions of dollars, net
ting perhaps five millions. How much
of this money was spent In France is
not known, but what is certain, is that
not a mile of the proposed railway was
ever constructed, and that when the
concern went into bankruptcy in this
country, the receiver found no movable
assets, except quantity of iron and
number of French locomotives, rusted
and comparatively worthless, stored at
New Orleans. These are the general
outlines of one of the most remarkable
in all the list of fraudulent and unfor-
tunate railroad enterprises. We pre-
sumo that the approaching trial in Paris
will develop all the facts in this strange
and romantic story.