New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-03-22
AROMANCE OF LONDON LIFE.
ALBERT GRANTS RISE AND FALL.


SOURCE OF DISASTER TO HTM-HIs GRAND
MANSION NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF HIS CA
RRER.
IrRoN THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBuNB'I
LONDON March SIT is now two years and more
since heard an eminent lawyer that it was inn
possible TO collect debt of $4,000 from Mr. Albert
Grant During the interval the great promoter has
foated along somehow, but the crash has come ut
last. lie has filed petition in bankruptcy, ana the
legal mill which is 10 grind him out discharge IN
due time is in full movement HIS debts are stated
at 81, 0OO, 900; assets something under SlooooV'
This latter amount is supposed to consist
mainly of sums realized from the sale OF
several tons of securities" TO dealers in paper
makers stock. The splendid chambers in Lom-
hardest were full of such stuff No man of our
time had so profound faith in the efficacy OF the
printing press for coming money. HIS faith was
not of the cheap and vulgar kind which the oracles
OF your Greenback party have brought into tempo
rary dIscredit. Mr.. Albert Grants methods were
more delicate and complicated. He never sought 10
prlnt money He printed certificates of shares. for
which he found, during long period, no difficulty
in obt tanning money. There was q time when hls
fame in the City ecpsed that of the Earrings, ana
Morgans and ROthschlds. He understood, as no
man before him had even understood the art OF
"bringng ont a company. He knew his time ana
the men of his time Five years sooner or later, ana
no snch career could have beeen run II was not in
the nature of things that it should last and IT was
probably a mscalculation of the duration Of human
credulity with respect TO a particular form
of imposition that brought the great Baron
10 grief. He made immense sums; but
the sums he spent also immense. Not so
much the sums he lavshed in mere ostentatlon. as
those which the and incidents OF his peculiar
business extracted from HIM. His big home at
KensingtOn his pictures his gift OF Leicester
square to London, his bribery at klddermlnster
cost him dear certainly. But all this was as
nothing compared to what he spent in keeping up
the elaborate machinery by which the public was
led 10 part with its millions 1t would be . mistake
to suppose that Grant the sole beneficiary by
the pecular proceedings with which his namo was
most cOnspcuously connected. The plumber was
divided among many. Said man who knew HIM
md his affairs intimately: They got the money
away from him almost as fast as he made It,"
didn't care to ask who "they" were, but 1t IS
easy TO guess. You might make a shrewd
conjecture for instance, TO the division OF
profits in the Emma Mine business. No one case
has proved so disastrous to Grant as that. III was
in that he took his highest flight. Before that he
had brought down great game; peers, NJ. rs Clty
magnates and many another parsonage had been on
his lists a directors But then for the first time he
owned foreign Minister; and a Minister of the
country IN which the property to be disposed OF
was situate 1t was thought stroke of genius at the
time. But there happened to be a few men among
the stockholders of the Emma Company who had
an objection to being DONE" who were pugna-
cous; who had money; and who treated the Baron
to more law than he could manage. Wrts raiDed
down on him. | think as many 800 actions were
pendlpR at one time solely on behalf of Emma
stockholders The mere legal expenses were enor-
nous. The scandal was moro damaging
than the cost IN money. The period OF
general credulity about companies passed
rapidly away. The Baron found his trade vanish
almost as mysteriously as it had grown When the
collapse came. he was loaded down with mass OF
shares which represented great nominal values. but
which he had been unable to dispose of In time.
HIS prestige was gone. Lisbon Tramways and SOM
brero Phosphate had destroyed what Emma left OF
it. and though he struggled against fate, the end
inevitable.
There are people who say he will begin again
when he is freed from debts by discharge in bank
ruptcy and that he NAV once more be power IN
the financial world. But that is very doubtful.
His ability unquestIOnably great. is of peculiar
kind and not adapted to all circumstances. He 10
best fitted to fish i'll troubled waters. Before his
great success came no had tried many things and
failed in all Mr.. Albert GOtthcimer was never
name to couture with, albeit for many years known
well enough III various departments of fnan-
cial experiment. Metamorphosed into Mr.. Albert
Grant, aud then into Baron Grant he has
had more brilliant fortune, but their career too,
has come to a close. 1t reported year ago
that the Baron was studying for the bar. He tried
some of his own causes himself, and tried them in
what must be called very brilliant style for an anna
teur But it hardly be supposed that solicitors
OF clients would desire to intrust many important
briefs to a man whose name bears so many stains.
OF late he found himself Obliged to withdraw his
affairs from solicitors whose bills-even bills for
money paid out of pocket-he could no longer dis
charge and they have been managed by the clerk
also a solicitor of some kind, bclieve,-whom he
kept on the premises
When he quilted the splendid establishment
where he used to hold audiences and keep half the
City dancing attendance on him, he had to submit
20 the humiliation of paying rent in advance for the
modest chambers he was able to hire His huge
and bideOus house in KensingtOn has never been Oc
cupied Twice OF three times it has been put up for
sale by auction, but lie never got bid for 1t which
came near the reserved price put on the property.
Mr. Grant indeed had no interest in the SALE The
reserve price represented the sum for which the
mortgages and the owners Of builders hens were
willing to mart with their claims When he built this
mansion he dreamed of such a success i'll fashion
able life as Mr. TrollOpe has described In Tho Way
We 1.-Two Now" where the father of the young lady
whom Sir Felix Carbury makes love to bears some
likeness to Baron Grant, as he would have been had
his dream of social splendOr como true. The house
stands III seven acres OF ground and is built on
scale too vast for any fortune not speculative IN Its
origin. 1t would have cost its owner more than
800 900 a wear for rent alone in the shape of in
terest on purchase money. Withal, it was model
of brilliant discomfort illarranged, pretentious,
without real grandeur, and, big as it was. seemed
empty rather than spacious. Still it would have
held great crowds and one need not bo very cyni-
col to hnl,exe that the crowds would have como