The Sun. — 1869-03-11 (London, England)

THE DISMISSAL OF MR. EDWARD WATKINS  ED WARDS.  (From the Anglo-American Tinp.3.) The Lord Chancell r has dismissed Mr. Edward Watkins Edwards from his post as Official Assignee of B tnkruptcy. While repudiating any desire to crow over a man in misfortune, we see no cause to regret this result of the Overend-Gurney examination before the Lord Mayor. Although we desire to separate this gentleman entirely from a connectionwith the promotion or direction of Bobbin Companies, of which we have no knowledge, yet the subject is suggestive of such concerns. Those Who attend to the charges brought against the promo" ters and directors of failed companies are struck with the invariable plausibility of their defence though this is easy of explanation. Men trained to specious lying only are successful in gulling the public with the prospectuses of Bubble Enterprises'and they can talk as smoothly in justification el their course, as when they created so delusive all impression of the value of their shares as to occupy the position of benefactors distributing favenrsci Our enterprising citizen—whose philanthropic n3lll de.-fires the protection of small fry by destroying bottle-nosed whales, and can combine this philanthropy with oil in abundance and dividends 111 proportion—would, after appropriating all the sub: scriptions and buying on credit a few ill-found whders to cruise after the bottle-noses, talk as glibly in the face of those he left to pay for 111° unsaleable ships as he did when he made their mouths water with the picture he drew of the goo' things in store. Before, he was a benefactor, OW he is a martyr, and the grandeur of his condescension and the liberality with which he showered gifts are only equalled by his subdued suffering, his quiet resignation, and forgiveness of his itnplacahle and unreasonable enemies, for he can act both characters equally well. Hisiforte consists in plaYlllg upon two strong human feelings—the desire o? gm°, and sympathy with misfortune; • the one he turns to an immoral profit, the other he uses tn escape the consequences. When the resigned bat unhappy face and the tearful eye is raised in Court those who prhaps lost nothing by him see on'Y the victim before them. The rain and misery epees over the land with a hard, unrelenting cruelty by the lamb-like rascal are invisible. The drowning victims have been pressed to.the bottom, where that, lie with a millstone around their necks, beyond tb,,i oak power of returning evil for evil. Indeed it we be hopeless to expect any conviction against theSe people but for one damning fact--a fact not to b bilden or ignored—to which the mind wanders barb e after the favourable impression produced by the eS:i3 planations of the accused —turning to the thousanuis in scores piled on each other of money lost—whel it? The Gurneys were saints, but the men I.„v ho trusted them lost three millions. Mr. Edwards an earnest, intelligent, hard-working man, 'vb° of his best to save that and other firms ; but a slice te the three millions which fell on the unfortunf',., shareholders was traced directly and indireetll.o him. Mr. Wilkinson was the lamb which fell w the jaws of the wolf, being actually incarcerates in taespr, hateful ex express their convict's indignation of the go-s iu. fringement of English practice, which has " eic dealt with one who had broken a great Joint_stoeo, Discount Company, ruined families by the dnioas swamped n money iu millions, and led to nuillertiesuicides and premature deaths. Why this gen, man, whose personal expenses were far greater too, those of the Prime Minister of England, w„asigho tually punished as if he were an " Arab tod had stolen an apple from a stall ! The Pre'neir " chaff " which these gentlemen indulged in with,rih victims before their own troubles began is °no an to be wholly lost to the world, and would flue a amusing volume if faithfully told. In one 7bese gentleman who had been totally ruined by ins, companies called on a secretary to prove his ri, bility to meet further demands. The seeretalittle who had feathered his own nest, and cared as expressed for the creditors as for the shareholders, exPdrsed the old hackneyd conventional sympathy, 3 „viardthat he should not risk further sums in such he', ap. ous concerns, and noticing the dejected, werlroas pearance of the victim, recommendA a gene he diet, particularly rich good wine. It was thi1,.500 spoke to a man who scarcely knew where to. been for bread—whose every prospect in life hadnrson blighted by the lies of such schemers as the 11'eur who tendered to him this advice. It did not 0 to tile Wag to the secretary that what his visitor salc▪ i literally true, so accustomed had he become vd. limited liability way of putting things. ?Ir. 3i:sto wards is now free to gather all his earnings His his yacht and cruise in search of change• other health must have been damaged by the eV Ler nd otu strain of the work he. gave to the Gurney a xa. tion the Lord Chancellor evidently desired to 4.0 companies, so his mind will benefit by the realfraord abcimco.un If he ee thing Barnum, for the New Yorkers would pay Boo' remalilgyhtwisphreospotose turnan ehnisgangoetrfnet• ty to to see so smart an Englishman. There are. glee; Wall-street who would take the greatest inter oLui'. him, and as he is provided with a yacht's" .1.,„ the gratify mend the trip across the Atlantic to curiosity of his American cousins.