The Sun. — 1866-09-17 (London, England)

PRICE.... .... . .. 44. ETAMPED......54.  Iwere for the most part a set of needy and unprincipled ruffians—an unprincipled promoter, an unprincipled attorney, and an unprincipled manager set the concerns in motion. A few of the greedy respectables were bribed to lend their names and influence—a prospectus promising large gains, together with a market rigged 'to place the shares at a premium';—advertisements which paid the newspaper press enormously, and a trifling call within everytiotly's means, caught the unwary. The names were registered—the credit gained— and the company started, on its fatal career. As rats forsake a sinking ship, so sneaked from these concerns the more wary directors. First came the collapse of Smith, Knight, and Co., followed by the Smash of the Joint Stock Discount. The public began to open their eyes to the style of memo whom they had intrusted so vast an amount of pqwer and responsibility. The climax was reached when the house whose name stood highest in England proved to be a hollow sham, and with the smash of 0 verend, Gurney, and Co. went all the belief in the respectability of the respectables. Since then the expose has been complete ; it:svery magnitude--in a measure—screening the delinquents from the punishment they have so justly merited. When the Courts open in November next it is probable that a story will be told that will remain a lasting scandal to the English name. Are these people to escape scot-free ? Is England to be spotted over with misery, tears, and suicide, while these people drive about looking with con-tdMpuous pity at their victims toiling through the mud ? Many of the promoters and directors of the failed companies were the most active agents in bringing to the ground the concerns they had erected. Some profited more by the destruction than by the construction of their handiwork. The infOrmation possessed by these people of the intrinsic rottenness of the companies with which they were connected enabled them with security to " bear" the shares on the Stock Exchange, wbich ended a few months ago in bringing them down like a house of cards. We have in our mind's eye a history of a small manufacturing concern, situated in the West end of London, which an attorney built up, and as unscrupulously pulled down, the whole ending in the utmost disaster to the shareholders of which the thing was capable, and iu the shortest possible time, but we are not yet aware whether the attorney profited most by the beginning or end of the undertaking. Can these people act thus, ruining all who place any confidence in them, 'destroying all faith of man in his fellow-man, and go unscathed by law, and continuing to hold their position in society? When DICKENS or any other great writer wants a subject to illustrate the wickedness of unscrupulous schemes, there will be no necessity for travelling out of London. In no other city will he find a richer mine of villainy all fresh to his hand. We have not done with this subject—we will watch the proceedings which are yet to come off, and gibbet as far as in us lies some of the men who have earned a notoriety which we hope and believe the press will not deny them, but, on the contrary, will cause their names to be as widely known as the English language.—Anglo-American Times.  The Enlightened American.  TO