THE "SKELETON" IN EVERY HOUSE

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 387, 19 July 1856, Page 4

THE "SKELETON" IN EVERY HOUSE

OF BUSINESS. (From the "Leader") It is a common dogma that it is useless to expose an evil until we can propose a remedy ; but only with a distinct knowledge of the evil can we design the cure—only by knowing the extent and urgency of the evil can we settle the previous question — whether there is anything to be remedied or not. We have grown so accustomed to consider ourselves remarkable among nations for probity, for commercial rectitude, for being •' genuine " and " sound, " that it would be difficult to impress upon the le-gislature-moving- public, the necessity of applying some purifying process, some score; ing iron, to the cancer which is eat-

ing into our commerce, into our public affairs into the very conscience of society itself. We may pass current the commonplace, "All is not iold that glitters ; " but it. was a surprise to us when we ascertained lately, through the Lancet, not only that many of the articles of food and medicine which we consume are adulterated, but that the larger proportion is adulterated ; and that the genuine article was the exception. We have found that we want a Lancet commission to inquire into the state of commerce ; and probably, we should discover that not the articles alone, but the A 7ery men are adulterated —corrupted in their personal character as well as in their business-pro-ceedings. Experiences of this kind are so multiplying daily, that we have some right to doubt whether in men, as well as in food and drugs, the genuine article is not the exception. You cannot distinguish the fraud from the truth at the first glance, and here is the appalling difficulty.

There are lew vocations in which truthfulness, probity, and steadiness are more required than in that of the confidential solicitor. You ]ook out for a man whose character stands high, whose manner impresses you with his being discreet, upright, independent, and straightforward, and you think you have found your man. You see him seated in an office where a local repute has been gained by the stability of the business; you meet a gentleman whose manners are courteous but business-like. Do not make too sure ! Perhaps the very man to whom, on the score of those qualities you are about to intrust your interest, has fallen into the fashion. We do not suppose that there was a person more calculated to possess confidence than Mr. George Selby, the solicitor. We have evidence of his character in the trcst of a client who, apparently on his recommendaation, consented to advance £4,000 upon the reversionary interest of a lady. It turns out, however, that this £4,000 which was borrowed fora Mrs. Shepherd, actually went to pay a debt due from Mrs. Shepherd to Thomas Selby, the brother of George. Mr. George Selby must have appeared, from his mode of life, and from his large expenditure of £7987 in four years and nine months, to be a man well to do ; yet it turns out that he was speculating in various unprofitable enterprises, paying for them out of the profits of one ; which one, a Tube Company at Birmingham, he made over to his. son, leaving his creditors the oth«r less profitable

•anches of his business. "He was a man in education, intelligence, and great acuteness, " says Mr. Commitsioner Goulbourn ; yet being in arrear to the amount of£ 200,000 or £30.000 five years ago, he finished with debts and liabilities of nearly £200,000. And this gentleman was •' in tr c first class of London solicitors, " —able and experienced, with all the outward signs of resularity, affluence, intelligence ! We do not wonder if our reader feel some kind of doubt as to the qualities and position, of his own respected solicitor.

You go to your own banking-house— one of the oldest in London ; it was founded by the " goldsmith " Snow, who lived in the daj's of Gray. The head partner ia lyiown in the fashionable world ; the second partner is descended from Snow's son-in-law, and is well known for his zeal in religious business. But there, at that desk, is the true guarantee of the house — its regularity and business knowledge— that is Mr. Bates, the third partner, who entered the house in 1820 as a junior clerk —who has since worked his way up, and is now the third in the firm. He is a man who knows all its transactions ; has, as it were, slept, and ate, and grown in the bank ; a;id lie is now bound to it by the interest of partnership. '• The aristocracy" banks in the house ; everybody trusts to it, through the confidence of personal friendship, of respect for piety, and of trust in business regularity. Suddenly there is an explosion : the ancient banking house proves to be a nest of conspiracies, frauds, and misappropriations ; the pious partner is the head conspirator, designing and directing the misuse of customers' money and property ; and now is published a memorial on behalf of the third partner —Bates, setting forth that although he pretended to be a partner, he was really only the head clerk, and had no share in the profits, in the direction, or the consultative business of the firm. 11l short, he was not a banker at all, but only a banker's clerk. That is his own statement.

You go down Norfolk-street, Strand, and see the name of " Hollbrd and Co., Army Agents ; but there is no Holford and Co. The house is the private residence of Mr. Bates, and the business is carried on by th<i bank of Strahan, Paul, and Batos, whose character we now understand. How many Co.'s, whose names are over shop doors or office doors, have no sort of existence.

You are a passenger on the Eastern Counties Railway., and somebody points out to you, in a whisper of admiring awe, that " That is Mr. Waddington, the chairman : and that is Mr. Gooch, the locomotive superintendent;" and from the respect which they receive, from the appearance of affluence in the whole establishment over which they rule, from the control in the mechanical arrangements, you imagine that you see before you models of commercial magnates ; examples of high commercial honour and exactness. The shareholders themselves, however, appoint a committee to investigate their own condition, and. publish a report disclosing a chain of unforeseen incidents as wonderful as any that find their place in romance. The railway, whose movements look so regular, lias been suffered to fall into neglect and unrepair as to its permanent way ; while many species of enterprise, such as coal companies, steam boat companies, branch linos, cabs, dancing saloons, Sec, have bos.n supported by its iunds and rir-iHirco^ ; an I, they profit, by the use of its line/ Tu'ere have never been, since that chairman was appointed, say the commiltco any satisfactory accounts; there has bo<jh mo reliable statement of the • stores. Shares in the Tilbury line, which l,as been made to feed upon the compuiy, have been distributed amongst those diroc'ois in the three united

Eastern Counties line. In other words, the committee of shareholders charge their

directors and officers with having systematically " made things pleasant " for extraneous enterprises, which were parasites upon the line; while they have starved the service of the company itself, and allowed the permanent way to fall into a state of neglect like that which we ascribed exclusively to the Court of Chancery. The shareholders of the Eastern Counties do not believe in their own officers; their own directors; their own chairman ; their own line ; their own accounts ; their own affairs. It is a sort of commercial atheism on that

line

There are many contradictions of the report; but there it stands, a hideous disclosure, or a hideous libel. Such is " commerce painted by itself."

Do we hear of punishment for robbers and pickpockets ? Would not these magnates of the money world look down upon any " common person," any " needy man," whom accident misjht have thrown into their company ? Why, they accuse each other of doing .these things under no pressure of need! It is getting to be " the custom of trade."