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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd March 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 278, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      THE CLOUD OF COMPANIES . A Parliamentary return has been printed , and the number of * Joint-stock Companies formed under the Act of 1855 , with the aiames of the Directors , the amount of the proposed capital , and the object for which the Company was established . The returns include also the number of / applications not completed under the Aot , with , in some cases , the necessary financial , and personal , details . But as many of the persons applying have not

      bread , pure drags , and pure beer . Two or three popular clubs exist in these prospectuses ; a company for establishing a perpetual carnival in Surrey , a Dutch laundry , an Universal Purveyor , and two or three Bath companies . One annulled ( Jorporation proposes to revive * itself by " purchasing , cultivating , and selling lands and the produce thereof in the islands of Borneo and Labuan , " another sets afloat

      a scheme of joint-stock pawnbrbkerage , another of marine surveying , and raising and recovering sunken vessels . Two or three associations of omnibus proprietors offer to compete , under the Limited Liability Act , with the great French company , while twenty-five prospectuses declare the readiness of as many bodies of men to enter into large manufacturing partnerships , by the establishment of cotton mills , iron works , tanneries , &c .

      Many of these schemes are rather ingenious than sound , and rely for success more on the credulity of the public than on any real wants which they propose to supply . But the number and variety of the registrations proves that a vast amount of enterprise has been held back by the terrors of unlimited liability . The parliamentary return is worth studying .

      stated either the number o £ shares they pro-3 >© se ? to issue , or the amount of each share , it vrould be useless to compute the aggregate capital ideally represented by these half-born iuidertakings . The total number of companies registered since the introduction of the limited liability Actj has been a hundred and sixtymne , distributed under four separate heads : — - Companies formedbefore the passing of the Act ; •^ -Companies of which the formation had been begun , but not completed ; Companies of which

      t he formation has been begun , and completed jBjnice the Act came intooperation ; and Cbmpatiies which have applied for but not yet obtained coiriplete registration . It is to be noted that several important associations organised under the old law , already in the enjoyment , of corporate powers , and supposed to be interested in keeping competitors out of the field , not only supported Mr . Lowe ' s Act , but , when it had passed , reformed their constitutions , and placed themselves within its scope . Among

      these were one navigation , one gas , one tnaiture ^ and- one p atent ' candle company ; a gas and a coal company that were in progress of formation , under the unlimited , at once took the advantage of the limited principle , since the introduction of which six Joint-stock Associations have been fully established . There remain ten ^ which have applied for , or taken steps towards obtaining , but hare not yet obtained , complete registration / ' and 4 a hundred and forty three , ¦ « the formation of which iias been begun , " Analysing these Sections of

      the return , we find seventeen Companies established -to supply gas , eleven for general or local navigat ion , thirteen for mining in Great Britain or the colonies , seven for advancing jaaoney on real and personal security , two for dealing in reversions , seven for . publishing books and papers , or " promoting the circulation of first-class periodical productions , " six for cultivating the vine as foreign estates , or brewing malt liquors , or distilling spirits , two ; Armoury Companies , "' a " National Opera Company , " five for developing new sea fisheries , ond a '"Crystal <) ity or British . Madeira Company , " to construct a city—r-of glass it may be

      jpssumed—in which consumptive patienta may % ye close to Lpndon , enjoying the warm and ^ jual climate of Madeira . There arc three r ^ ffpur law-reporting companies in the Hat , ¦ 3 Wfe * al hotel companies , a " Ladies' Guild " 'fprthe manufacture of decorated glass , a com-:-P « y 'foy bringing bitumen' from Trinidad to ik ¥ ? ? W-P * # wJ > ' * . general company of Euro-£ Wfi ! £$ e ^^< $ 'WWW , on the « Credit ^ 'S ^^ T 5 S ^^ ^ of the aduitera -

      Untitled Article

      opportunity , has brought ridicule upon a thoroughly good cause . Without ability , and without political sincerity , what can it hope to effect ? The public has a right to withhold its confidence and its subscriptions . The apathy of the Administrative Reformers on subjects of political interest has lost them the sympathy of the political classes ; and all classes have been disappointed by their presumptuous incapacity . Reform is not yet so dead that it must be dragged round the circus by such a "team .

      Untitled Article

      pocket of the creditors . Sometimes it is old creditors who lend " a little " in the hope of recovering more ; sometimes nev creditors ; sometimes relatives , who are not the less creditors because the loan is extorted from them through family influences . That is the first consequence- The next consequence is still more absurd and mischievous . We may say , broadly , that nine-tenths of tie creditors would not give the credit—would not permit the debt to be created—if they did not cherish an expectation , that by means of imprisonment

      they could screw the money out of somebody or other . In the larger proportion of cases they are disappointed , and only have to pay their own lawyer ' s bills . In the exceptional cases , they screw the money out of somebody else ; but , in order to balance their books at the end of the year , they make their other customers pay for those wrongly contracted debts ; and it is the false reliance on this presumed but fallacious screw , which induces them thus to add to their real trade an appendix of false trade .

      PLEA . OF THE DEBTORS' GAGE . When one has perused forty long pages , giving the list , and the circumstances , of persons imprisoned , for debt , the first question is , what is the use of sxibjecting those persons to the particular kind of torture ; for imprisonment , in that particular sense , is nothing more nor less than torture . Debt is not a crime , and not to be punished as such , in modern times ; although , in olden times , the forfeiture of promise in the non-payment of debt was

      treated as a penal offence . When noblemen could cast the Jew that importuned them for paynjent into a dungeon , or could flog tile means of payment out of their villeins , they did not think it necessary to mitigate the penalty of tie law ; but in modern days , when scions of high lineage have been before the Bankruptcy Court , we find co-operation in moderating the code , from the House of Lords ; - —a great improvement . The man who gets into debt is not detained simply to prevent

      mischief to society , as a lunatic or pickpocket is detained , The detention , therefore , is not preventive ; except that it is preventive of the very thing which is desired—payment of debt . It is tor , turq— -pain inflicted for the purpose of compulsion ; and it presumes , therefore , that the debtor is in a position to pay . Now , it is a singular fact that the very qualification of a man for going to prison implies inability to do that which the imprisonment is to compel . He becomes a non-paying debtor , in most

      cases , because he cannot pay his debts . The return made from York Prison naively represents this case : —" The chief reason why the debtors are detained in prison , '' says the return , " is the inability to pay their debts , " This reminds us of the exquisite nursery poem , :- — " There was an pld -vyomau , and what do you think ? She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink ! viotuaju and drink were the chief of her diet ; Yet this plaguy old woman oould never be quiet . "

      The principal diflGlculty 1 under which debtors lie is the difficulty of paying their debts . But lihe application of torture to their case presupposes the ability . As they have no money in their puxses , it subjects them to pressure for the purpose of squeezing out their money . Let ua see the direct consequence of this ingenious process for getting sunshine out of cucumbers . In the first place the mon , ey fa nearly always obtained out of somebody else ' s pocket ; but , in a great number of cases , it is drawn , including the law expenses , from the

      The third consequence is less in extent , but almost worse in the nature of the evil . We look to the men actually imprisoned . They are the representatives of the indebted class , thus assembled in an involuntary parliament —^ - in that parliament into which bills can be introduced , but never to become law—a parliament without atf ecess , with no royal speech to inaugurate it , and none but dishonourable members . Who get in ?—the abandoned , the

      reckless , the eccentric , the soft-witted ; the frowsy fool that is content with , the prison for a residence . One man stops in prison ( as this return tells us ) because , through some perverseness of wit , he will not file his schedule ; another because he will not make over a petty annuity of twelve shillings a-week ; a third because he has not the means to pay for Ms schedule and his friends will not ; a fourth for some sillier and sadder reason . Take one

      example , and let us learn how bad may be the instrument of which such a use can be made . In one of our prisons is an old man of ninetyfour , placed there at the suit of his son , because that son is tired of supporting him , and wishes to impose on the county the expense , not yet incurred , of burying his father ! We do not see that the debtors' prison is of much use to honest creditors , or to the community , amongst which it encourages the creation of debt ; but we do see that it has its use for that pious son !

      Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Ejection op a new Bishop . — -The ceremony of electing the new Bishop of Carlisle has taken place in the Chapter house . It is now nothing but a ceremony . The assembled chapter stood in luute attention while their registrar , Mr . Saul , read tlie Queen ' s gracious letter to them , granting them her leave to prococd to the election of a biRhop and paator of their cathedral church and diocesa in place of the Hon . and Right Rev . Dr . Percy , deceased . Xb sounded like a roality for the moment . But , without a pauso , the registrar read on her Majesty ' s f etters commendatory , nominating the Hon . and Rev . Henry Montague Villiors , and charging the Dean and Chapter on their alloginuco to oleob him . The antique phrasoology of tho Queen's letters , unohanged probably since the days of Henry VHI ., awd the mute , passive appearanoe of all present ( the registrar only exempted ) , strikingly illustrate tho tenacity of anoient formalities among us aftor all substance and reality have departed from them . No ouo thing apparently connected with another can have loss to do with it in reality than tke > capitular olootiou of 0 . bishop has to do with his roal appointmcut , —Carlisle Patriot . Tina late Dukb oc Norfolk . —A solemn sorvioo ond requiem have boen performed at the ohapol attached to tho Bavarian $ aabRJjsy , in Warwickstreet , for tho toto Duke of NprMk , Tho interior of tl * e chapel was hung entirely with black 0 I 0 U 1 ana silver , and illuminated by silver uconoea . Tho aorvioo woa attended by mpet of the Roman Catholic nobility in town and aevejcul 4 i&tita £ ui » bed foroignorH . 'A * oiroumBtanoo . seoma fcp confirm the assertion of ft' * Irish paper that the late dulqo was xeoonvorted to Pap&oy a short time before his d « ath .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 278, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2133/page/14/