ders are in their nature temporary, and the supply of the markets, when left to itself, like water, finds its level.

Can it be endured then that companies shall be established completely to disorganize this well-regulated machine? Is it to be believed that the markets can be served better, or so well, by a company under the care of a board of directors, unacquainted with the nature of the business they are appointed to conduct--the wants of the public-the times to lay in-the sources of supply the management of the article while in their custody and all the other requisites which are only to be acquired by the industrious, careful, and knowing individual who was bred to the business, and who pursues it for the maintenance of his family? The idea is absurd. It is an impudent fallacy wherever it is attempted. And you must look for the secret of all these schemes in some dark designing project of self-interest lurking at the heart of the projector, and which he recommends to a horde of his friends by the proposal of letting them in to a part of the spoil.

The constant and uniform application to a broker, a merchant, a banker, or other monied man, is, "Put down your name for ten or twenty shares, and you shall be a Director." Here is the bait. Let what will come of the Society, the Directors must be paid. "The labourer is worthy of his hire." The practice is universally established. Public meetings are very liberal, and a single resolution settles the job. I am sure that it is the facility with which the subscribers to several new companies have been drawn in to propose grants of remuneration, that is the source of this inundation of new projects that has burst upon us, and that threatens to bear down all sober, honest, and humble industry. I do not wish, Sir, to be particular, and I will not descend to personality. But I solemnly call on all the unwary, unsuspecting mem

@ 4

bers

bers of Joint Stock Companies, particularly on Assurance Companies, to investigate their affairs; and see whether their Directors and Auditors are not mistaking deposits for profits, and taking the average demand of the first years of their establishment, when, to use a very homely, but a significant expression, it is all holiday at Peckham," as a test and criterion of their progressive expenditure. Sir, nothing can bẻ so fallacions; and the time will come when the responsible part of such companies will be made to pay dearly for the extravagance in which they acquiesced.

Figure to yourself what must be the situation of the father of a family, who, after having paid to an Assurance Company a premium on his life for twenty or thirty years, with the solacing idea of leaving 4 or 5000l. at his death to be some recompense to his family for his loss, shall find in his declining years, after the payment of all his money, that, as claims were not made on the company in the first years of their establishment, they had foolishly taken their receipts for profits, and had squandered money on superb houses, extravagant commission to induce solicitors to betray their clients, and an overpaid Board of Directors! Such a man must be miserable, if it were not that he has the consolation of knowing that the law will protect his family; and that if there is any one man of substance in the society, whether his name appears to the policy or not, his claim must be recovered even if the Company be insolvent-the Ayr Bank to wit.

I myself belong to an Insurance Company, established for some years on a solid footing. It is truly respectable, as much from the quantity of business it transacts, as from the prudence with which it is done. I mean the British Fire Insurance Company. Sir, the Directors of that Company did, of their own accord, unsolicited by us, propose to reduce the salaries that we had granted them-and.by that

means

means they were enabled safely and honourably to add one per cent. to the annual dividend of the Proprietors. A noble act, and worthy of imitation! I hope it will be followed universally; and if not, I would recommend to the body of Proprietors at large of all the existing societies to call meetings, which they are all empowered to do, and reduce the salaries to something that is adequate to the labour of the Board and to the means of the Society. I am not for imposing a duty on any man without a reward-nay, I think that business will not be attended to either for the nation or for a society gratuitously. I am well aware of the temper of the times in which we live-but I would pay those only who work-I would pay by the day and not by the piece I would, in short, take those old-fashioned societies for my model, where those only receive their reward who perform their duty.

Sir, you have published some of the provisions in the Act of the 6th George I. They go to the suppression of all such Companies as shall make their shares transferable. This is perfectly understood, and no reputable Society has ventured to evade the law. There is nothing in the shape of a transferable debenture, action, share, certificate, receipt, or other voucher, of property issued. But there is no positive law against a numerous proprietary for dealing in any article, except cash, bills, &c. as bankers; and except ship insurance, and issuing transferable securities, &c. Proprietary Companies may be established, and in some cases they are proper; the Subscribers, however;ܠ are all joint partners, and they can only dissolve partnership (or, in other words, go out) by mutual consent: in such cases, though a new partner is admitted, the responsibility for all the acts, during his time, follows the retired partner and his posterity to the end of the engagements they may have incurred:

this is the common law of the land, thank our forefathers.

A PLAIN DEALER.

P. S. I shall probably request your indulgence for a third letter to illustrate the positions at which I have only glanced.

MR. EDITOR,

THE

PUBLIC COMPANIES.

[From the Oracle.]

HE immense advantages this metropolis is likely to receive from the public spirit which now animates a great and respectable portion of the community cannot fail to be highly gratifying to every friend of his country. Each day produces new establishments for the health and benefit of society; and as there is little doubt of their embracing every possible description of trade, we may now enjoy the hope that the whole class of retail tradesmen will be rendered useJess, by the more splendid establishments of public commercial companies, and the odium of being " a nation of shopkeepers" for ever removed. The houses in Cheapside and Bond Street will then present an appearance similar to the untenanted buildings in Pickett and Skinner Streets; and the vulgar bustle that formerly existed in the City be as much unknown as in the most retired quarters of Mary-le-bone. The proscribed list of Brewers, Wine-merchants, Commission Warehouses, Rectifiers, Tailors, Pawnbrokers, Stationers, Auctioneers, Milk-sellers, Lamp-lighters, &c. reduced to their original insignificance, will no longer boast their humble one-horse chaise, or country lodging-from the superb mansions of the newlycreated Directors and Treasurers the gorgeous equipage will alone be seen to drive, No longer will the taverns resound with the festive hilarity of common shop

4

keepers :

keepers: in the corner of a dirty tap-room they may be suffered to meditate on their former comforts over a pint of Golden Lane beer, by a gas light, while the Committees, to whose pious labours the country is so much indebted, are quaffing unadulterated wine of their own importation!

To the various Insurance Companies what prodigious obligations do we owe! The ravages of a fire are no longer contemplated with dismay: from the poet in the garret to the shoemaker in his stall, all are insured; while the housekeeper, who formerly viewed with horror the approach of this destructive element, may, calmly light his pipe by the flame, or roast his potatoes gratis upon the glowing embers! Protected as we thus are from fire, why should we,. in this age of improvement, suffer any inconvenience from water? On the summit of St. Paul's let an immense umbrella be placed, and when the clouds denote a shower, the whole metropolis may be covered by its protecting shade. In the summer it may be used as a parasol; and, thus secured from parching heat or drenching rain, we may pursue our avocations uninjured by either. That the public may fully appreciate the blessings in store for them, and the Legislature confirm the legality of these various institutions, is the sincere wish of I. P. CANDIDATE FOR A Directorship. Nov. 25, 1807. [Nov. 28,

M

MEDIOCRITY.

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

EDIOCRITY is the order of the day-We have Statesmen that are parsimonious and extravagant, knowing and ignorant, affable and reserved-they would be thought both, and, if it suits their turn, can be neither.

We have men of fashion that are between gentlemen

Q 6

and