158 PANDEMONIUM ; OK, 



which human will has a share in producing an event, analysis is at 

 fault. What policy, therefore, the directors may pursue sets all cal- 

 culation at defiance. Whether the intelligence from the mine be 

 good or bad, is a matter of no moment to them, provided they can 

 secure a priority of intelligence, which, from the nature of things, 

 they are generally enabled to do ; they then buy or sell ; or, to use 

 the classical phraseology of the Stock Exchange, they bull or bear 

 in anticipation of the influence the information may produce upon 

 the market. The facility they possess of producing this influence will 

 be immediately felt by our readers, when they are told that only 

 such passages as may suit the purposes of the directors are made 

 public and to even these any particular colouring may be given by a 

 skilful transposition of phrase, or the artful substitution of one word 

 for another, a science they well understand. The lengths to which 

 this game is carried will be illustrated by the following facts. The 

 dispatch from the captain of the mine is received by every Friday's 

 post. The board sits at 12 o'clock on that day, when the dispatch is 

 read, and such passages as the directors in their wisdom may think 

 fit, are selected for the perusal of the shareholders, who are thus 

 unable to obtain any information before three or four in the after- 

 noon ; in the mean time, a jobbing director is at the office by 9 o'clock 

 in the morning, opens the letter, and immediately proceeds to act in 

 the market upon its contents. Here then we see a director having 

 eight hours' priority of intelligence, the value of which will be 

 appreciated by all those who know any thing of the tactics of the 

 Stock Exchange. But a more splendid example of this system 

 was afforded by the transactions of the Real del Monte Company 

 a few months ago, and which shall be explained at length in our 

 next. Independent of the facilities for jobbing afforded by a seat in 

 the direction of a mining company, there is a handsome salary at- 

 tached to the office, and it is no uncommon occurrence to find the 

 same individual a member of several. Again, when the mine is in 

 any part of the three kingdoms, they have an opportunity, free of 

 expense, during that period of the year when even City men leave 

 town, of inhaling the pure breezes of the country. "Some time ago, 

 four directors of another Cornish company proceeded on a tour of 

 inspection to their mines in Cornwall, for which, by-the-bye, they 

 were just as fit as to measure the vibrations of the pendulum, or any 

 other operation of science. In this quadrumvirate was old Camelo, 

 who, singular enough, ever presents himself as a peg on which to 

 hang an illustration. He was appointed pay-master-general of the 

 forces, and accordingly drew the sum of 100/. for the expenses of 

 the campaign, 25/. a-piece. On the eve of their departure, something 

 prevented one of the party from joining the expedition. So that 

 there remained in hand a surplus of 25/. which was not paid back 

 into the coffers of the company until the eve of the annual meeting, 

 and even then it might not have found its way there had not the pay- 

 master been reminded of this inadvertency by one of the clerks of the 

 establishment. This tardy restitution, however, did not escape obser- 

 vation, and at the meeting drew upon the jiead of Camelo some 

 severe animadversions. His colleagues skilfully endeavoured to glos s 



