IJoc. No. 10. 2S 



For the prices at which I sold the different parcels and kinds, I beg to 

 refer to my Nos. 27 and 28, which detail the commencement, progress,- 

 and conclusion of the sales. This sum, added to the £725 3s. Id. re- 

 ceived from the accountant general of the court of chancery, and the 

 £116 2s. 2(1. returned to me by the solicitors, will show that the entire 

 sum that came into my hands was £106,490 lis. 9d. 



I am next to inform you of the expenses that attended the sales of the 

 stock, and shipping and bringing over the gold to this country. 



After I had finally recovered the legacy from the court of chancery, it 

 did not seem to me prudent that I should, by myself alone, undertake the 

 sales of the stock awarded, and delivered to me by its decree, any more 

 than the shipment of the gold, into which the money was afterwards to 

 be converted ; these ulterior operations being usually conducted through 

 mercantile agencies, and being of a nature not to be advantageously, if 

 safely, conducted without them. Feeling inadequate, in ijiy own person 

 merely, to the management of such operations, my first intention was 

 that the sales of the stock, as a highly important part of them, should be 

 put under the direction of some experienced mercantile or banking-house 

 m London, familiar with the modes of doing business on its great stock 

 exchange, and self-confident in the measures to be taken. But I found 

 that to put this operation into such hands v/ould incur a commission oi 

 one per cent, on the entire fund, as mentioned in my No. 27, in addition 

 to brokerage and other charges, such as the expenses on transfers and 

 stamps ; besides that, I should have had to part with the possession of 

 the stock to such mercantile or banking-house whilst the sales were going 

 on. I was also given to understand that tiiis latter step would probably 

 lay a foundation for a further mercantile commission on receiving and 

 paying. . . , , 



Weighing all these circumstances, I came to the conclusion to keep tne 

 •operation of selling the stock in my own hands. Nevertheless, I felt, as 

 already intimated, that I could coiiduct it with neither skill nor safety 

 unless under the counsel and co-operation of a person well informed m 

 these matters, and trustworthy. To the consul of the United States in 

 London reapplied as to such a person, and received from him, as my No. 

 27 informed you, this aid and co-oper ition, in the fullest and most effi- 

 cient manner, daily, throughout the monihs of June and July, until all 

 the sales were effected; and effected, I may be allowed to add, with fa- 

 vorable results not to have been surpassed, as I have already reported to 

 you, and as the public records of the liOndon stock market on each of the 

 days that I sold will attest. Into his hands I also put the other mercan- 

 tile business necessary to the shipment of the gold. These included the 

 obtaining, verifying, arranging, packing, and securing it for shipment, 

 contracting for freight, entering and clearing at the custom-house, effecting 

 insurance, (which was done at five principal offices and with thirty-two 

 private underwriters,) and, finally, shipping the gold. For these services, 

 of whatever kind, (and I had many incidental ones from him, not liere 

 enumerated,) I allowed and paid him a commission of three-fourths of 

 one per cent., Avliich amounted to £797 15^. 6d. 



I speak from good information when expressing a belief that an equal 

 amount of assistance and services to me, under all the heads rendered, 

 could not have been commanded through the usual agency of banking 

 and commercial houses, on so heavy and responsible a moneyed operatiouj 



