1825.] 
[ 145. ] 
JOINT STOCK COMPANIES, 
Projected in the Years 1824 and 1825, for effecting various Purposes. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sm: 
BAVING been led by professional 
pursuits, and impelled not less by 
inclination to the subject, I have been giving 
sedulous attention, during more than twenty 
years past, to most of the great LOCAL 
IMPROVEMENTS which have been carrying 
on in the British Islands; a large propor- 
tion of which improvements, more than 
in any other publication, have received 
either less or more attention from the 
writers for your pages; and, lately, since 
JomnT-stock Companies have been start- 
ed in unusual numbers, for carrying into 
effect an extraordinarily wide range of ob- 
jects, I have devoted some occasional leisure 
to the collecting together and arranging of 
the published, and readily-accessible inform - 
ation, concerning each of these projected 
Companies : intending, had not more im- 
portant avocations called me off from the 
task, in the midst of it, to have presented 
very soon to the public a pamphlet con- 
taining some account of each one of the 
projects of 1824-25, having a local object in 
view (not comprehending, in my research, 
any Loaning, Insuring, or other Company, 
having mere money transactions* for its ob- 
ject ;) intending to shew concisely how 
each scheme rivals, or is calculated to in- 
terfere with, the existing establishment of 
Canals, Rail-ways, Docks, Water-works, 
Gas-works, &c. &e., or with one-another 
of these new projects; accompanied by the 
free and unbiassed expression of my own 
opinion on,—Ist. The great utility and the 
probably successful issue of a few, compa- 
ratively, amongst these new projects, both 
for the public and the subscribers thereto: 
—2nd. Of the undoubted benefit the public 
would derive from the completion and car- 
rying on of many others of the projects on 
* An important article in the «‘ John Bull” news- 
paper of this day, (prepared by the nephew of the 
late Mr. Arrowsmith, of Soho-square), mentions 
the names, with the capitals proposed to be raised by 
twenty-three of thesenew money Companies, amount- 
ing to £43,010,000. The names alone of five others 
are also mentioned by Mr. A., which would probably 
swell their total capital to the sum stated at the 
head of my lists, which follow. I have also availed 
myself of the article referred to, for supplying in 
my lists several amounts of capitals and shares, and 
for the particulars of a few projects, which had 
altogether eluded my research. 
Montuty Mac. No. 407. 
foot, but with doubtful benefit to the adven- 
turers therein—especially those of them 
which may succeed in the destruction of 
existing monopolies, or in reforming the 
almost generally dishonest practices of some 
trades in particular districts :—3rd. Of the 
doubtful utility to the public of many of the 
projected new Companies, and the scarcely 
doubtful injury to some properly-conducted 
existing establishments, or to numerous in- 
dustrious and honest individuals, which they 
would oceasion if carried into effect, with 
the small prospect of pecuniary advantage 
to any of these adventurers which present 
themselves: and—4¢th. Of the inutility and 
almost certain non-completion of very many 
of the projects on foot, after occasioning- 
much alarm and some injuries to other par- 
ties, with great eventual loss and probable 
ruin to vast numbers of simple persons, 
who are now being shamelessly lured and 
persuaded to deposit for, or to purchase 
Shares in mere BUBBLES; some of whose 
projectors vauntingly. propose to effect 
things which are next to impossibilities ; 
—for instance, a tide CANAL for ships, from 
Deptford to Portsmouth ! / 
Although yielding to the prudential ne- 
cessity of relinquishing, for the present at 
least, the design which I have indicated 
above,* Iam desirous of first putting on 
record, in the pages of the Monthly Maga- 
zine, lists, (alphabetically arranged) of the 
several projects of which I have been able 
to collect any information; mentioning, as 
far as I know them, the capital sum, and 
the amount of shares and of deposit on each, 
(principally as the same have been advertised+ 
in 
** Whether I may again, ere long, resume the onerous 
task or not, will much depend on the concurrence of 
those amongst the numerous and widely-spread 
readers of the Morithly Magazine, who may, in the 
mean time, be pleased to correct such errors as they 
may discover in these Lists, owing to the unavoidable 
haste in which they have been made up; or who will 
procure and send. to me the information which they 
may see to be wanting herein, The supporters of 
the feasible and useful projects here mentioned 
would do well in sending (free of expense) along 
with their own printed prospectuses, those of as 
many others of a doubtful or opposite character as 
they may be able to procure. 
+ Amongst the advertising Companies, some few 
who have already obtained Acts of Parliament, but 
have. yet made little or no progress towards carrying 
them into effect, will be found in my Lists. 
U: 
