182».] Affairx in General. 87 



to the investigation before the Committee^ in the first place, it has turned 

 out exactly as we expected, for we never conceived that Mr. Nash had 

 been guilty of fraud. But we conceived, and the Committee seems to 

 have conceived too, that what INIr. Nash has done, no person in his situa- 

 tion ought to do in future. Of course, the past is with the years beyond 

 the flood, or to use a more expressive negation, is with the money lodged 

 in the Court of Chancery. But no delicacy interferes with the time to 

 come, and for that time the Committee legislate with a firm nerve. 



Every man acquainted with the duties of guardians and trustees of 

 any kind, knows that it is altogether prohibited to those persons to 

 make themselves possessors of any property in their trust. No solicitor 

 dares purchase the property of his client under such circumstances ; and 

 for the obvious reason, that the purchase must always be suspicious ,• that 

 the guardianship or agency, whatever it may be, always gives oppor- 

 tunities of overreaching, which if used by crafty trustees, must make the 

 trust only a source of ruin to the true proprietor : in short, it is in every 

 instance a point of honour, and in maTiy a point of law, that no such 

 interest shall be assumed by the guardian or trustee under any ckcum- 

 stances. 



Now Sir. Nash was, in the true sense of the word, a trustee for the 

 property. It was his business to see it sold to the best advantage, to 

 guard against any possible alienation, and on the whole, to serve the 

 public without any further interest in the affair than the salaiy, or 

 appointment which he had received as a sufficient compensation for his 

 services. But what is the charge.'' He sells a part of the ground to 

 a Mr. Edwards, takes the bai-gain off his hands, and becomes the 

 proprietor ; or in the words of the Committee, " becomes the Lessee of 

 the Crown, while acting as its Agent and Surveyor, and while in such 

 capacity he had to report on the buildings erected by himself on the 

 ground of which he was the Lessee." So say the fourth and fiflh reso- 

 lutions. And until we shall discover that a man is the severest examiner 

 into his own proceedings ; and that the Surveyor who takes the ground 

 to himself is the fittest person to entrust with its sale ; or that the builder 

 is the safest referee as to the merits of his own handy work ; we shall 

 not tliink that Mr. Nash's purchase of this very valuable ground, was 

 by any means a precedent for the conduct of Government Surveyors 

 hereafter. 



Another charge involved the purchase of government ground near the 

 Regent's Canal. Here also there was an intervening paiiy. The groimd 

 was let to the Canal Company, and by that Company relet to the letter. 

 Here was no ]\Ir. Edwards to give up his bargain ; but the circum- 

 stance is stated in the report of the Committee, that of this Canal 

 Company, I\Ir. Nash was the jircjector and principal promoter ! in other 

 words, that he had the chief weight and influence in its direction. Now, 

 every man who knows what a Joint Stock Company is, knows how 

 paramount must be the autliority of an intelligent and active person, with: 

 great personal influence among the higher powers, and with the com- 

 mand of money, among the struggling partners of a concern working its 

 slow way among a hundred projects of the same kind. We say without 

 hesitation, that Mr. Nash would have been infinitely better advised, if 

 he hiul kept himself clear of this purchase too ; and that the best course 

 which he lias to take now, is, the abandonment of both tlie leases to the 

 Crown. We look to Lord Lowther and his Commissioners of Woods 



