No. XXXI.] APPENDIX. 357 



h iving to pay calls, and to debtors of the estate, and that they could 

 always be negotiated at a fair market price as a matter of business. 

 " I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, 



" LOCKED-UP." 



[A monetary crisis in this country may unhappily arise, when it may 

 be considered expedient to carry out the above suggestions of Alfred Smee.] 



No. XXXI. 



ANONYMOUS LETTERS ON THE MANNER IN WHICH COM- 

 PANIES IN LIQUIDATION WERE BEING CONDUCTED 

 AFTER THE INSOLVENCY OF OYEREND, GURNEY, & CO. 



SIR, Who would now be a director ? is a question you may well ask 

 in the ' Times,' in these days of prosecution at the Mansion House and 

 persecution by the Court of Chancery. 



Gentlemen who are now directors are timid to act, for they cannot tell 

 whether ten years hence some needy lawyer and briefless barrister, at the 

 instance of a penniless shareholder, may not impeach his action when all 

 the facts and reasons are forgotten. But the public suffer from this 

 incompetency of the Court of Chancery, or imbecility of the law. At the 

 present moment there are numerous undertakings of great importance, 

 and which are urgently required, which, although they have received the 

 sanction of Parliament, cannot be executed because they cannot raise 

 money, on account of the distrust which exists. 



If these works were carried out, the distress which now exists would 

 be averted, employment would be given to numerous workmen, and money 

 would be circulated in England instead of going abroad to benefit foreign 

 States. 



It is high time to inquire into the manner in which distrust is created 

 and families are ruined by the costly proceedings in Chancery, which 

 bring all legitimate enterprises into disrepute. From the date of the last 

 panic matters have gone continually from bad to worse, and at the present 

 time it is far more difficult to carry out a legitimate English enterprise 

 than it was a week after Black Friday.* 



The Government owe it to the country to frustrate the lawyers and 

 liquidators who are causing this distrust, and make them either settle up 

 their accounts of liquidating companies forthwith, or be discharged from 

 their office ; and if the Court of Chancery is too imbecile to deal with the 

 question, the Government should constitute a court of practical mercantile 

 men who can deal with the difficulty in a plain, sensible manner. Hoping 

 that the ' Times ' will never let the matter rest till Parliament interferes 

 with these causes of distrust and restores confidence, 



I remain, Sir, yours obediently, 



TKUST. 



* The Friday after the failure of Overend, Gurney, and Co., in March 1866. 

 So many failures took place on that day that it was termed by the mercantile 

 community Black Friday. 



