::>^ Robert E. Gross Collection A Memorial to the Founder ( of the =/•» i Business Administration Library ^jL ^///uitefM'/u o/' ua/aor-ma Los Angeles V /^J y9 DEPEEDATIOIS; OVEREND, GURNEY, & CO., GEEEK & OEIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY. STEFANOS XENOS. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, AT No. 9, ESSEX STREET, STRAND. J 8 G 1). [_>'iecund JEditiOn.} FEINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON. Gross Colfection Bus. Adm. Lib, HE GrSX26 PREFACE. Whoever may attentively peruse this little volume will perceive that it was impossible for me to enter into an explanation of my transactions with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. without first giving some account of the formation of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and its existence for three years previously to the period at which I en- tered into relations with the great Lombard Street capitalists. Such account was indispensable to the clear understanding of the after-narrative. With regard to the conversations recorded in this volume, the accuracy of which may be questioned by the sceptical, I ought, perhaps, to offer some ex- planation. In the first place, I have, during many years, been in the habit of taking notes and keeping a diary of all important transactions in which I have been engaged. Secondly I never destroy letters or documents; so that, in case of necessity, I have authorities to which I can refer, and, if need be, 7337 IV produce. And, thirdly, as far as I am personally concerned, I can always rely on my memory, which is singularly clear and retentive, particularly — though possibly I am not singular in this respect — in cases where I have been wronged and ill-treated. I can then recall correctly, not alone the words of my opponents, but every look, and movement, and ges- ture that have aggravated the wrong-doing by which I suffered. Of the conversations reported here, I can conscientiously say they are substantially what the speakers expressed ; and they would be literally the same, but that many of these conversations were originally uttered in Greek, and not a few in broken English. It was, therefore, necessary that the one should be translated and the others corrected before going to press. Despite the care with which I have always guarded my business documents, I had, in 18G5, the mortifi- cation to lose a case containing many important papers, amongst others, Mr. Edwards's letter in reference to the yacht, and the original of the printed circular to which I refer at page 217. It was in removing some of my furniture from Petersham Lodge that this mis- chance occurred. A diligent but fruitless search was made when the loss was ascertained. (See Appendix, No. 24.) The absence of some of these documents has not alone delayed the publication of this volume, but obliged me to suppress all allusion to many im- portant points, about which I was quite clear, bat would not mention without being in a position to produce corroborative proofs. In further authentication of the correctness of that which is set down in the following pages, it may not be amiss to mention that this history of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Compa"ny, which I find myself obliged to hurry into publicity, formed origi- nally portion of a work which was not intended to see the light for many years. It was written whilst the facts were fresh in my memory — whilst the words still vibrated in my ears. In publishing this little volume, I feel that I am making my defence at the bar of public opinion. I hope my auditory will remember that I was put upon my trial without notice or warning. Should it be urged against me that I make free with the names of other men, let it not be forgotten that my name was not spared. What I say is spoken solely in self- defence. With the materials at my command, I might have sent forth to the world a sensational volume. Had I sought a succes de salon. I might have garnished my narrative with savoury morsels of scandal, with piquant allusions to many an operatic Zephyrina and VI di-amatic Eucharis ; I might have told tales of Pretty Horsebreakers and capricious Anonymas ; or I might have hinted at certain titled Calypsos, at whose bid- ding some of our good City men entered the commer- cial lists, and there fought the most desperate combats. And I might, indeed, on the other hand, have talked of many patient Griseldas, who, whilst their husbands lavished thousands on worthless rivals, stinted them- selves in martyrizing economy, trying to counterbalance reckless extravagance. With all these accessories I have dispensed, contenting myself with an unvarnished narrative of dry facts. Were the century a few years older, had time toned down the memory of the present, I might, in a more voluminous work, have laid before the public more realistic views of the great panorama which is daily being revolved in this GEE AT PANANTHROPOPOLIS. CONTENTS. I. The First Chartered Steamers . 1—1 II. The First Ownership . . . . 8 III. Profits and Contracts . . . . . 14 IV. The First Clouds . 20 Y. The Galway Steam Company . 26 VI. A Commercial Perseus . . . . . 34 VII. My Agents . 38 VIII. A Grave Mistake . 46 IX. Disappointment . 50 X. The Ultramarine Powder . . . . . 54 XI. The First Mortgages . . . . . 58 XII. The Miniature Court of Louis XIV. . . 64 XIII. A Perilous Position .... . 72 XIV. Messrs. Overend, Gumey, and Co. . 79 XV. My First Financer .... . 84 XVI. My Second Financer .... . 91 XVII. The "British Star" . . . . . 100 XVIII. The Penelope . 105 XTX. Deeper in the "Water . 113 XX. My Third Financer .... . 119 XXI. How Eighty Thousand Pounds were Lost . 125 XXTI. A Breach of Faith .... . 131 XXIII. Zachariah Pearson .... . 140 XXIV. "Who is entitled to a Commission ? . 152 XXV. My Fourth Financer . 157 XXVI. Remortgaging the Steamers . 163 XXVII. A Second Breach of Faith . . 169 XXVIII. A Third Breach of Faith . . . 174 XXTX. Criminal or Not ? . . . • . 182 Vlll CHAP. PAGE XXX. Polities ...... . 187 XXXI. The Election of Prince Alfred . . 193 XXXII. My Illness ..... . 198 XXXIII. Eeleasc of Petersham Lodge . 207 xxxiy. The Insolvency of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co . 210 XXXV. The Storm ..... . 219 XXXVI. A Challenge . . . . . 227 XXXVII. The Settlement .... . 232 XXXVIII. Idleness ...... 236 XXXIX. Announcing to Messrs. Overend, Gur ney, and Co. thcii- Insolvency . . 241 XL. The Philhellenic Committee . 247 XLI. The Stock Exchange . ... . 255 XLII. Messrs, Overend, Gurne-y, and Co. a Limited Compa,ny 262 XLIII. Battle between the Jews and the Greek s , 267 XLIV. The Angio-Greek Steam Navigation and Trad- ing Company .... 273 XLV. The Consulate .... 286 XLVI. Depredations ..... 293 XLVII. The Eats and the Pig . 295 XTVIII. Conclusion ..... 304 The City of London 307 Appendix 337 CHAPTER I. THE FIRST CHARTERED STEAMERS. In" the year 1856 I was running a line of sailing vessels from London to the Levant and Black Sea. The chief import and export trade of England with that part of the world is in the hands of the Greek houses of Eng- land; and I must say my line of packets enjoyed a marked and special patronage, and was yielding a lucrative return. Whilst I was running several small clippers to the Levant, Messrs. Smith, Sundius, and Co., with Mr. A. G. Kobinson, were running steamers on the same line. These gentlemen had to contend with a brisk competition on the part of the Liverpool lines, as well as with some London steamers; but as the outward and homeward freights for steamers were, in those days, three times greater than at present, their profits must have been enormous. Having maturely reflected on these facts, and see- ing that the export trade between London and the Levant had nearly reached 7000 tons per month, I resolved to substitute steamers for my sailing packets. In entering into competition with the established steam o^vners, I determined to profit by the errors they were committing, and avoid them. Amongst these I shall mention two which were a cause of daily complaint. In the first place, merchants, after having announced their goods to their correspondents, were B not always able to find room for them on board the steamers ; and secondly, merchants who applied to the steam owners and agents withm the last few days of the steamer's stay in London, were often obliged to pay 10s. or even £1 per ton higher freight than those who had shipped first. This latter custom had enabled the owners of the steamers to take a very high tone. Ov^dng to these difficulties in shipping, there were incessant complaints from Constantinople, Smyrna, Odessa, and other Levantine towns. Disagreements were constantly occurring between London merchants and their foreign consignees, and in more than one instance commission agents had lost their appoint- ments on suspicion of incapacity, or worse. This condition of things, combined with a promise of efficient support on the part of the shippers, had naturally great weight in inducing me to turn my line of sailing packets into steamers. But to start a line of steamers requires a large capital. I applied to Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., of 32, Bucklersbury ; that firm came to my assistance. The Messrs. Lascaridi had two steamers, the Aleppo and the Beyrout. Mr. George Lascaridi, whose name recurs frequently in these pages, was at that time the sole representative of the London house of Lascaridi and Co, This gentleman placed the above-named steamers in my hands. We ran them conjointly with the James Brown and the Britannia. The two last-named steam- ers entailed a small loss in the first voyage, owing to our having miscalculated their carrying capacity. The company thus started in May, 1857, I called " The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company." As soon as the above-mentioned charters had expired, we time-chartered the Hercules, Milo, and Admiral Kanaris, at 22s. 6d. per ton per month, belonging to Mr. Edward Gomiey, of Sunderland, now M.P., and others. Thus the Greek and Oriental Steam Naviga- tion Company sprang into existence in 1857*. The steam power of the company consisted, at first starting, of five vessels — the Beyrout, the Aleppo, the Hercules, the Milo, and the Admiral Kanaris. In addition to these we had several sailing vessels. We were able to keep up a brisk competition with Messrs. Smith, Sundius, and Co., and others, as we enjoyed the exclusive ! patronage of the Greek houses of London and Manchester. It is a recognized commercial truth, that on a time- charter the charterer seldom gains. That there should be a loss in our case was an inevitable consequence of the position in which my partners and I were placed. Neither Mr. George Lascaridi nor I had any experience in the management of steam property. Our steamers were of small power, and consumed enormous quanti- ties of coal ; and, above all, unfortunately we had paid an extravagant price per ton for the charter of these steamers. Then there was no organization amongst our agents ; abuses crept in, and we had no check on their expenses. Neither had we any control over the captains and engineers, who, with a view to benefiting the owners of the steamers, navigated slowly ; so that, in spite of the splendid freights I had secured, and the great support of the shippers, we again lost several thousands of pounds. Mr. George Lascaridi, having the large business of his own firm to attend to, threw on my shoulders * The Hercules was chartered in 1857 ; the Milo and Admiral Kanaris in March, 1858. all the work and the responsibility of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He supplied the capital, I, through my friends, found the cargoes ; but Mr. Lascaridi requested me to keep the name of my capitalist secret, for fear of injuring the credit of his firm. Owing to the observance of this secrecy, a certain amount of mystery, in the eyes of the commercial world, hung about the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. About the year 1857 I began to understand some- thing of the nature and value of steam property. I was educated by the Greek Government in the mili- tary school of Evelpides. I had studied there eight years, destined to become an officer in the Royal Engineers or the Eoyal Artillery. Owing to these early studies, I found no difficulty in mastering a knowledge of the mechanical structure of steamers. A long acquaintance with military discipline made the inspection of the staff of the steamers a kind of plea- sure to a man whose first love was not commerce, and whom the political aspect of his own country had driven to England to engage in the labyrinthian perplexities of trade. Having gone closely into details, I discovered to my great confusion that, of the £50,000 which we had paid the charterers for freights, £20,000 would have gone as profit into our pockets had we been the owners of the steamers. I found that the entire expenses of a steamer of that description for each voyage was £3500; this deducted from £6000, the gross freight, left a net profit of £2500 per voyage. Each steamer made four voyages in the year, so that here was a net profit of £10,000 per annum on a maritime property that only cost £16,000. It was evident that by eighteen months' work a steamer would pay for herself. The important point was to find the cargoes. This I was in a position to do abundantly through my large connexions. My friends gave me the preference and the first refusal of their goods. I drew the attention of Mr. Lascaridi to all these points, and urged upon him the necessity of pur- chasing our own steamers. But he was discouraged by the losses we had sustained, and was besides over- burdened with other large transactions, so that he seldom came to my office. In fact, there was no written contract between us, nor had we ever entered into a thoroughly good verbal understanding. Add to this, that the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was to expire at the expiration of the charter- parties of the three steamers — the Hercules, the Milo, and the Admiral Kanaris. The Beyrout and the Aleppo I had been compelled to take out of the line after a couple of voyages, as being too small for the service. Such was the position of affairs when several brokers, seeing the extensive business of the office, the credit of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and the great support it received from the Greek merchants, offered to sell me steamers on long credit. I went to Liverpool in the month of March, 1858, and there bought on credit, for £22,000, the General Williams, of 1152 tons register and 160 horse-power. In payment I was to give the bills of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Com- pany. The General Williams was in trust for the orphans of the late owner, and the trustee, Mr. Panton, of Sunderland, and the builder of the steamer, Mr. A Leslie, of Newcastle, who had an interest in the 6 vessel, wished to have the bills endorsed with another name. I tried Mr. Lascaiidi; he at first positively refused, but after several days' discussion he decided upon accepting instead of endorsing the bills, and he would do this only on condition that the steamer should be registered in his name or in that of his nominee. He would at the same time give me a letter to the effect that when the steamer should have cleared herself in my line, he would then transfer the half ownership to me. In other words, I was to work the steamer to pay the bills accepted by Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., before I should be put in possession of my half ownership. Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. had at this time in their employment, as managing clerk, Mr. Nicholas Ko- ressios, a Greek. It was this Mr. Koressios who, on the 2nd of April, 1858, drew up the letter in which Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. informed me that they had bought the General Williams for £21,250 ; in it also, to my surprise, they informed me that they in- tended giving Mr. Koressios a ^f share in the General Williams. Enclosed in this letter was the draft of the reply that I was to write them. I refused to sign any reply, and declined to accept Mr. Koressios as co-owner. Consequently the General Williams took the line without any contract being drawn up between me and Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., or between me and Mr. George Lascaridi. I twice loaded the General Williams with excellent cargoes. In her second voyage she foundered off Malta, leaving a profit by the insurance and freight of about £8000. These profits were reduced to £5000 only by a long account, furnished by the house of 1/ascaridi of Liverpool, for needless repairs and for stores put on board the General Williams before leaving Liverpool for London ; there vras also a large item for commission on the purchase of the steamer. I demurred to these charges, and said if any one was entitled to commission on the purchase of the steamer, it was I, who had negotiated and concluded the trans- action, and yet I had not made any charge. This and other transactions tended to weaken the good understanding that had subsisted between Mr. George Lascaridi and me. CHAPTEE 11. THE FIRST OWNERSHIP. IjST chartering the Hercules, Milo, and Admiral Kanaris, the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company- had undertaken to supply these vessels with fuel ; we had accordingly sent large deposits of coal to our agents at Constantinople. These agents were the house of Las- caridi, known in the Levant as Messrs. Fachri, Lasca- ridi, and Co. These gentlemen furnished accounts of stupendous magnitude for discharging and loading the steamers ; in fact, it became evident, on a comparison with the expenses of the steamers of other owners, that our agents did not understand their business, and were defrauded by those they employed. The exorbi- tant items in these accounts constituted the principal losses incurred by the three chartered steamers. I pro- tested against these charges, and held Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., of London, responsible for the proceedings of their house at Constantinople. Hereupon Mr. George Lascaridi coolly informed me that the members of the house at Constantinople were not his partners, that I must look to them for the accounts in question, and that I might give the agency to whom I pleased. I replied : " Oh, no ! Lascaridi ; I hold you responsible, be- cause, when I talked of recommending the steamers, you said distinctly, ' Send them to our house at Constanti- nople.' The world believes it to be your house. Had you told me at the time that you would not be held 9 responsible for the acts of Messrs. Fachri, Lascaridi, and Co., because they were not your partners, I would have recommended the steamers to some more competent firm. Besides, how comes it, when these gentlemen write to me, they always say, ' Ours of London,' and so forth 1 In short, 1 shall not accept their drafts, especially now that they hold large deposits of our coal, and that the price of coal is gone up at Constan- tinople, so that the coal is worth much more than when I sent it out." I was compelled to take this determined tone, because I had learned, upon inquiry, that Messrs. Fachri, Lascaridi, and Co. were partners, under certain conditions, with the London house of Lascaridi and Co., and the latter being a partner in the Greek and Oriental, it was only just that the losses of the latter company should be shared by all the partners. But, so far from acting in this fashion, Mr. George Las- caridi wished to throw the entire burden of the losses sustained by the Greek and Oriental on that company alone, whilst the profits were to be divided half and half with the house of Lascaridi and Co. The reasons he gave for this mode of proceeding were, that when Lascaridi and Co., of London, accepted bills for the Greek and Oriental 8team Navigation Company, his partners abroad knew nothing of the transaction, and that when he communicated with them on the subject, they refused to have anything to do with steamers ; consequently, he alone was my partner in the Greek and Oriental. The conclusion drawn from these pre- texts by Mr. George Lascaridi was, that the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was to bear un- divided every loss it incurred, and was at the same time to be reckoned a debtor to the house of Las- 10 caricli and Co. for money advanced or bills accepted for the chartered steamers of the company. When Mr. George Lascaridi and I first started the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, I proposed to him to draw up a regular contract between us. His clerk, Nicholas Koressios, prepared a preliminary draft, in which he inserted his own name as my partner. This draft contained the most absurd conditions. The so-called " 'Y7rojui'j?ua," or memorandum, was drawn up in Greek by Mr. Koressios, who at that time possessed immense influence over the mind of Mr. George Lascaridi. It divided the shares of the Greek and Oriental thus : — . Lascaridi and Co. . G. P. Lascaridi. . Stefanos Xenos. . Nicholas Koressios. According to the terms of this 'Y^ro^i/rj/^a I was to be manager of the company, Mr. G. P. Lascaridi to be president, and Mr. Nicholas Koressios to be 'E^e- TctarriQ (controller) and vice-president. I refused to enter into such a contract. A sharp correspondence was exchanged between me and Mr. Koressios, and I finally forbade that gentleman to enter my office. Events showed that my penetration was not at fault. Within a very few months Mr. Koressios received per- mission to retire from the service of Lascaridi and Co. After that I was never able to persuade Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. to draw up a deed of partnership between them and me. Mr. George Lascaridi used to tell me that he had boundless confidence in my i or 20 shares i or 20 do. for 40 do. ior20 do. 100 shares, 11 honour, and did not care for a written contract. I could not do less than respond to such expressions of trust, and, of course, ceased to press the matter. Seeing that the charter-parties of the Hercules, Milo, and Admiral Kanaris were about to expire, and that the Greek and Oriental would be left with only one steamer, the General Williams, and the sailing packets, I started, in company with Mr. John Preston, the ship-broker, for West Hartlepool, to inspect a large new steamer that Messrs. John Pile and Co. had then in their building-yard. She had been offered to me by Mr. John Preston on long credit. I was to give in payment the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Whilst inspecting this large steamer, I observed in the West Hartlepool Dock a small steam barge of very shallow draught, whose engines were at that moment being tried. I asked to whom it belonged. Mr. Joseph Spence, one of the partners of John Pile and Co., who accompanied us, said it belonged to his firm, and was a river barge. It was for sale. A pro- ject at that moment shot through my brain. I said to myself, " If I could send three such steam barges up the Danube into the shallow waters, let us say as far as Calafat and Oltenitza, where the markets are in which the grain is purchased that is brought down to Galatz and Ibraila in carts, I should be able to buy wheat and Indian corn at at least 6s. or 6s. less per quarter than they can be bought at Galatz or Ibraila. I CDuld tranship this grain on board the large steamers at Sulina for England." Without losing a moment, I entered into nego- tiations. I would take the large steamer, which was 1017 tons register, and of 220 nominal horse- 12 power. I would take the little steam barge, and two similar to be built within five months. After some discussion, it was agreed that for the entire lot I should give £33,850. In payment, I was to give the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company from three to thirty months, which was equivalent to 2 1 years' credit. The accept- ances were to be drawn by Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. The steamers were to be delivered free of mortgage. I did not finally close the contract, because, before doing so, it was necessary to speak with Mr. George Lascaridi. I immediately returned to town and saw him. I said : " Now, George, you know very well that this company, instead of entailing losses, would have left splendid profits if we had had our own steamers. In- stead of losing any more time disputing about the accounts, and trying to determine whether you or Messrs. Lascaridi are partners in the Greek and Oriental Company, let us, like sensible men, try to repair past losses, and organize the line thoroughly. You see I have the exclusive support of the Greek merchants in London. In the Levant I am popular, owing to my family name, my father's patriotic ser- vices, and the great sacrifices he has made for Greece. I may perhaps add, that I am favourably known through my literary works." Lascaridi would have interrupted. "Listen," I said; " there is another point. If, instead of chartermg our steamers, we can buy them, and load them on our oav^ account with grain at 4s. per quarter less than other Greek houses are paying, surely, if these houses are making money, we ought to make a fortune. We could order our own steamers whither we liked, whilst 13 a charterer could only send his cargo to be discharged at the port whither it is bound." A long conversation ensued, in which I tried to induce him to enter into an agreement on behalf of his firm, with me, to purchase, on long credit, three large steamers and three small ones. I showed him clearly that the bills would be provided for before coming to maturity, by the earnings of the steamers. He said he could not draw an agreement between his firm and me, but he was willing to make one between himself and me. I simply observed that he was not a great capitalist. He ultimately said that he would not accept any more bills in the name of his firm, but that, if I would consent to pay a commission to the firm, he would endorse my bills with the sig- nature of Lascaridi and Co., leaving it to my gene- rosity, should the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company prosper, to do by him what was just and proper. This was a noble offer. It is not often one meets a friend capable of acting so generously. I thanked him with all my heart ; indeed, my gratitude was boundless. I now closed my contract with Messrs. John Pile and Co., and within a few days Lascaridi drew and endorsed in my office the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, on behalf of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. The steamers were registered in my name, free of any kind of mortgage. I named the large steamer Admiral Miaoulis ; the steam barge I called Bobolina. Those that Messrs. John Pile and Co. had commenced to build for me I named respectively the Botassis and the Tzamados. 14 CHAPTER III. PEOFITS AND CONTRACTS. From the date of the above-mentioned contract, the business of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company began to flourish, and soon yielded splendid profits. Fortune smiled on all my undertakings. The Admiral Miaoulis, a magnificent vessel, I bought for £5000 less than her real value. The building of this steamer was commenced by Messrs. Richardson Brothers, of Hartlepool ; but, owing to commercial difficulties, before completion it was transferred to Messrs. John Pile and Co. For this vessel I secured a profitable freight from Havre to Cronstadt. She was to carry three state railway carriages, belonging to the Emperor of Russia, besides 1000 tons of iron shipped at Cardiff". The freight was £2500. She was to bring back an equally profitable cargo, so that in one month this vessel would clear a net profit of £3000. I had gone to West Hartlepool, where I stayed a fortnight to see her finished and hasten her departure. It was on the occasion of this visit that I bought of Messrs. Thomas Richardson, of Hartlepool, and Messrs. Richardson, Duke, and Co., of Stockton, another large steamer. This vessel, of about 1000 tons burden, I called the Marco Bozzaris. It was purchased on the same conditions as those I had previously bought. Mr. George Lascaridi endorsed the bills in my office with the signature of his firm, on the same terms as before. 15 The Marco Bozzaris soon came to London, and took the berth for Constanthioplc. It was about this time that I began to import, for my private account, grain in sailing packets from the Danube. These transactions left large profits. I sent the Marco Bozzaris to Galatz, to take a cargo of Indian corn for my account, which cargo was already sold in advance with a profit of £2000. I had bought the Marco Bozzaris a dead bargain, because of the dulness of trade. Having insured the Admiral Miaoulis for £10,000 more than I had paid for her, to make up her real value in case of a loss — because, as I have already said, I bought this steamer at considerably less than her real value — and having also insured her home freight of £2500, I started for Paris to receive the outward freight on the imperial carriages. I had been about eight days in Paris, and had received the expected money, when a telegram arrived at the Louvre Hotel. It was from Mr. Henry Stokar, my supercargo on board the Admiral Miaoulis. He informed me that the steamer, in a thick fog, had struck on a rock off" the island of Osel, and was completely wrecked, but all hands were saved. This vessel had been one month in my pos- session, and now her insurances and freights, with the stores on shore, left me a profit of £15,000. Yet I was grieved and disappointed at losing her, because she was of a magnificent build and of great carrying capacity, and, in my trade, would have cleared a yearly net profit of at least £8000. Having returned to London, I received, on account of the insurances, £32,800, independently of the out freight, which I had been paid at Paris. As the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navi- 16 gation Company, which I had given for the Admiral Miaoulis, were to extend over a period of two years, I was able, with the money received for the insurances, to increase the credit of the company and buy fresh steamers. I immediately purchased the Admiral Kanaris, one of the chartered steamers, giving a portion in ready money, and taking credit for twelve months for the surplus. I bought the Asia, of 1093 tons gross measurement, half cash, half credit of twelve months. To these I added the Scotia, 1200 tons ; the Modern Greece, of 1000 tons burden ; the Patras, of 400 tons burden ; and the Smyrna, of 500 tons. For what I did not pay ready cash, I gave the bills of the Greek and Oriental. I contracted with Messrs. Richardson, Duke, and Co., of Stockton, for one large steamer, the Palikara, and three small ones, the George Olympius, the Zaimis, and the Londos. I contracted with Messrs. John Pile and Co. for the Petro Beys, and with Messrs. Leslie, of Newcastle, for the Mavrocordatos, Leonidas, Colo- cotronis, Pigas Ferreos, and two small yachts. I bought the Powerful from Messrs. Robinson and Fle- ming, and the Lord Byron from Messrs. Thomas Wingate and Co., of Glasgow. It will be seen, by the number of steamers em- ployed, that the trade of the Greek and Oriental Steam' Navigation Company had attained considerable expansion. And yet, spite of the number of steamers, I had offers of more goods than I had tonnage to carry them. Notwithstanding the competition of the Liver- pool line, I had goods from the best Greek houses of Manchester, besides enjoying nearly a monopoly of the goods of the Greek houses of London. I had even suc- ceeded, some time after, in making the following 17 advantageous contract with the principal shippers of London, by which they agreed to ship exclusively with me : — ^Translation.^ The Geeek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. To my Felloiv- Countrymen and the Shippers of the Greeh and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. At the present moment, when the competition between steam- ship owners has reached a point beyond which it cannot go, and when our fleet is made complete by the addition of the steamers Smyrna and Patras, which enables us to transport your goods from Holland and Belgium, and place them direct on board our large steamers, without the expense of a double discharging and loading by Lighters, I come with more confidence than ever to crave your support. 1 am persuaded that the few explanatory remarks I am about to lay before you will cause you to continue to use the line as you have Jiitherto done in so patriotic and praiseworthy a manner. If this line has done no other good, it has sensibly diminished the monopoly of the freights on your goods, which, up to its forma- tion, was in the hands of a few, and consequently very high. But now that these freights are reduced to their minimum, our com- petitors, hearing that the two steamers above named are to be added to the line, and finding that you, the shippers, are deserting them, propose, as a catch, to accept such freights as will bring ruinous loss on us. Leaving to the judgment of each of you the probable results of this step, and encouraged by the* promises of the majority of the largest shippers, I propose to regulate the freights according to the following scale : — Freights,. Per Ton. Per Cent. Sugar (dust) fix)m Amsterdam to London 1 _^, j -,,. • „„ J n ^ i- 1 ^ 50/. and 10 primage, and Constantinople J ' ^ Sugar (loaf) do. do. . 60/. and 10 „ Sugar (dust) from Rotterdam to London 1 .„, ri lo and Constantinople J " Sugar (loaf) do. do. . 55/. and 10 „ 18 Per Ton. Per Cent. Copper from London to Constantinople . . 30/. and 10 primage. Iron do. do. . . 30/. and 10 Iron 35 feet in length 40/. and 10 Tin Plates 30/. and 10 Measurement Goods . per ton of 40 ft. j ^Ji and 10 Alum (in barrels) 35/. and 10 Coffee (in bags) 35/. and 10 All other goods in proportion. If you consent to subscribe to these profitable, freights, which are much lower than you used to pay formerly to sailing vessels, I promise — 1. To always have two steamers on the berth, so that no one's goods shall be shut out. The steamers will sail for their destina- tions every ten days. 2. If any breakage of barrels or other damage should occur through bad stowage, or through the negligence of my superin- tendent of loading, I undertake to indemnify the merchant. I purpose to get a certificate of good stowage from a surveyor before each steamer leaves the port of London. 3. To give free passage to one or two persons whom the sub- scribers may wish to send from London to Constantinople, or from Constantinople to London or other, ports. 4. To ship free of charge all small parcels or boxes (jewels excepted) which the subscribers may wish to send from one port to another. "With the freights regulated in this manner, and the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company receiving from you the same support that the Greeks of Manchester give to our feUow- country- men of Liverpool, I shall be enabled to despatch the boats with regularity, and thus prevent all dissatisfaction. You will bear in mind that the company is a national one, and can only continue to exist through your support. This support I now crave more than ever, and I flatter myself that I shall obtain it. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Tour obedient servant, (Signed) Stefanos Xenos. We, the undersigned, undertake to ship our goods with you at the freights above named. 19 London, May RODOCANACHI, SoNS, & Co. A. Peteocochino, G. S. Cavaft & Co. Valliano Brothers. ZiznsriA Brothers. A. Ralm & Co. Melas Brothers. Xenophon Balli. ZiFFO, Soisr, & Co. Lascaridi & Co. C. & M. Sevastopoulo. Theodore Ralli & Co. CorrPA, Brothers, & Co. Pana, Cremidi, & Co. NicoLOPOTJLO & Chrissoveloni. A. PsicHARi (Turkish Consul). CONSTAJ^TINE GeRALOPOTJLO. SCHILITZI, VOUEOS, & Co. IStli, 1859. Cassatetti, Brothers, & Co. POUTOU & Co. M. F. Mateogordato & Co. Leonidas Baltazzi. H. Gerotjsi. George G. Ceffaea. A. Fachiri & Sons. J. G. HOMERE. Spartali & Co. Zarifi, Brothers, & Co. Edward Yitaxis. S, Caralambi. T. Negroponti. M. Castellt. Petrocochino & Co. D. Georgiades. Delasso & Alpack. c2 20 CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST CLOUDS. At this time Mr. George Lascaridi seldom came to the office of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Months intervened between his visits. The steamers were making money; the grain was leaving a handsome profit. I was really uncomfort- able, considering the great help he had given me, to see that he absented himself so much from the office. 1 one day said something like this to him, and added that the Greek and Oriental Steam Navi- gation Company was in good condition, and that, if he wished, I was ready to sign a deed of partnership with the firm of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. He seemed pleased with the proposition. We sent for our solicitor, Mr. Hollams, of the firm of Thomas and Hollams. I was never more surprised in my life than whilst listening to George Lascaridi talking to Mr. Hollams. He told that gentleman he had decided upon making the Greek and Oriental a limited company, of which he would be a director and shareholder, and he was revolving in his mind other names, thinking who else he would make a director. I remained silent, and, I must confess, with no slight effort restrained my temper. I did not like to give an Englishman occasion to talk about the " tug of war," and " Greek meeting Greek." When Mr. 21 Hollams left, which he did without any conclusion being arrived at, I said to Lascaridi : " Had I foreseen that you would have spoken in that way to Mr. Hollams, I would not have sent for him. Do you think I would be so mad as to turn this company into a limited one ? I asked, as before, for a partnership between this line and Messrs. Lascaridi and Co." " That cannot be," he replied abruptly. " If you like, I'll join you, but not the firm." " That would be no use," I answered ; " you're not a large capitalist. Besides, Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. endorsed the bills I gave to the builders of the steamers. They are the responsible parties." " They know nothing at all about the bills. I have not passed them in their books," was the cool reply. " Well, George," I answered, " I must tell you frankly that, spite of the immense debt of gratitude I owe you — for I candidly acknowledge that, but for your generous help, the Greek and Oriental Company would not be in its present splendid position — still, spite of all that, I should feel strong scruples about entering into partnership with you. I do not think I should be justified in doing so, considering that all my transactions hitherto have been with Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. Now, George, this is my position : either I am in partnership with Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., or I am in partnership with nobody. Except all the part- ners of Lascaridi and Co. give me a letter signed, that they have no claims on the Greek and Oriental, only then will I sign a partnership deed with you. You know what you will have to say to these gentlemen when they come to London and learn all about these transactions, but I really do not know what to say ta them." 22 I have already mentioned that Messrs. Fachri, Lascaridi, and Co., of Constantinople, held coal of mine to the value of £4500 ; that there had been a loss of some thousands on the chartered steamers; that the Liverpool house of Lascaridi and Co. had charged me a stiff commission on the purchase of the General Williams, though I had bought the vessel in London, direct from the Trustees ; therefore, if I now accepted Mr. George Lascaridi as my partner, instead of Lascaridi and Co., what would be my position 1 In the first place, the entire loss on the chartered vessels would be thrown on the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company exclusively, and Messrs. Las- caridi and Co. would appear as creditors against the company. Secondly, I could not then hold Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., of London, responsible for the accounts of their houses at Liverpool and Constanti- nople. And, lastly, ties of old friendship with Con- stantino Lascaridi, brother of George, forbade that I should assent to the proposal made by the latter. In short, I could not, either in justice to myself or in justice to the firm of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., enter into partnership with George Lascaridi individually. After the interview with Mr. Hollams, and the conversation that ensued between me and Mr. George Lascaridi, the latter, seeing my determination with regard to the partnership, left the office of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which he never entered again. Not many days later, I learned with astonish- ment, from one of the builders of our steamers, that he could make no use of our acceptances drawn by Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., because that firm had accepted nearly a quarter of a million to start the 23 Galway steam line ; that the steamers of that line were worthless as security ; that consequently the credit of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. was ruined in the eyes of the commercial world. He added that, as the Greek and Oriental was believed to be a concern of Lascaridi and Co., the credit of that company was involved in their ruin. I was thunderstruck by this piece of intelligence. I had not previously been aware of the existence of the Galway line. I put on my hat, and went out to gather what information I could about this company. In the first place, I went direct to the office of Lascaridi and Co. Mr. George Lascaridi was not there. I found waiting for him a Mr. Henry John Barker — one of the Barkers of Smyrna. This gentleman, who after- wards played a great role in the office of Overend, Gurney, and Co., had been unlucky in his commercial transactions, and was not, at the time to which I now refer, in a very flourishing position. I had met him several times before at Lascaridi's office, and was under the impression that he was looking for some trifling commission business. As I was very familiar with all the clerks, I asked one privately what brought Mr. Barker so often to the office. He said " he did not know, but thought Mr. Barker had some large transactions with the governor in bills and steamers. He had often seen him there with Mr. Lever." " Who is Mr. Lever % " I asked. " Mr. Lever is the promoter of the Galway line. The Governor has something to do with it." I saw the clerk knew no more. What I had heard was sufficient to alarm me. If Lascaridi, who knew nothing of maritime property, more especially 24 of mail packets, should abandon his legitimate Medi- terranean commerce to enter into such transactions, I saw that he was plunging into the abyss of Tartarus. On a slip of paper I wrote an invitation, asking Mr. George Lascaridi to dine with me that evening, adding that after dinner we could talk about business. I then took my way through the City, to see what more I could learn about the Galway line. I was living at that time at No. 27, Victoria Street Flats. Lascaridi was punctual, and after dinner, when we were left alone, I asked him, point-blank, if it were true that he had given the acceptances of his firm to Lever to buy steamers for the Galway line. " Oh, yes ! " he said ; " I formed that line also. 'Tis much better than yours ! " " George ! " I exclaimed, " in the name of Heaven, do you know what you are about 1 Do you know that the old steamers on which you have advanced money are worthless 1 They say that you have ad- vanced three times what they cost. I have heard that Lever paid £8500 to Messrs. Bay ley and Eidley for the Indian Empire, and that he mortgaged her to you, a few days after, for £25,000. Is this true 1 " " What do you know about all this, and what does the public understand of this scheme 1 " said Lascaridi? with an air of annoyance. " Well, Lascaridi, if half the story be true, addio mastello con tutte di^natto to the house of Lascaridi and Co. And in what position shall I be and the Greek and Oriental 1 You know that several of our accept- ances, endorsed by your house, are to be renewed by the builders of the steamers. Do you think they will renew if Lascaridi and Co. are obliged to stop pay- 25 ment I Certainly not. And I shall be called upon to pay, perhaps, £50,000 at one moment's notice. " What have you lost 1 You lose nothing. You hold the property ; mortgage it, and pay," replied Lascaridi, with a sarcastic smile. " Yes, yes, I know all that ; but, once the steamers are mortgaged, good-bye Greek and Oriental. Ah, Lascaridi! you have committed suicide, and you have ruined your partners." I certainly expressed myself with considerable bitterness against my friend that evening. But Lascaridi was confident that the Galway line would come right ultimately. He even insinuated that he expected to be knighted for having assisted in its promotion. I tried to get from Lascaridi's own lips some details respecting this blessed Galway Company, that was destined to deal so fatal a blow to many a worthy commercial City house. But he was secret with me, and with the Greeks generally, as the Trophonius; though amongst the English he was in the habit of boasting that he was the promoter of the line. 26 CHAPTER V. THE GALWAY STEAM COMPANY. Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., of London, had drawn several bills on my firm, the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. These bills I had given to the builders or sellers of my steamers. It was agreed that a commission should be paid to the London firm of Lascaridi and Co. for that paper. George Lascaridi gave the acceptances of his firm to Mr. John Orrell Lever, who was engaged in esta- blishing the much-talked-of Galway line, which was to annihilate the space that lies between the Old and New Worlds. The scheme was admirable and emi- nently practicable, and, with the support afforded by the Governments interested, ought to have been crowned with success. But we know how different was the result: the Galway project failed. It was Mr. George Lascaridi who had undertaken to carry out the idea of the promoter; it was he who had advanced, by bills of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., money to pur- chase or charter some of the steamers, — he, of course, taking mortgages on them. It was he who had enabled these vessels to start, and show the world the possibility of establishing the line. Ignorant of the nature of steam property, not having the slightest knowledge of maritime affairs or engineering, nor any experience in shipping business, he made the most lamentable mistakes, and he committed unpardonable errors. It is well known that none of the vessels 27 procured for the Galway line were high-priced. What did the Indian Empire,* the Prince Albert, the Pacific, the Antelope, the Propeller, the Adelaide, the Argo, or the Circassian cost ■? After all, George Lascaridi might have got over the consequences of making over-advances on steamers had he known how to be silent in season. But no ; he opened his mouth when he ought to have sealed his lips, and through his restless vanity betrayed his interests. The Galway line, like all great undertakings that have had to contend with the prejudices of the multi- tude, or the private interests of powerful individuals, was at first ridiculed as chimerical. It was so repre- sented by the Liverpool people. The subsidy granted by Government was, in the House of Commons, made a ground of complaint by the Opposition. And yet, spite of all this, the Galway line struggled into com- mercial existence; it began to attract public notice. It was owing to this line that the steamers of the other companies of Liverpool first began to call at Ireland. Opinions were put forward as to its pro- bable success, and, finally, praise was given to the getters-up of the scheme. This was more than George Lascaridi could bear. He whispered, in hints and innu- endoes, that he was the creator — in fact, the capitalist that had advanced money for the undertaking. This becoming generally known, Lascaridi and Co. began to lose credit, and the Galway line prestige. How could a line supported by a single individual compete with * Messrs. Bayley and Ridley sold the Indian Empire to Mr. John Orrell Lever for ,£8500. She was a wooden paddle American steamer, called Henser, belonging to the port of Bremen. 28 the powerful opposition of Liverpool'? Moreover, it was whispered that the capitalist had advanced and taken mortgages on the steamers for twice their value, when a steady man of business would only have taken them for half. And then misfortunes came to complete what want of foresight had begun. The steamers were as unlucky as though the Fate Atropos had secured a per- manent berth on board of each. One broke down, an- other took fire a few miles off the Irish coast, a third ran short of coal, and was obliged to convert her bul- warks, water-barrels, and the covers of her hatches into fuel to enable her to reach her destination. All this was, of course, great fun for the Cunard people ; and yet the Galway line was a splendid scheme. Had it been commenced with real capital, and with proper packets — had it been judiciously organized by com- petent persons — that line ought to have absorbed several of the competing companies. I have never been able to learn, either from Mr. George Lascaridi or from Mr. John Orrell Lever, the exact amount of the bills accepted by Messrs. Las- caridi and Co. to start the Galway line. One night, as I was reading the manuscript of the present work to Mr. Lever, at his house in Eccleston Square, he corrected me, en 'passant^ touching the rumoured £200,000, which he reduced to £112,000, For this amount he was able to account. Be the amount of these responsibilities what it may — be also the minor details, the petty ambitions, the mutual jealousies, and even the romantic episodes inseparable from the first risings of such an enterprise — be they, I repeat, what they may, one fact is certain, that, as the time drew near when the bills would reach maturity, George Lascaridi became anxious and pre- 29 occupied. This was the time that a joint account existed between me and his firm for the chartered steamers, I can now understand his long absence from the office of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navi- gation Company ; 1 can now solve what was then an enigma to me — his absence of mind, his unconnected expressions, and his remarkable neglect even of his personal appearance. The Galway line, which figures in the books of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., as entailing a loss of £839,000, may more correctly be set down at a loss of £1,300,000, because the East India and London Shipping Company, Limited, which is debited with a loss of £578,218, was the legitimate child of the Galway line.* With regard to this latter company, one fact at least is certain, that at the time of its * The steamers wliose names follow formed the fleet of the General Screw Steamship Company : — Indiana, Golden Fleece, Lady Jocelyn, Queen of the South, Jason, Hydaspis, and Calcutta. When that line became a losing concern, and was consequently wound up, the European and American Steam Navigation took them up, but also went to grief. Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, as the official assignee, advertised the steamers for sale, and Mr. John Orrell Lever, of the Galway Company, bought them, through Mr. Edwards ; that is to say, Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. discounted the bills of Mr. Howard, of Manchester, and Mr. Lever, and took as security mortgages on these steamers. Mr. Lever, on dit, paid about =£220,000 for the entire fleet, and then started the Anglo-Luso Company, to run between England and Brazil. I have been unable to learn who it was that caused Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to be saddled with these steamers, which ruined Mr. Howard and lost no end of money. Shortly afterwards Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co.; under the advice of Mr. Edwards, esta- blished with them the East India aud London Steamship Company, which now figures in the estate of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. for £578,218. 30 spargana it was ephemerally under the triumvirate of Messrs. John Orrell Lever, George Lascaridi, and Henry John Barker. Did these three international hypates combine, or did two only act in transferring the securities of the steamers of the Galway line to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. X Did Mr. George Lascaridi alone conclude the transaction, or was Mr. Henry John Barker the sole jproxenites ? I know not. All I do know is, that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. took up the mortgages on these steamers for the same amount, or a little more, that Lascaridi and Co. had advanced, and for doing this Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. discounted new acceptances on Messrs. Las- caridi and Co., and handed Mr. George Lascaridi a big cheque to meet the old ones. These acceptances were renewed from time to time afterwards. What advantage did the house of Lascaridi and Co. gain by this transaction % In reality, no substan- tial advantage ; but this financing offered an apparent benefit on two points. In the first place, the imme- diate ruin of the firm was averted ; and, secondly, a unification of its debts was effected, one creditor being substituted for many. The house of Lascaridi and Co. was now in the hands of the great money-lenders of the British empire, and the great money-lenders were under the power of an official assignee of the Bank- ruptcy Court. I cannot say who drew the new bills, nor what was the amount, nor can I say for what consideration Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. did the transaction. What I can say is, that once in their hands, the affairs of the Galway Company presented from day to day a new appearance, following the labyrinthian ways and 31 multitudinous intrigues of the wonderful Lombard Street house, whose intricacies will be best understood when I introduce my readers within its portals. It is not the object of this work to show how long the Galway Company existed under this system of financing, by renewing bills, before it was transformed into the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company; neither is it within the scope of this work to enter into the details of the dispute between the Menelaus, Las- caridi, and the Paris, Lever, which caused that famous arbitration case of many months, decided ultimately by the modern Agamemnon, Edward Watkin Edwards. The prize in dispute, if my memory is not also " a blank" was not a beautiful Helen, but an award of the beautiful sum of £70,000,* which I have never learned if Lever paid and if George Lascaradi received. I do not mean to enter into the petty contests that oc- curred at the different board meetings of the Galway Company, between Mr. Roebuck, M.P., and my friend George Lascaridi ; nor do I intend to notice the nego- tiations and manoeuvres got up to obtain a large subsidy from Lord Derby, and for which our leviathan capitalists killed the goose before she began to lay her golden eggs ; nor do I propose to quote the obscure magazine that manufactured sensational paragraphs, eulogistic of the gallant and veteran steamers of the company, and which, strange to say, found their way into the daily press, and kept the Galway line and its promoters in a strong light before the public. Dis- regarding such topics, I take up what directly concerns the general public and myself — namely, how the great loss of £839,000 must have occurred. * This award some say was considerably more than £70,000. 32 The Galway Company passed into the hands of Messrs. Edward Watkin Edwards and David Ward Chapman, " perfectly solvent," as Mr. Lever asserted in his letter to the Tiynes of the 28th of January, this year. Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, though he had never been a seaman, a merchant, or a naval architect, under- took to organize the company. He proposed, with, of course, the consent of the new company's board, to build five large steamers, having all the modern im- provements. With these he hoped to retrieve past losses, to fling a halo of fame round the name of the company, recover public confidence, and benefit the capitalists and shareholders. The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company constructed the Hibernia, the Columbia, the Anglia, the Connaught, and bought the Adriatic. If I do not mistake, these steamers cost from £80,000 to £120,000 each;* but, instead of * The new steamers bought by the Atlantic Koyal Mail Steam- Packet Company were the Hibernia, 2005 tons, 800 horse-power, built on the Tyne by Palmer Brothers, at a cost of about .£100,000. Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, were afterwards paid .£40,000 — some say .£60,000 — to strengthen her. If such be really her cost, she would not realize to-day £20,000. Here is a dead loss of £140,000 in one single steamer, exclusive of what she lost on her voyages. The Co- lumbia, 2903 tons register, 1000 horse-power, was built in 1861, at HuU, by Messrs. Samuelson and Co., as well as the Anglia, 2949 tons register, and 1000 horse-power. These steamers cost, as I am informed by a competent authority, about £100,000 each. The Adriatic, 3670 tons, and 140 horse-power, was an old wooden American steamer, built by Mr. George Steer, of New York, in 1854. The Connaught, which was lost, was built by Messrs. Palmer Brothers. These steamers were mortgaged to the Imperial Mercantile Discount Company, Limited, of which Mr. Henry John Barker, formerly of 4, Abchurch Lane, was the manager. All these steamers, in which such an enormous amount of money was sunk 33 profits, each voyage entailed losses. Had these vessels made profitable voyages, they would be still running. The consumption of fuel by one of these steamers is something fabulous. I saw three of them lately lying at Liverpool ; they are fine-looking vessels, and were they serviceable, the Liverpool people would not allow them to lie idle. I doubt whether a purchaser could now be found that would give £20,000 a-piece for them. Now, five such steamers would cost £600,000. And whence came such a sum to be locked up in so depreciating a property '? Whence came the working capital — no trifle — of this line 1 What became of the old ships, and how much did their mortgages realize 1 Who bore the loss they entailed 1 What moneys had the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company from the public 1 — what sum did the shares realize ] If all these items are put together, it will not be difficult to divine what became of the £839,000. Li such a colossal business there are always small commissions, brokerages, douceurs, charges for bonus, interest, &c., which tend to draw off" the vitality of the concern. are, with the one exception of the Connaught, now eating their heads in the docks of Birkenhead and Southampton, and are quite unmarketable. I have heard that, within the last few days, the Ang'lia has been sold to the Turkish Government for a great deal less than £20,000. 34 CHAPTER VI. A COMMEECIAL PEESEUS. Mr. George Lascaridi, spite of all his commercial blunders, is a most noble-hearted and upright man. His generosity is such that, had he the means, he would willingly, at his own cost, relieve all the wants of suffering humanity. He is extremely ambitious, but his ambition is blended with a soft-heartedness that renders him unable to say " No," even to those whom he knows are imposing on his kindness. At the head of a powerful Greek firm, he grew tired of follow- ing the monotonous routine of the export and import Greek trade; he wished to distinguish himself in the British metropolis by some great national act that would win the praise of the English people. Had the Galway line worked successfully, Lascaridi's foresight, pluck, and enterprising spirit would have been the theme of universal praise. Besides the wealth he would have reaped, so splendid a success would have paved the way for his firm to enter on still greater undertakings. It is sad to think the result was so different. Commercial men, even of great experience, often commit serious errors. Whether George Lascaridi was misled by others, or whether he voluntarily took a leap in the dark, I cannot say ; but I am convinced that what he did was done in good faith, and in expectation of surprising his partners and fellow- countrymen by his splendid success. He could not ?5 suspect others of malicious practices of which he was not himself capable. He was ignorant of the maxim that now obtains amongst the City neophytes : 'O yap Gai'ttToc oov ttoi'i |Uou (your death is my life). Entangled in a many-meshed net, and seeing that his partners were irritated because he had involved them in affairs from which they had wished to keep entirely apart, his sole aim was to get out of the difficulty as best he could. Was it pardonable in the promoters of the Galway Company to take advantage of his ignorance of maritime property, and saddle him with worthless steamers'? If so, where was the harm in his transferring the precious load to the shoulders of the first capitalist he could find ready to assume the burden 1 Unfortunately, my friend Lascaridi, carried away by a strong ambition, not satisfied with engaging in the Galway Company, embarked simultaneously in other enterprises, and became a veritable commercial Perseus. If he never killed a Medusa or rescued an Andromeda, it is certain that he petrified more than one Polydectes. Simultaneously with the Gal- way affair, he got into commercial connexion with Mr. Valsamis, a Greek merchant of Glasgow, and his rela- tive. To this gentleman he also gave the accept- ances of his firm for some thousands of pounds, wishing to extricate him from certain difficulties. He was equally liberal of these acceptances to some Greek firms of Manchester. It seemed as though he would fain extend his arms to every corner of the earth. He sent Mr. A. B. Manuel, one of his clerks and a distant relative, to Gibraltar, and expended thousands in bale goods to clothe the Moroccians and Tunisians. The acceptances were also brought into requisition to assist a M. Mavrogordato to establish, in different D.2 36 streets of London, French glove-shops, as well as French perfumeries. Of all these speculations, the most useful was the famous bill-discounting office of Mr. Henry John Barker, at No. 4, Abchurch Lane. Lascaridi was precipitate in action. He often, it is true, made a lucky coup that carried him to the very colophon of success; but if the blow missed — if his undertaking were attended by ill-luck — then his reasonmg faculties seemed to be obscured. He was sometimes fickle as the wind ; at others, obstinate as a mule. A flatterer could turn him away from the most serious business, when a friend could not open his eyes to a flagrant impending calamity. He was mysterious about trifles, and foolishly communicative in cases where his interest demanded profound silence. He would trifle with his commercial credit as a vir- tuous but vain woman often does with her reputation Avhen she flirts with a snob.. He associated himself with the most chimerical schemes, and endeavoured to carry out at the same time ten diflerent projects. What says the Greek proverb : " He who pursues many hares at once, catches none." And so it was with Lascaridi. Mysterious about trifles — flippant when dealing with serious business — most cautious that the world should not know that he paid four shillings for his dinner — he would, at the same time, not hesitate to boast publicly that he had advanced £200,000 to pro- mote the Galway Steam Company, or that he had lent £100,000 to establish the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. What I think will astonish the world is, to hear that, in advancing all these acceptances of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., in engaging in these large undertakings, Mr. George Lascaridi 37 seldom made a written agreement, seldom had a distinct verbal understanding before witnesses, and seldom had a moral guarantee or security from the persons with whom he thus connected himself. He launched into wild speculations, he plunged into fathomless com- mercial depths, but he always hoped to recover his footing and come safe to land. He did not like written contracts, because the men whom he put forward or assisted were poor men, peaceful and honest, but his creatures. . As they were entirely dependent on him, he thought that any time it was in his power, if things turned out well, to take his share of the profits ; because, in the always possible event of bankruptcy, it was obviously more advantageous for his firm to appear as a creditor than as a partner. Did George Lascaridi seek to imitate Marc Antony, who, when his indebtedness amounted to £500,000, cleared all in one swoop, leaving Rome to wonder where he found so much gold ? Or did his ambition make him aspire to resemble Marcus Crassus, who, after feasting the Roman people, and squandering money right and left, died worth a million and a half sterling ? And was it in the spirit of the famous Claudius, who was wont to give fabulous prices for slaves whom he designed to set free, that he took by the hand Mr. Henry John Barker, M. Valsamis, M. Manuel, and others, intending to make them wealthy as Pallas, the favourite freedman of Claudius'? Mr. George Las caridi, in my humble opinion, was flying on a Pegasus like a commercial Perseus. 38 CHAPTER VII. MY AGENTS. The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was now entirely under my control. In fact, that company was now nothing more nor less than myself: I was sole owner, sole manager, and sole director. And what times those were in which that company came out — what prospects were opened before it ! I avoided competition in London by opening the line of the Danube, and, instead of sending my steamers on to Odessa, made them touch at the intermediate ports ; also by making my contract with the Greeks of London. With respect to the home cargo I had nothing to fear. The Greek shippers in the Levant not only regarded my line with a patriotic affection, but even went so far as on some occasions to pny five shillings per ton higher freight to my steamers than my opponents were asking. But this was not all. I had sent up the Danube several small steamers, each of about 2000 quarters of grain-carrying capacity, and drawing a small draught of water. It was intended that these small steamers should go up the river as far as they could float, load the grain there, and bring it down to the Sulina mouth, where my large steamers, having unloaded the cargoes they brought from London, would re-ship the grain, and bring it back to England. I considered that, if other Greek houses were making large profits, though they bought the grain at Galatz or Ibraila, and shipped it on 39 chartered vessels, I ought to be able to do much better, seeing that I could buy the grain many miles higher up the river, and directly from the growers. Besides, being able to transport the grain by steam from Sulina to England, I gained in time on my opponents. My plan was comprehensive, and success inevitable. Convinced of this, I did not delay putting it into execution. I immediately sent a Mr. Henry Stokar to Galatz to take the management of the Danube steamers, and buy the grain. I furnished him with large credits. Mr. Stokar was a young man Avho had been some time in my employment. He was supercargo on board the Britannia, then clerk in the office, then supercargo on board the Admiral Miaoulis ; and when that vessel was wrecked in the Baltic, he behaved so gallantly that I gave him the appointment at Galatz in pre- ference to many who perhaps thought they had stronger claims. He was of mixed race — his father being French, his mother English — and possessed of great courage. The Gallic spirit revealed itself strongly in his nature. He was a proud, high- minded man, hot tempered, and apt to regard things from a military rather than a commercial point of view. He often construed a slight pleasantry into an offence, and was always ready to demand gentlemanly satisfac- tion. He had never been engaged in business, and had no commercial experience, but he was a shrewd, sagacious man, very persevering, and most zealous in the interests of his employer ; and, over and above all this, he was a strictly honest man. But, though he spared no trouble, and even risked his life in my service, he unfortunately stuck to his orders in so strictly military a spirit, that he would never deviate therefrom, even when circumstances had arisen that 40 made the fulfilling of them a palpable loss, or the departing from them an evident gain. Another of poor Stokar's weaknesses was his economy. This he carried to such an extent at Galatz, that he would fain do all the business himself. He never engaged a proper staff of clerks ; he had not even a book-keeper. After Stokar had been some time at Galatz, the effects of his system — or rather his want of system — became apparent. I, who did not know where the error lay, was quite puzzled. Though Stokar had shipped and consigned about thirty thousand quarters of Danubian grain, he had never sent me any account or invoice for what he had paid, so that I was left in utter darkness as to how the machinery was working. His letters were very long, full of projects, hopes, and expressions of devotedness, but they were very uncom- mercial, self-contradictory, and obscure. I did not know what to think. I sometimes began to fancy that Stokar had fallen into the hands of those men called magazzinieri (warehousemen), and that they had de- ceived and robbed him, or else that he was not the man I had taken him to be. Stokar applied to me for fresh credits before he could ship all the grain he had to England. I became alarmed. Knowing that the best-conceived plans are often rendered abortive by a check suffered in the commencement, I decided upon immediately sending some one to Galatz, to in- spect affairs there. I selected for this task a M. Peter Thcologos, a Greek Smyrniote, whom I had some months before engaged for the Greek correspondence. This M. Theologos had some commercial experience, having been formerly connected with a celebrated firm that bore the name of the great Jewish lawgiver — that firm which a spendthrift nephew abandoned to the 41 direction of clerks, whilst he amused himself, at the West-end or at Paris, in pursuits more congenial to his age and tastes — that firm which fell with a crash that re-echoed through England and the Levant. I may just observe, en jjassant, that when the wardrobe of a certain fair Timandra was brought to the hammer, twenty-five magnificent new dresses, made by Madame Eape, of the Boulevard Italien, were knocked down at £800 — an enormous price. After the fall of that house Theologos started in business on his own account, and floated on the ocean of commerce like a bit of cork that never sinks, but that never reaches harbour. He was in great distress. One day he came up to me in the Corn Market, and told me his desperate position, and asked me to lend him £10. It was the 15th of June, 1858. I did it with pleasure,* and I afterwards took him into my ofiice at a salary of £150 per annum. Theologos was a thoughtful, taciturn man. He smoked little cigarettes of Turkish tobacco whilst he wrote his letters, but his work was well done. He never made any observation, never advanced any opinion ; he was of a tranquil and contented nature, and seemed to take the greatest interest in the business. It w^^s about the time that Theologos entered my employment that Mr. Alexander Carnegie, finding he had not prospered in business, closed his own ofliice, and entered mine, as head clerk, at a salary of £350 per annum. I had known Alexander Carnegie since 1856. He was a clerk in the office of the ship-brokers, Messrs. * Received of Mr. S. Xenos the sum of ten pouncls, which I promise to pay after three months, London, 15th June, 1858. . P. Theologos. 42 A. Blackie and Co., 23, Harp Lane, Great Tower Street, with which, since 1853, I have had large transactions in ships and coal. He started in business on his own account as ship-broker, in 1856, at No. 2, Ingram Court, Fenchurch Street. I chartered through him the Youth, Token, Foreman, and some other ships, which turned out most profitable. Alexander Carnegie was then a young man. He was very active in his movements, and endowed with an extraordinary perseverance and volubility of tongue, which he delighted to display upon any subject of which he was master, or of which he believed his auditory to be ignorant. He was an ambitious and very sharp man. Carnegie tried to join me in business in the year 1856, seeing my connexion with the Greek shippers. We spent many evenings together. He wanted to arrange with me that all the loading business of my packets should be transacted in his name for my accom- modation. I declined. I was, however, always very willing to give him any business upon which he could make a good commission. In 1857 our acquaintance declined. He continued a ship-broker on his own account, and after three years (the 15th of March, 1859) he found himself landed in my ofiice, where fortune waited him. (See Appendix, No. 8.) When Theologos left for the Danube, I gave him letters to Stokar, authorizing him to inspect the books. I also gave him private letters to the captains, recog- nizing him as my agent, and I gave him private letters for Stokar, ordering him to deliver up the business to Theologos and return to London. These private letters were to be used only in case he should discover some abuse of confidence or breach of trust on Stokar' s part. 43 Theologos's letters in the beginning represented my Danubian affairs as in a state of great confusion. He said it was difficult to put matters in order, on account of the absence of books and vouchers. His reports gradually assumed a darker colouring, until finally he delivered his letters of recognition to the captains and to Stokar. The latter had, from the first moment of Theologos's arrival, complained in his letters to me. He had evidently taken a dislike to the man, whom he regarded as a rival. It was no wonder. They were totally opposite characters. One was open, impetuous, untouched by the spirit of diplomacy ; the other was silent, deep, self-possessed, mild-looking, and endowed with great diplomatic tact. How often does it happen that, in obscure and narrow circles, as subtle a game is played, and with as much skill as was ever dis- played in the most Machiavelian cabinets. In such a struggle, the victory is to the calm. Poor Stokar was doomed to fall. When Theologos took the command of the business, Stokar's rage was so great that he refused to deliver the sums of money that he held. Nor was it until the interference of the British consul was obtained that he gave up the deposits of coal I kept at Galatz. Even then he did not deliver the coal to Theologos ; he placed it at the British consulate, and came to London to settle accounts with me in person. If Stokar had delivered up the business and the property of mine that he held to the man I sent out, and then come to London and entered into explanations with me, there is no doubt but that I should have sent him back to Galatz to manage with Theologos that well-planned scheme which within twelve months revolutionized the o;rain market of Galatz. But 44 instead of doing this, Stokar went about the little town of Galatz exposing my affairs, and, conse- quently injuring my credit. He tried to keep as security the property of mine that he held. All this esclandre put arms into the hands of my trade com- petitors in those parts who exported grain, and their consignees in London. Before Stokar arrived in England, I had sent Carnegie out to Galatz, where I established the firm of Theologos and Carnegie. When Stokar came to London, he tried to give me a verbal explanation of how he had managed affairs at Galatz. But, as a com- mercial man, I could not be satisfied with verbal ex- planations. I required arithmetical evidence. Stokar could not produce a satisfactory balance-sheet. Besides, his late proceedings at Galatz had so shaken my con- fidence, that I could not think of again taking him into my employment until he should have satisfactorily explained his accounts. Stokar became excited, im- pertinent, and menacing. He threatened law. I was willing to make every excuse for the vexation he felt, and, to avoid litigation, we agreed to submit our differences to an arbitration. Stokar claimed £4000 from the Greek and Oriental. However, I appointed an arbitrator, Stokar named another, and an umpire was agreed on. This arbitration business was pro- longed throughout a year, and might have gone on still longer, but that I happened one day to meet Stokar on board a penny steamer on the river. I asked him to dine with me, and that evening we arranged the matters in dispute. I agreed to give him £1000, and each was to pay his own expenses. The arbitrators were taken by surprise. They had sat, like two Vice-Chancellors, disputing points of 45 law, when a little common sense would have settled the busmess at once. I must say that I never paid money with more satisfaction than I did that £1000. Poor Stokar was victimized. He had been robbed by the magazzimeri,hMt that knowledge was suppressed, and all the blame was thrown on Stokar. When Stokar found himself in possession of £1000, he returned to Galatz, and attempted some commercial speculations on his own account (he inherited also, one year after, £3000 from a rela- tive) ; but after a few years he returned to England penniless. Within a few weeks after I read the announcement of his death in the Times. The in- telligence sent a pang through my heart. Stokar, with his chivalrous sense of honour, would have been an invaluable servant to me, had I sent a good book- keeper with him to Galatz, and given him my brother- in-law as a partner, to supply his want of commercial experience. Had I done this, I should never have fallen into the hands of Overend, Gurney, and Co., and suffered the annoyance and heavy losses caused me by the ungrateful clerks that took his place. 46 CHAPTER VIII. A GRAVE MISTAKE. I SHALL now return to the working of the great ma- chinery that I had established in London, and which forms the principal topic of this narrative. To accept bills for £150,000 is only an affair of a few minutes; to provide for them is also only a momentary concern, if your credit is virgin, your property free, your busi- ness well organized, and your enemies too insignificant to do you serious injury. But it is a Sisyphean labour if, while you are trying to meet your responsibilities by financing, you become the object of a Government opposition. For a short time I was in the first cate- gory. I had established my credit, I had overcome my enemies, and I thought all was safe. I hoped, with a fleet of steamers, I should be able to realize numerous national schemes which I had formed. I was, besides, the owner of a Greek newspaper as power- ful in the Levant as the Times in England, which supported the steamers. What ought not the possessor of such means to be able to achieve with due capacity"? But the change of the commercial position of George Lascaridi now, and the conduct of Theologos and Carnegie, caused the failure of my mission. Had I known then what I know now, I would have given a different turn to affairs. I could have saved the Greek and Oriental in 1860, by turning it into a limited com- pany. I could at that time have secured the support 47 of many powerful personages to join it. Had I done this, I should never have fallen into the hands of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. ; I should never have been in the power of Edwards and others, who, after having fattened on the ruins of my business, when no ties of interest united us any more, pretended that they did not even know me. When the first bills fell due, they were, of course, punctually met, and there still remained a large balance at my bankers ; I could, however, see that before three months I should be on the brink of a precipice. Lasca- ridi and Co.'s credit was gone; I had nothing to expect from them ; in fact, I could never now get a glimpse of George. His time was wholly occupied with the Galway Company, which had involved him in endless arbitrations. To meet my difficulties two ways were open before me : I could either " finance " the company, or raise money by mortgaging the steamers. Money was at that time very cheap, being at about 3^ per cent. " To finance a company " is a technical phrase in use amongst the great City capitalists, and means nothing more than raising money after a certain fashion. Some person connected with the company that is to be " financed," draws bills, either from abroad or in England, upon the said company; this paper is discounted by some bill-broker, and the money handed over to the company to meet urgent payments. My company could be " financed " much more easily than is daily done in other cases. The foreign exchanges might have been made the basis of the financial operations. Such a mode is often more profitable than drawing accommodation bills, but it requires credit, and that your partners abroad should 48 be shrewd and active, and know how to read the barometer of foreign exchanges. I did not intend to adopt that practice, because my agents were not of a capacity to carry out such an operation. What I proposed was, that my agents at Galatz should draw at three months on the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, for the full value of the grain shipped on board my steamers. On the receipt of the bills of lading I could sell the cargoes whilst still floating, and receive the money long before the arrival of the steamers. By acting in this way I should have in hand the value of the grain and the home freight — viz., larger sums of money than my monthly liabilities amounted to. By this mode of proceeding I should also escape the commission and heavy interest that must be paid to mortgagees and to bill-discounters. The realization of my scheme depended entirely on the capacity, the tact, and the good commercial management of my agents at Galatz. I could not attempt to enter into arrangements with any of the Greek houses that had an establishment at Galatz, because, in doing so, I should be obliged to give details concerning my business — I should be obliged to tell how I had purchased my fleet, who were the capitalists concerned, and who my partners. In fact, I should have been obliged to solve the enigma that puzzled the whole Greek trade ; and what would be the consequence 1 A revelation of my affairs would have shaken to the foundation the splendid fabric that awed and dazzled so many. Any other Greek house, on learning that I had out acceptances for so many thousand pounds for the value of the steamers, would have told their correspondents to have nothing to do with my paper. 49 A projJOs^ I forgot to mention an instance in which the inexperience that had thrown me into the chitches of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., also caused me serious loss. Before the outbreak of the Italian war, and before my connexion with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., in December, 1858, I was owner of 50,000 quarters of Black Sea grain, principally wheat, unshipped or shipped in ships and steamers, and 30,000 tons of coal. This grain cost me about 325. per quarter. Suddenly prices went up to 55^. per quarter, and coal £1 more than its cost price. Here were the means of realizing £80,000 profit by an instant sale. Calculating upon what had occurred during the Crimean War, when the prices of wheat went up so rapidly to 8O5. per quarter, and coal to £4 per ton, I expected that within a few weeks prices would be doubled, and that I should realize a sum sufficient to clear all my steamers. My brother Aristides one day called upon me to induce me to sell. " Sell, Stefanos, and you will never repent," he said. " I will not," I replied ; adding, " The market in a few weeks will be IO5. or 15s. per quarter higher. At the time of the Crimean War wheat went up to 9O5. and this war will last many months." " Sell, Stefanos ; if I were in your place I would sell, at the present profit, the corn and the coal." " No," I replied again. I played tout 'pour tout. The suddenly concluded peace of Villa Franca caused a revulsion in the grain and coal markets. Prices rapidly returned to their former figure. So vanished, within a few days, my fairy vision of gain. Instead of £100,000, as I hoped, I only made on the transaction about £10,000. If I had sold, I should never have fallen into the power of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. E 50 CHAPTER IX. DISAPPOINTMENT. The footing on which I was standing at that time was so much better than that of any other commercial Levantine house, that I ought to have had no diffi- culty in obtaining the credit I needed. My company was not limited, it was unlimited, and I was the sole transactor of its business — the sole owner in whose name the steamers were registered at the Custom- House, and the sole acceptor of the bills. The steamers were not idle — they were constantly in full woi'k ; they were free of mortgage, and represented a large tangible capital. How different was such a position to that of the many houses that just then began to inundate the grain trade — houses that, under the brilliant robe of credit, hid a skeleton form ! My agents, Theologos and Carnegie, who were to be the instruments for the carrying out of my project, had at Galatz several steamers in full work ; they had large deposits of coal, representing a vast capital, and they startled their corn merchants by the large credits I had given them on first-class London bankers. With such credits, they ought gradually to have put the paper of my company into circulation, and so have raised my credit to the highest point. I had a clear understanding with them on this subject before they left England. They knew perfectly well that the pro- jected credit was the real steam that was to keep my fleet afloat. 61 I am not vain-glorious ; but no practical merchant can fail to see that my scheme, fully worked out, would have brought in a golden harvest. But it is not sufficient for a merchant that his project is well de- vised ; it is equally important that he should find servants competent to carry it into execution, and conscientiously devoted to their employer's interest. I was more unlucky in my second choice of agents than I had been in my first. But the worst was, that I had placed myself in a position in which I could make no move now, nor remove my agents, without disturbing the action of the whole ma- chinery. When I wrote to them in Galatz, ordering them to draw on the company for some thousands of pounds — part to buy grain, and part to be remitted to me in drafts on first-class houses, to enable me to meet some urgent payments — I received an absolute refusal from Carnegie, who finished his letter by telling me that he had not gone to Galatz to furnish me with money, but to make some for himself. He further added that I must send him fresh bankers' credit. My disappointment was great. My first impulse was to recall Carnegie. He was not the man to develop a scheme which would eventually have brought him wealth, and raised him in the social scale. It was plain that he did not wish to row in the same boat with the man who had pulled him half drowned out of the watei-. I immediately tele- graphed to my brother-in-law at Smyrna, asking him to take the management of my house at Galatz. He was then a merchant in easy circumstances, and pos- sessed of large landed property in Smyrna. He was so indignant because, when I removed Stokar, I refused his demand to go there, that now he declined e2 52 the offer. I was at a loss who to send out with Theo- logos, when I received a letter from the very man, saying that he wrote, at the desire of his partner, to say how sorry Carnegie was for his last letter. They were both, he said, willing to do whatever I desired, but that the fact was that Stokar had circulated so many evil reports against me and the company, that they could only establisli the credit by degrees, which they were very anxious to do. So he proposed to draw two-thirds bills on bankers and one-third on the Greek and Oriental. The same mail brought me a letter from Carnegie, expressing his regret for what his former epistle contained. I had also a letter from Scotland, from Carnegie's father. He asked me not to remove his son, because he was devoted to my interests, and personally attached to myself. An excess of prudence has ruined many men. Remembering what took place in Stokar's case, I feared that, if I removed Carnegie, he would, per- haps, go open-mouthed through Galatz, and injure the credit of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company; so I resolved to swallow the pill. On the other hand, I must confess that the grain sent to England by Theologos and Carnegie was all of good quality, and bearing a surplus measure. Then the bills of lading of the cargo were accompanied always by a correct invoice ; so that I knew to a penny what the grain cost. The prospects of Theologos and Carnegie were excellent. I gave them £1000 per annum for the expenses of the office. They had also a commission of 2^ per cent, on all the grain they shipped, and a com- mission of 2^ per cent, on all the goods imported to Galatz by my steamers. If, therefore, they drew on 53 London bankers instead of on me, they incurred no risk whatever. Being empowered to draw bills on London nkers, all the bill-brokers, merchants, and bankers of Galatz that wanted to remit money to England would have been suppliants before them, asking to buy paper which they knew to be the best. They would have thus been placed in an influential position — one which would be at the same time perfectly safe and comfortable. But, to obey my instructions in the carrying out of my project, they would have been obliged to work hard, and they would not be in the beginning great personages. Another point that obliged me to submit to Car- negie's insulting letter was, that they held property of mine to the amount of between £15,000 and £20,000 in grain and coal. They might have raised claims, as Stokar did, and some question about the possession of these goods, and thus involved me in another arbitration case. I understood my position perfectly well. I saw that I had nothing to depend on but my own exer- tions. There were, however, two circumstances in my favour. Money was cheap, and the machinery of my scheme was working in London perfectly well, having abundance of cargo. 54 CHAPTER X. THE ULTEAMAEWE POWDER. If, in order to vindicate my own character, I shall find myself compelled to lay bare errors committed by other people, I shall not, at all events, expose myself to the charge of attempting to hide my own faults. The difficulties which compelled me to seek the assist- ance of money-lenders arose from two causes. Firstly, I had under construction several steamers, and to the builders of these I had advanced the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Now, these steamers would not come into my possession until several months after the bills should have reached maturity. Here was one difficulty. Secondly, I was obliged to give security to bankers in order to obtain credits for my house at Galatz, so that my agents might have the means of purchasing grain, that branch of my trade which had originally yielded such large profits. When I contracted for the construction of the steamers, the house of Lascaridi and Co., with which I was acting for a joint account, was in the zenith of its credit. I was wholly ignorant of the transactions in which George Lascaridi was engaged, nor was I aware of his misunderstanding with his partners. It was an important point to establish the credit of my Galatz house in the Principalities, because, if my agents there could make their first purchases with cash, they would be afterwards able to load our 65 steamers in the same way that the other Greek houses were loading their sailing ships. In taking these two steps, I had reckoned on assist- ance from George Lascaridi, the credit of whose firm was then unsullied. When I found myself disap- pointed, I was exasperated. Wrathful collisions ensued between him and me. When I reminded him of the approaching maturity of some of the bills endorsed by his firm, he referred me to Mr. Henry John Barker, to " finance " me, as he called it. I did not like this new Pylades that my friend had taken to himself, but I was not in those days aware that Lascaridi was the real founder of the little bill-discounting office at No. 4, Abchurch Lane. I have said that I do not intend to hide my own errors and defects. I liere confess to a prejudice — I dislike English Levantines. They do not inherit the Anglo-Saxon firmness of character nor the Greek vivacity of intellect. Brought up in the Turkish school, where advancement is obtained by bowing and scraping, by fawning and favouritism, they become adepts in these arts. They are neither English, Greeks, nor Turks, but a mixture of all ; they can change the hue of their nationality with a chameleon-like facility to suit emergencies — a facility that enables them to stand the fire of commercial battles and defeats with salamander-like indifference. I dislike smooth-faced, soft-voiced men, that have not the moral courage to look you straight in the face and utter a solid "no" or a sterling "yes;" men who are always ready with the pretext of important business, and run, hat in hand, out of their office the moment they see you enter, if they fancy you come to ask a favour ; or else allow you to do " long antechamber," 56 as the French have it — robbing you of your time, when they have abeady determined not to do what you want. And yet, if these men want a favour, they will stick to you with the tenacity of a dog holding a bone, until they serve their ends, and when their object is accomplished, and they no longer want you, they pass by as if unconscious of your existence. Mr. Henry John Barker introduced me to Mr. Albert Gottheimer, who, with Mr. Josiah Erek, managed the Mercantile Discount Company, Limited, 24 and 25, Birchin Lane. Mr. Albert Gottheimer, formerly a wine merchant trading under the firm of Coverdale and Gottheimer, was at that time studying closely the Limited System, through which the blind sister of the Fates afterwards made him a magnificent Grant. Mr. Gottheimer was willing to discount my promissory note of £3000 for one week for the premium of £100, provided I gave him as collateral security a bill of mortgage on one of my small steamers, which he pledged his word of honour not to register in the Custom-House until the promissory note came to maturity. He further kindly promised that, should it not be convenient to me to take up the jpetit billet at the expiration of the time, he would renew on the same terms, and continue to do so, provided I invested £1000 or £1200 in the shares of the Mercantile Discount Company, Limited, which was paying, he said, 15 per cent, per annum.* The future father of the Credit Foncier and Mo- bilier of England was too sharp for me. I took the shares to oblige him, and they soon burned my fingers. * The capital of the Mercantile Discount Company, Limited, was £200,000, in 4000 shares of £50 each (£25 per share to be paid lip), Out of the 4000 .shares very few were taken np. 57 The little office in Birchiii Lane, anxious possibly to shoe the public comfortably, discounted so many bills for the leather merchants, that when, in 1861, a panic shook the hide trade, down tumbled this primaroli limited company. It was there Mr. Albert Gottheimer acquired all the knowledge and skill which, in 1864, Mr. Albert Grant displayed to a delighted metropolis. When Mr. Albert Gottheimer withdrew from the BirchinLane concern, he compelled the shareholders, in virtue of the Articles of Association, to pay him a few thousand pounds. My acquaintance with this gentle- man was of very short duration. Saddled by him, in the way I have described, with a blue powder, called "ultramarine," which I took by paying him £200, I sent it by one of my steamers to Constantinople, to be sold, as he told me it would be, at a great profit. Who would believe that the descendants of Aaron or Moses — the only buyers of such stuff in Turkey — would not offer even £5 for this, though the freight, insurance, and . shipping charges amounted to more than £10. Finding the precious article unmarketable at Constan- tinople, I sent it on to Galatz, where it met with no better success, and where, I believe, it remains to the present day, not worth the expense of being shovelled into the Danube. 58 CHAPTER XL THE riEST MOETGAGES. Me. Gottheimee had a head too long for me. I was so disgusted with this mode of "financing," and so tired of Barker and Lascaridi, that I resolved upon putting an end to the state of anxiety in which I was kept. I decided upon calling a meeting of the ship- builders to whom I was indebted, and the holders of my large bills, and coming to terms with them for the balance due. I intended to promise them 20s. in the pound, with 5 per cent, for long credit, say two or three years, giving some of the steamers as security for the payments. During these two or three years the steamers, working steadily, would gradually free themselves. This arrangement would leave me at least two or three steamers free as a reward for my hard work. I sent for Mr. George Lascaridi, and com- municated my determination to him. He was seized with terror. He reminded me that the bills had been endorsed by his firm, and asked if I wanted to break down Lascaridi and Co. and ruin him, as, of course, the builders would look to his firm for payment. He appealed to my sense of generosity. I was between two fires. Had I been born with a foreknowledge of events, I should have known that my proposition was best both for Lascaridi and myself. As it was, I yielded to him. And now he, whom I had not seen for months, set his wits to work to raise money. He proposed that I should mortgage the Admiral 59 Kanaris and the Marco Bozzaris ; he despatched his grand emissary, Mr. Henry Barker, to seek, ]per mare et terra, the precious metal of which we stood so . much in need. Mr. Barker succeeded in discovering the golden sands of the Pactolus of Lombard Street. With oriental ability he succeeded in throwing a pon- toon from AbchurchLane to the great "Corner House." He did more. He contrived to fix a tube through which he whispered into the ear of the proud David Ward Chapman. Having made these arrangements, he informed Lascaridi that " he could do the job for 20 per cent." I positively refused, preferring my own plan of coming to an understanding with the ship- builders, who, when they should have learned all, would be happy to accept the security I offered instead of the simple bills they held. Barker and Lascaridi redoubled their exertions. The day after my refusal I received the following note in Greek from Lascaridi : — Dear Stefanos, Overend, Giirney, and Co. agree to make a loan for six months on the following terms : — =£19,000 to draw on the company at six months ; o£1000, their commission, for six months. They wiU discount the bills for £19,000 at 5 per cent, interest. I make my calculations that it will be altogether 15 per cent, per annum. I think you must swallow this pill. It is impossible to get the thing done cheaper. Your friend, 18/2/59 G. P. L. Lascaridi forgot to add the small commission to Mr. Henry Barker for his trouble, which would make more than 15 per cent. Bound by strong ties of gratitude to Lascaridi, I accepted these conditions rather than bring about a collision between him and his partners. Within a few months he and Barker concluded with Messrs. 60 Overend, Giirney, and Co. fresh mortgages on three small steamers for £15,000. The terms on this trans- action were stiifer than on the former — £2000 bonus, and 5 per cent. All this time I had not made the acquaintance of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. They advanced the money to Barker, and he paid it over to me in instalments. I was soon tired of this zig-zag mode of doing business. I began, too, to see that the Greek and Oriental, far from being saved by this "financing," was running rapidly along] the high road to perdition. What was my surprise when one day the smooth- faced, soft-voiced Mr. Henry Barker asked me to give him a second mortgage on one of the steamers as security. He had just paid me, by order of Lasca- ridi, cheques for a few hundreds, to meet certain bills endorsed by his firm. My astonishment was not small when he asked for a mortgage. " What ! " I said, " security to you for money belonging to Lascaridi and Co., when I know that you owe money to that firm % " I left him resolved, though a little late, to take the desperate step which could alone save me from impending ruin. I sought George Lascaridi instantly, but he was in Paris. His partners had begun to arrive from the South and the East. I saw his cousin Peter, who seemed both troubled and angry. He was, however, very polite to me. I returned imme- diately to my office, and wrote a long letter to George Lascaridi, in which I recounted Barker's behaviour. I said I was determined to see his cousin, and come to an explanation with him upon every point, as I was resolved to see what could be done to save both concerns. I received the following reply: — 61 Paris, Sejn. IStJi, 1859. Dear Xenos, I found by your letter of yesterday that you have again begun to accuse me. But I suppose you -wrote in a moment of passion. If Barker owes money to Lascaridi and Co., that is his own affair ; it is not my fault. I did not suggest to him to ask you for secuiity. You do well not to believe it. I see nothing extra- ordinary in Barker's asking security. He has not a large capital himself; he must look how he turns his business. You say you will have an explanation with Peter. But, my friend, just think that you will expose me. Nothing good can come of it. Why not use all the means we possess to set our business right ? I am myself willing to give guarantees. I have done so up to this time, and I have proved it clearly to you. Let us still do the same. The brave man proves his courage in difficulties. I shall be in London next Wednesday. Come to my house at eight in the evening. We shall then consider what is best to be done. To cry out without reflection is not the way to save the company in which I had and have my hopes, after aU my other means are exhausted. Good-bye. Persevere if you wish to see the company progress. I am ready to make any sacrifice, because it is for my interest. George Lascaridi. When Lascaridi arrived in London, he and I had many interviews ; many angry words passed between ns. However, seeing the chaos in which he Avas plunged, I abstained from communicating with his partners. All this time my steamers were at full work, making profitable voyages, having splendid freights. Spite of the heavy interest I was paying, I hoped to be able to clear my vessels. In this my house at Galatz alone could help me. It was on this account solely that I had removed Stockar, and sent out Theologos and Carnegie. But, as we shall presently see, they, instead of assisting, embarrassed me by continually asking for supplies of money, to pay cash for grain for which they had contracted. 62 I now lost sight of George Lascaridi again. He was like a knight-errant, who, having achieved a Don Qnixotic feat in one place, immediately hurried off to an opposite quarter of the globe to tender his services to suffering humanity in that region. It was about this time — November, 1859 — that I made a bargain with the Admiralty for the Powerful as a transport for the Chinese War. I made, on that transaction, a net profit of £15,000. This was very well ; but I had difficulties to counterbalance my profits. It was about this time that I had to pay instalments on the steamers under construction; and, unfortunately, at the same time several thousand quarters of grain, pur- chased by my agents, were frost-bound in the Danube, and could not be shipped to England to be realized. Under these circumstances I commenced to negotiate another loan of £20,000 with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., giving security another steamer. This trans- action was also effected through Mr. Henry Barker. As for George Lascaridi, he had disappeared. Poor fellow ! he was suffering under domestic misfortunes. I felt deeply for him, but could neither do as he wished, nor as I wished myself. I was bound by honour to my post. The Greek and Oriental was not only sol- vent, it was coining. To associate that company with Lascaridi and Co., who were standing on the brink of a precipice, would be madness ; to make a deed of part- nership with George Lascaridi individually, who was involved in so many difficulties, would be to couple insanity with injustice. I stood watching the tide of events, prepared to act as circumstances should sug- gest. The readers of these pages shall decide whether I was under any obligation to risk the fruit of my hard labours with any one. 63 One point more. I had come to the resolution of dispensing with the services of Mr. Henry Barker. I resolved to make the personal acquaintance of the mighty capitalists. I was prompted to take this step the more especially because in the approaching January, February, and March of 1860 my pay- ments would, in these three months alone, amount to £143,332 19s. 4d.* * My bills due in January were £30,307 10s.; in February £38,488 5s. Id. ; in March, £74,537 4s. 3d. The biUs of the remaining nine months amounted to only £29,383 4s. lOd., as fol- lows—April, £5482 ; May, £4000 ; June, 3750 ; July, £5352 5s. ; August, £2250; September, £1750; October, £2750; November, £1750 ; December, £2300. In these acceptances were included all the above-named mortgages of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and others. 64 CflAPTER XII. THE MINIATURE COURT OP LOUIS XIV. It was during the negotiation of this loan of £20,000 that I first made the personal acquaintance of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. If characters so different as Adonis, the Chevalier de Faublas, the great Jean Baptiste Colbert, and James Wilson, the eminent economist, could be brought to- gether in one group, they would not form a more strongly contrasting tableau than did the four acting partners in this great commercial house. David Ward Chapman was one of the handsomest Englishmen I have ever seen. He was of the middle height, and perfectly well made. He dressed with the correct taste of a City man, which the " West- end swells" often make ridiculous by exaggeration. He was not a financial genius, but he possessed talent and experience He daily passed five hours in the City. When money was cheap, the com- mercial sky clear, and business smooth, these hours were, to David Ward Chapman, a sacrifice laid on the altar of duty; but when money was dear, and the aspect of the horizon stormy, then the feelings of David Ward Chapman, during his City hours, were about as pleasant as those of the Syracusan tyrant in presence of the hair-suspended sword. David Ward Chapman was fond of flattery, and, as he could com- mand the market, he had always an abundant supply of the commodity. He was surrounded by a troop of 65 sycophants — all clever fellows — ^who knew how to trim their sails according to the weather. And then David Ward Chapman was arrogant in the snpreme degree. The sentiments of the renowned De Coney might not inaptly be uttered by him : — Hoy nc puis-jo otre ; Due ne veux etrc, Ni comtc aussy ; Mais grand seigneur De Coney. David Ward Chapman loved the drama, and was fond of pictures, but, not being possessed of the judg- ment of Sir Charles Eastlake, he left the choice of his purchases to his agents or flatterers. In private life he maintained a hospitality lavish as that of the prodigal son. David Ward Chapman's life was a round of pleasure. With the exception of the few hours daily devoted to business, his whole time was taken up in giving or accepting entertainments. He thought only of making the hours of this ephemeral life as joyous as possible. Prodigal-son like, he never reflected on the reverses of Polycrates. Arthur George Chapman was a fair-complexioned, boyish-looking young man. Not a particle of hair sha- dowed his downy cheek. Had he chosen to dress like a girl, he, like the Chevalier de Faublas, might have passed ^sfemme de chamhre of the Marquise de B . The part he played in the great office was limited to issuing orders in a bombastic tone to the clerks, in the presence of strangers; to treating customers cavalierly, particularly those who came to borrow money, or aslc the renewal of their bills. But, over and above all, his object in coming to the office was to accept the bills of the firm and sign cheques. Indeed he signed so many cheques, that within eighteen months from 66 the time I first made his acquaintance, I was told, his partners, to relieve him from this heavy work, pre- sented him with an annuity. So ended his official visits to the great " Corner House." Henry Edmund Gurney was one of the principal partners and capitalists in the establishment. He was a man of a high moral and intellectual cast. In person he was above the middle height, and inclined to corpulency. His countenance indicated both goodness of heart and strength of intellect. His hair was fair, his eyes well-shaped and kindly in expression. He was deaf in one ear, which accounted for his always speaking in a loud tone, even when treating of affairs of the most private nature. He was a proud-spirited man, somewhat pompous and dictatorial in manner ; but, on the other hand, he was imbued with a deep sense of religion, and his acts of private benevolence were numerous. In his public capacity he has, many a time and oft, saved whole branches of commerce from a crash, by assisting those at their head. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and a man incapable of uttering an untruth, or playing a double game. But, unfortunately, surrounded by a class of men like the favourites of the Chapmans, he was not always able to ascertain the truth, because, not suspect- ing the motives of his informants, he never thought of doubting their statements. In this way he ultimately fell into their power, and became the tool of a clique of designing men. Like all financiers, Henry Edmund Gurney was fond of multiplying his money, and was ambitious of commanding the commercial world. It was an ambition worthy a minister of finance. To reach the climax of his ambition, this English Colbert did not need the patronage of a Cardinal Mazarin. 67 When money was cheap his eye instantly fell on the dockyards of Liverpool, London, Hartlepool, New- castle, and Sunderland, as did, in former times, that of the celebrated minister of France on those of Brest, Toulon, and Eochefort. With the vast capital at his command — partly his own, and partly deposited in his keeping — he might, by mortgages, have chained the mercantile fleets of England, and compelled them to anchor where he pleased. It was to a power like this that Henry Edmund Gurney aspired. Delille has said: '•'■Paries nceuds du commerce unissezVunivers.'' Henry Edmund Gurney's plan was not a bad one. Listead of incur- ring risk by discounting second-class bills, as all bill- discounters do when money is cheap, he was able to put his hand upon a vast amount of commercial and maritime property, and so, in a large measure, to con- trol the two chief elements of England's commercial greatness. To the success of Henry Edmund Gurney's design three conditions were indispensable — a special knowledge of maritime property ; a moderate rate of interest, say, never in any case to exceed 10 per cent., so that the shipowner may be able gradually to release his vessels ; and an inviolable rule never to advance more than a certain amount on a cer- tain valuation. Besides, the trade in which the mortgaged vessels were engaged should be closely inquired into, and the capabilities and honesty of their owners ascertained. But the mode in which our great capitalists attempted to work out their project was quite the reverse- of this. The ^wotdg^s whom David Ward Chapman employed to superintend their interests and to value the property, were babes in knowledge, or else refined rogues, and the conse- f2 68 quence was that transactions with the best paying and best organized lines of steamers were fraught with loss. Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney, being the chief acting partner in the firm, having, unfortunately, more on his hands than one man could accomplish, left the investigation of the securities to Mr. David Ward Chapman, whose factotum was Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, an official assignee of the Court of Bankruptcy, and whose acquaintance we shall make shortly. Robert Birkbeck, a junior partner in the great " Corner House," was at that time, like Arthur Chap- man, a boyish-looking young man. He possessed great talent, prudence, and high morality. He loved his work, and took an active part in all the concerns of the firm. Endowed with great self-possession, he stood unmoved amidst commercial storms, and mojje than once, by his foresight and determination, saved the good ship of Lombard Street from being wrecked amidst the labyrinth of shoals and banks amidst which the two other partners and their precious favourites had entangled her, Robert Birkbeck stood unflinch- ingly by the side of Henry Edmund Gurney to the last, and, I doubt not, rendered good service. If all the winds of the commercial horizon of London had not been evoked and made to blow simultaneously on that glorious ship, which, after I left, became a total wreck, she might have lasted to become an honour to Great Britain. Samuel Gurney and John Henry Gurney scarcely ever made their appearance at that time in the office. The way in which Messrs. Overend, Cjurney, and Co. advanced money to the Gal way Company, to me, to Zachariah Pearson, and other shipowners, on their 69 property, was this : They instructed Mr. Henry John Barker, or the introducer of the business, to draw bills on the owner of the property, and these they discounted at the enormous rates I have mentioned. These bills they kept by them, and re-discounted, with their in- dorsement, according to the signals indicating whence the money-market winds blew, or according to the wants of their claimants. In my visits to the office of these great money- dealers, I had an opportunity of noting things that escaped the observation of the proprietors^hemselves. That office often reminded me of the French court in the time of Louis XIV. " Cest a la cour que lesjjas- sions sexcitent, et conspirent contre Vinnocence^'' says Flechier ; and Arnauld adds, " Ici la fourherie ixisse pour la vertu^ The truth of these assertions was fully verified in the miniature court of Lombard Street. No ante-room of any minister in Christendom presented a greater number of expectants than was frequently to be found there from ten in the morning till four in the afternoon. Persons of all grades, from the high to the low, were to be seen waiting for an audience, or even a reply through a clerk. You saw there the '•'■ peste de cour,'' as Moliere calls those officious insignificant courtiers whose sole occupation is to circulate ground- less rumours and calumnies. It was amusing to see specimens of that class at the Lombard Street court, and observe the sycophantish smile and slavish humi- lity with which they approached a disengaged partner, and commenced an under-toned gossip. You saw there the '''renard de cour,'' as Balzac calls the crafty courtier. He approaches the great man with a cautious and insinuating air, and suggests— merely throws out a hint about a promising transaction, but he does not 70 venture to propose anything until he has sounded the o^reat man's inclinations. Then there was the ^^mouche de GOiiT^'' as La Bruyere calls the professional espion courtisan^ for his reliable information, that might either save the great house from loss, or bring it profit. These men were well paid by commission, or in some other way. Then there were the flocks of common- place courtiers, made up of brokers emd proxenites of all kinds, full of all sorts of schemes and propositions. These went hither and thither, flinging the eau henite de la coiir, or the vain hopes and promises, to their anxious clients. It was of these last that Corneille said : Les courtisans sont dcs jctons ; Leiir valeur depend de Icur place : Dans la faveiir des millions, Et des zeros dans la disgrace. What plots have I known to be concocted, what in- trigues have I seen played out to supplant a favourite in that little Lombard Street court ! Thomas Corneille has sublimely said : Le crime fait la honte, ct non pas Techafaud. This is no doubt true in the abstract, and will be proved correct when the universe, as a whole, is brought to account ; but, in the brief span of human existence, we constantly see the converse of the asser- tion pass for truth. Many an honest and honourable man have I seen driven, by the corrupt favourites of that house, to the scaflbld of bankruptcy, and, though innocent, covered with ignominy and that shame the world still attaches to their name. Whilst I write I have " in my mind's eye " Zachariah Pearson, of Hull, as honourable a man as any in England, who was thus sacrificed. 71 The " Corner House," in Lombard Street, consisted of several floors, and had an imposing appearance from the outside. It was only on the ground floor that business was transacted. On this floor was the large room for the clerks, which had the appearance of a bank, though the clerks were not so numerous. Next to this room was that in which the partners sat, and into which entrance was gained from the clerks' room through a glass door. This room, in which used to sit the greatest money-dealers in the world, was plainly, almost meanly furnished. There were in it five desks, ranged one after the other, on the plan adopted in the Lancashire schools ; these desks were fenced round with a breast-high partition. At these desks some of the partners were always to be found writing, but Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney was generally standing by the chimney-piece, attending to business. I may say that, for a commercial firm of such magni- tude, the furniture and general appearance of this room were rather shabby. There was not even a spark of that ostentation which characterizes the French comptoirs and the newly-built banks of London. Next to the partners' room were two other small rooms — one looking into Birchin Lane, pretty respectable as re- garded light and furniture, the other almost as grim and dark as a ship's lazaret. Happy the thoughts of the man who had to kick his heels in this room for the best part of an hour, whilst waiting for an audience, surrounded by half-empty medicine bottles, brushes, . combs, towel-stand, and washing apparatus. Beyond these was another room — light, airy, and comfortable — communicating with the partners' room through the clerks' room. 72 CHAPTER XIIL A PERILOUS POSITION, As soon as I became thoroughly acquainted with the politics of the leviathan money-dealers, and the system that obtained in their office, I came to the conclusion that the less frequent my visits were the better. I have mentioned how I accepted bills for above £100,000 against the grain and steamers I had bought. These bills now began to fall thick. As the Danube business and the import grain were not credit trans- actions, but required hard cash, my position became alarming. This, Mr. Henry John Barker was the first to perceive, and, under pretext of being extremely busy, he avoided meeting me. George Lascaridi was more erratic than ever. Rapid in his transitions as one of the Dioscuri, he was to be seen one week in Paris and the next in London. I was in a dilemma. Within ten days I had to meet £38,000, and I did not know even where to look for the m )ney, though I had still plenty of ship property untrammv: led. I went home that evening in a most sorrowful mood. An idea suddenly crossed my mind. I sat down and wrote a very long letter to Henry Edmund Gurney. I explained the exact state of this line. I showed that my business was yielding a profit of at least 30 per cent., and that it was based on a good foundation. I only needed at the existing crisis a small capital of £80,000. If that were advanced, I would willingly give security, and would, moreover, give one-eighth of the yearly profits 73 of the business, as long as it existed, after repaying the money lent. As this letter is the real medium of the introduction of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., I publish its rough copy, which I found amongst my papers. The begmning of this important letter, bearing the date (which can be but a very few lines), I have lost. We had beaten opponents and driven them out of the way, causing, perhaps, a great deal of jealousy, and we had in reality a field of gold before us, when Mr, Lascaridi unfortunately, and without my knowledge in the least, mixed himself up in the Galway Company on an enormous scale. How he did so, and on what prospects, is till now a mystery to me. When I learnt it, I foresaw at once that the contre-covp of the Galway Companj^ would fall immediately on me. I remonstrated with Mr. Lascaridi most sincerely, and I proved to him long ago that this affair would shake the credit of his house. It was too late, and Mr. Lascaridi had full confidence in the promises and prospects of Mr. Lever. However, he did not pass one month, and Mr. Lascaridi could not give me either his moral or his pecuniary assistance. The contrary ; the more his credit sufiered, I sufi'ered too, and at last he left all the tremendous weight of the company on my shoulders and on my resources. From that time I began to mortgage the steamers to you to carry out the company, to save my honour, my position, and principally not to disappoint the shippers that had deserted others to come to me. Liabilities. — The company, true, makes money fast, and paid under two years, out of the profits — who would believe it ? — nearly the half of the cost value of our steamers, but has still nearly £130,000 to pay from the 1st of this year to the July of 1861 ; your loans, amounting to a total of £52,000 (deducting the loss of the Tzamados) ; and £28,000 to Messrs. Pickersgill, Rodocanachi, and the Bank of London. Against that I hold eighteen new steamers, cost value more - than <£250, 000 ; I hold 15,000 tons of coal in the difi'ercnt depots of the ^Mediterranean, at the low price of 30 s. per ton, £21,000 ; and 6000 quarters of grain, value nearly £10,000 ; and uncollected freights from the Government, £70,000, 74 of the Powerful, Asia, and Scotia,* for the expedition to China, at the end of eighteen months. And it is expected the other steamers, now with the new Bank of Turkey, when the Exchange shall be established at Constantinople, our exportation will increase, so that they will do better. Relations of the Company with others. — The company has no relation with any one, except with the house of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. No failure can injure the company — even the house of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. — because we do not hold any acceptances of them ; but if we fail, we shall affect them, because their name is endorsed on our acceptances. Its Solidity. — To me — I that have the sole direction of the company, and must know everything regarding the company — I consider that the company, accordiag to the best of my knowledge, is as solid as any business in London, but pressed very hard for money, and wanting the necessary funds to work it respectably, because we have to pay in cash immediately for everything — all the wages, provisions, and stores — and meet the bills of the builders, when, on the other part, we cannot collect the freights till more than three weeks after discharging. I repeat, I can prove to you by our books the company is solid, and whatever crush or undervaluation to her property may be made, it will be found at least 30s. to the pound. After all this long tale, I come to the principal object that made me write you this letter. My object is this, only this — to protect your interests and the money you have trusted to me, and to prevent your name from being the object of public notoriety, if, unfortunately, I cannot pull through. I shall not do justice to myself if I do not tell you clearly the position in which I am at this moment with Mr. Lascaridi and Mr. Barker. I said that we have o£130,000 liabilities — viz., bills due to the ship-builders, and other transactions. If these bills were to be met in the course of the eighteen months, the affair would be done very comfortably, working the steamers; but the principal amount, £80,000, is due in this month, February, and March, and we have no other means to meet it but by accommoda- tion, and such accommodation, with such bad credit as we have, * The Asia and Scotia were not taken up by the Government, being at that time in the Mediterranean, and not arriving in London in time to be inspected as transports. 75 will be more ruinous than if I sell our property at auction. Such accommodation ■would ruin our credit more without curing it, because the difficulties of these three months, if they will be over, will pass to the next three months, and, having to make sacrifices, pay heavy interests for meeting the payments of the day. I really must add that I shall be, as I am already, in perpetual agony. I shall never be able to spare anything to pay you to release my mortgaged steamers, and, worst of all, I shall neglect the business, and the transactions of the office, by being always out of doors to find money. The end will be a very bad case for all parties interested in this business. After long reflection, without saying anything to Barker or Lascaridi, I decided to follow my conscience and the path of honour, and I do not care if I remain without a penny in the world. There are two ways — either to apply to you for a further loan of £80,000, giving you security, so as to take up our . acceptances, and then every quarter I shall be able, from the profits, to pay you off at least £10,000 of this loan ; or to suspend payments, and to ask for time to pay everybody 20s. to the poimd. This, I know, is ruinous, and this beautiful business will go to smash, and it will raise against us, and against the Greeks a great deal of scandal ; but it is a hundred times better than to drive the business any further in the way that we are going, which time, instead of curing, will prove more fatal. Ashing you for £80,000. — I propose certain conditions that you will find not only profitable, but at the same time inspiring more confidence. First. — I shall take out of Messrs. Pickersgill and Rodocanachi and the Bank of London my three best steamers — viz., the Scotia, value £25,000 ; the Modern Greek, value paid £20,000 ; and the Powerful, value £42,000, including the £28,000, her freight from the Government, giving you an order monthly to collect it, and mortgage them to you, and then you will be the only mort- gagee of our company. Those steamers I was obliged to mortgage for a few days for a very few thousand pounds ; they are included in the above liabihty of £130,000. I give you, in addition, the Smyrna, value £10,000 ; the Patras, value £8000 ; and- the Colleti, value £11,000. They are free, and the Petro Beys just launched. Secondly. — When the Scotia and Asia return to London (now 76 on their passage from the Black Sea), and the contract is signed by the Government for transports, as arranged with the surveyors, I give you an order to collect monthly also £28,000 on each vessel's freight ; and, by the three freights only of the Government, you will have back £73,000 of your money. Thirdly. — I give you a written promise not to build or buy any steamer before I take out of your hands the mortgages of all our steamers. Fourthly. — Not to accept for any account any more bills, except for the value of corn drawn from the Danube. I have no objection, if you send me one of your confidential clerks, to place him in my booking department, so as to see how things work. Fifthly. — The interest of the money advanced to us to be at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum ; but, when I redeem the property — which I expect will be in not longer than eighteen months — I propose to give you by contract, as long as the company exists, one- eighth of its profits annually ; or, if you choose, to register at once in your name the eighth part of every steamer, or to give you a bill of sale for the eighth, and then you will be entitled to the eighth part of the profits that the steamer makes. If you find my proposition a little liberal, and entertain it, then I shall explain to you why I do not apply to the numerous friends that I have among the Greek houses, or why I do not make the company a public company. There are very few houses that can advance me such a large amount. I shall bo obliged to give them all the above explanations — to show them my profits. I shall open their eyes ; and the result will be that, being exporters and im- porters themselves on a large scale, having all the means, they wiU try the business, and will go themselves into the shipowning — as already Messrs. Spartali and Co. have begun at Liverpool — the Greeks unfortunately following each other in a transaction ; so, in a couple of years, every two or three houses will have three or four steamers, and then it will be the same competition and the same losses as to the lines of Holland, Belgium, Hamburg, and America. In fact every one would have to work for a 5 per cent, instead of a 40 or 50 per cent. ; so, as long as I can keep alive the Greek and Oriental, I must keep in darkness those people from whom I only fear a true and ruinous competition. The same reason compels me not to make the company a public company, although Mr. Lascaridi pressed me a great deal. If I make it public, the greater part of 77 the shares must be sold only to the shippers — viz., to the Greeks — to secure their business and support. The directors must be the most part Greeks ; immediately they will start another company — • the business will be divided ; it will be a competition, and, if onco competition is multiplied, each company soon will come to an end. This business will not bear competition, because competition is equal to ruin. Another thing : once this company has a board and many directors, it will go to pieces, because, when one director will think that barley is the best cargo to ship home, the bther will say wheat or Indian corn. The steamer will remain at Constantinople, waiting telegraphic orders, till the board meets and decides — perhaps twelve or fifteen days. Another thing : a steam company is only for mails and passengers — it has its route traced forwards and backwards. In other words, if till now it existed a commercial limited house, to import corn, with directors and board, then this may be the same. I understand one, or two, or three partners being all day in the same office, and, knowing everything, to act accordingly; but many directors, having other business, and attending once every week, experience teaches me that such com- pany wiU not last long. It wiU be a clear and net imposition on the public, or, better saying, a clear robbery on the part of the promoters or directors.* You will tell me it is better to do that than to leave the com- pany to be smashed if we do not help you. Permit me to think differently. If the Greek and Oriental is smashed now, no one has to lose money, even if my property is sold for half its value. I am not to be blamed, true — cruel position ! — but the public will see what I constructed with only my little means ; what strict economy I kept in the office, in the ships, and in my private life, I shall come out, perhaps, poor, but I am certain with great credit and honour, and I have no doubt that the creditors will give me the only thing I want now — time. To form the company limited at this moment is also impossible. If I overcome these three months, I shall get out altogether shortly, and with great property and a good business. I shall divide always my last penny with Mr. Las- caridi. Mr. Lascaridi had and has all the good will to give me any assistance in his power. He is the most honourable man that I met ; but, unfortunately, he met with people who abused his good * What I wrote here in January, 1860, was proved in 18GG in the Anglo-Greek Steam Navigation and Trading Company, Limited. 78 i I will. He has suffered — his money is locked up, and he cannot now assist me. That is not a reason to abandon him. He said to me many times that, if he knew my business was so good, he never ■ would do any other thing than devote his money and time to it. ^ However, with all this, in this moment I must follow my own head as to what is to be done — what is the best for all — and really I do not see any other way more clear and honest than to leave a part timidity and shame, and to tell you all, and to ask you, giving you security and benefit, to help us to get out of this labyrinth. Doing so, you help not only me, and Mr. Lascaridi, and Mr. Barker, but you do a great deal of good to nearly 250 English families that live out of our steamers. Our company made at least a great deal of good in the sugar and colonial markets, and in the corn market, so its existence will be a great honour to who can save it. This is, dear Sir, my sincere confession. I have told you all, and I beg you to show my letter to Mr. Chapman, and at least, if you refuse my proposition, to advise me what you think the best course to follow. Yours truly, (Signed) Stefanos Xenos. 79 CHAPTER XIV. MESSRS. OVEREND, GURNEY, AND CO. Monet was at that time very cheap. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., after a short consultation, decided upon advancing the sum I asked. I was to pay interest and commission, but they declined partici- pating in the profits of my business, as that might establish a kind of partnership between them and me. Mr. Henry John Barker and Mr. George Lascaridi, those two gentlemen who had been missing from the circle of my acquaintance for some time, now suddenly reappeared within it, with countenances so smihng that it was a real pleasure to look on them. Mr. l)avid Ward Chapman informed me that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had appointed Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, official assignee in the Court of Bankruptcy, as the gentleman who was to look after their interests in my business, in accordance with the spirit of the letter which I had written to Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney. Mr. Chapman recom- mended me to go at once to Mr. Edwards's office, in Weaver's Hall, Basinghall Street, in company with Mr. Hemy John Barker, who was present at the interview, and see him (Mr. Edwards) on the sub- ject. There being no time to lose, we started at once. When we arrived at Weaver's Hall we found that Mr. Edwards was engaged, and would remain so for a short time. In a few minutes there emerged from Mr. Edwards's private room an elderly man, rather 80 shabbily dressed. He was growling and swearing most bitterly, and speaking of Mr. Edwards in any- thing but a complimentary manner. This incident made a most painful impression on me. On our being announced, Mr. Edwards, who had been already ap- prised of the object of our visit by Mr. Chapman, received us with a smiling countenance; but I was not slow to discern the traces of strong agitation, caused by his recent visitor, with regard to whom he made the remark, that he had been very well off prior to his failure; that his accounts were in great dis- order ; that he was mad, and did not know what he was saying. I do not know why, but my first visit to Mr. Edwards gave me an unfavourable impression regarding him ; yet he was a man of pleasing appear- ance, placid countenance, cool temper, of not only gentlemanly, but fascinating manner, and soft and sweet of speech. I explained to Mr. Edwards the cause of my visit, the state of my affairs, the nature of my business, and the number and value of my steamers. He noted what I said on a paper which he had before him, and, when I had finished, told me that Mr. Chapman had consulted him about the matter, and that he, seeing that the business was really a good one, had advised the firm to make the advance asked; all, therefore, that was to be done to finish the transaction was for me to meet him (Mr. Edwards), at Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co.'s, in half an hour. Punc- tually to the time appointed I reached the " Corner House," in company with Mr. Henry John Barker. Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney was out of town that day. When we entered we found Mr. Edwards engaged in a private conversation with Mr. David Ward Chapman, 81 in one of the small rooms. After some little time Mr. Edwards called us in, and then he informed me that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had decided on advancing me £80,000 for six months, to enable me to overcome my difficulties ; but for that advance I should have to pay them a bonus of foety thousand POUNDS, and interest at the rate of 10 per cent. "What! £40,000 and 10 per cent, interest T' I screamed rather than asked. " This is cheaper, after all, than the eighth of your profits, which you proposed yourself to give us every year," said Mr. Chapman, with an air of great indifference. " It may be so," ^ I answered ; " but to pay you £40,000 and 10 per cent, interest in one sum at once, with £80,000 in six months, is impossible ; I could not afford it ; I should never be able to do it ; it is out of the question, Mr. Chapman." Mr. Edwards directed a significant look towards Mr. Chapman, and then said to him, " Just one word with you," taking him at the same time out of the room. "Forty thousand pounds bonus and 10 per cent, interest besides, all to be paid in six months ! I would rather stop payment at once. It is too much," said I. " Yes ; it is too much," said Mr. Barker, but not in the same surprised manner that I had done. He looked to me as if he was familiar with such trans- actions. After the lapse of a few minutes the official assignee returned with a beaming countenance. " I have arranged your affair satisfactorily," said he ; " I have persuaded them to accept a bonus of only 82 £30,000, with 5 per cent, per annum on the money they will advance you, and I have no doubt but that, if at the end of six months they find your business going on all right, they will renew the loan for another six months, at the same rate of interest, and without any bonus. Now, do not throw impediments in the way, and you will be all right shortly. Barker Brothers (which was the name of Mr. Henry John Barker's firm) will draw a bill on you for the total amount, which you will accept ; that bill will never leave this office, so that you will be quite comfortable." I had no time to lose, neither had I cause to com- plain — the choice was between life and death. " When can I have the money," I asked ; " as I have to meet £30,000 worth of tills this week]" " You can have it to-day, if you like," he replied. I said, " Very well ; I suppose I must accept. The terms are rather stiff." Mr. Chapman was then called in, and seemed much pleased on hearing that I had accepted their terms. Mr. Edwards then told him that I must have a cheque for £20,000 at once. " Very well," said Mr. Chapman ; " but let us give our cheque to Barker Brothers, and Barker Brothers will give you theirs. We do not wish the name of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to appear in our books. This does not make any differ- ence to you so long as you receive the money. We will give you the remainder to-morrow." The cheque was handed to Mr. Barker, and we left the " Corner House " together, to get his firm's cheque. My brain was nearly stunned by what I had seen and heard. " What a fool ; " cried Mr. Barker, striking his forehead with his open hand when we had got into the 83 street. " Had I only known that they were going to charge you £30,000 for bonus, I would have made them give me £5000 out of what they are going to receive. An opportunity of getting such a round sum out of them seldom occurs." " You ought certainly to ask them to give you £5000," said I, astonished at the extravagance of his ideas. I had to work like a horse to make my poor steamers -pay — nobody can guess how hard I had to work — and yet Mr. Barker wanted £5000 for walking with me from Lombard Street to Basinghall Street and back, and thence to Abchurch Lane. Pay- ment as princely as this would make it worth the while of the son of a duke to come to the City. Per- haps it was such examples that caused so great an influx of noblemen, admirals, and generals into the City during the time of the limited liability com- panies. Be that as it may, Mr. Barker gave me his cheque, and I returned to my office. 2 84 CHAPTER XV. MY FIRST FINANCER. Mr. Edwards was regarded at the "Corner House" as a great mathematician and a high financial autho- rity. He was a barrister by education, and an official assignee by profession. If the commercial laws of this country were not so complicated, surely the last person that two merchants ought to invite to step in to arrange their affairs would be a lawyer. However, Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., upon principle, kept in their employment this gentleman, introduced to them by Mr. David Ward Chapman, hoping that his legal and shipping knowledge might avert com- plications. This semi-professional gentleman led them into troubles, and got them out of their difficulties by sinking them each time deeper and deeper. After the lapse of a few weeks, I saw that Mr. Edwards had no intention of coming to my office. He had advised the house to advance me the sum of £80,000, without even going himself or sending some competent person to inspect the steamers, a mortgage on which was to be the security for the amount lent. I was amazed at the facility with which this gigantic transaction was completed in the short space of eight-and-forty hours. Mr. Edwards, to whose name, as the nominee of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., the steamers were to be mortgaged, did not even ask me, till several months after, for the policies of 85 insurance on them ; and it was a week after I had all the money that I signed the bills of mortgage. In fact, I received nearly all this large sum of money without having given any security in return. This mode of doing business caused me to reflect most seriously. I said to myself, " When a banking- house, no matter how great its wealth, transacts business in this manner, it must surely have very important reasons for doing so." For my guidance in future, I worried my brains to discover these reasons, as the security I had to give was larger than the amount advanced. " Is it," I said, " that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. have unlimited confidence in me ? " But that could not be, as I was almost an entire stranger to them, and a foreigner besides. " Is it because the partners are ignorant of the conduct and incompetency of the gentlemen appointed to super- intend their interests 1 " It could not be that, for he was an old acquaintance of David Ward Chapman's. "Is it because the colossal bill of £170,000* which I am to accept is to be drawn by Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., according to the request of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. 1 " But Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. knew that Lascaridi and Co. were not solid, owing to the enormous fabric of accommodation bills built up between them and their representative, Mr. Edwards, in order to " finance," as he called it, the famous Galway Company. My evil thoughts even went so far as to imagine that this great banking- house was rotten, after all, and that those who were * This bill was made £170,000, because the former mortgages were included in it. 86 acquainted with the secret were profiting by their knowledge of the existing confusion. This supposition might have become a settled conviction had it not been dispelled by a certain eventful conversation. When I was directed by Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to go to Mr. Edwards, in order to complete the negotiations for this loan, the official assignee asked me, in plain English, how much I would allow him annually for his trouble. I replied that he must look to his employers for payment, and added that they could afford to do so out of the £30,000 bonus and 5 per cent, interest I was to pay them for the loan. He said that he had spoken to them about it, and that they told him he must look to me for re- muneration. He added that he would be satisfied with £500 a year. I did not know then whether Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. authorized him to ask for this annuity from me, or whether he received commissions without their knowledge, or with the knowledge of Mr. David Ward Chapman alone, with whom he was most intimate, and associating daily at Brighton, where they were both residing. This, however, I do know, that I was forced to accept his terms in order to have the loan completed. This conversation dispelled the idea of insolvency, for I naturally concluded that Mr. Edwards, who was the " law and the prophets" of the firm in all their transactions, would have known how they stood, and, instead of asking for an annuity, would have insisted on a lump sum once for all out of the money advanced through him to me. In all this transaction there was something most inexplicable to me. It seemed as if the great firm were possessed of some secret, and that I was to be initiated 87 in some Samo-Thracian mysteries ; but, as I was still only a neophyte, I could not pass to the highest degree until I had been fully catechized and taught, and promoted from order to order. When I first negotiated this loan, I did it direct with Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney. It was the result of the private letter which I wrote him, and the security was to be a mortgage on several of my steamers and freights. After I had had a portion of the money, Mr. Edwards and Mr. David Ward Chap- man announced to me that the bill for £170,000, which I should have to give Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., would be drawn on the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company by Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. I had no objection, as it did not matter an iota to me who drew it. But here again I was provided with food for reflection. At that time Mr. George Lascaridi was, as I have said, the managing partner, in London, of the Greek firm of Lascaridi and Co. ; the other and senior partners were at Constantinople and Marseilles. Was it with their consent and knowledge that he pledged the signature of his firm to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., for the enormous sum of £170,000 — a sum larger than their whole capital ] That could not be, because he had repeatedly told me that his part- ners would have nothing to do with my steamers. Was it for a commission ] Was it to oblige Edwards and Chapman, and to throw dust in the eyes of the Gurneys and Birkbeck 1 Was it because he was the capitalist of Mr. tienry John Barker's biU-discounting office in Abchurch Lane, or was it because he was connected with Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, the official assignee, in financing the Galway Company "? When I asked him afterwards why he signed the name of his firm for such an enormous amount, he replied that he could not help it, as he had already endorsed several bills of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which we had given to the ship-builders. Any one who has read the commencement of this book will know how I formed that company, and for what consideration the indorsement of Lascaridi and Co. was given. There- fore, if Mr. George Lascaridi really wished to rid him- self of his firm's liabilities on account of the Greek and Oriental, here was the opportunity — to leave Barker Brothers to draw and endorse the bills ; for the money I was borrowing from Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. was to be used for the payment of the bills of exchange, bearing the indorsement of Lascaridi and Co., which had been given to the ship-builders. There is one class of men who consider themselves very far-sighted, but who will, nevertheless, enter into speculations without pausing to think of their conse- quences ; and there is another who will not make a step in advance without stopping to examine carefully the ground over which they are travelling. Had I belonged to the first class, I should now be what Mr. David Ward Chapman once told me I should become, owing to my profitable business, and to my connexion with them — one of the richest men in the City of London. The next day and the day after that on which this colossal transaction had been almost completed, I awaited in vain the advent of Mr. Edwards, who had been appointed by Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to superintend my finances, in my office ; but he never came. I had mistaken him. He was by far too high 89 a personage to trouble himself about so small a matter as £170,000; he had other more important duties to perform. When one day I told him that I had been expecting a visit from him, he answered me by saying, " I have no time. I am overloaded with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co.'s business, Xenos ; I shall therefore send my confidential clerk, Mr. March, every evening. He will go through the books with your book-keeper, and then strike a balance-sheet which will show us how you stand. It is just the same thing as if I went myself, for Mr. March is entirely in my confidence, and knows everything." I said, " Very well ; but surely you will give us a call to see the offices and how we do business there?' " Of course," he answered, " I shall come the mo- ment I have time." Mr. March called the next day, when I introduced him to Mr. Eoss, the book-keeper of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Thenceforth, every evening, after the other clerks had left, they set to work to produce the balance-sheet, which was fair copied by Mr. March, and is now in my posses- sion. It consists of several folios, and its recapitula- tion is given on the next page. ^ 05 w 1— I lO Oi I— I (M CO CD 00 CO o O CO cT co" >% w OJ Oi GO 00 CO C^ P PM M O 60 Ph ^ >-, «■) CJ o t>. S S rf^ o rt ^ o Stt CC M P . CO Oi O 00 i—i lO Ci I— 1 o ^ lO CO I— 1 -* lO TtH (M OJ CO ^ Oi CO r^ »o 1^ o r- (>1 ^ ^ 1^ I— 1 CO H. I-l CO Oi ^ t- cT O Ci t~ o 1—1 Tt^ CM CO CO CO CO r-i o lo 00 ic Cq (M I:^ t^ -^ CO t^ I-l o o C/2 I— I :73 pi -73 i=l fi P^ M 02 O i-H 1-^ (M CD CO CD T-l rH Tj< t- in -* Tfl cq o CO (M CO 00^ Gvl_ ^_^ Ttn" Co" G^f O" cq m lo ■=4^ CO Ci o r— 1 t- CO CO i-i 1—1 1— 1 rH >n 1-1 (M 05 r- CO (M o o o 1-1 CO ^ (M Tfl ^ 'Ti s n O bo ;3 -^ cc >^ O! u Oh a ■n ■TS 03 6 w o w o 00 =3 -2 rH .t^ ca - &• g 5 O P-l si 135 In this balance-sheet £47,362 Os. 3d. figure as the commission and interest I had paid them that year. I could not help being every day more and more struck with the remarkable difference between the appearance and manners of Edwards and David Ward Chapman, and Henry Edmund Gurney and Robert Birkbeck. Edwards appeared thoughtful and worried, but still was cool and decided in his movements. Chapman's face had lost all its colour, and his eyes looked as if much sleep did not visit them of nights ; the dictatorial tone had gone from his voice, and he seemed timid and tremu- lous. On one pretext or another he was always engaged in one of the small rooms, either with the official assignee or some customer. Henry Edmund Gurney and Robert Birkbeck met all who came to deposit or withdraw money or discount bills with their natural voice and manner ; there was more energy than usual in their movements, but nothing else unwonted. It seemed to me at this time that there were two sets of men in this great firm — one who knew that water was already in the hold of the ship, owing to the holes they themselves had made, and which they were now trying hard to pump out to save her from sinking; another who managed the navigation, but were unhappily ignorant of the goings on below. I became certain of this as the letters addressed to me were not signed by Henry Edmund Gurney or Robert Birkbeck; they were simply written by Mr. Bois, the chief clerk, under the direction of Edwards and Chapman. I also observed that Henry Edmund Gurney would refuse to accept any deposit, no matter how large, if the depositor sought to get a fraction more than the rate of interest which the house was paying. This showed no sus- picion, on his part at least, of a want of money. 136 On the 12tli of January, 18G1, D. W. Chapman asked me to signed the letter No. 2 in the Appendix. I refused, and, after a short conversation, left him. On the 19th of the same month, I received a letter (No. 6 in the Appendix) from Mr. Bois, telling me that until I signed Mr. Chapman's letter of the 12th, the house would make me no more advances. I must here observe that, after the retirement of Mr. Lascaridi, the relations between the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Messrs. Overcnd, Gurney, and Co. were much changed. We were no longer in the positions of mortgagor and mortgagee. I paid to their representative, Mr, Henry John Barker, all the freights, and he paid all the bills and expenses of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. When Mr. John Preston told me now that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. were about to sell my steamers to Mr. Zachariah Pearson, I hurried to Lom- bard Street (it was the 11th of May, 1860, about twelve o'clock), and fortunately obtained an interview with Henry Edmund Gurney. I asked whether what I had heard was true. Incapable of uttering a false- hood, he replied, with some little embarrassment : " Friend, it is true, and it is not true." He then requested me to see Mr. Edwards about the affair. I refused to do so, and told him plainly how astonished I was that a firm like his should break contracts in that fashion. I said that I was not re- sponsible for losses entailed by the acts of gentlemen like Mr. George Lascaridi, Mr. Henry John Barker, or Mr. Edwards, whom Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had ajipointed to finance the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. My words made some impression, but the inde- 137 pendence of my tone offended the mighty capitalist. During a crisis every feeUng of humanity is silenced in the breasts of these money men. They expect the martyrs of their system to accept, not only with pa- tience, but with joy, the tortures imposed. Their pride swells quickly to vengeance in case of oppo- sition, or even if an explanation of their apocryphal doings be asked. " Your fleet is not worth the sum advanced upon it," said Mr. Gurney. " It is worth more than the money I received from you," I replied. " But, of course, if you are pleased to debit me with £30,000 bonus, £12,000 of Mr. Las- caridi's accommodation bills, £12,000 of our money re- tained by Mr. Henry Barker, and £20,000 lost by your forcing the sale of the grain, and many other items, the Greek and Oriental Steam Nayigation Company will very soon represent a loss absorbing all the pro- fits which I have made with the steamers. However, supposing for a moment that the steamers are not worth the money advanced on them, the blame does not lie with me, Mr. Gurney, but with those appointed to act for your firm. I cannot be blamed by anybody." I finally protested against the proceedings of his firm, and declared that if they persevered in carrying out their intentions they should abide by the consequences. " We can chop you, friend, in a few moments," he said, angrily. " You cannot," I retorted. " Try, if you like ; but remember that the public shall know the whole affair. The blame will fall on you, not on me." Mr. Gurney, seeing that I was determined to die fighting, asked me to wait a few minutes. He passed into the adjoining room, where Chapman and Edwards 138 were. The door was only partially closed, and the voices of the speakers were loud. I heard Chapman say I was a d f , and, cursing the day he met me, exclaim — " Go you, Edwards, and speak to him yourself." The ambassador entered the room where I was sitting. Noble simplicity, goodness, frank confidence — blended with prudence — were mirrored in his smiling face. The official assignee commenced by professing a sincere friendship for me. He then assured me that what Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. projected doing was solely for my benefit. They had found a good buyer for half the fleet, and they considered that, under the circumstances, it would be well to relieve me of half my burden. It was in vain I endeavoured to show him that by disposing of my large steamers he would break up the line, for my small steamers in the Danube, which were the feeders of the large ones, would then be useless ; with a less number of steamers than I possessed, the difficulty of paying my great debt would be increased. My arguments were useless, and no wonder. In fact, Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had that very morn- ing prepared the transfer, as mortgagees, of my best steamers to Mr. Zachariah Pearson ; Edwards showed me the bills of sale. I was thunderstruck, the more particularly because I saw in the list of the trans- ferred vessels two of my best steamers. When Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. did this, it appeared they forgot that the bill on which I paid a bonus of £30,000 was to be renewed. Mr. Edwards now stepped in to arrange matters. He proposed that two large steamers should be returned to me in exchange for two others. He also suggested that if I would 139 sign the bills of sale for the six steamers, Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. should give me a letter, engaging not to sell any more of my vessels as long as I paid them a fixed annual sum, until my debt to them was cleared. The miser may perform ten acts of charity ; must we, therefore, affirm that he is charitable "l What time would it not take to recount all that took place between me and Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., their brokers, agents, solicitors, favourites, and courtiers, before the day of sale arrived ! If I had hitherto been frequently deceived, it was not because I was unable to discriminate characters, but because of my inexperience in business, and be- cause of a certain laisser-aller incidental to all men whose energies are overtasked. My eyes were now wide open. I saw the position of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co.; I saw they were running a suicidal race. They were surrounded by men who plundered them, and yet such was their blindness, that what was very plain to the eyes of others seemed hidden from theirs. But let me tell you, reader, how my steamers were sold to Zachariah Pearson — a transaction which, within twelve months, entailed considerable loss upon Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. 140 CHAPTER XXIII. ZACHARIAH PEARSON. Me. Zachariah Pearson had been, a few years before, merely master of a vessel. By honesty, hidustry, and ability, he made money and became a shipowner, and afterwards a steam-owner. He was elected Mayor of Hull. A respectable career was open before him, from which, in an evil hour, he deviated, and attached himself to the train of Henry Barker. Henry Barker, like another Dsedalus, raised our poor Icarus so high, that the sun dissolved the wax that attached his wings, and he fell into the depths of the sea. Poor Zachariah Pearson had bought his steamers on credit, and when his acceptances fell due, Henry Barker provided the funds, by discounting his new acceptances at enormous interest, with bonus and douceur. Mr. Barker's mode of proceeding was this : He mortgaged the steamers in question to different capitalists charging one-half per cent, as commission, taking for himself an additional mortgage, because of the risk he incurred in drawing the bills, although it was agreed between him and the discounter that he should never be called on ; besides that, the property was more than sufficient to cover the sum lent. The Overcnds had already advanced a round sum to Zacha- riah Pearson on the steamer Chersonese and her Go- vernment freight, and they now sold him my steamers, taking in payment his bills and a mortgage on the steamers. Mr. Barker had a commission of £250 or 141 £500 on the transaction, charged to my debit, for his trouble in drawing the bills. I shall here briefly note down the chief causes that tended to produce this lamentable catastrophe. In the first place, the great commercial storm had consider- ably reduced the deposits in the great " Corner House." The money advanced by Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to shipowners, railway projectors, and other specu- lators, was the property of the depositors, and not their own money. Now, the money so advanced was not only locked up, it had the additional disadvantage of being locked up in property which, at the best of times, could not easily find a purchaser, and which, under the actual circumstances, was wholly unmarketable ; and superadded to these difficulties was the perplexity arising from the fact that in the majority of cases the money advanced was much in excess of the value of the security. In what way could the bankers meet the demands of the alarmed depositors, who clamoured for their money ? But one way remained, which was to discount with their indorsment the big bills of the owners of the steamers or other property that they held. At least, this was the mode in which their legal adviser, the great mathematician, Mr. Edward Watkin Edwards, proposed to finance them. It was the appli- cation of his system to the heads of the firm, as he had already tried it on those who had had the misfortune to fall into their power. As the entire financing de- partment was under the control of this distinguished personage, his authority was absolute as that of the Olympian Jupiter. Even the Titans, Overend, Gurney, and Co., were under his thumb. My account, owing to large credits given me by Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to buy grain, with 142 bonus and commission thereon, exceeded, at that time, £300,000. The great Necker of the establishment advised, in order to finance both the firm and me, that the grain should be sacrificed coute quil coute, and turned into cash. He also recommended that some of my steamers should be transferred to an account where the acceptances could be more easily negotiated than those of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of which the representatives of the Lombard Street house already held so many. Mr. Zachariah Pearson had, at that time, no steamers mortgaged to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. except the Chersonese, which was already paid ofi". Knowing that his credit was good at Hull, with Smith Brothers, his bankers, the great capitalists sent for and asked him to buy a portion of my fleet. " I cannot," said Mr. Pearson. " You will not be asked to pay any cash," said Edwards ; " you need only give your acceptances."' " I am already overworked," said Pearson. " It will be a good thing for you, Pearson," said the official assignee. Mr. Pearson still hesitated ; in fact, he did not like to enter into the transaction at all. They, however, talked him over, and he at last agreed to meet Edwards at the office of Messrs. Crowder and May- nard, the solicitors, in order to complete the transac- tion at once, as Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. were most anxious to have the bills that day. On the way to Coleman Street, Mr. Pearson began to change his mind, so that when he had arrived at the solicitor's office, he told Edwards that he was not at all inclined to carry out the transaction. On hearing this Edwards looked terribly disappointed, and after a short silence 143 said, " Pearson, come and speak with Mr. Gurney." On their arrival at Lombard Street, Pearson went into the little room facing Birchin Lane, whilst the adviser went direct to Mr. H. E. Gurney to give him counsel in the matter. After the lapse of a short time both the capitalist and the disposer of the capital entered the room where Pearson was. " Now, friend Pearson, what is the matter again 1 " said Mr. Gurney. A further debate on the subject en- sued, and after a short time they brought Pearson round again, and then Mr. Gurney said to him: " Friend Pear- son, I will give you, on the spot, a cheque for £500, if you will sign the acceptances and complete the business to-day. Bois, draw a cheque for £500 for Mr. Pearson." The cheque was handed to Mr. Zachariah Pearson. The official assignee gave him his word of honour that he had nothing to fear on account of this noble trans- action. Mr. Henry John Barker, the favourite, secun- dus, of Mr. David Ward Chapman, was also regaled with a cheque, in compensation for his trouble in drawing the bills of exchange. Edwards and Pearson returned at once to the la^vj-'ers', where he signed the mortgages and accepted the bills. Edwards then took the acceptances, and, like a Don Cossack, started with them for the " Corner House," where arrangements had been previously made to discount them with some melting-house. " This is my death-warrant," sighed poor Pearson. "Not at all. It's all right," said Edwards, his smooth face irradiated with a smile. Oh, glorious English " All right !" How multi- tudinous are your meanings — how complex your significations ! 144 Scarcely had Pearson left the lawyers' when Edwards hastened after him. " Hallo ! I say, Pearson," cried out the smooth- faced worthy, " what are you going to give me for this capital job I've done for you ? " " Capital job!" said Pearson; "I call it my ruin. I have no trade to employ all these steamers. It will be my ruin, I say." " Not at all, not at all. All right, I tell you. You have to thank me for putting you in the hands of Overend, Gurney, and Co. They will make you one of the greatest men in England." This modern Rhadamanthus called into play all his eloquence and logic to prove to Zachariah Pearson that his share of the transaction was worth £1000. Poor Zachariah Pearson ! I have it from his own lips that the same day he gave Edwards a cheque for £1000, double the bonus he had himself received. Verily, verily, Mr. Edwards knew how to trim his sails so as to catch the wind from whatever point it blew. The intrigues of that '* Corner House " were more than fiction would dare to fancy. As a sequel to the above transaction, I shall here mention that Mr. Ed- wards pressed, and even worried, Mr. Pearson to take a- brother of his (Edwards's) into partnership. Entangled as Pearson was in the Lombard Street meshes, he resolutely declined this honour, exhibiting in his refusal more determination than I had shown on a somewhat similar occasion. Whatever commissions the above-named two gentil- uomini, Barker and Edwards, were paid for the job, were added, of course, to the price of the steamers. It is said that Bishop Koquette was the original of 145 Moliere's Tartuffe. Can any one tell me, in this Lom- bard Street comedy, amongst so many, which is the real Tartuffe? " What does all this mean ? " I said to my book- keeper, Ross, when, having returned to my office in despair, I told him of the breaking up of our line, " It means," he said, looking up from his desk, and speaking in a low voice — " it means, perhaps, that they want money themselves." I asked whether he had any grounds to think they did -want money. " Yes," he said ; " it's the opinion of Mi:.. March, Edwards's confidential clerk. In making up the books this year, and going through the accounts, he came to the conclusion that the firm is in want of means — they are not right. But, pray, do not speak of it ; do not mention my name." I left the book-keeper's room silent and almost petrified. I found Mr. John Preston in my own room. I told him of the breach of faith committed by the Gurneys in selling my steamers. I also repeated what I had learned from Ross. Mr. John Preston was deeply grieved at the breaking up of my line. It was through Mr. John Preston I had bought and chartered nearly all my steamers. He is a man of high integrity and delicate sense of honour, com- bined with cool judgment and rare business capabilities. I have known him to work out simultaneously the interests of three antagonistic parties, and, without ofi'ending any, satisfy all. The steadiness with which he resists, and the .skill with which he parries any attempt to i^ump him with regard to your opponents' affairs, aff'ord the best security that he will be equally taciturn with regard to yours. L 146 When I had told Preston what I had learned from Ross, he said: "What a pity! what a pity! They have ruined Pearson as well as you. Pearson has not trade enough for these steamers. The Gurneys will be obliged, in a few months, to take them back and return them to you." " Do you suppose," I replied, " that I would take them 1 Do you think I would submit to such child's play 1 It will be known to-morrow, all through the City, that my steamers are sold. The Gurneys have destroyed the credit of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Who can trust them nowl They have made me pay £30,000 on these steamers. It may suit them to-morrow, for the sake of a bonus, to transfer the remainder of my steamers to another person whose bills can be more easily discounted, and then, when they will have stripped me of everything — left me absolutely without property — then they can pounce on me for the deficiency, and fling me into the talons of Edwards at Basinghall Street. Oh ! no, no." " Stay, stay," said Preston, with his habitual cool- ness. " Try to induce them to enter into a contract not to sell any more of your steamers, and to give you credit to build others." " Induce the Gurneys to make a contract ! Do you know they don't give one time to say a word?" " Speak to Chapman." " No. He hates me, because he knows I am a man with a tongue in my head." " Speak with Gurney, then." " I firmly believe he does not know what Chapman and Edwards cook. He and Birkbeck are in the dark about everything. Besides, when I go to speak with 147 him, he sends me to Edwards. Edwards ! If Edwards were Briiireus, with his hmidred hands, he would not be able to manage the Galway, the Millwall, the East Indian, together with the Greek and Oriental and so many others." I was fearfully excited. Preston could, of course, afford to be cool. " I'll tell you what to do," he said. " Go to Mr. Edmund Gurney before the mortgagees transfer your steamers to Pearson, and try to make an agreement. Look here. Write a kind of circular, something like this." Mr. Preston took a pen and sketched the following circular, which I gave to Turner, one of my private clerks, to copy: The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. 19, London Street, Fenclmrch Street, London, \4:th May, 18G1 Taking into consideration the cxteme dnlness of business, and particularly the great falling off in the shipments of goods to the Mediterranean, we have withdrawn the following steamers from the line, viz. : — Smyrna, Patras, Petro-Beys, Lord Byron, Admiral Kanaris, Modern Greece. But it will be maintained with punctuality and efficiency by the following ships : — Palikari, Scotia, Asia, Mavrogordatos, Leonidas, Zai'mis, George Olympius, CoUetis, Colocotronis, and Eigas Ferreos. Thanking you for past favours, and soliciting a continuance of your patronage, We remain, Your obedient servants, (Signed) Stefanos Xenos. " Tell Edmund Gurney you consent to the sale of l2 148 the steamers, provided Pearson pays a good price for them, and that, with permission of the firm, you intend to issue this circular. If they approve, it w^ill be a kind of bond upon them in the eyes of the public. They will not sell so quickly again without considering the consequences." "Considering the consequences!" I exclaimed, "What do insolvent men care for consequences'?" " Now, calm yourself," said Preston, " and go to Lombard Street. I shall soon be back with you." I put on my hat, and took my way to the " Corner House." I was prepared for the worst. My anger was chiefly directed against Edwards and Chapman, who were at the bottom of everything in that office, and who always avoided speaking with their victims under pretence of pressure of business. On my arrival at the wonder-working mansion, I was shown, as usual, into one of the little rooms. I asked "for Mr. H. E. Gurney. He was engaged just then, but made his appearance in a few minutes. He was evidently in better humour than he had been at our last interview. "Well, friend Xenos," he said, "how are youT' "I suppose, Mr. Gurney, my steamers are now sold." "Yes, friend." "At what price]" " At a better price than you paid for them." " I bought them a bargain. They are worth now 25 per cent, more than I gave for them. A property that brings me in 30 or 40 per cent, per annum is, of course, worth much more than I gave for it." " Why don't you say at once," put in Mr. H. E. Gurney, sharply, " that your steamers are worth £100,000 each r' . 149 '' What is to be done now, Mr. Gurney," I said, " with this business of mine ? As it is, it can never be made to pay," " On the contrary, now that you have a smaller number of steamers you will be able to manage them better." " That is not the nature of the line. Besides, you have left me more small than large steamers. And what will the world say 1 This is the coi(/p de grace to the credit of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company." *' Not at all. A man may sell horses that he has used, and afterwards buy others." " Well, will you give me a letter to the effect that as long as I pay you £20,000 or £25,000 per annum against my debt to you, and pay 5 per cent, interest, you will not sell any more of my steamers 1 " " Yes, friend ; I think we can do this." " I have prepared this circular, which I intend to send round to the shippers." I handed him the circular. He read it, and, hav- ing made some trifling corrections, returned it, saying: " You may send it ; but stay a moment." "He went out to speak to his Solon, Edwards. After a few minutes the great legislator entered. His smooth, polished face, lustrous with smiles, seemed to shed a radiance over the dimly-lighted room. "How are youV he said to me. Mr. H. E. Gurney tells me you have consented to sign the bills of sale." " Yes," I said. " Oh, you will be all right soon. You showed a great deal of temper though. You must give up temper in this office — you injure yourself by it. These 150 people like you. They took you by the hand. They have the best intentions towards you. Believe v^^hat I say. You will soon be in a position that dukes and earls will envy." I remained silent, not, I confess, without an effort. I thought of the Greek proverb : " The bread is an- other's, the teeth are his own." " Will you come with me and sign the bills of sale at Menard's, the solicitor's 1 " he said. I consented. I found the bills of sale already made out in the names of Overend, Gurney, and Co. ; that is to say, .they, as mortgagees, were transferring my steamers. The solicitors had now to make out new bills of sale, which I signed the following day. Edwards and Chapman were well pleased that I had done my part without further noise. When, the next day, I went to the Lombard Street office, Mr. David Ward Chapman condescended to salute me with an affable smile. He told me that, 1\ow that I had signed the bills, he would do some- thing handsome for me. I laughed in my sleeve as he spoke in that strain. Poor Chapman, who measured men by the length of their purse, not by their intellectual capacity ! Had he known that I was aware of the real position of his mighty firm — that I knew upon the brmk of what a gulf Overend, Gurney, and Co. were standing — he would not have been quite so ostentatious of his patronage. Eeasoning from what I had learned behind the scenes of the great Lombard Street stage, I came to the conclusion that the mystery of the plot was this : Firstly, that not alone was the house insolvent, but that, secondly, the secret was known only to David Ward Chapman and to Edwards. I believed the 151 other partners were wholly ignorant of the true state of things. I was led to this belief by observing that Chapman, who was living in great luxury, was thrown into a state of terror whenever the firm was called on for large payments; and when the smallest cloud appeared in the commercial sky, Edwards, spite of his gout, jumped out of bed, and busily applied himself to business. The Gurneys and Birkbeck, on such occa- sions, though they worked with increased energy, never exhibited the fear or uneasiness that would imply a sense of imminent danger. Certain it is, they yielded implicit obedience to the wishes of their pilot, Edwards. Captain, owners, officers, and crew of the once sea- worthy ship, were as nothing before him. He was the sole navigator; he alone knew whither she was drifting, and in what port she was destined to find refuge. When I returned to my office on the day that Mr. H. E. Gurney consented to my sending a circular to the shippers, I found John Preston there. I showed him the alterations made by Mr. Gurney in the circular. Mr. Preston having read, breathed on the interlinea- tions, which were in pencil, and, handing me back the paper, said : " Keep this ; it may one day be useful to you." He then asked : " Have you got a letter from them, promising not to sell the remainder of your fleet r' " Not yet," I answered, " but I expect to have it. Mr. Gurney promised it." " Try to get it as soon as you can. I do not think they will sell any more vessels ; they won't wind up the line. If they are insolvent, as March said, they will be compelled to keep it for their own sakes." 152 CHAPTER XXIV. WHO IS ENTITLED TO A COMMISSION 1 It was a combination of circumstances that afforded Mr. Henry Barker an opportunity of smuggling Mr. Zachariah Pearson into the " Corner House." By this coitp he not only gained a handsome sum as commission, but he freed himself and his friends from many risks and responsibilities which he had incurred conjointly with Zachariah Pearson. All these he now threw upon the back of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. Previous to this time Zachariah Pearson had had but few transactions with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. These mighty, but misled Overends ! Re- garding matters in a financial light, they thought they were acting prudently ; but, in their ignorance of shipping business, they were committing a double murder. They were assassinating the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which they thought they were saving, and they were driving Zachariah Pearson to his destruction, whilst they thought they were doing him a service. It was in vain I tried to enlighten them upon my own affairs ; in vain I told Mr. PI. E. Gurney freely my opinion. Often in those days did the invocation of Voltaire recur to my lips — Descends dii haut des cieux, aiigustc verite, Quo I'oreillc des grands s'accoiitume a t'entcndre. My line consisted of two classes of steamers — small 153 vessels, that were feeders of the large ; and large ves- sels, that were transporters of the goods. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. transferred six of the large steamers to Zachariah Pearson, and left me, in the Danube, a tieet consisting almost entirely of small ves- sels. In other words, they took the large wheels out of the machine, and left only the small ones to work it. Here, then, was Zachariah Pearson, who had not a regular line, but merely ran his steamers on simple jobs to any sea — here was he, I say, at the head of an armada far larger than he could find work for, pay, or manage. And the advice upon which these changes were made was given for the sake of securing a few thousand pounds' commission. And what was the result 1 It was not long before Zachariah Pearson saw his real position. He determined upon a couj) de main that would at once seal his fate. The American War was then at its height. He resolved to run the blockade of the Southern ports. Some of my former vessels were to be employed in this service, and Mr. Henry Barker's brother was appointed admiral of the flotilla. It was a mad project. Some of the vessels were too small to cross the Atlantic, others were of too mediocre a steam power, and some others, when loaded, drew more than seventeen feet of water. The attempt was a signal failure. Some of the vessels were captured, others were stranded, and poor Zacha- riah Pearson, driven to bankruptcy, was stripped of his last penny by his pretended benefactors. The estate of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company lost £2000 in this bankruptcy, because Mr. Henry Barker, when he was appointed to finance it, ex- changed accommodation bills with Zachariah Pearson for £3000, and gave us the following letter as se- 154 curity for some shares of the steamer Emmeline. But when Zachariah Pearson failed the steamer Emmeline could not be found — she had been either lost or sold long before — so our security was valueless. Russia Chambers, 98, High Street, Hull, April 2'3rd, 1860. To the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London. Dear Sirs, We enclose herein our acceptances for £3000, and, as security for their payment, we hold for your disposal, should they be dishonoured at maturity', which they wiU not, eleven sixty-fourth shares in SS. Emmehne. "We are, dear Sirs, Yours truly. For Z. C. Pearson, Coleman, and Co., Thomas E. Johnson, But the comic part of the story remains to be told. At what may be called poor Pearson's commercial funeral, Mr. Henry Barker appeared amongst the chief mourners. He was a creditor to the ainount of £lb,000. However, he had one consolation ; he was amongst the secured creditors. This was not bad on the part of a man who, three years before, had been obliged, for private reasons, to hold the furniture of his house in the name of his aunt. Ultimately Mr. Henry Barker was paid his £15,000 in full. Mr. C. E. Lewis, before the Commissioner of Bankruptcy, Goulburn, on the 11th of March, 1864, pronounced a long condemna- tory address against me ; he finished by saying : — It is the key to the whole of Pearson's subsequent misfortunes. Although, probably, he had steered through many shoals on the high seas, he did not know how to steer clearly through the shoals which sometimes exist under the sea of prosperity. He had this 155 opportunity of buying this fleet of ships for .£80,000, upon tonus of credit. Dangerous facility ! especially if you consider the terms on which he was allowed to buy them : — " Oh, you need not pay for them ; we wiU give you eighteen months or two years to pay for them, proA^ded you give us bills, which we will renew every three months." What a temptation that, to a man who had made =£20,000, to launch out so as to be the largest ship-owner in Hull ; in point of fact, to be master of a large fleet of ships ! He succumbed to it. A few months afterwards the convenience of the arrange- ment — at all events, to Messrs. Overend and Gurney — was obvious ; they got rid of Xenos and Co., the pre^■ious mortgagors — gentlemen so well known in the City of London as always in the courts of law. There was the Patras, the Indian Empire, the Modern Greece, and all those ships that we have heard of in connexion with Stefanos Xenos and the Greek and Oriental Steamship Company. Mr. Pearson arranged to pay for them by bills renewable every few 'months ; and, a year afterwards, this seemed so convenient an arrangement that <£G6,000 worth of ships were sold to the bankrupt by Overend and Gurney upon the same terms. The Commissioner : Did Overend and Gurney sell him the ships ? Mr. C. E. Lewis : Yes. But he never divined the means by w^hich Zachariah Pearson had been ruined. Nor were the public wiser than Mr. Lewis; though they talked a great deal about the affair, they did not know that the men who contrived to throw the blame on others ma- naged to put the profits and commissions into their own pockets. It was after my steamers had been transferred to Zachariah Pearson, and the account sent to the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, that I learned from Mr. Henry Barker that he had received a small commission for his trouble in drawing the bills ; at the same time I complained to Edwards about these commissions, saying I knew they would be tacked on 156 to the steamers. Without mentioning to me that he also had received a commission, he answered coolly : " Every one is entitled to his commission. I take commission, Barker takes commission, the Gurneys take commission, you may take commission. We cannot work for nothing." 157 CHAPTER XXV. MY FOURTH FINANCER. Though the record of the remaining term of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company will be short, it may be found amusing, perhaps instructive. It is like the story of the decadence of an heroic little state, which, after accomplishing some illustrious deeds, falls into a condition of slow decline; then ensue terrible confusion and anarchy, redeemed by occasional acts of prowess, until the fatal day arrives when death's dark pall covers everything, and even the name of the country is forgotten. When Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. trans- ferred six of my steamers to the name of Zachariah Pearson, they, no doubt, thought that I might imi- tate their breach of faith, and take advantage of what property I had in my hands — freight, grain, or steamers — to protect myself; consequently, they decided on sending a nominee at once to my office. Mr. David Ward Chapman was the first to announce this happy decision to me, by informing me that the coming man was the best I could have for an associate. " What," said I, " another financer ! " " You will like him very much," said Mr. Chap- man. " He is very different from Messrs. Henry Barker and George Lascaridi." Mr. Edwards, shortly afterwards, preached me a long sermon regarding his good feeling towards me, and his good intentions towards the Greek and Oriental 158 Steam Navigation Company. Finally, he informed me that the new comer was Mr. G. B. Carr, who had for- merly been a merchant in the Levant trade. I said nothing; I expressed neither satisfaction nor dissatisfaction ; it was no use to speak to them. I had formed a fixed opinion regarding these two gen- tlemen, so I immediately sought an interview with Mr. H. E. Gurney. He was rather cool to me on account of what had occurred when last we met. I complained to him of the introduction of this new friend of Messrs. Chapman and Edwards, and I also strove to explain certain matters to him, when he in- terrupted me abruptly by saying — " If you don't like it, go out altogether." " That is not so easy, Mr. Gurney," said I ; and added — " Is this what you call justiceT' " Friend Xenos, you do not know yourself what you want. Friend Xenos, do you know who is your greatest enemy in this world 1 It is Mr. Stefanos Xenos. There is not a duke's son who would not envy your position, and yet you always have some- thing to complain of. Go, and be satisfied. The gentleman whom we are going to send you is very different from the others." An interview with a great capitalist must neces- sarily be short, as his presence is constantly required by others, and particularly when he leaves the care of your affairs to a devoted partner and his legal adviser. A few days after this interview, Mr. G. B. Carr made his appearance in my office, bringing with him a letter from Mr. Edwards. (See Appendix, No. 14.) As this letter is dated the 9th of May, 1861, the very time at which my steamers were transferred to Mr. Pearson, it is very evident that when the official 159 assignee prepared this little coup de main, to prevent me from imitating their breach of faith, he simulta- neously chose a representative. It was notified to me now that they would pay Mr. Carr £500 a year from their own treasury. Messrs. Chapman and Edwards, of course, judged men's characters by their own — e/c T(Sv iB'iwv Kal TO. aXXorpia. I may as well add here that, although Mr. Chapman told me that his firm would pay the new financer, such was not the case ; and so the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had to pay double — viz., £1000 per annum. Mr. G. B. Carr, of No. 5, Laurence Pountney Place, is one of the most respectable men that I have ever met. He was once a Levant merchant, and en- gaged in large trade, but I am afraid that his goodness of heart was the means of bringing him to grief. Mr. Henry Barker had, I believe, a hand in that catas- trophe too. Mr. Carr was a man of large mind, whose eye gave abundant evidence of the sensibility of his heart. He was a close thinker, cautious m act and precise in words, calm-tempered, and unaifectedly religious. He was no longer young, but his activity was remarkable, considering his age. Had he been appointed two years before to superintend my finances, instead of Edwards, George Lascaridi, or Henry Barker, the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company would now be one of the best of the Mediterranean lines, instead of being reduced to ruins, that served to others as steppmg- stones to fortune. How diiferent was Mr. Carr's conduct to that of his predecessors in my office ! He was sincerely desirous of serving both parties honourably; and, although he had his own business (in association with Mr. Hoare, and trading 160 under the name of Messrs. Carr, Hoare, and Co.) to attend to, he would devote one hour every day to our affairs. In this fresh reconstruction, one of the first con- ditions imposed on me by Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. v^^as, that the British Star should not in future appear as part of the estates of my steamers. They also resolved to strike a balance-sheet of the past, and commence a new leaf with the installation of Mr. Carr. This good work was begun by debiting me with an enormous sum, upon which I was to pay 5 per cent, per annum. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. then sent me the letter in which they promised to leave me only ten steamers. (See Appendix, Nos. 15 and 4G.) It was not as I desired it, but better than nothing. With regard to the British Star^ I was not sorry for this new arrangement. Though I was still losing money by the journal, owing to prosecutions by the Austrian, Russian, Turkish, and Greek Governments, yet it now began promising to pay, and, with the Exhibition of 1862, the circulation would be increased. The political war against King Otho was just then raging fiercely, and it was most important that I should have full control over the paper, in order to aid the national cause, of which the British Star was the chief organ. Mr. Carr was scarcely installed in my office when the price of corn rose rapidly. We gave Theologos and Carnegie, in Galatz, lai'ge credits on Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and we bought large quantities of grain. On these purchases the profits were great. The sun of prosperity smiled once more on the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Com- pany, but it was only a momentary gleam. Mr. Carr's 161 venerable countenance was radiant with joy. He thought with me that we had sighted the promised land. We were quickly deceived. Theologos un- expectedly arrived in London ; Carnegie followed soon after. They had heard vague rumours of my complications with Messrs. Overcnd, Gurney, and Co. ; they had seen the sale of my large boats announced, and had come to the conclusion that the small ones in the Danube would quickly follow, knowing as they did that the small would be useless without the large. Acting under this impression, they came to London, one after the other to learn what was going on. Mr. Alexander Carnegie is a veritable Paul Pry in his way : he wants to know everything. Now, from 1857 to 1861 — that is to say, during a period of five years— ^I was most careful not to allow any one, most particularly Carnegie and Theologos, to know the secret of my dealings with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., nor on what terms I was doing business with them. I gave my agents at Galatz, from time to time, credits to the amount of £20,000, and even of £40,000, on the Overends and other bankers, to enable them to purchase grain ; but beyond the fact of these credits, they knew nothing of my transactions with those houses. These agents of mine had not the entree into the " Corner House," nor did they know Edwards or Chapman even personally. When, about the middle of 1861, Alexander Carnegie arrived in London, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Carr, in my office. He then, for the first time, saw a representative of the mighty capitalists ; he then, for the first time, learned that the authority in the Greek and Oriental Steam' Navigation Company was divided. I thought it prudent to give him a partial confidence. I told 162 him a portion of the story. What I told was sufficient to disorganize the strict discipline that the service of steamers requires. Whilst I was speaking I saw a change come over the countenance of my grateful clerk. When I had finished he told me, in a frank and careless manner, that now the coup de grace was given to the credit of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company at Galatz, and that for the future he could not hope to draw a £50 bill on the house, so that I should be obliged to furnish him, as far as I could, with credits on bankers. 163 CHAPTER XXVI. REMORTGAGING THE STEAMERS. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. did not wish that the British Star should appear on our London books ; but as the Greek and Oriental Steam Naviga- tion Company had, by a circular (see Appendix, No. 7) guaranteed to the Levant public the existence of that journal up to July, 1862, 1 was obliged to enter into an arrangement with Messrs. Theologos and Carnegie, by which they were to charge sixpence or a shilling additional per quarter on their invoices, to counter- balance the annual loss entailed by the decree con- cerning the British Star with regard to our London books. I do not know whether Messrs. Theologos ^ and Carnegie regarded this as an intimation that they might put on as many additional shillings as they pleased, but this I know, from that time forward all hope of realizing profits by the purchase of grain dis- appeared. In my attempt to repair the loss incurred by the British Star, I furnished my clerks at Galatz with the means of sending me the most comical invoices. The loss of the British Star was, per se, as I have already said, a mere trifle ; but it so happened, in those disastrous times, that the journal was a main- stay to the steam company. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., not comprehending how intimately the two enterprises were blended together, took a very narrow view of the British Star as an ancillary power, and never understood the error they committed in ignor- m2 104 ing the journal. They ouglit, under the circum- stances, to have submitted to the judgment of those who understood the working of the machinery. But it was characteristic of these gentlemen that they had and had not confidence in the men with whom they did large transactions. Their policy may be described as putting one corporal to watch another. They sometimes discussed the minutest trifles, and questioned the pettiest details ; at other times they treated carelessly matters of serious gravity. They were often rash in their decisions, ofttimes remorse- lessly striking down an upright man, as frequently obstinately refusing to punish a detected rogue who had known how to worm himself into their good graces. Benevolent in some cases, they were tyran- niqal and dictatorial in others, and exhibited the latter qualities especially when the man who fell under their frown was of an independent character, and had a will and tongue of his own. Never acces- sible to reason, the Overends quickly conceived an aversion to any man who attempted, by cool argu- ment, to point out the inexpediency of their orders. As the Greek proverb has it, these gentlemen, after being extravagant in the expenditure of the oil and vinegar, were parsimonious in the use of the salt and pepper. They were always in extremes ; they knew no medium. To their eyes there were only two classes of men in the world — spotless angels and murky demons. To their understanding there were but two classes of events — volcanic disruptions and airy trifles. To their moral perception there were only two classes of deeds — perfect honesty and delibe- rate fraud. They seemed to regard men either as dwarfs or giants. The varied blendings, the infinite 166 shadings of moral stature that lie between the two extremes escaped their iiotico. Under the guidance of men so constituted, commercial concerns could never hold the steady course which ensures ultimate success. But whilst they were themselves the slaves of their nominal agents, the long-standing fame of their house dazzled outsiders, and those who sought their aid perished by the same means that had wrought the ruin of the great " Corner House." But I have digressed. I shall return to my Galatz agents. The grain latterly shipped by Messrs. Theo- logos and Carnegie, though bought in the upper part of the Danube, cost as much as other merchants paid at Galatz, instead of being purchased at three or four shillings per quarter less. This was giving an adverse turn to affairs. If I were obliged to pay, near the sources of the Danube, the same price for grain for which other merchants could obtain it at the mouth of the river, where was the use of my small steamers 1 They were, manifestly, a dead loss. Upon this point I shall only add that a sharp correspondence began between my brother Aristides and Carnegie. The reply of Mr. Carnegie (Appendix, No. 16) shows the nature of the subject. Within two years from this date my two clerks were owners of five steamers, plying on the Danube in the very trade for which I had originally started mine. (See Appendix, No. 40.) What is more surprising is, that their magazziniere — a M. Hadji Andreas — after passing eighteen months in their employment, had realized a fortune of £10,000. This was not bad for a gentleman who, a few months before he was honaured with the commands of my clerks, was a bankrupt. But the most deplorable part of the transaction 166 was, perhaps, the mode in which the grain was several times sold in London. This was so bad as to drive not only me, but even Mr. Carr, to despair. It was done in this way. Immediately on the arrival in London of the bills of lading of a cargo, I handed them to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and they handed them to Messrs. Coventry and Sheppard, the cornfactors. The Messrs. Overend then drew on Messrs. Coventry and Sheppard three months' bills for a considerably larger amount than my agents at Galatz had drawn on them ; the reason for this increase being that the cornfactors' acceptances included the freight of the steamers, and insurance, profits, &c., &c. They then charged me with the discount of their bills, as well as with a commission for accepting the drafts of my agents. All this was a gi'eat accommodation for Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., but ruinous to me. My grain was now as completely in the hands of the cornfactors as my money had been a little while before in those of Mr. Henry Barker. My property, in both cases, was made a source of profit and moral credit to other people. You, reader, must see that when a cargo is not in your own hands, you cannot treat freely with the brokers, and deal with the highest bidder ; you must accept the price the holder wishes. My case was still worse. Messrs. Coventry and Sheppard had three masters, to whose commands they were bound to listen. There were the Overends, who, when money was dear and corn cheap, ordered the grain to be sold, coute quil coiite, in the warehouse. There was I, who, when I had better offers from other brokers, protested furiously against such monstrous sacrifice of property. . Then there was Mr. Carr, who, feeling the injustice done to me by the sacrifice of the 167 grain, was perpetually going backwards and forwards between Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. and Messrs. Coventry and Sheppard. The letters respecting these transactions, Nos. 28, 39, and 41 in the Appendix, will better explain this state of affairs. All the labour, mental and physical, that I had gone through began to tell on me. Man is not a machine, and tio vertebrate animal could work and think as I had worked and thought without feeling the effects. In fact, I had drawn long and heavy bills on my nervous system, and now they all fell due together. 1 became fractious, quarrelsome, obstinate — in short, unmanageable. 1 no longer recognized myself 1 was in a state of constant irritation; 1 quarrelled with my best friends upon the slightest provocation. My overtaxed nerves were strained to the utmost limit of endurance. And no wonder. In this mismanagement of the grain alone £40,000 was wasted in England, and £40,000 in the principalities of the Danube. Some of the grain was warehoused, against my wish, then was blighted. The warehouse expenses, double commissions, interest, and material differences in a nominal sale, brought another loss. But this was not all. I began to see very clearly that I was placed in a position of utter helplessness, as a cruel fate had inextricably interwoven my affairs with those of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., who were hopelessly insolvent. The transactions which I have just named, show that they were very hard pressed for money. Another transaction which I am going to mention will make the terrible position of the " Corner House " apparent to the most limited capacity. They began to remortgage the remainder of my steamers to Masterman's Bank, to the Bank of London, and others, 168 and made my agents at Galatz, Messrs. Theologos and Carnegie, or Messrs, J. Hamburger and Co., of the same town, or Messrs. Sidney Malcttass and Co., Mr. Henry Barker's agents at Smyrna, or anybody else whom they could find, draw the bills on these banks, giving their guarantee to Masterman and the Bank of London for taking up these bills before maturity, and charging me with the commission and discount. The bills thus obtained were endorsed by the firm and " melted." In fact they were galloping to perdition as fast as Faust was hurried by Mephistopheles, and they dragged behind every man connected with them. The letters Nos. 20, 47, and 50 in the Appendix are three of those that they made me sign. \ 1C9 CHAPTER XXVIl. A SECOND BEEACH OF FAITH. I AT last saw that it was useless for me to work so hard, sacrificing my health and the interests of my family. An opportunity occurred, of which I profited, to speak seriously to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., touching the prospects of my family in case of my death. One of my steamers, the Leonidas, was lost in the Baltic. I held the policy of insurance, which was for £12,000 more than Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had advanced me on the vessel. I asked Mr. Carr to propose to them that I should be allowed to set apart £10,000 for my family. I might have done this without consulting them, as I held the policy, and it would have been perfectly just. After some negotiations, I handed over the policies in good faith, to allow them to take their just proportion of the insurance.* They kept the balance, and passed it to * In equity and strict honesty I only owed about =£2000 or £3000 to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. on account of this steamer, as I can prove. On the 30th of March, 1861, I chartered the Leonidas — which was only 602 tons gross register — with Messrs. Pile, Spencc, and Co., of West Hartlepool, for 1100 guineas per month. This charter I assigned to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and during five or six months they collected the charter money, whilst the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company paid all the expenses and the insurances of the steamer. In March, 1861, I mortgaged this same steamer to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., to induce them to guarantee =£8000, acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company to the builders of 170 my credit in the general account. This was an- other breach of faith. To remedy this in some measure, Mr. Henry Edmund Gurney proposed that I should msure my life for £10,000, and that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. should pay the premium. I always had a great aversion to insuring my life. I was now compelled to try it. My solicitor recom- mended me to apply to the Union Assurance Company — a new company, to which he was legal adviser. I had a severe cold. I believe I was the first applicant to this new company. The whole force of the medical staff was brought to bear on me. During two hours I underwent a searching examination. My whole anatomy, physical and moral, was laid bare. I told them that on three several occasions I had spit blood, but not during the last fifteen years. At the end of my two hours' vivisection I retired. In three days I received a letter from the secretary, to say that the directors declined to accept my life. It was plain the steamer, who, after having received half the price agreed on ■whilst she was under construction, refused to deliver her to me when finished, owing to the discredit thrown on my company by the above-mentioned circumstances, and the failure of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. gave me the means of meeting the bills for £8000, but they collected the freight of the Leonidas, amounting to at least <£G000, besides £16,000 or £17,000 for insurances. They refused to return me the balance, under pretext that the Leonidas was given as collateral security, which was whoUy untrue. The charter of the Leonidas and the extra insurance must, according to my calculations, have left a profit of at least £7000. Placed as I was in the power of Messrs. Overend* Gurney, and Co., and under such extraordinary conditions — paying, too, such heavy interest and commission, and the steamers yielding above 30 per cent, per annum profit — I made it a point always to insure each steamer for a few thousands more than she cost. 171 that the £10,000 risk and the vomited blood frightened them. I applied to another office. Tlie doctor there seemed satisfied, but hearing that I had spit blood, he asked whetlier I had been refused by any other office. I said "Yes." This finished the conference, and within three days my life was declined by the second company. I leave you, reader, to imagine the impression that these refusals were calculated to make on the mind of any man. I firmly believed that I was booked for the other world. I made a resolve never again to submit myself to the examination of an insurance doctor. I had still a few thousand pounds in my private purse. This sum was the residue of the profits on some cargoes of wheat I had sold in the commence- ment of the Italian War, to which I have already referred. I resolved to do some business on my own private account, and buy an estate, Petersham Lodge, near Richmond, which happened to be in the market. I did so, and Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., for the first time, gave me a proof of their personal affection by lending me £1700 for three months, on security, to complete the purchase. Poor Mr. Carr, who advised them to afford me this little accommodation, travelled ■ miles backwards and forwards between the two parties in negotiating the affair. The meanness, unfairness, and folly exhibited by the great firm on this occasion showed me that I could not go on much longer in con- junction with them. (See Appendix, No. 9.) Rich, but narrow-minded men are often, by the course of events, placed in a position that gives them the direction of colossal transactions. As long as things go smoothly, these people seem to become their position, and really look the part of greatness ; but 172 when losses commensurate with the greatness of their undertaking occur, then the meanness of their nature discloses itself in acts which, contrasted with their position, make them appear ridiculous. This was the case with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. They attempted to avenge their losses on the very men who were trying to save them from being robbed. Mr. David Ward Chapman was squandering thousands of the depositors' money in luxury ; his favourites were fast accumulating colossal fortunes; his sycophants were daily initiating some doubtful business ; and, mean- while, the timbers of the great Lombard Street vessel were coming asunder — she was fast drifting towards inevitable shoals and sand-banks. Mr. Henry Barker had precipitated Overend, Gurney, and Co. on to the terrible rock of accommodation bills, whence so many others had sunk into the Bankruptcy Court. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had already remortgaged my steamers to the Bank of London and to Master- man's. Bills were drawn on these two banks, which Mr. Henry Barker discounted or negotiated with a trifling commission for himself. I had long been sus- picious of this mode of doing business, which I foresaw could end but in one way. In fact, Mr. Henry Barker had so tied these three firms with accommodation strings, that the stoppage of one must necessitate that of the others. This catastrophe would have occurred two years earlier than it did, but that the mania for public companies averted the terrible conclusion. With regard to myself, I was not very manageable. I grum- bled every time that I was asked to put my name to a bill, or sign one of their binding letters. An impera- tive necessity compelled me to yield, but I was dis- satisfied with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and 173 they were dissatisfied with me. We were mutually desirous of separation.* * Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., crippled so long, at last stopped payment in 18G1, and Messrs. Overend, Gnrnoy, and Co. mnst have lost considerable snms of money. Their estate passed into tho hands of Messrs. Coleman, Turquand, Youngs, and Co., and these gentlemen at once tried to make the Greek and Oriental >Steam Navigation Company debtors to tho amount of £22,350 Os. 6d. (See letters, Nos. 25, 26, and 27, in the Appendix.) The reader will now see the reason wh}^ in 1860, I refused to Mr. Edwards to sign the contract of the 1st of August, 1860, except the release of Mr. George Lascaridi from such claim should be inserted in our partnership deed. (See page 97.) 174 CHAPTER XXVIIL A THIRD BREACH OF FAITH. I HAD long been dissatisfied with the relations exist- ing between the great money-dealers and myself, when an occurrence took place that deprived me of all confi- dence in them. You remember, reader, the Trent affair. Out of that business there sprang up a sudden demand for steamers as transports. For a moment it was believed that England was on the verge of a war with the Great Republic. I tendered two of my steamers, of 1200 tons each, for a time-charter, at 30s. per ton per month, and for four months certain, to take Government stores and ammunition to Bermuda. This would leave a net profit of nearly £10,000 for the four months. The bargain was almost concluded, when Mr. Edwards, to oblige Mr. Lyster O'Beirne, signs another tender for the brokers, Messrs. Thompson and Tweeddale, of 27 Birchin Lane (see Appendix, No. 17), and offers the steamers for a lump sum of about £4000 each. This, so far from being profitable to the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, would entail a heavy loss. The price of coal at Ber- muda rose at that time £4 per ton, so that the price of fuel alone, out and home, would be £4000 on each. A time-charter with the Government is always safe, because they pay for the fuel and all other ex- penses, except wages and insurance. Edwards's offer suited the charterer better than mine. It was on the point of being accepted, and mine erased. I was 175 ' driven to madness when I learned this news, and Mr. Carr was so exasperated that he asked permission of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. to resign his post. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. summoned Edwards, scolded the favourite, and justified me. Edwards there- upon sent me a letter, dated January 2, 1862, ad- dressed to the Comptroller of the Admiralty. (See Appendix, Nos. 18, 19.) In this letter Edwards says tliat I was the sole owner of the vessels ; but that, in consequence of illness, not being able to communicate with me, he had authorized Messrs. Thompson and Tweeddale, as mortgagee, to tender the steamers. It was too late and too bad. The quarrel between the mortgagee and owner put an end to both charter- parties, and I lost another £10,000 through two of Mr. David Ward Chapman's favourites. This act of tendering the Palikari to the Govern- ment by Edwards, for the sake of putting a paltry commission into the pockets of his friends, was most arbitrary. A mortgagee has no right to charter a vessel without the consent of the mortgagor. There was only this difference in my case : Edwards was only the nominee of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., and these gentlemen had Mr. G. B. Carr in my office acting as their representative. I consequently held the " Corner House " responsible for the consequences, and wrote the following letter to them at once : — 19, London Street, Fenchurch Street, London, 5th January/, 1862. Messes. Overend, Gtirney, and Co. Gentlemen, The act of Mr. Edwards interfering in the management of my steamers, thereby seriously damaging even a second time my credit, is another breach of faith upon your part, and the covjp de grace that you give to this unfortunate burlesque, the Greek and 176 Oriental Steam Kavigation Company. So I am determined not to go any fui'tlier except a proper legal agreement be drawn up between my solicitors and yours, for the future operations of the steamers. Gentlemen, 1 would refresh your memory to certain facts with which you must be well acquainted, but it appears you have forgotten. "When I first had the pleasure of knowing you, I had a position in this city, a large business, an extensive patronage of the Medi- terranean merchants, and a very large credit. This business, with all the controversies, made and not lost money ; but since that time the accumulation of sums, through debts and losses, caused by other persons appointed by you, my account with you stands such that, if I accept it, will take me many years to pay it off, working like a horse round the mill, and after all I should be without either agreement or security, and at the mercy of the circumstances. The following facts are much more painful to me. I organized this line, and made a contract with the merchants to transport their goods. I then, for that purpose, bought and built 22 steamers — viz., 11 large and 11 smaU, the small being only for the use of the large. Mr, Carr sees clearly now that we have no steamers to carry out our engagements, and that I have lost above 10,000 tons of goods, equal to £17,000, these last three months, not having steamers, so that the shippers desert me every day. Why ? Because you broke down first the credit of the line, and then the line itself, by having sold four of the large steamers, even without giving me any notice, which makes five of the small steamers useless, more especially as two large steamers of the number having been lost lately, and you refuse to replace them. When I paid you .£30,000 a bonus in the January of 1860, it was verbally but honourably agreed, in the presence of Mr. Barker, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Lascaridi, and myself, that you miist extend your loan of money to twelve months longer — viz., all the 1861 ; and so in the end of 1860 was arranged with Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. for giving you the letter that made that firm responsible for us for aU the 1861. However, in the beginning of this 1861, without our knowledge, you adver- tise in the Shijojnng Gazette the total fleet for sale, through Messrs. Taniperly, Carter, and Co., my enemies, and by doing so you trumpeted in all the kingdom that our line is broken down, that you are the disposers of the steamers, and you receive in your office tenders, so that all ship-brokers believe they will buy the property for a bargain. At the same time you receive me witli 177 favour, and, although you supply me with funds for our daily wants, you never tell me one word for what you undermine me. Of course, only 1 myself know the losses and the discredit that I gained out of such proceedings. I do not say anything about my agony of mind and severe struggle, because that is nothing to you. At last, one fine morning, you sell six steamers. You judged that you made a profitable business. My books show that they are sold for less money than they cost, therefore making a lioavj^ loss. But I come to another most serious question. Was it not you Avho forced me, through Mr. Edwards, to enter into a partnership bond with G. P. Lascarich? Mr. Edwards came one night to my office, and, in the presence of Mr. March, said to me that the wish of Mr. Gurney is to do so. Are you not the parties who charged Mr. Lascaridi to finance the office ? Why, then, was I to pay his accom- modation bills of £'12,000 ■? Was it not you who appointed Barker to pay and receive our money ? Why am I to be responsible for his balance due to us? True, I was obliged to acknowledge and sign such a pawnbroker's account by force majeure, because Mr. Barker had my payments in hand, and threatened me, if I did not do so, that he would not pay my bills that day. You recollect that I came personally to complain to you about that. Was it not you, gentlemen, who ordered my wheat to be sold, cost what it might, against my protest and express wishes ? Why, then, am I to suffer the terrible loss? Was it not you who appointed Mr. Edwards to superintend our office, and report position and wants ? He never came ; he never knew what we wanted, although we paid him £500 a year. If he had acted as Mr. Carr now acts, this busi- ness never would be in its present position, and would have saved us at least £70,000. Did you not detain the steamers in the Danube and in the Vic- toria Docks for six months, by refusing to give us the credit where- by we could load them ? Meanwhile, how have 1 acted in all this confusion on the other part ? I worked day and night to load the steamers — to make them to pay and not lose money — struggling, in this discreditable position, to keep the shippers with me — fighting honourably with my competitors, and also with many unknown and secret enemies — to prevent the robbery of the supplies of the stores, the carelessness and cheating of captains and agents ; to economize and save every farthing ; to protect your interests by keeping in constant repair the steamers, and not leaving them to go to pieces ; to protect the interests of the builders ; to deprive myself N 178 even of the necessary wants of my house, when I paid daily thou- sands to brokers ; to mend large holes that others daily opened ; at the last to allow myself to be in the present condition. Now, Mr, Edwards, your nominee or mortgagee, tries with others to make the best out of that by taking even the management out of my own hands. Gentlemen, you understand that if my conduct to this moment has been honourable — and you are in a position to know it better than any others — I do not mean to proceed any farther in this zig- zag road. I am an open, sincere-dealing man, and I like straight- forward ways. I cannot any longer repose myself under the sword of Damocles. We must have a clear procedure by contract, with certain and indisputable bases to work upon. The bases that I ask are reasonable and just — (a.) As long as I give you 5 per cent, interest for your money, and 5 per cent, against such money as you advanced me, not to sell any of the property. (6.) If the business does not make in the end of one year any profit, you may at once sell or dispose of it as you like. (c.) If, after paying you 10 per cent., there is a large profit left above ,£5000, you take half of it, and the remainder to be left to me to carry on the repairs and the business of the line. (d.) The mortgage of the steamers to pass in the name of one of your fii-m, and not of any nominee. (e.) The accounts to be regulated every six mouths, to prove if the business makes or loses money. The manage- ment of the steamers and their cargoes to be left entirely to me ; and should other persons interfere by your authority, you to stand any losses that may occur by reason of such interference. (/.) Whatever wheat is sold by Messrs. Coventry, Sheppard, and Co., and the contracts not acknowledged by me, the same to be returned by Messrs. Coventry, Sheppard, and Co. to me, or you to bear the loss. (g). In case of my death, a gentleman to be appointed, according to my wiU, to go on for my benefit, as long as the business pays as above. 179 (h.) A balance of .£10,000 to be left always at the banker's, to keep up the credit of the company. (/■.) A proper credit to be given to the house at Galatz for the working of the business. You may send a person there to superintend your interests. (y.) You can have in the London offices Mr. Carr, or any other gentleman approved of by me, to superintend the finances, advise, and see that every transaction is correct. (A-,) The four big steamers to be insured for £27,000 each, and the Powerful for £22,000. If any of the steamers are lost, and you will not let the money paid by the underwriters be employed in building another ship, then you take £25,000 and I take £2500. (?.) You will give me £10,000, money due to me, if not for services, for the Leonidas, for which you were paid without being entitled to same, because your ad- vances to me were only £8000. (»?..) All the wheat now in London to bo kept in warehouse till the end of September. I to have the option of selling it by any broker who gives the highest prices, but Messrs. Coventry, Sheppard, and Co. to have the preference when they bid the same as the others ; after that, you can sell it as you like. Yours obediently, Stefanos Xenos. I found the official assignee had two safety-valves by w^hich he escaped when pushed into a corner by his own folly. In the first place, there was his wretched memory, that could not recall anything; and, secondly, there was his marvellous intermitting illness, that was sure to attack and confine him to bed when the denouement of any misadventure, induced by some error of his, was about to take place. Under such circumstances, he was represented by some con- n2 180 fidential clerk, upon whom the blame of the whole transaction was thrown. I had now begun to think seriously of freeing myself from the trammels in which I was bound. I was wasting my energies trying to fill sieves. This majestic house of Overend, Gurney, and Co., that dazed the eyes of the commercial community by its colossal transactions, was, in the estimation of those ini- tiated in its a])Ocrypha, an object of pity and contempt. There is a vulgar Greek saying that not inaptly repre- sents the state of things in the great Lombard Street house in those days : 'E^tjSnre (tkuAoi 'ii:este(l Basint^-liall Street. Tlie thought of becoming a bankrupt was to him, as to every honest man, liateful. He still carried on the death-struggle. And how did it end I Driven to the last extremity, he still rejected the idea of bankruptcy. He compromised with his creditors. Mr. 15 was his assignee. All his goods were sold, and after the creditors had received their dividend, Mr. B pocketed the rest, as well as the greatest part of the balance, £15,000, of the shaky houses, most of which stopped payment, as a compensation for his trouble. You will tell me that Peter P was a fool to accept the offer of the broker in the first instance. To be sure he was. But do we not think the whole English monetary system anomalous, and calculated to tempt men to their ruin '? I know, and you must know, reader, many whose name, ten or twelve years ago, Avould be sneered at, and whose name is now good for thousands. And how did they rise 1 That is their secret. A decade of years since, and they were hard- working paupers, and now they are the table com- panions of millionaires. In fact, such men are like aeronauts ; if they can only get a sufficient quantity of gas lighter than the atmospheric air, they will rise and rise, and continue to float, until the gas by some mis- chance escapes, or a rent comes in the bag, and down they come. It was in the year 1851 that I frequently met, at the Cafe de VEurojpe, Haymarket, amongst dramatic people, and hi the company of the late A S , a young man, of whose avocation in life I knew nothing. He could be seen often in theneighbourhood of the Hay- market Theatre, and hanging about gaming-houses. I lost sight of him for several years. Circumstances had Y 322 made it advisable for him to cross the Channel. In 1860, I one day met my old acquaintance in a bill- broker's office. Mr. Manley — I now learned his name — was pleading hard to get a small bill discounted. I soon after heard that he had become secretary to an extensive shipowner. Through this gentleman, Mr. Manley obtained an entrance into the establishment of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., of Lombard Street. There he breathed a congenial atmosphere, and throve apace. The intimate knowledge he possessed of his late employer's affairs was placed at the service of his new masters, and gold chinked in his purse. Initia- tion into the Samothracian mysteries of old commenced by placing the neophyte on a throne. Mr. Manley' s occupation of the high stool in the great office was the first step on the ladder by which he ascended to a seat in the House of Commons, where he now sits a dumb lawmaker. A petty wine merchant named Stanley, discovered that discounting bills is more profitable than selling sherry. In 1859 he established a small discounting company. As he was a man whose business capabili- ties I recognized, I invested £1200 in the concern. This I did not alone because I believed the affair would prosper, but because I really wished to assist the promoter of the scheme. However, the project came to grief. Mr. Stanley had extended his patron- age in a very marked manner to members of the leather trade. He discounted bills to the amount of £70,000 for great leather merchants, who afterwards failed for £500,000, paying a dividend of one shilling in the pound. Disappointed in one speculation, we were obliged to wind up. We — that is the share- holders — lost a considerable sum, and were obliged to 323 pay Mr. Stanley a good price for giving up the manage- ment. Mr. Stanley, at least, had lost nothing. But his name was not sweet-sounding, and he thought it would be well to change it. He became Mr. Jackson. He continued to knock about the streets of the City, like the thousands who crowd those ffreat thorousfh- fares, when towards the close of 1863, when the mania for companies was at its height, he assembled a dozen manageable men, and brought out a financial company. It was a wonderful company, for not only did it go on prosperously, but, like Paley's celebrated hypothetical watch, it brought forth young companies. Five times in the course of one year did the prolific mother present to the world a baby company. But these babies quickly became strong and vigorous, and were able to go alone. Still it must be admitted that the mother laid heavy contributions on the children. In fact she took away half their food, and cramming a great deal of their property under her voluminous crino- line, astonished her admirers by her portly appearance. But occasionally taking from beneath her crinoline some of her children's property, she presented it to her supporters, just as a lond fide company gives divi- dends to shareholders. I have several times attempted to congratulate my old friend in person, but have never been able to obtain an audience. Behind the panels of his polished mahogany door I found a tall liveried footman, who, in reply to my inquiries, informed me that his master was in court. I returned again and again, and always received the same answer. I at length asked to what court Mr. Stanley, or rather Mr. Jackson had gone. The official replied with a gracious smile : " Sir, we call our board meetings ' courts.' " That was sufficient. y2 324 If I had been misled, it was for want of inquiring at first. We live in a free country, where everybody has a right to do what he pleases with his own, and call it by what name he likes. I said I would wait until Mr. Jackson should be at leisure. I was invited to walk in, and soon found that I was not alone " doing ante-chamber," to the ci-devant wine merchant. Would you believe if? I saw waiting in that ante-room one of the great Cohens. I know not how long he had been there before I arrived, but I know he remained there a " large half hour," as the French say, after I entered. The man of ancient greatness waiting on the man of recent greatness, looked rather awkward. He moved about occasionally — looked out of window — all the while rubbing his eye-glass with his cambric handkerchief. At length he was admitted to the audience-room. Seeing these things, I began to surmise what kind of reception I might expect. I recalled past times, and said within myself that I had some claims on Mr. Stanley. I remembered that I had formerly put large business in his way, and had done him some good turns. At length I was admitted to the presence of the great man. He gave me a cordial reception, hoped to see me again hold a high place in the commercial world, but he could not assist me to launch my little steam company, being himself engaged in bringing out a very large one. I further learned that Mr. Stanley's fleet was to be composed of the steamers formerly belonging to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., of Lombard Street. What a change ! I remem- bered how one day, as I was stepping into the great " melting-house " — I was at that time on good terms 325 with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. — I met Mr. Stanley coming out, his hand full of bills, with tears in his eyes. "That d Ch ," he said, "is a nasty fellow ; he would not do anything for me." And now Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co.'s " melt- ting-house " has melted away, self-consumed, but Mr. Stanley had become a representative of the people — a nobleman — and only waits another opportunity to dazzle the world. AVill you not, reader, admit that the acquisition of money is the end and aim of modern civilization 1 Perhaps you will ask me what has brought about this paradoxical state of things. In reply, I shall say " a commercial revolution." Commercial, like political revolutions, occur once or twice in every century. Commercial revolutions generally occur when money accumulates in the possession of traders ; when certain branches of business fall exclusively into the hands of a few monopolists ; when articles, once esteemed luxuries, become necessaries ; when an en- tirely new article is brought into the market in sufficient quantities to vie with the old ; or when an article well known, but the product of a remote clime, is suddenly brought, by improvement in the mode of transport, into the market, and made to compete successfully with the old standard commodi- ties. Then may. be seen commercial Eobespierres and Marats springing up in every branch of trade, wrest ing power from ancient royalty, trampling down the once privileged legitimists, and building on the ruins thus made the fabric of their own greatness. Let me give you some examples: — Some fifty years ago cotton from Smyrna and India was a Pactolus that poured gold into the coffers of a few 326 men who had monopolized the trade. About that time the cotton of South America was introduced into the English market. A few speculators in Liverpool and Manchester seized the opportunity, took possession of the new vein of commerce thus opened, and the cotton trade with the East was, so to speak, stamped out. Twenty years ago, how many Greek merchants had made fortunes, and how many were growing rich, by the corn trade of the Levant ; but after the Crimean War, and since the late Ameri- can War, the wheat and maize of America have taken the place, in the English markets, of the Euxine corn, and many a wealthy Glaucus has been obliged to return to the Levant or become a broker. I must, however, observe that the commercial revolution of 1863, which suddenly converted the petty wine merchant into a wealthy man, and gave the toss-up that made the penny gambler of the Cafe de TEurope a representative of the people, such a revolution is, I must say, unprecedented in the annals of commerce. That revolution did not affect one branch of trade alone ; it was universal, and resulted from the combined action of those causes which I have already named as the secret springs of commercial revolutions. Money had accu- mulated on every side in the City ; telegraphic and steam communication supplied an hourly stimu- lant, which, in previous times, could not be offered to the fever of speculation. Then there was the mania that seized England of making large loans to foreign countries, and more particularly to rotten Governments that paid large dividends by the ingenious device of getting a fresh loan. There was besides that extra- 327 ordinary amal' elrai »/ 'Eor/a twv eldijcrewv' Kal oaris avayn'oxTKei top ^ AyyXiKoy Xpovov Kal rds iiXXas 'AyyXtKCts e^jj/^ep('c>as, fioros eceTvos ^{jyarat vd evvoitai), oiroia Tepirvii Kal (nrepavTOS (t^oXj; eh'aL to fiepos TOVTO. To AiKacTTiKov fxepos elrai jjd fivQiaTopr]fxaTa Tiis kcprifxtpiZos, ij fjiuXXov >/ aiTiypadi'i twj' KoiiwtiuJy to{>tu)v. H A(K»; tov Erayoi/s z2 34a 'hiTpov ceiKi'uet K(u to Ixhos, kccI rrjy Trepiypaipiji', cat roi' Tpoizov rov ^le^ep^errOai j^iiuv CiKijy. QeXei ce Siaipelffdai els rpia eirlcTrjs fxeprf : a.) T« Kudt^ixepiva Trra/c/.taro ^iKal^'Jjieva vtto tmi' Xeyoj-ieywr, Kpi- Tijjy, jjiepos iiaaK€t)a(jrii:uyj kcu avy^poi'ios awovculoy, ck'jtl ty avru 6a Karo~rpiCi]Tui o jiios rov 6')(Xov, t^ai to aarvvoniKoy cryor/jyuci VTvep Tijs eL,aa(piiXirrebis tPjs rtjurjs, icai rcHy virap^^^oyrojy exaarov ttoXItov. fi .) Til KUKovpyiJixara, dylCKvuis kw KTrr^noyiK)] ttjs Trpo^ews, Kal 'n-epiypcKpi) Oavj-iaaiu rou opi:b)THCov fTviTTi'ifiaros, ttjs 1(j-^uos tov rojuov, KCU Tujy CiaKeKpiixiyuy pr^ropuy ti]S //yutpas. 7'.) A'l ct'icat Tuiy ^luCvyicoy, en -nrepiepyorepa avayvojais, ttXtjv ical TTicTTOTepa Kal ^ojijportpa Tzepiypacft)! tov ayyXiKov '^(^apaKTrjpos, /cat ruiy ftairebjy tov av^vyiKov filov, t^ wv e^ijpTrjTaL y ijdiKOTrjS /cat evrjfiepia o\oK\{]pOV TT]S KoD'WJ'f'oS. To ^iXoXoyiKoy /xepos OeXei Trepieyei, l3ioypa(l)ias, Trepiypacpas, TaE,eidui, (joTaviKas Kal i^ujoXoyiKcis eKdeaeis, wpaias Te')(^i'as, Trepirjyi'i- aeis. TTfy eTTLdeioprjaiv rwi' ricoy Gvyypaji^aTwy, /cat r?jV dearpiKip' Kal ^paixaTiKrjy eTridewprjaiy tov Aoi'dtyov Kal tCjv TlapiGtwy, EJs TO 'Fj fXTTopiKur fiepos 6 efxnopos OeXei evpiaKEi fxaKpu TifxoXcyia tQv dia(j)6pu)y elctoy, t7/j' l[j.TTopiKip' eirideujprjdiv Twy ayopiov AfxepiKrjs, TvStwr, AiiarpaXlas, Kal -rjs Ei'pwTrrjs' tus TrapaKaradi'iKas /cat Trpo- ftXe^peis Twy e^TvopevfjiaTtoy, Kul Tray 6,ti a(j)opa rrjv vavTiXiav, to efXTvopiov Kal Trjy (ito^-qya^iuy, Kul TeXos to ■^prjfia-KTTr'ipioy Kal ra eOyiKO. Si'ireta, /cat to, crvyaXXayds Trjs ef^Ooj-iuSos, unep ebai to dep- fXOjxeTpoy, TOV e^nropiov. 'Ytto Tr\v Xi^iv JloLKiXa, TTcptXa/ijSaj'o/Ltej^ to €TnaTr}fxoviKov jxepos, BrfXs ras a.yaKaXv\l^eis TtJv Tc^f^yivv, tcls reXetoTrot/'ytrcts tovtuv, ras TeXeioTrou'iaeis tujv kpyaXeiwy, ras veas ecpevpeffeis, t ayeK^OTa rijs ijfiepas, ra ftionr]')(aviKdepya, to. kpyoyeipa TuJy a-^oXeiu)r, Kal TeXos TrXrjdos ciXXotj' aopiaTtav avTiKeLjxeviiiv, uTiva a'yrnxaTiC.ovv tovs fieyd- XoVS TOVTOVS Koa^xovs. O (TKOTids TOV BpeTTayiKov 'Aarepos cev dnofjXeTrei els dXXo, el/j-r} rd yeiyrj ws o^eTOS Twy (pioTioy Tijs AvTiKrjs Ei/pwTTjjs els Tt]y 'AvaroX>/r, /cat e^ dXXov yd KaT(i(JTij(7)j tuvti-jv avOis yj'woTJjV els Trjy ILvpwTrrjy. 'El' TrapoCti) elcoTTowvi-iey, on irpos TaKnKi]y ci]i.io(Tievr]nepilos, ?'/2>/ to TrpiJjTCjy avaTaiytTui eXXr}yiKov Tvizoypn^e'iov ky Aoyciyo}, Kal oti ceico ev(pveTs ^era^pacrrat, ei2(}/.twv eKacTOS els tov KXdoov TOV, BeXovy tpydi^eadai enl TuvTr]S. "EKaaToy (jwXXoy Trjs 'E(^j»/^ep/^os TavTtjs, cktos Tt]S TreTTVKywuh'Tjs vXijs avTrjs, deXei Treoie^ei /cat 15- — 25 eiKoroypacpias jjieyuXas /cat fxiKpas Jjs ey rw rd^w tovtm. 'H en]aia irvvCpo^ii] rCJy 124S ceX. Tys e\pi)fxeviis t(pr]fJi.epicos ivpoa- 341 ^tuypiadr] ui'tI rpiujy TKvveu)v, »*/ rpiiSi' XipuJy koi Tpiwp (Te\iriu)v kcit eros, TrpOTrXrjpujTeioy evdvs [XFrci rt]t' TrapaX(ij3r]i' rov nputTOvcpvWov, Ai avi'cpup.a\ yivorTai juoioi' fr;;Ttws 7r«/j' I'lTram toIs TrpaKropeiois Trjs K/Wj/i'fcr/s Kctl 'Ai'aroXt/ci/s 'A-juottAoV^j/s 'E,rciipiI1MEP|A02; TOYAAXIS- TON Eni AYO ETH. ArifioaievoyTes T>)y Trapovaai' 'AyyeX/a»' TrapciKoXov fxey Toy (jtiXa- vayyu)(TTi)y yci /ji) T))y t»c/\ci/3j/ ois ^iaicoy eXeovs, ottws pixp)] Toy epayoy Tov. Tvvrayrioy eyyoovfxey va rw "Kapuayuixey Trpdyjia, iroXv avwre- pas UL,ias Trjs TrXrjpwfirjs tov. 'Ri'yoovfjiey ra (pepwj^ey eh Trjy ayopixv vXrjt', Tjjy OTToiciy o 'idios avdopfii'iTCJS v ayopaeTrj 2i' eavTOu /cat ra rcKya TOV, dvev irapaKXifaetoy aXXuji' cvaTaaewy, 7) ^iXiKwv fiecrojy. EV0e HavToSvycifios vd KaTevolijcrr] to. ^ta/3;'/juara fius ! Kai e'lde ol aTrayTa\ov aXrjQe'is "EXXrjyes rd KaTaroi'irrtotn to epyov fias, (voJ ey- voijaiotn oti hev vpoKeiTai rrept ciTOfxiKuiy vXiKuiy Gv^fepoyTwy {Tovyay- tLov, kXy](^Qr) irpo ofdaXfiuiy /xey/orj; ■yprjjj.uTiKi) frj/i('a hia tu TrpwTa €Tr}J, dW vnep TcHy ijQiKuiv Kul (TVf.i(j)€p6yTii)y oXoiy Tuiy KUTOiKwy Trjs 'AyaToXijs. 'O Fei'tKos CievdvyTrjs Tijs 'E0?;^ep«2os, STE*AN0S ;s:enos. No. 8. 2, Inrjram Court, Fenclmnh Street, London, 12 March, 1859. S. Xenos, Esq., Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Dear Sir, On Monday I shall, I hope, be able to be with you, and, to prevent any after- question arising, I think it but right to state the terms as I understand them. I am to be paid .£350 per annum, and if the business progresses, and I give satisfaction, then an advance ; I am also to have leave to fix any vessels belonging to my relations or friends, so long as I do not neglect your interests ; and to conform to your instructions in all things. Trusting we may have great success, . I am, dear Sir, Yours truly, A. Caenegie. 342 No. 9. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., Lombard Street. London, 23 Mmj, 1862. Gentlemen, I have to request that you "will advance to me the sum of seventeen hundred pounds for three months, by the discount of Messrs, Carr and Hoare's drafts on me for ,£1700, as below ; and in consideration of your agreeing to do so, I give you a charge, and hereby charge my house and land at Petersham, which I have just bought, with the due payment of the said biUs, and agree to execute any further document or deed that you may require, either by way of mortgage or otherwise, to complete your security on the said property ; and in default of the due payment thereof, at maturity of the said acceptances, I hereby authorize you to sell the said securi- ties as you may deem fit, and engage to pay any deficiency. Stefanos Xekos. Dfts. — Messrs. Carr and Hoare on S. Xenos, Esq., Greek and Oriental Company. .£850 I dated" 23rd May, 1862. 850 J due 26th Aug., 1862. £1700 No. 10. 29th of July, 1S62. Dear Mr. Carr, I am now prepared to pay you the £1700 that Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. have kindly advanced me to complete the purchase of my house. Petersham Lodge. This with some furniture, as I told you before, I bought from my private resources. My books and other furniture are what I have collected the last 16 years I have resided in England, and they have nothing whatever to do with the estates or properties of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. This day I have none other creditor what- ever, except Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., so if those gentle- 343 men will give me a letter that they have no claim on my house, contents, and furniture, as indeed they have not, I intend to settle all in the name of my wife and children, so that if death occurs they may have some home and shelter. I should not have so dis- posed, but having been rejected, as you know, by the Commercial Life Insurance Company, also the Victoria Insurance, a)id having been told by the doctors that I am suffering from consumption, it is my duty as a father and husband to make some little provision for my family. I hope that Messrs. Ovorcnd, Gurney, and Co., who have ever treated me with such unexampled liberality and kind- ness, will consider the justice of my demand, and grant me my request. Yours most truly, Stefanos Xenos. No 11. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., Loudon. London, 15ih August, 1862. Gentlemen, I have to request that you will release my house at Petersham from all claim on your part, on my paying you the sum of seventeen hundred potinds on the 2Gth instant, in settle- ment of the acceptances of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, due that day for the like amount, and in consideration of your agreeing to do so, I engage to follow your instructions in every respect in the conduct of the business of the Greek and Oriental Steam Na\'igation Company, and to transact no business on my own private accoimt, except my literary, of any kind whatever, and to receive no letters on business without submitting them to be read by Mr, G. B. Carr, or by some one authorized by you ; and further undertake to hand to you, as soon as received, all bills of lading and policies of insurance for grain or goods shipped on account of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and in all respects to conduct the affairs of the said company in such manner as may be agreeable to 3'ou ; and for the said con- sideration, further agree to sign any document that you may requLre with reference to the said business of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, when called upon by you to do so. 344 No. 12. [Private.'] Stefanos Xenos, Esq., 36, King William Street, E.G. London, 19 Aiu/., 1862. Dear Sir, "We have received yonr letter of this date, and in compli- ance ivitli your request, we hereby release your liouse at Petersham, called " Petersham, Lodge,^^ from, all claim on our parts, on condition of your paying the bills for £1700, due 26th inst., drawn by Messrs* Carr and Hoare on the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Com- pany, and of your carrying out v^hat you undertake in your said letter. "We trust that the business of your company will now be con- ducted in a manner satisfactory to us, which you may depend will be to the advantage of all parties concerned. We remain, Yours truly, OVEREND, GtJKNET, AND Co. No. 13. Laurence Pountney Place, 17th Dec. 1862. My dear Mr. Xenos, I have great pleasure in sending you the enclosed letter from Overend, Gurney, and Co., which will set your mind at ease as to your house, but I hope you will live 50 years yet, and I do not think this is an exaggerated notion, if you will only taJce reason- able care of yourself. With best wishes, S. Xenos, Esq. I remain. Yours very sincerely, G. B. Care. 345 No. 14. 22, Basingliall Street, 9th3Iay,lS6\. Dear Sir, The bearer of this is my friend, Mr. Carr, Avho will repre- sent me in superintending your affairs, in pursuance of the arrange- ment made at the time of the loan. Mr. Carr will co-operate with you in the general management of the business, and I shall be guided entirely by his advice in giving you any money facilities ; and I shall look to him to satisfy me as to the application of any sums that may be advanced. Yours truly. E. W. Edwaeds. S. Xenos, Esq.,' Greek and Oriental Company. No. 15. The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, London Street. Lombard Street, 24 Mc(>/, 1861. Gentlemen, Eeferring to our verbal arrangement, we now write you with reference to the establishment of the company on a proper footing, and beg to say that it is agreed that it will in future be worked by five large steamers, and five smaller ones, a list of which we annex, under the management of yourself and Mr. G. B. Carr ; and it is understood that it is to continue its operations so long as it is conducted to the satisfaction of the said Mr. G. B. Carr, and the earnings of the sliips arc paid to us, but not to be less than two thousand pounds per month, in addition to the amount of interest accruing on the advances we have made to you. In the event of our account being reduced so far that, on a fair estimate, our advance is fully covered by the said ships, then, on further payments being made, the said ships are each one to be released as the value thereof is paid off with interest, such value to be ascertained by two competent persons, one to be appointed by 346 each party ; but at no time are we to bo left without a sufficient margin, on our advance. "We shall thank you for a reply confirming the above. I remain, Yours faithfully, OVEREND, GfENEY, AND Co. The fleet to consist of the following ships : — Scotia, "^ Asia, I Palikari, y large steamers. Mavrogordato, Leonidas, CoUetis, ^ Colocotronis, 1 Eigas Ferreos, y smaller steamers. George Olympius, Londos, No. 16. Addressed to Aristides Xen^os, Esq. Gahtz, 15th November, 1861. Dear Aristides, I now proceed to answer your private letter of the 27th Oct., which I found awaiting me on my return from Saulina, on the 11th inst. And with feelings of both pain and satisfaction I do so ; of pain, because, after all the years wherein you and your brother Stefanos have known me, and under all the circumstances, you should so far do me the injustice of hinting at and writing that you think some " diabolical dishonesty is at work." And more, that you should suppose that only personal gain should be my only moving power, and think that I am honest because I see my per- sonal interest in being so. Again, I read your letter with satisfaction because I appreciate a man telling me plainly what he thinks, and more also because I believe your letter was one of impulse, and written unpremeditated, and therefore not to be considered in all its force. In answering 347 you, believe mo, I have considered well all you have Baid, and have also thought ■well what is proper to answer under the circumstances ; for, Aristides, if there is one iota of truth in your remarlcs and hints, you have only your duty to your brother and the company to per- form, and that is, to remove mo at once from Galatz as being alto- gether imworthy of the confidence placed in me lierctoforc, and because I have used that confidence to serve my own unjust ends. To write you thus is a trial indeed, and a source of pain to me ; but, Aristides, no other course is left open to me. I have always held out to both your brother and you that personal gain would and could never make me neither 'honest nor dishonest; and, I repeat, you fall short indeed of my idea of a man, if you think that honesty is to be bought with money. I make no boast nor brag when I say, once for all, I have within me that which teUs me that to be honest, honourable, and independent is the privilege of every man, whatever his station in life may be. I have always acted and written so, although sometimes my motives have been misinterpreted; therefore, Aristides, I beg you to disabuse your mind on this matter at once and for ever, for, although the inde- pendence of my dear wife and child are to me a sacred matter, an honourable career and a clear conscience are to me infinitely dearer. Now, as to the question of the Powerful, I can answer we loaded what we invoiced per this vessel for Leghorn, and this is proven by the vessel loading only 50 qrs, less this voyage than last, whUst then she had only 60 tons coals on board, and this voyage she had 160 tons at least. Last voyage she was loaded by the head, by filling the fore-hold; this voyage Davidson made a division in his fore- hold, and thus carried less grain in his fore-hold, and thus he kept the vessel by the stern ; beside the 100 extra coals, she drew as much water last voyage as now, as, in fact, you will find on her arrival in London. The Marco Bozzaris cargo cost more because the Tzamados and Bobolina had to load three to four miles from Giurgevo (and this never happened before in the Danube), and we had to pay the extra cart- age. No one could have foreseen this, and why blame us ? Are you not always telling us, " Buy cheap stufi' in the up river?" The present wheats, as you say, Theologos did telegraph you from Giurgevo, the 8000 qrs. would cost 31s. ea' oporto ; but then, Aris- tides, look at the telegram I sent you on the 16 th Sept. from here^ in which I tell you the wheats will cost 32s. so early as the 16th Sept., and you never answer, " Stop buying," but you answer, " Do 348 not hesitate, pay 34s. ;" and j^our letter adds, " pay 35s., only get the wheat good and about your sample." Now, all the wheats we have shipped are quite equal to our sample, clean, good, and heavy. Now, why did Theologos say he could get 8000 qrs. at 31s.? Because, sir, he was at Giurgevo, and knew not a word about your having increased yonr original order for 10,000 qrs. for all October and November to 20,000 qrs., and then to 30,000 qrs. We could have got, no doubt, 8000 qrs. for October and November at 31s., for that small quantity could have been cleaned in Giurgevo ; but then, Aristides, it is awfully different to get 30,000 qrs. I declare and uphold that the business of the wheat this autumn is an honour to us ; we have, with only 7 feet of water, brought down, cleaned splendidly, and shipped till now 15,000 qrs., and have other 8000 qrs. on the way here. We could have cleaned in Giurgevo the 8000 qrs., but we could never have cleaned properly there 30,000 qrs. ; so we have brought the wheats here, landed them from one steamer, cleaned them, and shipped them on another. This alone, considering how well and thoroughly they have been cleaned, is equal to Is. to Is. 6d. per qr. Now, besides this, is the test, we could have sold, and were offered equal to 36s. and 37s. 6d. per qr., free on bo^ard here for these wheats. This is no story, but a fact well known here, and in itself speaks volumes. But enough of this, for it is of no use to speak in one's own favour. You speak of your brother having sacrificed his own relations. I hope and believe he never sacrificed any one wilfidly ; but I know little of this, and cannot give any opinion. But let me assume that, if to-morrow Mr. Stefanos thinks his interests are pre- judiced by being in my hands, then let him make such change as he wiU, and believe me, I will not consider myself sacrificed at all ; for I have worked with good honest will, and firmly believe that, on the whole, the very best has been made of the opportunities. And of this I am sure, I came here to discredit and confusion, short shipments, and universal unfriendliness, and these are all now reversed. For I prize the good name I hope I have, and the con- tinuance of the friendship of your brother, which is not of yester- day, more than my present gains ; although I should now be sorry to leave Galatz. You speak of your father or Mr. Clenzo coming here. The latter I kjiow not ; but this I do know, that, as much as I respect your worthy father, he could never make the business here. Erom daylight till 8 p.m., often all night, we work, not in offices, but out o49 here and there, sumetime.s Sauliiui Roads, other times in the interior, and more often loading and cleaning grain. And, Aristidcs, where would the Smyrna's case have been in these gentlemen's hands ? No- where — lost. Now, whilst I write, I tell you, had I only permitted that case to liave been neglected, without any one ever being wiser, the Austrians would gladly have given me .£1000, and Theologos the same. And what makes me angry is this, that Mr. Theodore Xenos should get ^60 and we nothing. What has he done ? Arranged one witness to come here at the awful cost of £S0, whilst he was a British subject, and could be summoned, and must have come at an expense of .£1 Is. and travelling cost, about <£15 more, liut that's neither here nor there, and is for you to judge, not me. Whilst for fourteen days I wrote all day in the coui't and all night at home, searched out greasy old pilots, coaxed them and petted them — and nothing I hate worse than to be obliged to flatter that sort of men ; but the case is gained, and I have upheld the opinion I gave, that I could win the case, and so am thoroughly satisfied. Aristidcs, if I cared or considered less of your business I would write less, so excuse the length I have gone to. I only further add, why do you not send out some one to examine into the state of these things ? or you may come — surely you can find the time — and then Stefanos would rest satisfied, and not live in a state of uncertainty and anxiety, as seems now to be the case. You say, " Don't begin Stokar's games." Enough of this ; I must be indeed a changed individual if I can have the spirit of that man in me. I repeat, the business here is done with the greatest amount of attention wc can bestow, with the most honest purpose in view, and with the greatest endeavours to promote the interests intrusted to us ; and all we ask is a proper and thorough inquiry into the whole matter of these wheats (and aU others), and you will find not 1 cent wrongly charged nor 1 cent wasted in expenses that could have been avoided. I must tell you that Mr. Theologos most fully concurs in all I have written, and on his arrival in London will personally confirm my statement ; for this letter comes as much from him as me. Awaiting your reply, and trusting you wiU be satisfied with this letter, I remain, yours very truly, A. Cahnegie. 350 No. 17. London, 24th Dec, 1861. S. Xenos, Esq. Dear Six, The SS. Palikari having been ordered for survey by Government for the conveyance of stores from Woolwich to Ber- muda, you will be good enough to place the steamer in the hands of Messrs. Thompson and Tweeddale, of 27, Birchin Lane (who tendered her), who will act as the brokers. I remain. Dear Sir, Yours most truly, E. W. Edwards. No. 18. Dear Xenos, I am sorry I did not see you on Tuesday. I now enclose letter which it was agreed between Mr. Carr and myself that I should write to you upon the subject of the Palikari. Yours most truly, E. "W. Edwards. I strongly recommend you to call yourself upon the Comptroller. London, 2 Jan., 1862. No. 19. London, 2nd Jan., 1862. Sir, TJie Paliharl. The bearer of this is Mr. Stefanos Xenos, the owner of the above-named ship, of which I am mortgagee. It was unfor- tunate that, in consequence of illness, I was unable to communicate with Mr. Xenos at the time I authorized Messrs. Thompson and 351 Co. to tender the ship to the Government for the conveyance of goods to Bermuda, as I am sure, had I done so, all the unpleasant- ness that has occurred, and which I regret extremely, would not have occurred. Mr. Stofanos Xenos is alone entitled to sign charter-parties ; and I think, after this explanation, you will be induced to accept any of his ships which may hereafter be tendered by him, and which you may consider fitted for your service. Apologizing for being very unintentionally the means of giving trouble, I am. Sir, Your obedient servant, E. W. Edwards. Chas. Eichards, Esq., Comptroller, &c., • Admiralty. No. 20. The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. 19, London Street, Fenchurch Street, London, E.G., 186 To the Bank of London. Sir, I enclose Mr. Sidney Malettass's, of Smyrna, drafts on your bank for fifty thousand pounds, at six months' sight, as par- ticularized to you in those letters of 20th April, which I thank you to accept to the debit of this company against securities herewith mortgaged of our steamer — Palikari, £16,000 Mavrogordato, 14,000 : Leonidas, 6,000 ; ZaVmis, 7,000 ; Colocotronis, 7,000 ; also a letter from Messrs. 0., G., and Co., undertaking to provide you with the fifty thousand at the maturity of the bills, in case we fail to do so. 552 No. 21. The Greek and Oriental Steam ITavigatiou Company. 19, London Street, Fenchitrch Street, London, E.G., 28 October, 1861. Received from 8tefanos Xenos, Esq., the following Policies : — No. 95, Marco Bozzaris, £9,000 „ 2, „ „ 1,500 „ 3, „ „ 4,500 „ 4 3,000 £18,000 This steamer having- been lost, I promise to pay the money to him, and not to any ou| else, in due course. M. E. Maveogoedato. No. 22. The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. 19, London Street, Fenchurcli Street, London, E.G., 28 Octoher, 1861. Gentlemen, I acknowledge receipt of original protest covering the loss of the SS. Marco Bozzaris, which I will return after the entire settlement with the underwriters. To the G. and 0. S. N. Co. I remain. Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, M. E. Maveogoedato. No. 23. Laurence Pountney Plate, Saturday, 2Sth Feb., 1863. Dear Sir, Your conduct is very annoying to all interested in the G, and 0. Stm. Co., and destructive to yourself — in fact, suicidal, as regards your position and future prospects. 353 You are generously offered a release from a load of debt, Avith the simple condition of engaging, under a proper penalty, to afford every assistance to getting in the assets 6f the company, and avoid- ing everything offensive to our friends. If you assign all over at once to my firm, and give the guarantees I have named, your real position will never be known among your countrymen or other friends ; whereas, if you are any longer obstinate, and determined upon your own destruction, Carr and Hoaro will be under the necessity of striking a docket against you in a day or two, to pro- tect their own interests, as well as the interest of those friends whom you have treated so badly, in return for all their liberality and kindness to you. I hope that you possess copies of your letters to them of the 21st Jan. and 28th May, 1861, and of the 19th Aug., 1862 ; if so, read them, and then, if you are not mad, you will at once fulfil your promises therein expressed, and endeavour to pro- pitiate their friendly feelings towards you for the future. I remain, Yours faithfully, G. B. Caub. Stefanos Xenos, Esq. No. 24. 73, New Bond Street, Augt. 21, 1868. Sir, In reply to your favoiu', having reference to some papers and property contained in a case supposed to have been removed with other property from Petersham, after your sale there, by Camp, the carman, to his warehouse, I can only suggest again that you had better make an appointment to go over his premises, and see if you can point it out. He believes that he has nothing of the kind, and that you had away everything which he removed, and it may be regretted now that the appointment which you made a long time ago for that purpose was not carried out. If you will now suggest a time, giving a day's notice, I wiU arrange with Camp to meet you at the warehouse, which is a A A 354 the top of Portland Street, in the New Koad, opposite Trinity- Church. The only property which came to my house were the pictures. I am, Sir, Your obliged and obedient servant, Wm. Phillips. Stefanos Xenos, Esq. No. 25. 16, Tolcenliouse Yard, B.C. London, 15 June, 1861. Re Lascaridi and Co. Gentlemen, We beg to enclose an account current between the above firm and your company, showing a balance against you, with interest' to the 31st May last, of .£19,720 10s. 6d., of which amount we have to request payment on behalf of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. We remain, yours faithfully, Coleman, Ttjequand, Youngs, and Co. The Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. No. 26. 16, ToTcenliouse Yard, E.C. London, 15 June, 1861. Lascaridi and Co. Sir, We beg to enclose you accounts between yourself and Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., namely — General account, showing balance to your debit of £2189 2s. 4d. ; and freight account, balance also to your debit, £1440 7s. 8d. Both accounts have interest calcu- lated to the 31st of May last. We have to apply on behalf of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. for payment of the above balances. We remain, Sir, Yours faithfully, Coleman, Tfbquand, Youngs, and Co. Stephen Xenos, Esq. No. 27. 16, ToJcenhouse Yard, E.C. London, 20 June, 1861. Be Lascaridi and Co. Sir, Wc arc in receipt of your favour of to-day's date. We think that any ohjcction you may have to the accounts we fur- nished to you should be more specific than that which your letter indicates. If you have any account against Messrs. Lascaridi and Co., we have to request that you wiU forward the same to us. Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. have nothing whatever to do with any account which your company may have with their correspondents at Constantinople, or with parties at Odessa, Beyrout, or Galatz, who may happen to be agents of Messrs. Lascaridi and Co. at those places. Waiting the favour of your reply, We ax'e. Sir, Yours faithfully, Coleman, Ttjkquand, Youngs, and Co. S. Xenos, Esq. Greek and Oriental Steamship Company, Mark Lane. No. 28. 1 Corn Exchange Chambers, Seething Lane, London, E.G., 7/9/61. Stefanos Xenos, Esq., London. Dear Sir, We have your letter of 6th inst., and, in reply, have to state that, having sold the wheat by orders of Messrs. Overend Guruey, and Co., and with their approval, we cannot sec any case for arbitration, and clearly no case between you and us. We are, respectfully, COVENXKY, ShEPPABD, AND Co. A a2 356 No. 29. The following conditions to be agreed on between Mr. G. B. Carr and S. Xenos, for the purpose of bringing out a steam com- pany : — Mr. G. B. Carr to become a director of the new company, and take shares of the value of £5000 to o£10,000 when paid up. The boats Powerful, Asia, Scotia, PaHkari, and Mavrogordato, now Mr. G. B. Carr's property, to be purchased by the new company for £ , if so desired by Mr. Carr, within three months from this date. Mr. G. B, Carr sells the goodwill of the Levant and Black Sea line of steamships to this new company for Two thousand five hundred pounds ; Mr. Carr to secui'e the moral influence of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., to assist the new company. The office and clerks of the L. and B. S. line of steamships to be taken over by new company, except Mr. Eoss and Mr. Papandenopulo ; and whatever depot of coals, store, warehouses, wharfs, materials, &c., office fittings, &c., to be taken over by new company at cost price, usual wear and tear being allowed. A brokerage of 2| per cent, to be paid by Mr. Carr to A. Carnegie, in case of disposal of his steamers to the new company. No. 30. COPY or DEED OF ASSIGNMENT. %\)i^ ^^UtientUre, made the thirty-first day of March, One thou- sand eight hundred and sixty-three, between Stefanos Xenos, of King William Street, in the City of London, Merchant and Shipowner, of the first part, and Edward Watkin Edwards, of Basinghall Street, in the said City of London, Esquire, of the second part, and Samuel Gurnet, Henry Edmund Gurney, David Ward Chapman, Arthur George Chapman, and Robert BiRKBECK, all of Lombard Street, in the said City of London, Money Dealers, carrying on business under the style or fii-m of Overend, Gurney, and Company, of the third part. OT[})ercaiS the said Stefanos Xenos, who for some time past has carried on the business of a merchant and shipowner, under the style or title of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, has contracted and agreed with the said Edward Watkin Edwards for the 357 absolute sale to him of the whole of the ships, property, and assets of such business, subject, nevertheless, to the debts and liabilities now subsisting in respect thereof, for the sum of Two thousand five hundred pounds. And wnEREAS there have been extensive dealings and transactions between the said Stefanos Xenos and the said parties hereto of the third part, in the course of his said business, and upon the balance of account, if now made up, the said Stefanos Xenos would be indebted to them in a considerable sura of money, as appears by the account submitted to the said Edward "VYatkin Edwards ; and the said parties hereto of the third part, being fully satisfied of the ability of the said Edward Watkin Edwards to discharge the several debts and h abilities of the said business, have agreed to join in these presents for the purpose of releasing the said Stefanos Xenos from all claims and demands in respect of such dealings and transactions, and have further agreed, at his request, to become sureties for the said Edward Watkin Edwards, in manner hereinafter appearing. ^ntJ iui^treasi, in part performance of the said agreement, the said Stefanos Xenos hath, by bills of sale bearing even date here- with, in consideration of the . several sums of money therein men- tioned, to be paid by the said Edward Watkin Edwards, amounting in the whole to the sum of One thousand five hundred pounds (being part of the said sum of Two thousand five hundred pounds), didy transferred the whole of the ships or vessels, and parts of ships or vessels, belonging to him, and employed in his said busi- ness, together with all and singular the appendages and appurten- ances whatsoever thereto belonging, or in anywise appertaining to the said Edward Watkin Edwards, or to his nominees, subject to the several registered mortgages thereof. iSolD t\)iS jJntJcntuvf luititfiEisietJ) that, in further pursuance and performance of the said agreement, and in consideration of the sums of money, amounting in the aggregate to One thousand five hundred pounds, so paid by the said Edward Watkin Edwards, as herein- before is mentioned, and of the sum of One thousand pounds of lawful money to the said Stefanos Xenos in hand, well and truly paid by the said Edward Watkin Edwards, at or before the execu- tion of these presents, the receipt of which said several sums of One thousand five hundred poimds and One thousand pounds, making together the sum of Two thousand five hundred pounds, he, the said Stefanos Xenos, doth hereby acknowledge, and of and 358 from the same, and every part thereof, doth hereby acquit, release, and discharge the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, and assigns, for ever by these presents. He, the said Stefanos Xenos, doth, by these presents, bargain, sell, assign, and transfer unto the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, and assigns, all and singular the debts, credits, monies, freights, books, office furniture, bills and securities for money, property, and effects, whatsoever and whercsover, of and belonging to him, the said Stefanos Xenos, in the trade or business of a merchant and shipowner, so as aforesaid carried on by him under the stjde or title of the Greek and Oriental Steam N'avi- gation Company, together with the goodwill of the said business, and all other the property, right, title, interest, claim, and demand whatsoever, both at law and in equity, of him, the said Stefanos Xenos, therein or thereto, together with all books, writings, deeds, bills, notes, and receipt papers and vouchers touching the same, or any part thereof ; and together also wdth full power and authority to and for him, the said Edward "Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, and assigns, at all times, in the name or names of the said Stefanos Xenos, his executors or administrators, or other- wise, to ask, demand, sue for, recover, and receive, and give effectual releases and discharges for the monies and premises hereby assigned, or intended so to be. To have, hold, receive, and take the said debts, credits, monies, freights, securities for money, goods, chattels, property, and effects, and all and singular other the premises herein- before assigned, or intended so to be, unto the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, or assigns, for his and their own absolute use and benefit. Axd the said Stefanos Xenos doth hereby, for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, covenant and declare and agree with and to the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, and assigns, in manner following, that is to say, that he, the said Stefanos Xenos, hath not at any time heretofore made, done, executed, or knowingly suffered any act, deed, matter, or thing whatsoever, by means whereof he is prevented from effectually assigning the aforesaid ships, vessels, freights, debts, credits, goods, chattels, effects, and premises, subject and in manner aforesaid, and according to the true intent and meaning of these presents. And furthee, that he, the said Stefanos Xenos, his executors and administrators, shall and will, at the request, costs, and charges of the said Edward 359 Watkia Edwards, his executors, administrators, or assigns, make, do, and execute, or cause and procure to be made, done, and executed, all such further acts, deeds, and assurances whatsoever for the more effectually assigning and assuring the said premises unto the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, adminis- trators, and assigns, in manner aforesaid, as by the said Edward Watkin Edwards, his executors, administrators, or assigns, may bo reasonably required. Ajjd the said Edward Watkin Edwards, for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, and likewise the said parties hereto of the third part, for themselves, their heirs, executors, and administrators, as his sureties, do, and each of them doth, hereby covenant and agree with and to the said Stefanos Xenos, his executors and administrators, that he, the said Edward Watkin Edwai-ds, his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall and will well and truly and punctually pay and discharge the several debts and liabilities of him, the said Stefanos Xenos, in respect of the aforesaid trade or business, except any debts or liabilities which the said Stefanos Xenos may have in any manner concealed, and shall and will from time to time, and at all times hereafter, save harmless and keep indemnified the said Stefanos Xenos, his executors and administrators, from all claims and de- mands, costs, charges, and expenses in respect of the same, and every part thereof. SntJ tl)ii CntJcntui'C fuvtijcv luitncs's'ftlj that, in pursuance of the said recited agreement, and in consideration of the assignment hereinbefore contained on the part of the said Stefanos Xenos, they, the said parties hereto of the third part, do, and each and every of them doth, by these presents, absolutely acquit, release, exonerate, and for ever discharge the said Stefanos Xenos, his heirs, executors, and administrators, of and from the said claims and demands in respect of the before-recited dealings, and all manner of actions and suits, cause and causes of actions and suits, claims, and demands whatsoever, which they the said parties hereto of the third part, or any or either of them, now have, or which they or any or either of them, their heirs, executors, or administrators, might, but for these pi-esenis, have had upon or against the said Stefanos Xenos, his heirs, executors, or administrators, under or by virtue of such dealings and transactions as aforesaid, or otherwise howsoever. hi iuttnc^:^ whereof the said parties to these presents have 360 hereunto set their hands and seals, the day and year first above written. (Signed) Signed, sealed, and delivered by the ^ above-named Stefanos Xenos, in the presence of William J. Cross- . „ _^ £ n 1 1 i. Ill- m, i >StEPANOS XkNOS. field, clerk to Messrs. Thomas J5 12 10 Hammond, J) )J 10 Twiddy, 55 5> 5 .£52 10 July, 1865. \J Westcott, J> 5> 25 Housden, 5> >> 12 10 Hammond, )> 5> 10 Twiddy, >y JJ 5 £52 10 Augt. yj Westcott, jj 5) 25 Housden, 5> J5 12 10 Hammond, J) 3' 10 Twiddy, >> 5> 5 £52 10 Sept. 8th. v Westcott, }> JJ 6 13 4 Housden, )} J> 3 6 8 Hammond, >f JJ 2 13 4 Twiddy, » JJ 1 6 8 £14 £171 10 Proportion of Office Do. cleaning Offi Rent, CCS, June 24 . 48 19 3 5 £52 5 Sept J3 .8 c tj £223 15 5 2nd Oct., 1865.- Received check "f £223 15s. 5d., G. B. Cai5r. B B 370 No. 43. Laurence Pountney Place, 9th October, 1865. My dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your accept- ances to Theologos and Carnegie '^ ,£1000 at 3 m/d, and ,£1000 at 6 m/d, from the 30th ult., also the Anglo-Greek Steam Navigation Company's acceptance to A. lovanoff, at 4 m/d, '^ <£1500, making together £3500, being the consideration for the goodwill of the Levant and Black Sea line of steamers, and for their furniture, fittings, &c., at No. 9, Fenchurch St., as per our agreement. I remain, yours very truly, G. B. Cakr. S. Xenos, Esq. ^ No. 44. 9, Fenchurch Street, 25t7i Oct., 1865. G. B. Carr, Esq. Dear Sir, I hand you herewith two scrip certificates of shares in the Anglo-Greek Steam Navigation Company, Limited — viz.. No. 42, for 100 shares, paid up to £1600 ; and No. 39, for 31 shares, paid up £496 — as collateral security for my acceptances "^ £1000 due 2nd January, and ^ £100 due 2nd April; and if these acceptances are not paid at maturity, I hereby authorize you to dispose of the shares, for which I enclose transfers, the surplus to be paid over to me — or if any deficiency, I will pay the same to you 'with, interest. I remain, dear Sir, Yours very truly, Stefanos Xenos. 371 No. 45. (7/r7^ page 282.) 7, Great WtncJiester Street, 8th May, 1865. Messrs. Theologos and Carnegie, Galatz and Loudon. Gentlemen, In consideration of yoiir subscribing for three hundred shares of the Anglo-Greek Steam Navigation and Trading Company, Limited, of ^32 each, and which not more than £5 will be called for six months, I hereby appoint you agents of the company for the river Danube and all its ports, and guarautee this appointment with the directors, which shall be continued for three years. The terms to be not less than those allowed you when agents for the Levant and Black Sea Navigation Company. (Signed) Stepaitos Xenos. No. 46. Messrs. Overend, Gumey, and Co. May 10th, 1861. Gentlemen, I received your very esteemed letter of yesterday, and, in answer, I agree on my part, and in behalf of the Greek and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, to every point of its contents ; at the same time I take the opportunity to thank you most sincerely for your extreme kindness and libcraUty, assuring you that I shall spare neither trouble, pains, nor indeed any sacrifices, to make the said steamers answer, and thereby prove to you that I am not imworthy or imgrateful of the great and generous confidence you have shewn me. I cannot say more for the present, and would rather leave facts to speak for themselves. Yours truly, Stefanos Xenos. bb2 372 No. 47. Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co., Lombard Street. London, 26th March, 1862. Gentlemen, "We have to request that you will give a guarantee to Messrs. Masterman and Co. for twenty-five thousand pounds, in respect of drafts of Messrs. J. Hamburger and Co., dated 2/14 March, 1862, at 90 days' sight, due 27 June, 1862, and in con- sideration of your agreeing to do so, we hereby charge the whole of the SS. ships, and the mortgages thereon lodged with you, with the due payment of the amount of the said guarantee, and under- take to pay you the said sum of twenty-five thousand pounds on the said 27 June, 1862, and in default thereof we hereby authorize you to sell the said securities as you may deem fit, and engage to pay any deficiency. No. 48. Iron Ship-Building Yard, Hehhurn Quay, Oateshead-on-Tyne, IQth Now., 1860. S. Xenos, Esq., My dear Sir, I could not reply to youi' note yesterday, as I was out trying the screw yacht's engines. I am much pleased to inform you that everything went on to my full satisfaction. "We got a speed of 11 knots, but I am sure she will go more when everything gets rubbed down. I enclose your certificate of official number, and both vessels will leave here in company for London to-morrow night, and I trust they will have a favourable run up. I regret the delay that has occurred very much, but the whole cause has been for the engines. If they had been got ready as promised to me, the vessels would have been with you by the middle of September. I, however, trust you will find them to your satisfaction, and have the opportunity of enjoying them long. I am. Yours faithfully, Andw. Leslie. 373 No. 49. Lombard Sired, 13 March, 1801. Dear Sir, "Would tlio Smyrna bo of any use to you ? She is offered for £6000, which is £2500 less than we got for her. Let us know to-morrow. Yours truly, William Bois. G. B. Carr, Esq., Laurence Pountney Place, E.G. No. 50. Lombard Street, 24 Dec, 1861. Dear Sir, We have financed £25,000 on Mastcrman, due 27 March, on acct. of Greek and Oriental Steam Company, and endorse letter in respect of the same, which we shall be obliged by your getting signed and returned to us. We remain, Yours faithfully, OVEKEND, GtJENET, AND Co. G. B. Carr, Esq., Laurence Pountney Place, E.G. No. 51. OVEREND, GtJRNEY, AND Co. To the Editor of the Times. Sii', Allow mo to send you the enclosed letter, this moment received from my son, Mr. D. Ward Chapman, on his hearing of Mr. Edwards's evidence in the distressing prosecution of Overend and Co. It speaks for itself, and I believe it to be perfectly true ; and though it does not exempt him from his share of blame in tho management of the house, it conveys a very different impression 374 from that which the ingeniuty of counsel, speaking in the interest of his clients, was calculated to produce. I would not say a word, at such a moment as the present, to add to the deep affliction of the Gurneys, in which nobody can participate more than myself; but on such a point, in which the highest moral principle is involved, it would be a dereliction of duty to keep silence. I shall feel greatly obliged if you will insert this cemmunication, as the subject is exciting such universal interest. I remain, Sii', Your obedient servant, D. B. Chapmak. Boehampton, Jan. 28, 9 a.m. No. 61a. Tours, Jan. 26, My dear Father, I have received your letter of the 25th inst., which I need not say has caused me the deepest pain it is possible for a man to feel. It is, of course, the business of Ballantine to enlist the sympathy of the court and the pubUc for his clients, no matter at whose expense ; but I can with a clear conscience, as if I were about to enter into the presence of my Maker, challenge the whole world to show, or even to state a single instance in which I have sacrificed the interest of Overend, Gurney, and Co., even in the smallest particular, to my own, or those of any of my friends. With regard to the transaction with Mr. Edwards, given in his evidence, at the time it took place I was in no sort of want of money, and it was offered by himself as a simple deposit at 5 per cent, interest. I fully acknowledge the extreme imprudence, and, as events have turned out, the impropriety of accepting the offer, but my private transactions with him never weighed one iota with me in my deal- ings for the house with him. The true state of the case was this — that after the commencement of the wild advances which resulted in the embarrassments and eventually the ruin of the firm, Edmund Gurney consulted with Mr. Edwards, who happened to be in the house upon some business connected with some bankrupt estate in which Overend, Gurney, and Co. were interested, and was so pleased 375 with the sagacity which he thought was shown by Edwards, that ho consulted him during a whole year upon many of what I may call the illegitimate advances which the firm had then made. At the end oi' the year he made himself, with the most casual consul- tation with me, a present of the .£5000 mentioned in Edwards's evi- dence. Edwards, as he himself has since stated, and which in aU subsequent negotiations with him has never been denied, said, in thanking Edmund Gurncy, " I hope, Mr. Gumey, that this large payment is not intended as a farewell, but that I may hope that I may reckon on the continuance of my relations with the house." Edmund Gurney's reply was — " Friend Edwards, I do not see how we are to get on mthout thee." Not long after this J. H. Gumey came up, and was frightened at the amount of the involvements of the house. He found Edwards, who had up to that time no idea of anything Kko difficulties in the concern, confidentially engaged in the management of these accounts. He had several private con- versations with him, which resulted in J. H. Gurney's teUing him that the house was in a mess, but that there was nothing which it could not perfectly pull through, at the same time begging him to continue his supervision, and to keep him (J. H. Gumey) con- tinually informed of the state of affairs. At the end of the year Edwards asked that his position should, in some way or other, be secured to him ; and, indeed, I had considerable difficulty in persuading him not to ask for a partnership. Now, the position we were in was simply this : Here was a man who, not through me, notwithstanding my engagements with him on the subject (on what he was pleased to call my extreme reticence as regards the secrets of the house), had become possessed of sufficient knowledge to have forced us to have put up our shutters within twenty-four hours of his revelations, if he had chosen to make them. Now, I ask you what you would have done under such circumstances? Would you not have soothed him down in the best way you cordd, and made the best terms in your power ? I will say myseK, that any share that I might have had in the settlement vrith Edwards I would repeat again to-morrow. With regard to his statement that I have never accounted to him for the money, it is simply not true, as I paid him the interest regularly, and considerable amounts on. account of the principal ; and it was only at his own wish that I did not include him in the list of creditors under my deed, he pre- ferring to rim the chance of my honourably papng him in case I ever started afresh. Now a few words Mith regard to the great 376 losses of the house. I neither began the accounts with Mr. Mare, which resulted in the MiUwaU Company, iior with Mr. Lever and the Atlantic Mail Company, nor with Mr. Xenos, all those three people being among the bitterest enemies I have, in consequence of their looking upon me as the person who stopped their depreda- tions ; but I confess to have taken the view that those accounts and their kindred ones were necessary to be kept out of the Bank- ruptcy Court by every means in our power, if we wished to retain the solid business which I always believed to be at the bottom of our embroilment. Eut it appears that I not only miscalculated the power of the house, but also the extent of the assistance which in time of need could bo brought in. Let me state further a fact worthy of some consideration — that during the nine months in which the limited company was in existence, they managed to lose the sum of £1,300,000 by transactions entirely irrespective of the old firm ; at least this is stated by Mr. Harding in his evidence. I will only add, that I was entirely unaware of Edwards having received any commission from any person with whom he was deal- ing on behalf of the firm. I hope this explanation may be satis- factory to you ; but, whether it is so or no, my conscience accuses me keenly of many most culpable follies in my private capacity, but of disloyalty to the house never. Believe me, your affectionate son, D. "Wakd Chapman. No. 52. To the Editor of the Times. Sir, The remarks in your columns to-day upon this case induce me to ask you for permission to explain a very great misconception which seems to have arisen from the reference made to my name by Mr. Edwards in his evidence before the Lord Mayor. My connexion with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. com- menced in the early part of 18G1, when they requested me to take the superintendence of the works then in progress at Mdlwall, the property of Mr. C. J. Mare. I accepted that appointment at a fixed yearly salary of .£1500. I continued as such superintendent until the formation of a company; in 1863, to purchase and work the 377 establishment ; the buildings and machinery (the erection of which was commenced by Mr. Marc) being then completed. I had no further or other employment from Messrs. Overend, Gurucy, and Co., except in connexion with those works. Although I certainly had frequent transactions in business "with Mr. Edwards after his connexion with Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. had ceased, I never was a member of any firm called *' Edwards and O'Beirno," nor did any such firm exist, to my knowledge. No advances were ever applied for to Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and Co. by any firm or co-partnersliip of which I was a member, nor was I ever engaged in any pursuits which required such advances. I am, Sir, Your very obedient servant, J. Ltstek O'Beienb. 36, Sackville Street, Piccadilhj, Jan. 28, ^^ Gross HE 945 G8X26 L 005 059 049 6