We spoke yesterday on the...
IVe spoke yesterday on the multiplicity of projects a-foot; and the day itself on which our remarks appeared, only gave hirth to two. We would wish the public to observe that we are far from recommending that capital should lie dormant, or that the possessors of it should sleepily exist upon its mere legal retunis. lVhat we wish for is, the em- ployment of it in useful speculations-in schemes of manly enterprise. Some impropriety in the conduct of the promoters of new projects ought, at the present moment, to attract atteintion. The public will find, by inspecting the lists, that there are the same Directors to various projects of so similar a nature, that no single scheme can tlhrive but by the decline, and in proportion to the decline, of the other. Surely, on the commencement of a new proJect, the Directors should ad- vertise, as is often the ease with rival shopkeepers, that they have " no concern with the people in the next house ;" otherwise the dealers with them may be betrayed and de- ceived, to a degree of which they have no idea. But the reverse of this is tlhe case at present; it seeming to be a re- commendatior, to the manager of a new concern, that he is already deeply implicated in half a dozen others. Connected with the above is another practice, most dis- honest and dishonourable. A project is set on foot, witlh an air of secrecy; it is whispered about, talked about; people apply for shares, but in vain ; at last the scheme is made public,-then, however, the shares are at a premium of five, fifteen, or even cgh teen per cent. Purehases are made with avidity, the original speculators sell out, and realize pro- perty-shares fall to a discount, and the dupes suffer. WVe denounce these practices as most disgraceful to the parties concerned. They are more wicked than those of the wicked Lottery, of which we rejoiced to anticipate the suppression. WVe advise the public to beware of the many-headled Direc- tors. They can be true to no party.