Dear Six,—I understand from your brother that, as is only right, you wish to have in writing an account of the nature of the investment. his I gladly submit as far I am permitted to disclose it. It is as follows. The guarantee is that of the Government, and the period of the payment. is (roughly) about thirteen years from the present date. It originated, as no doubt you have heard, in the desire to consolidate the enormous local indebtedness of the country by the creation of a stock called Local, Loans without the payment (immediate) of commission and discount on the whole amount, hose terms were, I understand, rejected by. the great houses, and the Exchequer (in the slang.of the Stock Exchange) refused to salt Capel Court.' It was therefore resolved to do without them, and by the payment of a phenomenal interest for a limited time, on what was a very small sum compared to the large total, to float the loan at once. This sum was raised amongst, the. Government. Departments, and to certain officials, myself among them,. certain siting were assigned with the power of obtaining the money from any source they, might think proper, on the understanding. that they should submit the names of friends whom they wished to join, hic, of ennrso, has been done in every case, and a list of such is kept at my office in town, together with a statement of the amount invested, ete. We are, however, pledged to observe the strictest secrecy in the matter ourselves, and to require a similar pledge from each depositor."
By this simple swindle, so simple that, as the Daily News says, "a knot of swindlers debating schemes in a parliament of their order would have unanimously rejected this one as beyond all hope of success," this golden doctor, torso he must have appeared at first to his victims, collected ho less a sum than thirty-five thousand nds sterling in the pleasant city of ath. But he was a very poor manager. By: pledging his victims to secrecy he prevented their finding him out; for if one of them had mentioned it to his banker—they were all people in good positions with banking accounts—or to any mau of business, the scheme would have been exploded at once. If he had been a better manager he might have lived for some years in comfort on what he had' collected, paying out, the promised interest from the capital, or he might have gone off to Spain with the whole sum; but he squandered his money in' gambling' speculations on the Stock Exchange and dn'the Turf, and is now working opt a sentence of: four years'
The. newspapers. at home blame the Victims of this swindle, which seems to "us unfair aswell as unkind. Iwo of them were clergymen, one was a medical inspector, and all were in godd positions, "for their enticer only dealt in thousands. (To respect constituted. authorities is a duty. taught. us very early, and this gentleman, now a convict, was a D.C.L., a clergyman, a government inspector "of schools, and, according to his own showing, a nal friend of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He wrote his letters from the Office of the Local Government Board, and his victims could hardly ask for better evidences of his respectability and credibility. They may have thought it improbable that the government should have to pay ten but then they must have heard very lee cent. for a comparatively small Joan, often that truth is stranger than fiction, "The Daily News suggests that "like some persons in another field of speculation, they seem to have believed because of the impossibility." The Spectator's explanation, if any explanation beyond the respectability of the swindler is needed, is nearer the truth. Itsays that there are "two ideas now almost traditionary,—one, that every Government, our own included, is always being driven to small financial expedients; and another, that it is alvtays being robbed by great financiers, who float' loans with fabulous profit' to themselves."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.