PROPOSAL FOR A NEW FELONY.
Ma. BARON ALDERSON has suggested a Parliamentary raid upon bill-jobbers. The enterprise seemed worth the ambitious atten- tion of any Member willing to undertake it ; and we are not surprised that Mr. Digby Seymour's knight-errantry should have been aroused to accept the challenge. The case which called forth the judicial suggestion was certainly of a kind to exhibit the system in its worst features. A young gentleman, who appears to be very inexperienced, was asked for his acceptance, simply as an accommodation to a friend : the friend had procured the bill for a third person, who had suggested the manceuvre, and who professed that he had tried to get it discounted but had failed. This person—a Mr. Newcome—kept the bill by him for some time ; and then, being in debt to an attorney, he gave it to that person as a security. Not getting his money, the attorney instituted pro- ceedings against the acceptor; but on learning the manner in which Newcome became possessed of the bill, the lawyer abandoned his proceedings and the document together, and it was impounded in court. Except that all parties appeared to have had very little concert or determinate purpose in the proceedings, it might on like a conspiracy to obtain possession of somebody's money on the
strength of a figmentary document; and it is natural that such at- tempts upon the unwary should excite indignation ; but perhaps Mr. Baron Alderson has suffered the judge to yield too hastily to the impulse of the gentleman. It is not, indeed, that the system does not demand some effectual check, on account of its extension, and of its infamous character. The traffic in these instruments has called into existence a class of traders closely allied to sharpers, considerable in numbers, prac- tised in shrewdness, skilled in evading the law, and also skilled in evading the liabilities which they throw upon others. Unfortu- nately, the method of transacting business contributes to lend this practice the appearance of a sanction by the example of legitimate traders. The speed with which transfers of goods now take place, the diversity of dates, and the anticipation of actual exchanges, often render it desirable to pass testimonies to exchanged values before the actual goods have passed from hand to hand ; and some- times this transfer will occur many times in anticipation of the real transaction. Some merchants trade so fast, that it is to be doubted whether they have themselves that perfectly distinct con- ception of the state of their dealings, without which real soundness cannot be secured ; for it is to be remembered—though the truth is forgotten by many who would scorn a rebuke to them as business men—that in the balancing of credit, above all other transactions, "time is money"; and that a manwhose transactions do not tally with his accounts is not really solvent if his dates do not balance as well as the sum-total. The speed with which great houses go ahead tends also to encourage the absence of discrimination ; and a single " name " on a bill will make it pass current where it little deserves. Sometimes that name, though well known and distinguished by nominal wealth, may be that of a fast man of this kind ; and hence, even in legitimate commerce, there exists a species of paper, in great part sound, but in great part also questionable and in some portion actually unsound. The border between legitimate commerce and the vile kind that we have de- scribed, it would be impossible to define. Men who operate as sharpers, in some cases have actual dealings as regular traders; and hence a second auxiliary force of kite-flyers, whose outposts and piquets are mingled with those of the regular force, and who are able even to share the character of the better order. The sta- tistics of this traffic will never be procured ; but enough is known to justify the impulsive desire of Baron Alderson for that summary treatment of the offenders, for which, however, on reflection, the experienced judge will scarcely be sponsor as a practicable course. He thinks he could crush the offence by making it a felony. Even if the penal enactment were limited to "accommodation- bills "—bills without consideration—it would be very difficult indeed to construct a felony out of a very large proportion of the cases; and no English jury would condemn an inconsiderate trades- man or a fast young gentleman to penal servitude for an indis- creet use of paper.
Yet the paper itself is an evil with an influence far worse and more extensive than that which it exercises over the indiscreet. The discreet get dragged in, not only by the bankruptcies which lodge bad debts upon their books, but also by the irregularities in- troduced into trade. And the growing tendency of the disease to encourage the growth of fast practices, even among the more legi- timate commercialists, is infecting genuine trade. We are not certain, however, that an increase of our legislation is the proper remedy; and still more we doubt whether penal le- gislation is the thing wanted. We have already too much of those laws to protect credit, which beget a feeling amongst men in busi- ness that the necessity for vigilance is superseded. A penal law would chiefly work upon the sharper class; but the class of sharp- ers only use additional penalties as new tests for their own acute- ness, new fences for the unwary, behind which the sharper may conceal his approaches and take his aim. If we are to legislate at all, it might be rather in the direction of undoing some of this false security. It is, we believe, already the law, that a bill without consideration is in itself void as against the party who first takes it : but might it not be desirable to extend this voidance ? Let every bill which is vitiated by a real irre- gularity in its origin and form be absolutely void. Traders would then view these instruments with infinitely more sus- picion. The caution would not impede the acceptance of
highly responsible men, whose history and transactions were known : but the person taking such a document would look be- yond its mere form, its stamp, and its " names," and would want to know what it really was—would not accept the names unless they were understood to be actual vouchers, certificates in brief, testifying to the perfect regularity of all the forms in the document and its passing. Genuine bills would then be in fact of more value, since they would be relieved from the discredit which now vaguely attaches to the whole class of such instruments. By a law of that kind, we believe that commercial men themselves would put the proper check upon the extension of this nefarious and vile species of paper currency.
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