Sir John Hay has not benefited by his appeal from
the Vice- Chancellor to the Lords Justices in the matter of the Canadian Oil Wells Company. Sir R. Malins had decided that he must repay the £1,000 paid him, in order to purchase his quali- fying shares, because either the transaction was invalid and the shares unpaid for, or it was valid and the shares paid for illegally out of the Company's money, which the liquidator had there- fore a right to claim. Sir J. Hay appealed, but the Lords Jus- tices affirmed the decision, Lord Justice James in particular pass- ing a severe condemnation on "English gentlemen Who conde- scended to become the hired retainers of unknown American adventurers." The cheque, said his lordship, according to the Times' report, "was a cheque by which the money of the Com- pany was taken by one of the directors, by the authority and with the consent and knowledge of his co-directors, out of the moneys of the Company, for the purpose of paying that which was a bribe to him for having sold the Company in the transaction." That
is terribly severe, but no practice more needs punishment than that of manufacturing qualifications.
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