PUBLIC RECORD, OFFICE
ستنلس
Reference :-
C.O. 882
1
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
8
April 10, of which part only is printed. The follow- ing is the principal statement on the head of "Want of capital and mismanagement:"
Let Mr. Lindsay answer the question by which the management of the Company's affairs can be judged: Is this Company possessed of the capital required by the charter? Let him account for the first item of the balance-sheet of 1849, where, under the head of "Capital," appears a credit of 51,000 in favour of the Company, Although the yearly report shows only 5000l. as the amount of the money paid up by the shareholders. When he has done this, the prudence and energy of the direction will be made apparent.
The inefficient and dilatory working of the coal-mine is established by the correspondence of Mr. Napier, the authority of Admiral Austen, and the testimony of Mr. Coulson, an insubortlinate overseer, who has been guilty of unpleasing truth; it is proved that a Company with a nominal capital of 200,0001., had to borrow a sum of 1304. from the local Government to prevent the stoppage of its works; and by the latest account from Labuan, that the squadron under the command of Captain Massie, of Her Majesty's ship "Cleopatra," was detained in January last at that settlement, for want of a supply of coal.
The best proof, however, of the dilatory proceedings complained of, is contained in Mr. Lindsay's own letter, which demonstrates that an extensive Company, possessed (or said to be possessed) of large capital, and incorporated for the purpose of carrying out important national objects, has, after four years' application of labour, wisdom, energy and every other requisite (money and honesty alone excepted), raised the prodigious quantity of 10,000 tons of coal, or at the rate of 2,500 tons per annum.
In this letter, however, Sir James Brooke states
his intention of bringing questions between him and the Company to a legal issue, and the proceedings already had.
..
On this head it may be advisable to refer to the Law Proceedings.
inclosed "Memorandum of a conversation" said
to have taken place in January of this year, between
Mr. Philipps, Sir James Brooke's solicitor, and Sir
J. Campbell. It is given by Mr. Lindsay in his letter of March 12:
Copy of Statement in the handwriting of Sir John N. R. Campbell, K.C.H.
Memorandum of Conversation with Mr. Philipps, in the presence of James Hartley, Esq., Director of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, on Thursday, January 22, 1852, at Mr. Hartley's Office.
Papers, May 17, 1852. p. 53.
4
9
Mr. Philipps professed kind and friendly motives; ad- mitted that two or three secreant shareholders had been in communication with Sir James Brooke, and had taken the proper scent from him. He said the charter of the Eastern Archipelago Company was nil, according to the opinions of counsel, and that he was prepared to prove it; that the best way was to reorganize the Company,' shake off Mr. Wise's claims, which could not be main- tained, the terms of the charter not having been complied with, and to give him a reasonable annuity. That Mr. Wise had attacked Sir James Brooke, who would never forget it; that all were in a dilemma, and that Sir James Brooke had
no hostile feelings towards individual subscribers or mem- ber of the direction; that proceedings would sooner or later be taken against the Directors, jointly and severally; and that every act of the Company, as now constituted, was illegal, and that the best way would be, as it really did possess the elements of greatness and success, to subscribe extra capital, and apply to Government for a new charter, the present one having been granted to persons, one or more of whom were at the time in a state of insolvency. That instead of 50,0004, only 15,000% had been paid up, and that the rest of the supposed capital was composed of land, &c., taken at Mr. Wise's estimate, and sold to the Company, and which Mr. MoGregor had somehow man- aged to settle with the Board of Trade.
That now the best way to remedy matters was, to shake off Mr. Wise's claim, through the medium of a new churter, giving him a fair annuity; reorganise the Com- pany; take new blood into the direction, and make a friend of Sir James Brooke.
I thanked Mr. Philipps for his kind intentions and for
his communication; said that, as an individual, I thought
all would be found to be right on inquiry, but that I would think over the circumstances he had so fully pointed out.
As I rose to go, Mr. Philipps said that he would issue a writ of scire facias against the Directors.
The first legal proceeding had, under Sir James Brooke's direction apparently, was a bill in chan- filed by Dr. McBride, a partner in the Com- pany, to have his shares restored to him, on the ground of fraud. It was dismissed by Vice-Chan-
cery,
See Appendix to Papers published cellor Turner (April 20th last), apparently on the
culation.
by Mr. Lindsay for private cir ground that no special fraud, as against Dr. McBride, apart from other shareholders, was alleged.
But a writ of scire facias to repeal the Company's charter has been obtained by Sir James Brooke himself as prosecutar. The Company has pleaded
D