brings to the claws of the stronger vultures
those tit-bits which, in the case of the dead
animal, we should call fat flesh, but to which, in
that of the dying company, we give the sweet
name of "costs."

Those who have not been behind the scenes
at the birth, during the life, and at the death
of a joint-stock company, would imagine that
nothing must be easier than to wind up a
concern such as ours. They would, no doubt, fancy
that all the official liquidator would have to do
would be to collect such moneys as are due to
the affair, pay all just debts as far as he could,
and—if the funds in hand are not enough for
that purpose—to cause, or enforce the payment
of a certain contribution by the shareholders,
under the "Limited Liability" Act, by which
each individual is liable only for the amount
and number of shares for which he has
subscribed. This, however, is only in theory—the
practice is very diiferent.

We had altogether about two hundred
shareholders, When I say that of these persons
there was not one that had not offers of services
from at least one, two, or more solicitors, the
commotion which our coming to grief caused in
the legal world may be imagined. And as many
advisers, so many legal opinions were there.
Some of these gentlemen held that the bank had
never been properly constituted, that the
shareholders were not only not liable for any further
calls upon them, but that they had been cheated
out of the money already paid; that the
directors were a parcel of swindlers, having
obtained money on false pretences, and that if all
the deposits and calls that had been paid upon
shares were not returned immediately to the
shareholders, all the members of our late board
would be indicted as criminals before the Lord
Mayor, and subsequently be brought to the bar
of the Old Bailey. My friend the dissenting
minister from the Eastern Counties, who on a
former occasion had shaken his fist in my face,*
seemed to have a very strong opinion on the
subject. He had paid about five hundred pounds
upon his shares and calls, and this money he
demanded should be at once refunded him.
Indeed, his legal adviser went so far as to write
to one of the directors, that unless a cheque
for the amount was sent by return of post,
he, the said director, would be at once charged
with criminal conduct before a police magistrate.

* See How the Bank came to Grief, vol. xiii.,
page 102.

Threats like these of course did no good whatever
to those who uttered them. If any director
had been fool enough to pay one shilling to the
shareholders, the whole of his fortune would
have been absorbed like so many drops in the
ocean. But the legal gentlemen gained in the
quarrel, or at any rate they gained so far as to
be paid by their clients for work done—for
"costs"—even though the said clients derived
no benefit whatever from their advice. But there
were not many of our shareholders foolish enough
thus to run their heads against stone walls,
although one and all tried upon various pleas to
shake off responsibility, and be declared as not
liable to any future payments. Thus, when
letters were written to them all, telling them
that they would have to pay up a certain amount
on their respective shares, answers to most of
these came, saying, in polite and legal language,
that they, the writers, would see the official
liquidator in purgatory first. Some declared that
they had been induced to take the shares under
false pretences; others, that the company was no
company, never could have been legally a
company, and that the directors were men the very
reverse of honest. Day after day did communications
like these reach the official liquidator.
They were all written by the respective solicitors
of the different shareholders, and not only cost
money, but before each was indited, legal
opinions, consultations, and other preparatory
measures, had also to be paid for. Then came
the replies from the solicitors for the winding-
up, which had also to be paid for, as
had opinions of counsel, serving of writs, fees
for doing this, that, and the other, so that
almost from the very commencement the
labourers in the legal profession had a rich
harvest, which they reaped with no little energy
and activity.

In the bank, we who were of the staff of the
company had now an idle time of it. We had
nothing whatever to do, and we did that remarkably
well. Four months' notice to quit the service
had been served upon each of us; but
notwithstanding our occupation was gone, we came
almost every day to our old haunts, although we
arrived in the morning and went away in the
afternoon at such hours as suited our own
convenience. We were not allowed to touch a book
or write a letter for the winding-up of the bank;
the official liquidator having put clerks of his
own in charge of everything in the office. We
read the Times, roasted chesnuts on the fire, had
cozy hot luncheons, at our own expense, in the
board-room, and altogether behaved ourselves as
high-minded gentlemen under a temporary cloud
ought to do. Now and then our dignified leisure
was disturbed by some indignant shareholder,
who came up from the country under the
delusion that he had only to apply at the bank
in order to have the whole of the money he had
paid upon shares returned at once. These parties
did not, however, get much satisfaction from us.
In fact, they generally went away under a vague,
but not ill founded, impression that they were
being jested with, and returned to whence they
had come more angry, if not wiser men than
before. For some of these persons, however, it was
impossible not to feel sorry. Many of them had
been seduced into taking shares partly by the grand
promises which our prospectus* held out, but
chiefly by the often reported success of numerous
other companies of a like nature with ours. One
poor lady—the widow of a clergyman—had been