THE CITY OF UNLIMITED PAPER.

Colonist, Issue 62, 25 May 1858, Page 4

THE CITY OF UNLIMITED PAPER.

> (From :JDickens's : Household }Vords.) . ; Witihn a certain circle of which the Royal Exchange is the centre,/, lie the ruins of great paper city.. Its rulers solid.and.,substantial as they appear to the >' eye^—are made of paper. They ride, in paper; carriages ; they marry paper wives, arid unto: them are born paper children; their food is paper, their thoughts are paper, and. all they touch is transformed ;to paper;,ithey, buy paper, and they sell paper: they row paper and they lend ]paper~a paj^ef that shrinks and withers. inUhe gras^'like' the leaves of the sensitive plant; arid the stately looking palaces in; which they lijye, and trade, are built of papefr-rsmall oblong> pieces of paper, which, like the. card-Board houses of our^' : (^idhobd > ''j^l,ynt]l;a'#gle. breath. That breadth has overtaken: them; and they lie in the dust. Let me collect the scattered pieces,, and build them bp into such another variety of trembling: structures as they formed, before; as they form now; or as, in a few years, they will undoubtedly fbrm again. I Our first paper house is the firm of Cjol- ' laps,. Vortex, Docket, and Co., general; merchants. It is quiet and unobtrusive, in appearance,.being in Tobacco-lane, Fen- ! cnurch-street ; ; and its small ofiice 'has riot had its windows cleaned/for thirty years, which gives it a favorable appearance of solidity. -The leading peculiarity; ipf jthis. firm was ramification; and it. is: reniarkiolG for the harmony-and beauty, of its complex; machinery; The senior:partner, Mr..Collaps, is a merchant of the old school. There is a fund of credit in his shde-rbucklesi jarid in the heavy yellow fariiUy coach Ithat comes to;f^tch him of ; an;aflernoqn. -Mr. Liiffects an almost t>f attire# he #ttend|, to the; dj^in^iig! cie-t"* partment, and tlie^chairrßanshi^s raiid di-! rectorships of. those/ important;ancl'cKoice public; companies which he! finds' so :iq^efpl in consolidating the credit of the.^buse.; ;Mr. Docket is a copy of : Mr.- Vortex^ some fifteen years, younger; he attenids, to! the : working part of the business,..wha,teyer| that may be; superintends the clerks, answeH troublesome inquiries, and. is /sjipiposed' to buy and sell/ all.the. "merchandise. Thfe; ramifications /of the/ house/extend to nipst cities of importance ; iii England, abi "pad., ■ and the colonies. In Glasgow tnere;i j ( the branch firm of. M'Vortex rand, $o«, wjip have established friendly relations with.all the leading banks, arid whose 1 paper* ;drawn upon the substantial firni of O'Dacket arid Co., of Dublin, is 'done'without a whisper, at the minimum, rate. The substantial firm of D'Pocket arid Co. of Dublin i^pjpjs the highest credit that can \be ; obtained by a long course of regular trading in the land <of generous sympathies and itripulsive genius; and their paper,^pppn; the highly respectable firm of /M'Vortex ah# Co., of Glasgow, l is muchtin demand; at jery low/ rates ;of discount indeed. Then, there.is. /Alphonse: Collaps and Co. of Parish; the great house of Collaps Brothers at Calcutta; Vortex,; Collaps, of San •Francisco; Docket Brothers and Collaps at New York; Collaps, Collaps, and Co. of the

Gape of Good Hope; Vortex, Docket and Vortex, of Melbourne, Australia; and Vortex Brothers and Docket, of, Montreal, Canada! These all draw and feed upon each other, as their necessities require; and the parent firm of Collaps, Vortex, Docket, and Co., of Tobacco-lane, London, watches over its obedient children with more than fatherly interest, and trades iupoii'their acceptances to the extent of millions. Formerly the great London house used to stop payment during every commercial panic* their credit preventing their necessity at doing so at any other time. Now they: have grown too wise and important to do that.; -It is not that their' trade has become in any degree sounder or more legitimate, * but the accumulated liabilities of many years have swelled their transactions into such gigantic proportions that the mere whisper of any difficulty" to the Governor; and Company of the Bank of England causes a representation jto be made to our paternal government, whose mission it is to foster; protect, and accommodate, trade; and it is agreed that 'such a .public calamity as .the suspension of Messrs.. Collaps; Vortex and ■ Co..must be ■prevented at any cost; > It is prevented by Jthe; suspension-of the Bank Charter Act inisteadi an extra issue of Bank of England notes is^ autfibrised, with • government -guarantee in case their should not be gold to exchange fc-r them; £nd commerce—lll— ' used cdmrnercfe^-breathes^again.