DEAR SIR,

To L. LAMBE, Esq.

Stock Exchange, January 10, 1801.

I HAVE this morning been with Lady Carpenter, agreeably to her ladyship's appointment, and of whom I have received £100, in part payment on your bond; also her draft on Hammersley's, for £10 interest. Her ladyship hopes it will not be inconvenient to you to allow her three months longer to discharge the remaining £100. Her ladyship was so polite, and her manners so engaging, that I could not help saying, I was sure you would afford her the accommodation. she asked, with pleasure and with readiness.

I hope Mrs. Lambe and yourself continue well. I will not wish you to outlive this century; that, perhaps, would be an incumbrance to age; but I do sincerely wish you both every happiness that can be expected in this world.

You have heard of the death of my dear sister. She was a pattern of goodness-she was charitable, and died like a Christian.

Yours faithfully,

B. O.

To CAPTAIN LIARDET.

DEAR LIARDET,

January 16, 1801.

YOUR attention to all the branches of your late dear wife's family deserves our united thanks, particularly your wish to give some remembrance of her

who was so dear to us: but in this instance I hope you will allow us to decline what you so handsomely offer,there needs nothing to awaken our sensibility to the recollection of so much worth; her dear memory " will outlive" those tokens, it is engraven in all our hearts.

Be a father to the dear boys, and you will be the friend of him, who, upon all occasions, will be proud to be thought yours.

B. O.

DEAR LIARDET,

To CAPTAIN LIARDET.

Stock Exchange, February 18, 1801.

You have informed me the tablet to the memory of my dear sister is finished, and erected. I thank you for the compliment you pay me in speaking of the "chasteness of the composition;" it is but a just tribute of regard, expressive of a brother's love; allow me that, and my measure of recompense is full. I shall always feel a melancholy pleasure whenever my steps approach the sacred repository that contains so much worth; - Gillingham will ever be one of those places that will impress me with a pious awe; and particularly in my serious moments I shall say, "What is this world? thy school, O misery! our only lesson is to learn to suffer; and he who knows not that, was born for nothing."

Yours ever,

B. O.

To GEORGE TOLDERVY, ESQ. LUDLOW.

DEAR SIR,

Stock Exchange, October 21, 1801.

I AM much flattered by your approbation of what I have done, and more particularly for your very liberal confidence in me.

I do not know how the alarming report reached you about the dividends being suspended." I have not heard any report of the kind, nor can I for a moment listen to it if you have such fears, they will naturally lead you from any wish to reinvest. The debt is monstrous indeed; yet I hope the resources of the country are equal to its appetite; that it will never hunger for regular meals; and that Government will ever be able to provide for it with a good grace.

"The clamour of bull and bear" is very familiar to me, having for twenty years been much in the habit of associating with these quadrupeds, or rather bipeds: the first is one who contracts for the purchase of stock for time, without having the money to pay for it; and the latter contracts for the delivery of stock at a certain period, without having it in his name to transfer to the purchaser; and when the day of settling arrives, must be adjusted at the then price, and the difference paid and received without any real transfer of stock.

You ask my opinion of the funds. I have no opinion: the best informed are as often wrong as right at all events you have been right, and that has been matter of chance. I cannot arrogate to myself any merit for what I have done; set that down to chance also. You are content that your property is in "so snug a nest;"

it is very closely surrounded by Government securities, and kept warm though in a gloomy vault. We do not yet know what are the wants of Government: great schemes of finance are talked of in the public prints, and which have given some relief to the money markets; but, say what they please, a day of reckoning will come, and at all events a provision must be made for six hundred millions.

Yours affectionately and faithfully,

B. O.

PROTEST against the Decision of the Members of the Stock Exchange upon their annulling Time Bargains.

New Stock Exchange, May 9, 1803.

WE, the undersigned, enter our Protest against the decision of the Stock Exchange, entered into on Thursday, the 5th day of May last, for the following reasons,

viz.

1st. Because it is fundamentally against the principles and constitution of this house, that any question of importance relating to its interests should come before its members for their approbation, without being previously discussed by the Committee for General Purposes; whose province it is, as a body (being delegated by the collective voice of this house), to hear and decide upon all questions in which the integrity, the punctuality, and the honour of this house are concerned.

2. Because we conceive the choice of persons to act upon an emergency such as has recently occurred, and not sanctioned by the general body of the proprietors of this house, as incompetent to any purpose

of legislation, and consequently not equal to enact laws that shall be effective to bind its members; the resolutions are, therefore, nugatory.

3. Because in all transactions in which this house is concerned, it has been its invariable character to adhere to all honourable engagements, notwithstanding it may have been the sport of rumour, and too often open to the fabrications of designing men, of which the late forgery is not without a parallel; and, also, that the law of this land with respect to money bargains is sufficiently explicit and distinct, as to the legality of them when transacted in an open public market; and, although the law does not take cognizance of time bargains (except in certain cases), there is, and ought to be, in the breast of every member of this house, a principle even superior to the law in the fulfilment of engagements, built upon the fabric of honour, confidence, and honesty.

Lastly; Because it has been received as an established maxim in this house, that all transactions for time are equally sacred with those for money; and because this maxim is essentially necessary to that confidence in each other upon all occasions, in which the law of the land does not afford an absolute countenance. We cannot subscribe to proceedings whereby that maxim is completely rooted up, and a dangerous precedent established, to which the varying interests of parties may constantly be referring, and for which it will not be difficult at any time to find a plausible pretence.

Sir Charles Price, Lord Mayor of London, communicated to the house a letter supposed to have been written by the Secretary of State, announcing the preliminaries of peace

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