Page:Facts, failures and frauds- revelations, financial, mercantile, criminal.djvu/175

FACTS, FAILUHES, ASH) mAUDS. 1C3 Gordon, his brokers, as well as his own acuteness and sagacity, he was enabled to maintain his position, though meeting at every turn with peculiar emergencies.

To afford a yet wider basis of operations, it was determined to fabricate a large number of accommodation bills; and, for the purpose of acceptance, the firm of Paris and Co. was created, and an account opened for it at Messrs. Masterman and Co.'s. This was in the year 1851. The firm consisted of Cole, Davidson, Gordon, and afterwards of George Harris De Fussett. Richard Paris, a mechanical engineer, was given two guineas a-week by De Russett for the use of his name, and Maltby was the person who accepted most of the bills in the name of Maltby and Co., making them payable at Masterman and Co.'s. De Russett also kept an account with Messrs. Prescott and Co. The bills, which were of service in accompanying and passing the Hagen Wharf warrants, represented no real transactions. In one and the same day, a given sum of money, received by Cole from Davidson and Gordon in the morning, would pass through the hands of the above bankers, then to the account of Colo Brothers, at Glyn's, and finally pass again to the account of Davidson and Gordon kept with Barnett, Hoare, and Co., the amount being slightly altered at each transition.