From this day the star of the chevalier waned in England. He turned fencing-master, but with difficulty obtained a living. He assumed female attire, but his hour was over. He had ceased to be a curiosity to the many; the “death brokers,” as Horace Walpole calls them, could make no more by him; and with the assurance on his sex ceases the interest of Chevalier d’Eon, in the context of this volume. His name is only interesting to the reader from the fact that Chief Justice Mansfield adjudicated on his case, and that an important decision was arrived at in the legal history of this science, when his Lordship declared that a policy of assurance, although not even on life, when entered into without an insurable interest, was against the purport of the act recently passed, and contrary to English notions of morality.
CHAP. X.
FRAUDULENT ANNUITIES—ACT TO PREVENT THEM.—SALVADOR THE JEW.—DAVID CUNNINGHAM THE SCOTCHMAN—HIS CAREER—HIS ANNUITY COMPANY—ITS SUCCESS—HIS DOUBLE CHARACTER—HIS FATE.—MORTUARY REGISTRATION.—JOHN PERROTT—HIS PASSION FOR CHINA—TRICK PLAYED HIM.—CURIOUS FRAUD.—WESTMINSTER SOCIETY.—PELICAN.
When it was found that a fraudulent system of assurance would no longer be permitted, a fraudulent system of annuities usurped its place, and parliament was once more compelled to legislate. By an act passed in 1777, it was determined that, “owing to the pernicious practice of raising money by the sale of life annuities having greatly increased, and being much promoted by its secrecy, the particulars of all deeds, bonds, &c., for granting these annuities shall, within twenty days of the execution thereof, be enrolled in the Court of Chancery, otherwise such bond shall be void. All future deeds also for granting annuities, to contain the consideration and the names of the parties; and that if any part of the consideration be returned, or is paid in bills not honoured, or is paid in goods, or any part retained under pretence of securing the future payments of the annuity, or under any other pretence, the Court may order the deed to be cancelled. All contracts with persons under twenty-one to be void; and no solicitor, scrivener, or broker, to take more than 10s. per cent., under penalty of fine and imprisonment.”
A long course of evil doing had led to this enactment. From the commencement of the eighteenth century, Jews, and Christians worse than Jews; usurers, and bankers worse than usurers; had habitually sold life annuities: before this, it was less common, being reserved almost entirely for usurers and goldsmiths. It was a branch of business of which, little as the seller might know, the annuitant knew nothing. But if such men as Snow the banker, Samson Gideon the founder of the house of Eardley[15], Fordyce the insolvent banker, and Colebrooke the bankrupt East India director, undertook to grant payments, it may easily be guessed, that they were either unmercifully fleeced, or got nothing at all, when the great millionnaire was in the Gazette. Nor was the practice confined to these men; Exchange Alley was pre-eminent in buying or in selling annuities, in undertaking to pay, or in willingness to receive any amount of money. They were as ready to assure the life of, or to promise an annuity to a country clergyman, as they were to trade in the fall of a prime minister, or to traffic in the blood of an admiral. They took the hoard of the servant with as much coolness as they coined false intelligence; and when a reverse of fortune made them penniless, it involved hundreds of innocent persons with them.
The frauds which now attend the loans of money to the spendthrift, are nothing compared to the gigantic scale with which, under the name of annuities, they were then carried on. If a man granted one on a fine estate for a consideration, that consideration was rarely paid in money. The unhappy borrower was obliged to take whatever he could get. Thus the stock-jobber made his prey receive consols at a price much above that of the market. The merchant gave him a bill of lading for some indifferent kind of merchandise. The banker handed him long-dated bills, and sometimes was a bankrupt before they were due. The large tradesmen—many of whom then, as now, surreptitiously carried on the trade of money lending—got rid of goods which were otherwise unsaleable. One piece of plate did yeoman’s service to its owner; into whatever transaction of the kind he entered, it was always introduced. It was valued at 600l. to the recipient, and it was always bought back by the usurer for 70l. This man, a wealthy jeweller named Salvador, was a specimen of another class, common enough in the middle of the eighteenth century. His shop in Cornhill was the general resort of those who wanted money and could give good security. He ran from his house to ’Change Alley twenty times a day, to ascertain the price of the funds, in which he dealt largely; and his agony was excessive when it went against him. He would tear his hair and gnash his teeth; he truly rent his heart, but not his garments, for the latter cost money. During these paroxysms, the youngsters of the day were made to suffer most exorbitantly, and one of them openly calling him Shylock Salvador—the name he was usually known by—nearly paid the penalty of his life; for the incensed Jew threw himself on the young profligate and almost killed him. The idiosyncrasy of this man made him mad when he lost his money, and as mad to regain it. Yet he evinced touches of benevolence which redeemed his character, and traits of kindness which made him much loved and respected by all his tribe. To Christians he was as mischievous as a monkey, taking a delight in giving a crown piece to a beggar, and then following him to demand it back, under pretence that he had given it instead of a penny, with which, however, he always failed to redeem it.
It need not be added that he was loud in his reprobation of the act against gambling in annuities, as it promised to strike a deep blow at his profits. The bill met with much opposition, especially in the upper house, but while the Earl of Abingdon deemed it his duty to denounce its unconstitutional tendency, and to declare, “it was not calculated for the genius of a free nation,” the Earl of Mansfield, a higher authority, said, his experience had long since taught him that some bill was wanting to put a stop to the usurious contracts and fraudulent transactions which had been practised for many years, and which were now carried to an height of enormity.
At this period, various brokers and merchants devoted their capital entirely to annuities, and many most honourable men experienced a pleasure in aiding the endeavours of the poor, scorning at the same time to take a mean advantage of the spendthrift; but there were others who would have jobbed in the lives of their fathers, and sold their own souls to perdition in their love of mammon.