Although the company had so long a list of directors, Mr. Mackenzie observed that the policies were always signed by the same three individuals, that no designations or addresses were annexed to the names, and that there was an accumulation of functions in the respective office-bearers, quite unusual. He then determined, believing that the company was radically wrong, to discharge his duties at all risks. And most manfully did he perform that determination. In March, 1839, under the head of “EXPOSURE,”[24] he inserted an article in his “Reformers’ Gazette;” and it is hardly possible to exaggerate the sensation which the exposure produced in Glasgow. Men of all parties congratulated him on his fearless attack; the people who were assured in the West Middlesex ran wildly to the office, where they were told, “that the reasonableness and moderation with which they had done business had been the cause of great jealousy and offence, and had brought down on them a variety of assertions of the most false, calumnious, and slanderous character.”
They threatened Mr. Mackenzie with the terror of the law; but on the 9th March that gentleman again attacked them, asking, “Will the mere statement of a parcel of swindlers in their own favour secure for them public confidence, when it has been directly and specially assailed?”
The more they were attacked, however, the more they advertised. All the London and provincial papers were employed to spread their terms, and 2000_l._ were placed in the hands of their law agent to ruin, if possible, Mr. Peter Mackenzie. Undauntedly, however, did he continue week after week to attack them; and it is impossible not to admire the mingled gallantry and audacity with which they defended outpost and citadel. Though they lost one action they had brought against Mr. Mackenzie, they commenced another, declaring that their terms were fair and liberal, that the public could insure with them at favourable rates to themselves and reasonable profit to the company, “and, above all, that Mr. Mackenzie was false, calumnious, and slanderous.”
The position in which they were placed was curious enough. It was plain that a most disgraceful fraud was in existence; but while no act of insolvency was committed, the law could not interfere. There was, indeed, no way of stopping them; and it was evident that they would only cease business when the public ceased to pay its money. While they discharged the annuities as they became due, and paid the life or fire policies which fell in, they were utterly uncontrollable, save by the moral power of the press. This power, so far as Mr. Mackenzie was concerned, was most unsparingly used; but he availed himself of another weapon. The name of Peter Mackenzie is rarely mentioned in England in connection with this company, that of Sir Peter Laurie and the West Middlesex being always associated; and this is owing to the fact that, not content with the powerful articles in his paper, he sent a letter, with the report of the trial, to Sir Peter, to inform him that “the company called the West Middlesex was a company of swindlers,” begging him to use his influence as chief magistrate of the city of London, to stop this crying iniquity. Sir Peter went to the Bank of England, and inquired if they knew anything of the company. “Yes,” was the reply, “they are the greatest swindlers that ever existed in London.” “On this hint he spake;” and from his seat at the Mansion House the “first Scotch Lord Mayor” let all England know that the Independent and West Middlesex Insurance Company was a sham, and that Sir Peter was going to put it down. The declarations he openly made, and the information he procured, produced an enormous number of letters from the victims. The company became a theme of public conversation--the assurance offices rejoiced at the discovery of their rival’s infamy--and those who were insured were rudely startled from their dream of security.