ven is the _bona fide_ investor always safe. He is
the goose that lays the golden egg. In one respect this weakness is
somewhat tragic. For instance, to give an extreme case:--Suppose A. B.,
twelve years back, had, as the result of a life of industry, saved 5,000
pounds, and invested it in the London and North Western Railway, when
that famous stock was in demand, and quoted as high as 250 pounds, what
must be the unhappy condition of that too-confiding A. B., supposing he
has not already died of a broken heart, when he finds London and North
Western stock quoted, as at this present time, under 100 pounds? Again,
supposing C. D. had died, leaving his disconsolate widow and twelve
children, innocent but helpless, a nice little property consisting of
shares in the Western Bank of Scotland. What must be the state of that
disconsolate widow and those twelve children, innocent but helpless, upon
finding that not only have all the original shares completely vanished
into ducks and drakes, but that upon each share a responsibility of
somewhere about one hundred and fifty pounds has been incurred besides?
Can we calculate the sum total of bitter misery thus created and
scattered far and wide? As well might we attempt to realise the dark and
dismal regions of the damned. The caution cannot be too often repeated,
to avoid investments which entail unknown liabilities, or which are
subject to great fluctuations of price or the amount of dividend.
Abundant opportunity for safe investment is offered in the Debentures,
Preference and Guaranteed Stocks of British Railways, which pay from 4 to
5 per cent. per annum. The aggregate value of the stocks and shares
which are dealt in on the London Stock Exchange is somewhat bewildering
in its enormous amount. First and foremost are the several stocks
constituting the National Debt of Great Britain, which may be taken at
between eight and nine hundred millions. The capitals of the various
British railways amount to upwards of three hundred millions. The
capitals of the Bank of England and of sundry joint-stock banks amount to
more than thirty millions. Then there is a large amount invested in
canals, gas and water, steam, telegraph, and dock companies. The total
amount of American railways is about one hundred and sixty-eight millions
sterling; European railways, two hundred millions; and those of India and
our colonies, fifty millions. Moreover, there is a vast aggregate amount
o