The mania originated with some similar undertakings projected by the King of Holland, but which being prudently conducted were moderately successful. But never was theory more vividly exemplified, in practice, than were the warnings of Adam Smith realized in the case of the Belgium companies; without either of his two essentials to success--“monopoly or defined and limited action;” they burst at once into all the pathless wilds of speculation and extravagance. To success in any industrial undertaking, two things are essential, _mind and money_; but the shareholders of a company contribute only the latter, leaving the supply of the former to a directory: the partners are only called upon to _pay_ and not to _think_, so that the mass of their capital is unrepresented by an equivalent proportion of intellect and forethought. The _general_ result of this, is the failure that invariably accompanies neglect, and even the works which are undertaken are never pushed with vigour, or expanded by new discoveries and inventions. These are the offspring of that anxious exertion of all the faculties of the brain which accompanies the watchful prudence of a man, who has his whole fortune at stake, and is dependent upon his individual genius. But the holder of a joint-stock share, who throws his contribution into the general fund, and sends twice a year for his dividend, (perhaps, without receiving it,) has neither the information nor the interest that are indispensable to stimulate improvements. Mistakes and errors are thus constantly occurring, and losses supervene; these, on their first appearance, would alarm and deter a private individual from incurring further risk, and he would prepare, at once, to retrieve his capital; but to the officers of a company these occurrences are matters of comparative indifference, so long as the last shilling of the paid up funds remains to meet their salaries as they fall due. And even the proprietary themselves, though conscious of the diminution of their profits, do not feel it so acutely, coming as it does off so large a fund, and are, besides, spurred on by the spirit of rivalry to incur the temporary loss, in order to drive some competing company from the field, which is only to be done by the largeness of their transactions; on the principle of the match-seller, who lost a trifle upon every bundle, and would be ruined were it not for the vast extent of the business which he did.