Twenty years ago, when the Overend and Gurney failure spread such ruin amongst the upper and middle classes, this system, of trying to make money without labour, received a shock which for a time crushed it. But in the last decade, it has again sprung into existence, and has now reached a point at which it cannot be allowed to remain, and when steps must be taken, if not to suppress, at least to regulate and place under proper control what threatens to become an evil of no small magnitude. Let any one who doubts this, take the trouble, for even one or two weeks, to note the number of Joint-stock Companies which are advertised, the amount of capital they require, and above all, the inducements of gain which they hold out to the unwary. Recently, in one week, there were registered nine new Joint-stock Companies, of which seven came forth in the columns of the daily and weekly papers, offering to all who would join them the most magnificent return for money invested. The aggregate capital of these Companies amounts to no less than _two millions one hundred thousand pounds_, which a confiding public is asked to subscribe, and this at a time when money is exceptionally scarce, and when the general aspect of public affairs both at home and abroad is very much the reverse of assuring. Nor need it be thought that this number of enterprises was exceptionally large, for, on the contrary, the average weekly advertisements of similar concerns is much greater both as to actual number and capital. But even of the former total, who is there who could deem it possible or probable that such an amount would be subscribed even on the limited liability system? How is it, then, that men waste their time and money in proposing what common-sense, to say nothing of business experience, must tell them can only end in disappointment? In the answer to the question is contained the whole history of Joint-stock Company ‘promoting’ as at present practised. That some of these enterprises are _bonâ fide_, and may give those who join them a fair return for their money, is no doubt true; but these are decidedly the exception to the rule. The real working of the vast majority of these proposed Companies is known to but a comparative few outside the circle in which financial schemes, often of great magnitude, are worked without funds. There exists in the city of London a somewhat numerous class of men, who were formerly called ‘Promoters of Companies,’ but who have of late years assumed the more sounding title of Financial Agents. Let us suppose that to one of these gentlemen there occurs the happy thought of starting a ‘Fiji Islands Tramway Company.’ He loses no time in putting his scheme into shape; and the following may be taken as a fair example of how he carries out his intentions. His first work is to get together a Board of Directors; and this, supposing he has had a fair business experience, is not so difficult as might at first be supposed.