At the present time the rage appears to have set in for forming limited liability companies out of private industrial concerns or trading firms. Most of these companies, we are told by an authority, "are brought out under the same auspices" -- that is they are started and floated by a skilled personage known as a "promoter." The stereotyped prospectus must now be familiar to most people, and the public respond freely to the invitation to subscribe for shares, without consideration or inquiry. The prospectus is usually replete with statistics, showing the suc- cess which has attended the business whilst in private hands, and the enormous profits made; and one is apt to wonder why they did not keep it to themselves, instead of inviting the public to share in the gains. But there are good com- panies and bad companies, and it is to be feared that the latter largely preponderate. A good company may have a genuine reason for its existence, such as the desire of a last surviving partner to retire from active life, or the growth of the business to such an extent that more capital is required than could be obtained from a private person, or upon some other equally valid ground. A bad company is often the make-shift to save a decaying firm from insol- vency, or to dispose of a business at a price quite out of proportion to its real value. The prospectus affords no opportunity of discrimi- nating what is genuine and likely to succeed from what is false and sure to fail. If, as it has been said, eighty per cent. of companies floated sooner or later go to the wall, then, indeed, inquiry and much circumspection are needed before entering upon a speculation of the kind. It must be said, however, that many companies formed from trading concerns have become well established and profitable, and if permanency could be relied upon, they furnish a field for lucrative investments. Those adventures which are unduly pressed upon the notice of the public should be regarded with suspicion. If a thing is really good in itself, it will not require much persuasion to commend itself; and if bad, no purchased laudation will make it better. A subtle mode of advertising is just now coming into vogue, which, though expensive, will for a time be successful. There need be no reflection on the companies which adopt it, though calcu- lated to beguile the innocent and confiding in- vestor. A leaf or two introduced in some of our illustrated papers, in no wise differing in the printing from the remainder of the publica- tion, and appearing as though it formed part of the regular pabulum offered to the public. This leaf or leaves contain well-executed pic- tures of the works and machinery and other interesting objects connected with the industry of a company to which it is desired to call attention, and a descriptive account is given of its magnitude and success. To the casual reader all this would appear to be a matter of public