GOVERNMENTS.—Austrian, Brazilian, Chilian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian. RAILWAYS.—United States Railway Bonds (on lines paying dividends on the ordinary capital); Canadian Railway Bonds. GAS COMPANIES. BANKS.—Joint Stock Banks, _limited_. Above 6 per cent. there are no investments that can safely be recommended. Some foreign governments pay very irregularly, and we may lay it down as a wholesome rule that investments made without the bounds of our own country should be made with double caution. It is not so long since we met a lady who had invested a considerable sum with a republic which shall be nameless, and which has since declined to pay any portion back, or even to remember that some fraction of interest might be acceptable to its creditors. In taking shares in a joint-stock company, there is a caution to be observed that cannot be too strongly insisted upon. A joint-stock company is an association of a number of people for the purpose of carrying on a trade or some useful enterprise capable of yielding a profit. Now, if ever you take shares in one, whether it be a bank, or an insurance office, or a mine or anything else, make sure that it is established under the “Limited Liability Act.” If the company be not a Limited Liability concern, should it happen to fail, you and every other shareholder are liable to lose every penny you possess. In a Limited Liability Company, however, you can only lose the amount of the shares which you hold. This is a great advantage: you know just what you are liable for. It is worth remarking that all Joint Stock Companies with limited liability formed for the purpose of gain, are obliged by law to use the word “Limited” as the last word of their title. When people have a good deal of money to invest, and have a taste for limited companies, in preference to the more solid security of the public funds, it is wise not to put it all into one concern. “Put it,” says one writer, “into several. Then if one falls in value, another probably rises, and so your income will keep more equal. If one of your investments turns out a failure, you lose only a part and not the whole of your fortune.” And “when you think,” adds the same authority, “you have placed your money in the safest way you can, do not alter its investment without some good reason. Every change costs money, and is attended with trouble and anxiety.”