Although the broker may, by the circulation of prospectuses, give a gentle hint to his clients that there is business afoot; although, indeed, he may, and in many cases does, send them circulars, and price lists, and newspapers every night; it is only amongst his own clients that he is allowed to advertise in this or any other way. He usually keeps this rule most rigidly, in the spirit as well as in the letter, and he is aided in so doing by the watchfulness of the Committee. For this reason, some members of the Stock Exchange--for the rule against advertising applies to the jobber as well as to the broker, although the jobber has naturally less temptation to advertise--show much repugnance even to their names appearing in the newspapers in any connection whatever, though it may be quite apart from business, and some are even chary of announcing a mere change of partnership, or a removal of offices, lest it might be construed as an advertisement. Meantime, brokers who are not members of the Stock Exchange--outside brokers, they are called--flood the newspapers with advertisements of a description so flaring as to rival or surpass those of the patent medicine vendors; and partly to counteract the competition thus arising, the Committee of the Stock Exchange has a standing advertisement in all the principal papers announcing that members of the Stock Exchange are not allowed to advertise, that those who do advertise are not members of the Stock Exchange, and that lists of those members who are brokers--it is no use furnishing the public with the names of the jobbers--may be obtained from the Secretary on application. A list may also be seen at one of the entrances of the Bank of England--a relic, perhaps, of the time, when the Rotunda of the Bank of England was practically a Stock Exchange. There are a few firms of outside brokers of the highest standing, possessing businesses superior in magnitude and status to those of the great majority of Stock Exchange firms. Such firms as these in former years brought a considerable volume of business to the Stock Exchange itself, obtaining orders from their clients by more enterprising methods than the members themselves were permitted to employ under their rules, and passing the business on to brokers who were members. In its stringent rules regarding brokers' commissions, however, the Stock Exchange Committee has now practically abolished this practice by specifically penalising outside brokers.