Perhaps the most important event which ever affected the Stock Exchange as an institution was the inquiry into its constitution and customs by the Royal Commission, which was appointed in 1877. Not only was that event of much historical interest from the Stock Exchange point of view, but the report issued by the Royal Commission is a document which, even to-day, possesses interest and importance as throwing light upon the methods of the institution as seen by an independent body most competent to examine into its affairs and comment upon them. The report still possesses importance because the constitution and customs of the Stock Exchange are, to all intents and purposes, much the same now as they were then--it brought about no important alteration, for on the whole it proved to be a vindication of the Stock Exchange as the Royal Commissioners found it. Some minor recommendations for reform were adopted by the Stock Exchange itself, or have been adopted since the report was made; and one or two sweeping recommendations have been ignored, with the result that the Stock Exchange is now as it was then, and in that sense the report is quite up to date. In fact, the report still forms an admirable essay on the constitution of the Stock Exchange and the conduct of its business. The Royal Commissioners found that in the main the existence of such an association and the coercive action of its rules on its members had been salutary and to the interests of the public. The Commissioners seemed to incline to the view that the dual control of the institution by the Managers on the one hand, and the Committee on the other, should be superseded by the amalgamation of the two bodies. The Commissioners expressed the idea that matters were tending in that direction--and they are still so tending, especially since the enactment of the rule making it obligatory for new members to purchase one or more shares in the Stock Exchange. The Committee, it was found, acted uprightly, honestly, and with the desire to do justice in the administration of the rules. These rules were capable of affording relief and exercising restraint far more prompt and often more satisfactory than was the law of the land. A suggestion had been made that the Committee should be assisted in its deliberations by an outside assessor or assessors, especially in cases of important questions involving the personal interests of fellow-members and others; but the Commissioners preferred the Committee as it is, on the ground that the members understood the complicated questions to be decided much better than any outsider would understand them, and that it was necessary in most cases that the decisions should be very prompt and complete. Similarly the Commission preferred the present practice of the Committee in arriving at its decisions to the proposed subdivision into special panels for special subjects.