Finally, in 1860, the law was repealed altogether, the repeal act reciting that Sir John Barnard’s Act “imposed unnecessary restrictions on the making of contracts for sale, and transfer of public stocks and securities.” Thus the first serious attempt to regulate speculation in securities by law, and specifically to prohibit short selling, came to be recognized as a failure by the frank admission of government. In 1867 the so-called Leeman Act became law, prohibiting all sales of bank stock unless the numbers of the certificates sold were specified--an attempt to prevent short selling of bank stock. Even this law was subsequently repealed, and England, to-day, has no law on the statute books restricting speculation. As the London Stock Exchange grew in influence and importance, reflecting England’s development as the world’s banker, popular attack and criticism continued to assail it. It may be frankly admitted that the legitimate functions of the institution had been abused by foolish or unscrupulous persons, just as every important branch of business and politics has been misused, the world over, since civilization began. The question therefore arose whether these occasional sharp practices proved the Exchange to be an excrescence on the body politic, or whether, on the other hand, its importance in the mechanism of modern business merely required improvements and reforms. In this situation, which occurred in 1877, and which caused considerable agitation on the part of both parties to the controversy, a royal commission was appointed “to inquire into the origin, objects, present constitution, customs, and usages of the London Stock Exchange.” The Exchange and its critics thus reached the parting of the ways. A year was spent by the commission in examining witnesses and conducting investigations along special lines, and in 1878 its report, with the evidence, was published in a Parliamentary Blue Book. The report absolutely upheld the purposes and functions of the Stock Exchange and the legitimacy of speculation in securities, and it went further in pointing out the danger of attempting to force any form of external control on the institution. The evils of that form of Stock Exchange speculation which closely approaches mere gambling were plainly stated, and the report suggested that the Exchange authorities restrain such practice in so far as was possible.