“Supposing such an application to be made, and Parliament to be prepared to incorporate the Stock Exchange on the terms which are embodied in the report, the consequence would be that rules so established would be stereotyped, and could only be altered, even in the minutest details, with the approval of a department of the State. In my opinion this requirement would be either mischievous or nugatory. To attempt to regulate the manner in which business is conducted in the great money market of England is going far beyond the province of the State, nor is any government department in any way qualified to undertake it. The report, indeed, recommends that external control should be exercised with a sparing hand. But experience seems to show that the first commercial crisis, or the discovery of any gigantic fraud, would cause a pressure for further restrictions which the department entrusted with these duties could not possibly withstand. If incorporation is to be anything more than a theory, it seems to me that it must either be imposed compulsory upon the Stock Exchange, or it must be offered to them on terms which will make it worth their while to accept it. The first alternative I reject, for the reason given by the select committee on foreign loans, that it would destroy that freedom which is the life and soul of the institution. If, however, any voluntary scheme commends itself to the opinion of the Stock Exchange, its primary condition should be to reserve to that body absolute liberty in the transaction of their ordinary business (as to which we are all of opinion that, speaking generally, no just fault can reasonably be found), and also the power of adapting their rules, with the utmost ease and freedom, to the varying wants of the time.” Mr. S. R. Scott of the dissenting minority was even more emphatic in his objections to incorporation. He said: