against him, at least one-half of which he never sees at all until, like the sunken snag, which sinks the steamer without any warning, one or other of them wrecks his fortunes before he is aware of his danger. A speculative operator has a very dangerous basis upon which to lay the foundations of the argument by which he endeavours to justify himself, and it is this. He says to himself: “there are only two ways for a price to move—up and down.” At first sight the chances seem to be as much in his favour as against, and he thinks the failure of others to make a profit must have been the result of mistakes made by them, which he will avoid. But does it occur to such an one that if there were any easy and certain method of making money by speculating in stocks everybody who had a little capital would at once commence to speculate? Speculation in the Stock markets has almost irresistible attractions as a mere amusement, quite apart from its being a kind of occupation which is the most luxurious and exciting mode of making money. It must be evident therefore from the comparatively few persons who habitually speculate, that large numbers are simply driven away from the markets through a conviction that such a vocation must end in disaster. The dangers of Stock Exchange speculation are made apparent when, as a species of gambling, it is compared with the games of chance, whose evil effects upon the community have been at last recognised by the abolition of the tables at Hombourg, Ems, Baden Baden, &c. The conductors of the Bank at the Palais Royal were fully alive to the necessity of limiting the stakes, and also as regards the number of persons with whom they would play at once. Governments are stepping in by degrees to suppress gaming houses, and it would have been more to the credit of Germany if the tables at the above-mentioned places had been done away with while the effects of the golden stream from beyond the Rhine were as yet unfelt by the comparatively poor exchequer at Berlin. The interference of a government is shown again by our own legislature having declared that A should not insure the life of B, unless it can be shown that A has some pecuniary interest in B’s continuing to live. The law, however, is for the most part evaded. Such systems are therefore looked upon as bad; but because it is difficult for governments to define in Stock Exchange gambling where _bona fide_ business ends and the gambling begins, the most injurious of all games of chance is played year after year upon an increasing scale. At the first beginning of prosperity with a comparatively poor community, gambling springs up in these times in stocks and shares. As a result of such operations Vienna went half mad in the first half of 1873, which was followed shortly after by a financial crash and the suicides of certain bankers at Posen. Older communities, which have passed through the only crucible which in this life teaches people that if money is to be