The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-11 00:00:00

INVESTORS.

That the public are but little guided by common
sense in their investments is shown by the extraor-
dinary rise that has suddenly taken place in stocks
and shares. A few weeks ago none would look at
securities now eagerly bought, although no change
whatever has occurred in their intrinsic worth.
Men move like sheep, all running in the same direc-
tion, speeding the more and gathering into a denser
mass, the greater the alarm. If the leader jumps
into a river or down a precipice, the others follow.
If one stops with head erect and ears raised to gaze
whence the alarm had come, all stop, and look in-
quiringly. The whole flock partakes of the same
magnetic influence, just as men do on a field of
battle advancing with confidence and in ignorant
security into the jaws of death, and flying in panic-
stricken herds when no danger threatens. It might
be supposed that individual opinion and careful in-
vestigation would alone guide each in his invest-
ments ; but experience does not teach this, more
especially in time of danger. The fact that a
security is unsaleable, and therefore worthless, as
market prices go, is a reason that none should pur-
chase it. When rapidly rising with many buyers,
the reason is conclusive in favour of taking it
they happen
boasta
pp e
no f
to the
have splendid
up. Those who have been most loud in their
condemnation of the 44 rubbish " are the first
been ea r
ththeynvinestthmeenraet,
h,beincauthsee
direction the flock was running. These shares were
no more " rubbish" when despised and neglected
than when favoured with public attention, and the
fact that their fall and rally may follow quickly on
each other is only a display of public ignorance
and folly. The South Sea Bubble and the Tulip
Mania are examples of the extravagance into which
fashion may betray even business. It might be
supposed that business would be exempt from the
influences of fashion, but the extraordinary changes
that a few months produce is a sufficient proof that
the world is as changeable, and the rules which
guide it in laying oat money are as mutable as
those that guide, in laying in a wardrobe. Indeed,
a financial company is not unlike the female figure
in the extraordinary change occurring within a year.
Not many months have elapsed since a lady swept
along the pavement or filled up a drawing-room with
an expanded skirt, occupying an inflated space in the
eyes of the world. To-day that figure stalks along
like a stick, the substance the same, but the appear-
ance wholly changed. Just so has it been with many
of these companies that paraded themselves grandly
before the world, with all the accessories of swel-
ling crinoline. Then columns of newspapers were
occupied with glowing reports, proclaiming large
profits, huge dividends, names of directors, certifi-
cates from auditors, while the shareholders con-
gratulated themselves, and were loud in their com-
pliments to the managers, on the prosperity of their
undertakings. Now, these concerns, shorn of their
expansions, occupy little space, and are as reduced
in their dimensions as a lady's dress. Directors are
at present a retiring b)dy, no longer flaunting
themselves in the eyes of the public, and even more
modes:, and unassuming than the female form in its
altered aspect. But a change is coming o'er the
spirit of the public's dream. Companies that for
the last year no one heard of, except when a disap-
pointed shareholder spoke in terms of bitter re-
proach, are again rising into importance. There is
no more real change in them than in the ladies, ex-
cept that they have grown older, and, we trust,
wiser. They carried their crinoline expansion to a
foolish extravagance, and the opposite extreme of
fashion reduces them to smaller dimensions than they
are in truth entitled to assume. Many of these com-
panies, it is asserted, resemble fashionable women in
more than one respect. False hair, false teeth, and,
if our Paris correspondent is to be credited, false
ears, and even—false lips ! complete the disguise ;
and if some of these companies have been as de-
ceptive, it will be no more than people are led
to believe. During the past year the frantic rush
of the panic-stricken public has crushed out of exis-
tence nearly all that were rotten, and many that
were sound. Now that things are returning to
their normal state those that have withstood the
pressure of the torrent will hereafter be able to
boast of their solidity, as having been tried by as
hard a test as could well have been applied. The
storm has been of tremendous force and of length-
ened duration, and the atmosphere has been propor-
tionably cleared. The investors who have tena-
-1 ciously clung to their shares, in companies possessing
intrinsic merit will now reap their reward, and
those who have had the discernment to see that the
late contraction was even more unnatural than the
1 preceding inflation, and have purchased on; their
own judgment, running counter to the throng, will
I secure a rich harvest.

The effect of the American War on commerce
was to direct the precious metals to India and
Egypt, where they were absorbed as a spongeabsorbs
water, disappearing and making little sign. The
accumulation now so rapidly going
on,
was by this
means lost. But it is probable that the contraction
caused by the panic will lead to a rapid increase in
the great centres, and that the bullion in the vaults
of the chief banks of Europe will reach a point
never before attained. It is therefore likely that
the rise which has recently occurred is but a prelude
to a more general filer of value in all securities,
and we may witness what not long since was sup-
posed
to be highly improbable the English Consols
selling at par. We ease
can only hope that the rally
may be in time to
save man families, who for
months have stood on the brink of ruin, and that
the experience gained may be utilised, so as in
some measure to prevent
i these violent and un-
reasonable fluctuations n the future.— Anglo-
American Times.

U NITED STATES OF AMERICA V. WAGNER.-1n
the Court of Chancery, on Saturday, the Ist inst. (before
the Lord Chancellor and the Lords Justices of Appeal),
the aguments in this part-heard appeal from an order of
Vice-Chancellor Wood, which were commenced on Wed-
nesday last, were this morning resumed and concluded.
It will be sufficient to state, as the case has been already
reported in the Tim e 4, that the bill was filed by the United
States of America against the well-known firm of Fraser,
Trenholm, and Co., of Liverpool, who were the financial
agents in this country of the late Confederate States of Ame-
rica. The bill alleged that the plaintiffs had recently dis-
covered that the defendants' firm had from the commence-
ment of the rebellion, in their capacity of agents to the Confe-
de ra to S tates, received divers shi R, moneys' and goods which
formed part of the property of the Confederate
p
public
States. The plaintiffs claimed to be o w nen; of all such public
property of the late Confederate States, and by their bill
asked for an account of all moneys, ships, goods, and other
property which had at any time come to the hands of the
defendants as agents or trustees for the Confederate States,
and that the defendants might be ordered to pay or deliver
whatever, on taking such accounts, should be found due
from them, or in their pcssession or power. A demurrer
had been put in to the bill, on the ground that the plaintiffs
were not entitled to sue in this court without placing on the
record the name of some public officers, as representing their
interest, upon whom
process might be served to give disco-
very upon a cross bill. The Vice-Chancellor allowed the
demurrer, and from that order the plaintiffs appealed. Sir
B. Palmer, Dl r. G. M. Gifford, Mr. Bruce, Mr. Wickens,
and Mr. T. Hughes appeared in support of the appeal ;
Mr. W. M. James, Mr. Kay, Mr. C. Hall, and Mr. Ben-
jamin were for the defendants. Their Lordships reserved
judgment.