enlightenment of your readers on matters connected with the
money-markets of the world. The request is an easy one to make. You
talk of spare time, as if the man who controlled millions of money,
and could _at any moment_ put all the Directors of the Bank of England
in his waistcoat pocket, had absolutely nothing to do except to devote
himself to the affairs of other people. Such a man has no leisure.
When he is not engaged in launching loans, or in admitting to an
audience the Prime Ministers of peoples rightly struggling to free
themselves from debt by adding largely to their public liabilities,
when, I say, he is not thusly or otherwisely engaged, his mind must
still busy itself with the details of all the immense concerns over
which he, more or less, presides. However, I am willing to make an
exception in your case, and to impart to you the ripe fruits of an
experience which has no parallel in any country of the habitable
globe. Without, therefore, cutting any more time to waste, I begin.

[Illustration]

(1.) _Mines_.--There can be no doubt that in this department a largely
increased activity may soon be expected. I am aware that in "Shafts"
there has been a downward tendency; but I am assured by the Secretary
of the "Dodjâ Plant Co." (19½, 6/8, 54·2½, 7/8), that the prospects
of this branch of investment were never more brilliant. The latest
report of the Mining Expert sent out to investigate this mine, runs
as follows:--

"I have now been three days in the interior of the Dodjâ Plant. I can
confidently state that I found no water, though there was evidence of
large deposits of salt, which could be worked at an immense profit.
The gold is abundant. I have crushed ten tons of quartz _with my own