'time' bargains--a sham-business, managed in this way:--A nominally
buys of B L.100,000 worth of stock in consols, to be delivered at a
fixed price, say 96, on the next settling-day. It is plain that if
the market-price of consols shall have fallen, by the day named, to
94, B wins L.2000--the difference between L.100,000 estimated at 96
and 94 per cent. A must pay these L.2000, or, which amounts to the
same thing, receive from B consols to the amount of L.100,000 at 96,
that in reality are procurable at 94. It is simply and entirely a
gambling _bet_ upon what the price of funds will be on the next
settling-day. These transactions have been pronounced fraudulent by
the superior courts, and liabilities so contracted cannot be legally
recovered. It is, for all that, quite certain that these 'debts of
honour' entail misery, ruin, often death, on the madmen who
habitually peril everything upon the turn of the Stock-Exchange
dice--dice loaded, too, by every fraudulent device that the
ingenuity of the two parties engaged in the struggle can discover or
invent. To the 'Bears,' who speculate for a fall, national calamity
is a God-send. Especially a failure of the harvest, or a great
military disaster like that which befell the Cabool expedition, is
an almost priceless blessing--a cause of jubilant thanksgiving and
joy. The 'Bulls,' on the other hand, whose gains depend upon a rise
in the funds, are ever brimful of boasts, and paint all things
_couleur de rose_. If the facts bear out the assertions of these
bands of _speculators_--we prefer a mild term--why so much the
better for the facts; but if not, sham-facts will answer the
purpose, and to manufacture _them_ 'is as easy as lying.' It is a
remarkable fact, by the way, that out of the multitude of British
fundholders there are not more than about 25,000 persons who are
liable from that source to the income-tax--that is, who receive
dividends to the amount of L.150 and upwards annually. The most