Some of the older concerns have been suc-
cessful, but of the whole number of existing
companies at least one-half, judging from the
price of their shares, have been failures. The
difficulty with these concerns would seem to
be the want of direct control, their business
having chiefly to be conducted by agents who
often consider their own interests before their
employers'. Some of these companies appear
to have advanced large sums of money on the
security of land which they can neither sell nor
let, and which has been abandoned by the
borrower.


FINANCIAL TRUSTS.

The shares in these trusts were at one time
much sought after as an investment. The
ostensible business of a trust company is to
purchase shares and stocks of other concerns at
favourable opportunities, and to invest widely
in foreign and other companies offering good
dividends, so as to average a high rate of inter-
est. They are divided into debenture stock,
preferred stock, and deferred stock. The latter
has its share of the profits after the others have
been satisfied, and at present three-fourths of
the companies now doing business have their
deferred shares at a discount. The financial