Every element of which matter is composed possesses some virtue; every individual has some good qualities; and every nation is known for some excellence or special aptitude. The world silently, but surely, judges of the value of the virtues in matter, of the qualities of individuals, and of the precision manifested by each nation in the department in which it excels, and labels them accordingly.

Frenchmen have a much clearer perception than other nations of what is necessary to transform an ugly design into one that is beautiful; but the capacity is of the' superficial order. Penetrate and the design will very often be discovered to rest on a flimsy carelessly manufactured understructure, which will probably have fallen to pieces before the outside colouring has faded.

With the English workman it is precisely the opposite; the outside is probably more or less unsightly, but underneath there are bars of iron, polished and constructed to last a quarter of a century. Each individual and each nation makes a mark according to the precision shown in the work. If the covering be gauche and ill-selected, so long as the work be of a true and lasting worth, it tells at once, and although less engaging to the eye than what is false yet beautiful, asserts a higher claim which cannot be refused to what is sound and pure.

Precision is as necessary to ensure success in business as in art, and whether noticed in the same degree in the conduct of large establishments like banks its absence tells as surely, though in a different way, as in the case of the painter who falls in public estimation when his hand no longer possesses the cunning which won him fame.

We fear that the spread of the joint-stock system of conducting the banking business of the country, and in fact all other business has been developed at the expense of the precision for which during the greater part of this century Englishmen have been so famous in the world. We do not advance this opinion without due consideration of the importance of such a statement, and we repeat emphatically that it is our conviction that, although in many respects much good has been done by the facilities afforded by the joint-stock limited liability legislation, that good has been purchased at the expense of precision in a very large number of cases where the transformation from private firms to companies has been made. Years ago when this portentous change was being introduced into the business world people theorized unfavorably to the innovation, and grave fears were entertained of the consequences of so great and far reaching a reform; but there was nothing to do but to wait and see what would be the result of the joint-stock system of trading in actual practice. We have had some dozen years or more of it, and the question we have to ask ourselves as a nation is, do the men who are at the head of the joint-stock companies manage them as well as the partners formerly managed their great firms? Is there the same precision shown in the conduct of our mercantile affairs, in the management of our joint-stock banks, of our joint-stock iron, coal, shipping, and other companies as was shown before the formation of companies upon this principle was allowed by law?

This subject divides itself under two heads :

I. Organization.

II. Business.

I. Organization.

It was evident when the first joint-stock partnership Act was passed by Parliament that there would be much larger associations of traders than had ever existed before.

and that the element of organization was one to which the greatest possible attention must be given, if the shoals and quicksands which beset the path of the banker or trader were to be as successfully avoided in the future as in the past. It has not been observed perhaps as closely as might have been expected to what a large extent the formation of joint-stock companies has been the means of absorbing the cleverest people from an active thinking business life into an inactive unthinking business life. Everybody nowadays has some shares in something or other, and the larger their passive interest becomes, in an inverse ratio diminishes their active interest. Many private banking and mercantile firms on the introduction of the joint-stock system realised the importance of considering their position, and whether in the new order of things they would be able to hold their own, with the result in a large number of cases of retirement from business altogether or amalgamation with other houses under the new law.

In all places where the new system was extensively adopted the banks which refused to submit to the new order of things and permit their business to leave them for the joint-stock banks, had no alternative but to invite others to join them, in order that their establishments, as regards size, should not superficially seem to entitle them to less confidence. In this way several private banks by supporting each other managed to survive, and we believe retain some of the qualities, such as the greater precision in the management which in the nature of things could not be expected to keep so firm a hold on institutions whose managers had less interest in the result.

It is quite evident that in so great a transformation, and in circumstances of so extensive a readjustment of the machinery by which the commerce of the country was in future to be carried on that a number of persons would take advantage of so great an opportunity to benefit themselves at the expense of the public. Companies innumerable have been formed and started for the sole object of giving their promoters a sum of money, after which, their interest in them ceased, and even in some cases the interests of the unfortunate subscribers became the prey of incapable employes, whose interest in the concern was proportioned to the salary paid them. We revert to these circumstances in passing to illustrate the danger with which the general interests of the community were beset during such a period of transition. The various changes that have been made in the joint-stock company law, and its imperfection as at present in force, are evidence of the facilities which its first loose provisions afforded to designing financiers and promoters, of whom there are always so many ready to fill their pockets by adapting to their purposes any set of circumstances which may chance to come uppermost.