Thirdly, Richie takes little note of creeds, except when he is drunk; but looks to conduct always while Andrew clinches his catalogue of wrong with doing the Pope's bidding:' and Sabbathbreaking; these definitions of the unpardonable being the worst absurdity of all Scotch wickedness to this hour-everything being forgiven to people who go to church on Sunday, and curse the Pope. Scott never loses sight of this marvellous plague-spot of Presbyterian religion, and the last words of Andrew Fairservice are:

The villain Laurie, to betray an auld friend that sang aff the same psalm-book wi' him every Sabbath for twenty years.'

and the tragedy of these last words of his, and of his expulsion from his former happy home-a jargonelle pear-tree at one end of the cottage, a rivulet and flower plot of a rood in extent in front, a kitchengarden behind, and a paddock for a cow' (viii. 6, of the 1830 edition) can only be understood by the reading of the chapter he quotes on that last Sabbath evening he passes in it-the 5th of Nehemiah.

For-and I must again and again point out this to the modern reader, who, living in a world of affectation, suspects 'hypocrisy' in every creature he sees-the very plague of this lower evangelical piety is that it is not hypocrisy; that Andrew and Laurie do both expect to get the grace of God by singing psalms on Sunday, whatever rascality they practise during the week. In the modern popular drama of 'School,' 10 the only religious figure is a dirty and malicious usher who appears first reading Hervey's Meditations,' and throws away the book as soon as he is out of sight of the company. But when Andrew is found by Frank perched up like a statue by a range of beehives in an attitude of devout contemplation, with one eye watching the motions of the little irritable citizens, and the other fixed on a book of devotion,' you will please observe, suspicious reader, that the devout gardener has no expectation whatever of Frank's approach, nor has he any design upon him, nor is he reading or attitudinising for effect of any kind on any person. He is following his own ordinary customs, and his book of devotion has been already so well used that much attrition had deprived it of its corners, and worn it into an oval shape'; its attractiveness to Andrew being twofold-the first, that it contains doctrine to his mind; the second, that such sound doctrine is set forth under figures properly belonging to his craft. I was e'en taking a spell o' worthy Mess John Quackleben's Flower of a Sweet Savour sown on the Middenstead of this World' (note in passing Scott's easy, instant,

6

10 Its hero is a tall youth with handsome calves to his legs, who shoots a bull with a fowling-piece, cats a large lunch, thinks it witty to call Othello a 'nigger,' and, having nothing to live on, and being capable of doing nothing for his living, establishes himself in lunches and cigars for ever, by marrying a girl with a fortune. The heroine is an amiable governess, who, for the general encouragement of virtue in governesses, is rewarded by marrying a lord.

exquisite invention of the name of author and title of book); and it is a question of very curious interest how far these sweet spells' in Quackleben, and the like religious exercises of a nature compatible with worldly business (compare Luckie Macleary, with eyes employed on Boston's "Crook in the Lot," while her ideas were engaged in summing up the reckoning-Waverley, i. 112)-do indeed modify in Scotland the national character for the better or the worse; or, not materially altering, do at least solemnize and confirm it in what good it may be capable of. My own Scottish nurse described in Fors Clavigera for April, 1873, page 13, would, I doubt not, have been as faithful and affectionate without her little library of Puritan theology; nor were her minor faults, so far as I could see, abated by its exhortations; but I cannot but believe that her uncomplaining endurance of most painful disease, and steadiness of temper under not unfrequent misapprehension by those whom she best loved and served, were in great degree aided by so much of Christian faith and hope as she had succeeded in obtaining, with little talk about it.

I knew however in my earlier days a right old Covenanter in my Scottish aunt's house, of whom, with Mause Hedrigg and David Deans, I may be able perhaps to speak further in my next paper. But I can only now write carefully of what bears on my immediate work: and must ask the reader's indulgence for the hasty throwing together of materials intended, before my illness last spring, to have been far more thoroughly handled. The friends who are fearful for my reputation as an 'écrivain' will perhaps kindly recollect that a sentence of Modern Painters' was often written four or five times over in my own hand, and tried in every word for perhaps an hour-perhaps a forenoon-before it was passed for the printer. I rarely now fix my mind on a sentence, or a thought, for five minutes in the quiet of morning, but a telegram comes announcing that somebody or other will do themselves the pleasure of calling at eleven o'clock, and that there's two shillings to pay.

JOHN RUSKIN.

ON COMMERCIAL CORNERS'

THE word corner,' intelligible in its original sense and usage to English-speaking people, bears in its American application a significance of different character and of no mean import in commercial circles. To' corner' or 'sap' an individual or an entire commercial community, means a piece of speculative engineering, ingenious, clandestine, and effective as any attempt in siege operations to undermine and blow up an enemy's citadel before he is aware of what his besieging adversary is up to.

The effect of 'corners' or attempts to 'corner' markets is without doubt highly detrimental to all the great manufacturing industries of the world; but the man who makes the corner' is not the sole offender-his opportunity would not exist were it not for the Bear,' who, by selling what he has not got and then by depressing prices by further artificial sales, does, in the long run, work infinitely greater harm to trade interests. The purpose of this article is to show the harmfulness of the unrestricted operations of interested speculators in purely paper contracts,' a system of doing business which has been very greatly extended of late years.

The axiom that speculation is the soul of trade is perfectly defensible. The vigour and enterprise required to set a steam-engine in motion may be taken as an illustration of the forces required to start the movements of commerce, and experience has proved that speculation as a rule keeps cost within reasonable bounds to the consumer. Speculation, therefore, in the ordinary acceptation, and such as our commercial forefathers understood and practised, was justifiable enterprise based in the main upon substantial capital, and always with something tangible attached to it. The speculator embarked on his venture and waited on the outturn of the actual stuff, or he bought and held the actual goods. If the article happened to be in curtailed production, he realised in due course his profit on his enterprise. If the supply he was adding to, or became interested in, proved superabundant, he lost his money; but in either instance he benefited the consumer in the first case by setting the springs of supply in motion, and preventing possible scarcity and famine prices; and, secondly, by bringing abundance when barren supplies were pro

bable. But the operations of any one individual or body of speculators were kept within reasonable bounds by the fact of personal capital and established credit being essential in the enterprise; by the time most of the ventures required to bring them to a result, and by many other restrictions.

Speculation of the present day, however, though in some cases requiring more or less capital for its conduct, is a very different thing, for it need not be based on actual goods, but it is, as in the great bulk of the transactions now entered into, a mere transfer and dealing in 'paper contracts.'

The development of telegraph and steam communications and of limited joint-stock bank enterprise, and the unbounded license given to speculators, have driven almost all sobriety from commerce, and given to clever men a power well-nigh incredible of controlling markets, and manipulating prices to their own profit, and the confusion and ruin of others; or, if they fail in their schemes, then of producing a disorganisation of trade without the smallest thought or consideration for the interests of others, or the gigantic manufacturing industries concerned in the article that is being manipulated. Unfortunately the general want of individuality which is a human characteristic, and is as marked among commercial men as it is in every other profession, gives the lead to men with exceptional talent and force of character, and puts in their hands a power in commercial speculations vastly increased by the altered condition of things which science has brought about during the past twenty years more especially.

There is no necessity to heap abuse upon such men, when no restriction exists upon gambling contracts, for every one is entitled to exercise his abilities to the best of his own advantage, and some of the most respectable citizens of the commercial centres of America and Europe, who pride themselves upon their moral standing, excel in the modern pastime of dealing in futures.' It may be held, that if a wolf finds sheep ready to his call he has justification in satisfying his natural appetite, for the wolf has no moral code to restrain his appetite. Again to pursue natural history illustrationif one sheep jumps a fence, the usual course is that the whole flock follows suit, regardless of the profit or loss involved, so long as the 'boss' sheep led the way.

What has to be objected to is this, that whereas in former days an individual or group of speculators could not do unrestricted harm, the existing system and connecting facilities enable him or a ring of 'bulls' or 'bears' to upset the commercial operations of the whole world.

'Cornering' in gold and railway stocks was for long a favourite pastime of American operators, and the last will doubtless ever be looked upon as a convenient instrument for squeezing profits; but

speculations in such stocks cannot do universal harm. The holder, unless of impressionable character, can hold on to his securities whilst they are being played with, knowing that, however much the little game' was temporarily affecting the market value, a certain dividend will be paid in due course. But the place of gold and stocks' has been largely occupied by produce, and the system of dealing in 'future deliveries' of cotton, sugar, grain, and iron has arisen-dealing based in the great bulk of transactions upon nothing, and in the necessary settlements merely involving the putting up of differences.' The system would not have achieved its present extended character but for the increased facilities provided by the electric telegraph and rapid steam communications.

At the present time, no matter whether the seed has not yet been sown for the new crop of cotton, purchases can be made early in the year of a winter 'delivery' of that cotton; wheat you shall have for any month named; pork, bacon, or lard will be sold for delivery when the very pig has not yet been slaughtered, and, may be, is but a suckling; or iron when the rough ore has not even been extracted from the vein ! It has even been recorded that one dealer, bolder than the rest, sold the 'catch' of a certain salmon-river in Oregon two years ahead, when probably the salmon whose capture was concerned had not obtained the dignity of a grilse.

The system, once started, rapidly found supporters everywhere, and has been an important factor in revolutionising the course of

commerce.

Taking cotton as the leading example, it has now come to this: that whereas the total production of the world available for European and American consumption is some 7,000,000 bales of 425 lbs. each, the turn over of future delivery' contracts in American, English, and Continental markets amounts, it is estimated, to the stupendous total of 80,000,000 bales, of the value of nearly 1,000,000,000l. sterling.

This is the speculative turn over' by means of paper contracts, in one article alone. What is the turn over in grain, provisions, sugar, iron, &c., is less easily ascertained, but in the aggregate it is probably very much in excess of the dealings in cotton.

The principle of business in future deliveries' is not to be condemned hastily; it is a course rendered almost absolutely necessary to cautious planters, traders, and manufacturers under the new order of things, when, owing to one man's news being everybody's news, rapid fluctuations are the rule; but dealings in futures' require comparatively little or no capital for their conduct, and it is open to any individual or to a ring,' by the extent of their operations or by fictitious proceedings, to raise and depress prices at their pleasure, and establish situations of a most disorganising character-and this is done.

But to be more explicit, little business in actual cotton is now done that is not connected with a future' transaction; a planter to