upon as certain; for the Universal Finance
Association had not only agreed to bring out the
company under their own auspices, but had
also given a written guarantee that they would
be responsible for all the printing and other
preliminary expenses, in case we had not enough
shares applied for to allow of our proceeding to
an allotment. Moreover, the said Universal
Finance guaranteed that the company should
come out, and at not less than two premium
and that it should rise to four premium, and be
maintained at not less than three premium,
until after the letters of allotment were issued.

Accordingly, a few days after the meeting at
which my promotion money had been increased,
there appeared in all the papers a long
prospectus, of which I gave the commencement in
the last number, but which commenced with
the announcement that "THE UNIVERSAL
FINANCIAL ASSOCIATION (LIMITED)," invites
subscriptions to the " RIO GRANDE AND MEXICO
RAILWAY COMPANY (LIMITED)," to be incorporated
under the Companies Act of 1862. John
Clinch was advertised as general manager: salary
eight hundred a year to commence with, and to be
increased two hundred pounds every year, until it
reached two thousand pounds per annum.
Wilson's name was also in the articles of association
as secretary: salary five hundred a year,
increasing at the rate of one hundred a year, until
it should reach a thousand; but, then, there
was a private understanding between us—and,
following the example of our craft, we passed
"undertakings" to that effect—that all money
received as salary by the pair of us was to go into
a common fund, and be divided equally.

When the company came out, there was
a perfect rush for the shares. In the first
three days our bankers received deposits upon
applications for no less than three hundred
thousand; although there were only one hundred
thousand in the whole company, and of these
it was intended only to issue one-half, or
fifty thousand shares. On the Monday after
we came out, a notice was inserted in all the
papers that the share-list would be closed on the
Thursday, and this made the rush for shares all
the greater. There was not a member of
the board but received numerous applications
from his friends to put their names down, and
use their interest to obtain shares for them.
The Universal Financial Association did its work
well. In six hours after the prospectus had
been published, it was quoted at one and a
half to two premium, and the next day was
at two and a half to three and a half. These
fictitious prices are in no way whatever the
work of the Stock Exchange. The members
of " the house " almost invariably set their
face against "rigging the market;" but they
are powerless in the hands of men who,
with money at command, are determined to
run up the value of any named scrip. The
operation is carried on by outsiders, who go
to a stockbroker, and tell him to sell, say, a
hundred Rio Grande shares, but at not less than
one premium. At the same time a confederate
goes to another broker, and tells him he must
buy fifty or a hundred of the same scrip, as he
has promised to deliver them, and will go as
high as one and a half, or even two, premium.

Of course the brokers set to work. The one,
anxious to do his best for his client, gets the
highest possible price for the shares, the premium
on which will be paid back to the other party
on settling day. When this operation is
repeated perhaps a hundred times in the day, and
parties determined to run up certain shares are
ever sending brokers into the market to buy
this scrip for them at any price, the quotations
must go up—it is impossible to be otherwise.
In our case neither money nor energy
was wanting to push our shares up in the
market, and so well did the Universal Financial
perform this part of their duty, that the
success exceeded all their anticipations. The
premium increased to ten, twelve, fifteen, and
eighteen premium.

It is only those who were present on the
occasion that could form any idea of what took
place in our temporary board-room when the
directors proceeded to allot the shares of the
company to the different applicants. I have
mentioned that not more than fifty thousand shares
were available for distribution, and for these
there were at least five times the number of
applications.

"I see, gentlemen," said Mr. Grass, with a
strong Teutonic accent, " that if we have to look
over all these names one by one, we shall never
get to an end of our work. Besides, are we not
fools to part with what is, no doubt, one of the
best things that has come out in England for
the last year? Would any one of us give a
cheque to the first man that asked us in the
street? Why, then, give these shares away?
Why allow others to profit by what is now
our own? I therefore propose, that of the
fifty thousand shares, forty-five thousand be
distributed amongst us here equally, allowing
our noble chairman to have a larger share than
the rest, and that five thousand only be allotted
to the general public. The shares are to-day at
eighteen premium. Whenever it is known that
only five thousand are in the market, they will
rise to twenty-five, thirty, nay forty premium."

"My lord and gentlemen, said Mr. Watson,
greatly to my astonishment, "I beg to second
the motion which Mr. Grass has just made."

In the course of a rather adventurous life, I
had heard of and met with a considerable deal
of villany in the world, but the coolness of this
proposition, I confess, staggered me. The chairman
seemed for a moment quite taken aback,
but, before any one had time to speak, he
recovered himself and said:

"Gentlemen,—I am not much of a man of
business, and this is the first company of which
I have ever held shares, far less been a director
or chairman. I agreed to join the board for the
purpose of helping an old college friend, Mr.
Clinch, the promoter of the undertaking. But,
with all due deference to Mr. Grass and Mr.
Watson—I don't wish to offend them—but if