had neither won nor lost by the transaction were
angry that they had missed so rare an opportunity
of making money. "It was no longer
ago than last Friday week," said an old and
wealthy stock-jobber to me, with tears in
his eyes, "that I was offered a hundred and
fifty of those infernal Rio Grande shares at one-eighth
premium, and to-day they are at eighteen
to twenty; I should have made close on three
thousand pounds at a stroke."

In the mean time, as settling-day drew nearer,
the value of the shares increased, and still there
were few if any in the market. It was a very
clear case of " rigging," and yet there was
nothing which could be positively laid hold of
either in " the house," or outside. When the
shares reached twenty-two to twenty-five
premium, a few thousands were let loose to be
purchased, but as the premium sank, the supply
stopped. It was evident that there was but
one master-hand guiding the whole transaction.
By slow degrees, the whole great number of
which he had the management were sold, but
none at a lower price than eighteen to twenty
premium, and a great many were bought at as
high a figure as twenty-five premium.

In the mean time, whilst all this was going
on outside, our board continued to meet weekly
for the ordinary routine of business. I am
quite certain that many of our directors had not
the most remote idea of the very profitable
game which their colleagues were playing
outside. When the reports respecting the rigging
of the market became publicly spoken of in
the City, and even hinted at by angry shareholders
who corresponded with the papers, Lord
Dunstraw, General Foster, and Mr. Carrie were
quite indignant, and wished that our secretary
should write an official letter to the papers,
denying that any of our directors had bought or
sold shares in any considerable numbers, and
stating that upon an inspection of our books,
it would be seen that no member of our board
held any shares beyond the number which as
directors they were obliged to hold. But in
that they were overruled, and were persuaded
that all these malignant tales could be traced
to persons who were disappointed at not
getting as large an allowance of our shares as
they had hoped and expected.

By degrees the cry got louder in the City, and
the accusations more defined. Our directors
were openly accused of having rigged the market
for their own individual profit. The chairman
wrote an indignant denial to the papers, and the
secretary was instructed to do so in the name
of the board. Still the believers in our innocence
were few. Lord Dunstraw challenged inquiry,
and was met by such a host of evidence respecting
the dishonesty of certainly three of his
colleagues, that he resigned his seat, and left the
company in disgust; Mr. Currie followed his
example; and General Foster went after Mr.
Currie. Mr. Grass was then elected chairman,
and he introduced two or three men of his own
stamp as directors. He could afford to stick by
it, for he had made certainly not less in one
way and another than sixty or seventy thousand
pounds by his connexion with the concern. Yet,
spite of all he could do, the shares fell. Not
that that hurt him at all, for he had already sold
all he had, except the five-and-twenty which, as
a director, he was obliged to retain.

I shortly found that to maintain my position
and my self-respect under the new board was
impossible; so, without waiting for the day when I
should have been obliged to knock down our
present chairman as he sat at the head of the
board-room table, I resigned my situation.
Wilson did the same.

In a short time, the whole affair went
irretrievably to the bad, and I see that a petition
has been presented in Mr. Vice- Chancellor
Wood's Court for winding it up.

WELSH HOLIDAYS.

I. THE INN AT THE FERRY.

THE hill-side of the great Welsh island,
and the hill-side of the mainland, sloping down
steeply to the water's edge, make between them
a kind of dell or valley, richly furnished with
wooding; only at the bottom run the straits,
a quarter of a mile wide, and glistening
tranquilly like silver; up which we see tiny
shipping, and a stray steamer or two, struggling
slowly. Lower down, but high in the air,
leaps across, the airy Menai-bridge, as light
and fanciful and fairy-like as if some giant
had thrown across his lady's lace shawl. It
harmonises properly with the wooded hill,
the leafy foliage, the small swelling and rolling
meadows, and is itself one of the most
satisfactory embodiments of the hackneyed song
about "a thing of beauty!" For it "grows"
upon us more and more, and we are never tired
of gazing at its soft harmonious perfections.
In an equal degree are we daily shocked and
repelled by its ugly sister, the famous "tube," who
lumbers clumsily across the straits lower down,
a monument of architectural ironmongery.

By this spot, once ran the posting highway
from Ireland to England. From here we can
see across to the spot down to which the
"mail" and the travelling-chaise and four, came
posting down to the water's edge, and where
the great raft took all on board and ferried
them over. Sometimes it was rough and
stormy, and there remains the tale of the great
shipwreck of raft, posting-carriage, and nearly
two hundred passengers, all capsized, carried
down by the torrent, and utterly lost. Under
happier auspices, the weary passenger who had
been "knocking about" between Holyhead and
Dublin, in one of the " packets" which started
from Howth or Ringsend, had come across the
island cramped in a coach or carriage, and had
now accomplished his second voyage on the
raft, like the survivors in Géricault's Wreck
of the Medusa, weary and almost exhausted, at
the threshold of his journey.

Toiling up from the shore-side at the bottom
of the valley, it was surely a kindly and artful
Boniface that thought of placing an inn here.