quickness of perception, shrewdness, and consciousness that he is really able to rely upon himself. Some of these qualities can, of course, only be devel oped by degrees, but the germs of them ought to be apparent, or the lad had better be placed elsewhere. He will have any quantity of work to do, and very little pay for doing it; but if he is assiduous and mindful of his employment, he will not have any cause to complain.

He should make it his business to master thoroughly all the details of his own employer's trade, striving, if possible, to become noted for some speciality, striving still more to make himself indispensable in managing that speciality. But he should not neglect any opportunity of making acquaintance with other markets; even a slight knowledge will often be enough to prevent a man from being imposed on, though it is a dangerous possession if intended for use. Add to these qualifications a thorough knowledge of general business, and an aptitude for applying it, and you have at once the making of a successful business man. If a man can trust his own judgment, he has opportunities of making money in the produce-markets, second only, if second, to those presented by the peculiar operations of the Stock Exchange. After an apprenticeship long enough to inform him upon the essentials of the business, a clerk of this kind is worth getting hold of, and it generally happens that he is perfectly well aware of

his own value. If he is wise, he will make good terms, either for a large salary as managing-clerk, or for a share even though with smaller immediate returns-in the firm. Men who have had a long innings of work, and, having made money, entertain a desire to enjoy it, are often exceedingly glad to treat with such a man, and-wisely enough-offer liberal terms to induce some one else to take off from them the burden and heat of the day. They themselves become "sleeping partners;" the man of ability and experience does the work, and is paid for his brains, not with salary, but with a share. Brains are his capital, and are paid for as such, till he has earned a title, by success and by saving, to be paid on a money capital also

OTHER BROKERS.

There are other brokers besides what are called "produce" brokers, whose offices present a prospect almost equally good for any young man of ability and perseverance. Such are metal-brokers, shipbrokers, and stock and share brokers. The last-named offer undoubtedly a better chance than any other to a sound judgment and a cool head. Without these qualifications, no one should attempt to enter the precincts of Capel Court on his own account; and it is pretty certain that, without them, he will be taken in there by other people. Stock and share brokers, strictly speaking, ought not to do anything

in the way of buying and selling on their own account; they are simply and solely the agents of other people, doing their business for a small (oneeighth) percentage. To make this pay, a large connexion is necessary, and there are few men who could afford or care to start a new office as a sharebroker without it. Generally, men seek to engraft themselves upon some existing office, the business of which they use their endeavours to extend. It is only by the exhibition of uncommon qualities, and under unusual conditions, that a clerk in a stockbroker's office rises into the position of partner, but cases are by no means wanting to show that they may do so.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE

is an institution in the nature of a corporation for the purchase and sale of shares and stocks. It is governed by a committee of its own members, who administer a code of rules for the conduct of business. Matters in dispute between members are referred to this committee, not to the law courts of the country, though there is not, of course, any law but the law of membership, to prevent a man having recourse to his legal remedy. One of the rules of the institution is, that no one shall be admitted a member except on introduction by one who is already a member, and on giving security to the society for his good behaviour. Besides the stockbrokers already mentioned, who are

members of the Exchange, there are what are called stock-jobbers or stock-dealers, men who buy and sell on their own speculation. It is in their branch of the business that the swiftest gains-the swiftest losses also are to be made. It is the branch of business in which, of all others, judgment, independently of money, gets its largest reward. A man with very little capital may embark in the stock-jobbing line, and, in a comparatively short space of time, may realise a fortune: one lucky venture, one judicious speculation, may raise him from a necessitous condition to wealth. The reverse operation will have also the reverse effect, and judgment is shown in playing for the one rather than for the other. The temptation to bring about the result desired by foul means, if it cannot be done by fair, is so great, that many give way to it, and spread false news calculated to raise or depress particular stocks in the market. Say that a jobber has bought stock in the Aërial Navigation Company at a low price; he wishes to make money out of it, and knowing that the concern is rotten, nevertheless spreads reports that it is the one thing that is safe. He industriously circulates the report in such a way that people get to believe in it; up goes the stock with the created demand for it; and when it reaches the figure proposed by the jobber to himself as the figure of his gain, the jobber sells, and allows the bubble to burst at its leisure upon those who have put their

trust in it. On the other hand, if a man wishes to depreciate stock, whether for the purpose of buying at low rates to sell again at high ones on the revival of confidence, or for whatever reason, he "bears" the market, as it is called-that is to say, during the continuance of his operations, he uniformly makes a dead-set at the stock in question. By himself and his friends, he suggests doubts as to the value of the stock, shakes his head knowingly when its name is mentioned, and sometimes resorts to positive untruth in order to affect its value. Pernicious tricks of this sort are not sufficiently discountenanced by the rules of the Stock Exchange; and after the great panic in 1866, when the most outrageous "bearing" went on, involving the ruin of banks of first repute and really good standing, involving also the ruin of thousands of people, the legislature interfered to supplement, in the case of banks, what was lacking in the regulations of the Exchange.

But apart from these unworthy practices, which should be reprobated by all honest men, there is, in the stock-jobbing line, a field of action in which much money may be made by the operations of perfectly lawful business, and money therein made is as fairly won as in any other business whatever. The jobber buys shares which he thinks will improve in value; he holds them for the rise, and buys as largely as he can at his price in order to