a first charge but that in the course of a period of misfortune the Board found it necessary to raise funds by an issue ranking ahead of the first charge and probably described as a "prior lien."
Of course the consent of the first mortgage holders was required before this could be done, and no doubt they only granted it because after many meetings of protest and much correspondence in the press, they were convinced that if they did not do so any attempt to enforce their rights would lead to results disastrous to themselves. Every security has to be tested not by the names attached to it but by its actual position with regard to a share in the revenue of the concern which has issued it, and in its assets in the event of liquidation.
Preference shares are a compromise, dear to minds that love this refuge, despised by the hearty whole-hogger who says: "Give me one thing or the other." The objection to them is that if fortune frowns on the enterprise the rights of the preference holders are apt to be set aside. As we have seen this sometimes happens even to first mortgage debenture holders, in spite of the weight of their legal rights and the special protection that is given them by the existence of trustees specially
