under trusts, and the stocks of these great banks have been liable to fluctuation in dividend.
The inclusion of colonial stocks merely with the condition that the borrowing colonies should go through certain formalities that (inevitably) imply no Imperial control over their finances, was a departure which sent British trust funds over seas to countries of abounding economic promise, with a tendency to experiment, that might develop along lines which would not be in accordance with the canons of British financial statesmanship. It was a departure dictated by political sentiment, which, as French holders of Russian debt have discovered to their cost, is an untrustworthy guide in the selection of securities as investments. The sequel was an enormously rapid expansion in the debts of the Dominions quoted on the London Stock Exchange.
Any Act of Parliament which says that certain securities may be taken is bound to produce anomalies because it at once becomes possible to point to investments which are left out but are quite as good as some which are officially approved. In such matters it is impossible to draw a line which will not lay the drawer open to criticism of this kind. The wealth that was poured into the laps of the
