13 FEBRUARY 1909, Page 25

A Plain Guide to Investment and Finance. By T. E.

Young, B.A. (Macdonald and Evans. 5s.)—Mr. Evans is the most cautious of guides. Practically ho says: "Keep to gilt-edged securities." He dissuades even against the harmless flutter of an " ordinary " share, for ordinary shares do not please him, oven in railways. Still, it is well to be on the safe side, especially when you are undertaking the responsibility of advising other people. The securities of foreign and Colonial Governments, if they have respectable antecedents; municipal bonds, if the town has a good record ; the debenture stocks of railways, &e.,—these are the investments which he recommends. He also counsels division of capital. Let the baskets in which you put your eggs be not only sound, but many in number. Everywhere Mr. Young writes with precision and clearness, and he contrives to give something of a literary touch to what he says, oven on a prosaic subject. He advises against Consols, because, he says, they fluctuate with political events. But is not this true of all securities ?