15 MARCH 1890, Page 3

City editors are constantly, and most properly, pointing out to

investors the danger they run in buying Trust shares so eagerly. Many of these Trusts are exCellent, but many more are purely speculations in the underwriting of new Companies, a most risky form of enterprise. The public does not know which is which, and rushes at both with almost equal avidity. That is foolish recklessness on the part of small capitalists, who alone stand in need of newspaper cautions ; but we confess, after reading the City reports of Friday, we can see an excuse for them. One of these Trust Companies, which it is not our business to advertise, at its first annual meeting declared a dividend of 100 per cent., besides beginning a reserve fund. Just imagine what a dividend of that sort is to a clergyman or professional man in the country with one or two thousand pounds in Consols, from which his dividend is imperceptible. It is enough to breed a fever of speculation. which of course, in many instances, will mean ruin.