Mr. Burdett, in the new edition of his huge and
exhaustive volume on Stock-Exchange securities, called " Burdett's Official Intelligence," states a fact bearing strongly on the reported decline of business in Great Britain. The amount of the capital belonging to new companies registered has declined from 2340,000,000 in 1888 to 294,000,000 in 1892. Much of this decline is healthy, 1888 having been a year of rather wild speculation ; but much of it also is due to the decline in in- dustrial profits, in new openings, and in investors' courage,— the latter feature being also strongly marked in the steady rise in securities without risk, and the decrease in the price of land. People are not only trading less, but are making greater efforts to keep their money "safe "—that is, comparatively useless—and look askance even at the soundest enterprises. We wish the hatters of London would publish their statistics. It is said th tt the sale of dear hats is an infallible barometer of financial confidence, people who expect to be prosperous indulging themselves in new hats, while if they foresee hard times, they dispense with perfect glossiness. There will be little demand for guinea hats in Dublin, for example, this year..
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