25 JUNE 1870, Page 2

Investors are curiously sensitive upon matters of form. Jamaica is

raising a loan of some £370,000 to pay off old debts, and has obtained the British guarantee. She offers 4 per cent. The money has all been subscribed at 104. Consols are now 92. A Colonial Debt guaranteed by the Home Government rests on exactly the same security as Consols, and consequently this debt ought to be worth 122. A purely formal difference makes a difference of eighteen per cent.