There must be a good many innocents left in the
City, which is not the place where they are expected to form a crowd. The shareholders in Allsopp's Brewery are discon- tented with their profits, and assert that, when the great business was sold by the Allsopp family, it was over-valued in an unjustifiable manner. Their own committee of investiga- tion, however, examined the transaction, and reported that, though the shares had perhaps been unwisely allotted—that is, without sufficient favour to large possible customers—the sale of the concern had been effected with all regularity and honesty. Nevertheless, the shareholders resolved on Thursday, by an immense majority of those present at the meeting, that the sellers should be invited to decline dividends until the buyers had received 5 per cent. ! We have not entered into the merits of the quarrel, but surely a more absurd proposition than that was never heard of. If the dividends had reached 100 per cent., the shareholders would have given Lord Hincllip and his kinsmen nothing, and they can have no moral right to demand what they would not have conceded. Suppose they had bought Consols, and Consols had fallen, would they have had right of action against the sellers P Of course, if there was misrepresentation in the sale, their right is perfect; but that is exactly what they have failed to prove. The plain truth of the matter is, that they all purchased gladly during the mania for breweries produced by the Guinness success, and must just put up with the consequences of being over- sanguine. It is not our business to warn speculators, but if Mr. Caine is elected at Barrow, small investors will he safer out of breweries.
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