A little too much is being said about the success
of the Baring liquidation. The liabilities, estimated in No4ember, 1890, at 220,983,000, have, it is true, been reduced to 28,336,000, against which there are assets of 211,863,000, thus showing a, large fortune remaining for the old firm. But then, of these- assets no less than 27,900,000 consists of Argentine and Uru- guayan bonds, valued at their price on June let. That is a low price, truly, but then the question arises whether it is as. low as it will be when these great blocks of discredited stock are actually realised. If the two States get themselves right, even by a well-managed liquidation, then all is well ; but if they indulge in more revolutions, or a vast issue of unsecured paper, then the result will not be so pleasant. There are two years and five months still to run of the guarantee, and all that can be said at present is, that if no new misfortune occurs on the Plate, the prospects of the liquidation are reasonably hopeful. Nothing shows the extent of modern business better than the way in which Paris has borne its vast losses in the Panama Canal, and London its losses on the Plate. More fuss is made over any "decline of values" in Ireland than has been made over the loss of a sum which would buy Ireland in fee-simple.
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