Exchanges never foresee anything, and this time the European Bourses
have been as thunderstruck as if they had never heard of war. The average fall in every kind of security, except Consols, which have not declined two per cent., and Indian guaranteed paper of all kinds, which has not felt the shock, has been from four to five per cent. It is calculated by experienced men that the total re- duction in the saleable value of the paper property of Europe exceeds one hundred millions, and this before a single loan has been demanded. All business is arrested in Central Europe, and weak holders of stock of all kinds are getting rid of it at all hazards. We would strongly advise any of our readers who may be tempted to part with property in apparent danger, such as Spanish bonds, or Rentes, or German bonds, to hold on at all risks. This will not be the kind of war which makes Govern-. rnents insolvent. The blows will be hard and heavy, and, cynical as the opinion may seem, the ultimate paymasters will not, we fear, be the fighting powers, but the neutrals who lie between them.
