SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice suois Books of as week as haus not been ressmd for review in other forms.] Gleanings and Reminiscences. By Thomas Ellison. (Henry Young and Sons, Liverpool. 10s. 6d. net.)—These recollections, the work of a veteran journalist, originally appeared in tho Liverpool Daily Post, and come commended by the editor, Sir Edward Russell. Mr. Ellison had a fifty years' experience of the Liverpool Cotton Market, and his second-hand knowledge went back to a very remote time. Cotton was first seen in the Liver- pool market in 1757, when "28 bags of Jamaica cotton" were advertised for sale. It was destined to replace other industries, among them the dealing in slaves. The next week after this advertisement a Mr. Daltera informed the public that he had "ten pipes of wine, a parcel of bottled cyder, and a negro boy for sale." The first attempt at a "corner" in the new merchandise came in 1779. In that year the French captured Grenada, and the price of cotton rose twopence per pound. Then came a rumour that Jamaica had been captured, and a certain firm—it was one of their cruploy6s who told the tale—bought about two thousand bags. The rumour turned out to be false, and the firm had to sell at twopene,e to threepence below cost price, and to suspend Payment. Another "corner" was made in 1835, and ended in disaster; and yet another, to pass quickly on, by Mr. Morris Ranger, of New York, in 1878. Mr. Ranger held at one time—on paper—two hundred thousand bales. In the end he cleared, through what Mr. Ellison thought an unprecedented combination of circumstances, £150,000. He tried it again, and made a stupendous failure. It is only in small matters that a " corner " can be made with success,—in canary seed, for instance, in which a most profitable venture was made many years ago.
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