We did not overrate Ur. Jay Gould's financial skill when
we predicted that he would gain by his "restitutions." It appears from the fuller reports of his arrangements with the Erie Rail- way Company, that he stipulated with the Directors before re- storing the 9,000,000 dohs. that he should have time to bid for 200,000 shares. This he did, and as the price rose /4 a share, the dealers who agreed to deliver must have forfeited about £800,000. He had, however, previously issued other orders in Europe, and the New York papers assert that his total gains amount to 12,000,000 dols., or about half a million sterling more than he gave up. For making this money he has received a full discharge of all liabilities of every kind, and a promise that he shall always be consulted on all the important affairs of the rail- way. The New York Times, in recounting the transaction, asks what laws against thieves are made for in New York. We should have thought the answer was self-evident. They are intended to punish all thieves without sufficient grasp of mind to succeed in the profession. Warrants of arrest operate, in fact, on thieves like competitive examination-papers,—they kill off the incapables.
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