532 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Meanwhile on the Continent, in forms somewhat different 

 though allied, joint-stock companies have similarly of late 

 years multiplied. Thus in Prussia, between 1872 1883 

 inclusive, there were established 1411 companies with a 

 capital of 136,000,000 odd insurance, chemical works, 

 sugar works, gas and water, textile industries, breweries, 

 metals, railways, &c. France, too, has displayed a kindred 

 spread of these industrial organizations. Their constitu 

 tions, differing more or less from one another and from those 

 which are usual in England, need not be detailed. The only 

 remark worth adding about foreign joint-stock companies is 

 that, in their legal f onns, they bear traces of the unlike con. 

 ceptions prevailing here and abroad concerning the rela 

 tions between citizens and governments. For whereas here 

 the tacit assumption is that there exists in citizens the right 

 to combine for this or that purpose as they please, subject 

 only to such restrictions as the State imposes for the safe 

 guarding of others interests, on the Continent the tacit as 

 sumption has been that this right does not naturally pertain 

 to citizens, but is conferred on them by the State, in which, 

 by implication, it is latent: a conception indicated by the 

 use of the word &quot; concession.&quot; 



The system thus gradually reached by relaxation of re 

 strictions, has led to immense industrial developments which 

 would else have been slow and difficult, if not impossible. 

 When we ask what would have happened had there been 

 none of the resulting facilities for raising masses of com 

 pound capital, the reply is that the greater part of the roads, 

 canals, docks, railways, which now exist would not have 

 existed. The wealth and foresight of a man like the Duke 

 of Bridgwater, might occasionally have created one of these 

 extensive works; but there have been few men possessing 

 the requisite means, and still fewer possessing the requisite 

 enterprise. If, again, execution of them had been left to the 

 Government, conservatism and officialism would have raised 

 immense hindrances. The attitude of legislators towards 



