CONCLUDING REMARKS. 65 



reasonable returns for investment. But where the 

 capitalist is helplessly reliant on the honour and services 

 of a representative on his distant possessions, under 

 circumstances in which few have the resolution to resist 

 stimulants and the usual devices for diversifying mo- 

 notony and overcoming the ennui attendant on isola- 

 tion and solitude, property of this kind is accompanied 

 by inextricable risks and anxieties, and the owner will 

 be often tempted to ascribe to bad faith or neglect, 

 the disappointments, outlay, and losses which are in 

 reality attributable to ordinary vicissitudes rather than 

 to the infidelity of agents." 



The attention of the reader is particularly called to 

 the last paragraph, and where the investment contem- 

 plated is in conjunction with a Joint Stock Company 

 the utmost care should also be taken to ascertain the 

 qualifications of the directors and managers for their 

 self-imposed duties, as instances are not uncommon of 

 fully three-fourths of the number of the directors of a 

 company being entirely ignorant of everything regard- 

 ing coffee, except perhaps, of how it is drunk, and as a 

 matter of course, those who do really understand the 

 management are frequently in a minority on many im- 

 portant questions ; further, let not the incautious 

 speculator be tempted by what is called " a guarantee 

 of a minimum dividend," for a grosser delusion was 

 never practised on the British public. In most cases 

 it means simply that the vendor of the property or 

 directors of the company are to receive so much more 

 than the real value of it, that if they get that amount 

 they can afford to pay the interest out of it ; and, if on 

 the other hand, the guaranteed dividend has really to 



