CLOUDS GATHERING 247 



flax or cotton into silk or its equivalent by an electro- 

 veneering process. The patentee was a Frenchman named 

 Magner, and I have never been quite satisfied that he did 

 not believe in his invention, but I know I dropped a lot 

 of money and nothing came of it. Then, too, I had heard 

 Mr Goschen speak on his return from Egypt, after doing 

 what he could to arrange finance there, and I conceived 

 the idea that Egyptian Unified should be bought, so I 

 speculated in 10,000 of them and they had such a fall that 

 I lost 1500 in two accounts. Still, I did not mind, for I 

 had paid for them down to twenty-eight and regarded it as 

 merely an instalment towards taking them up, but alas ! 

 I being then away from London there came word that 

 the brokers with whom I dealt had been " hammered " 

 and the stock sold out against them. Before I knew this 

 Unifieds had risen seven, and they kept on rising from that 

 time forth. These things, however, were -but the outer 

 fringe of money troubles which the city of London in- 

 volved me in, and as I can't exactly blame myself, and 

 certainly will not blame anyone else, the easiest plan is to 

 give the subject a miss, with the simple intimation that 

 troubles were brewing. Yet I had full faith in Cobham 

 to make good any other deficiencies, and in 1878 the 

 yearlings sold for no less than 22,070 guineas. That 

 surely was encouraging ; but I was out of touch with the 

 show, being exiled at Leeds, and there had been a decimat- 

 ing attack of joint evil among the foals that year it was 

 called " foal disease " at that time. Veterinary science 

 was so little advanced then that the very necessary pre- 

 caution of disinfecting the navels of new-born foals was 

 not practised, and of course the disease flew round like 

 wildfire. How many foals died I cannot say, but I know 

 that practically all of mine did, the mares being then at 

 Cobham. 



Moreover, in the fifth year of the Company's operations, 

 though the accounts as passed by the auditors showed 

 justification for another 10 per cent, dividend, which 

 was accordingly declared, the money with which to pay 



