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there was nothing to be feared from earth or heaven.

The bolts were drawn with a sudden grinding, the great rusty key screeched in the lock, the enormous hinges groaned. Jasper Tilney stalked into the room, and Harry lifted his head, with a grave and haughty look meeting the bold stare of his jailer. Jasper came up to the table, leaned on it with both hands, and for a moment their eyes met like clashing swords, without speech. Even then Harry Marlowe was detached enough from his own misery to admire the young fellow's splendid bearing.

"Young-and in love with Meg! I might have done the same myself,”— the thought crossed his brain.

"Ask what you will," said Jasper; then, seeing his prisoner smile, he colored angrily.

"I am not used to asking," Harry said. "I will tell you something, and I will advise. Will you listen?"

Jasper nodded, then tossed back the red locks that tumbled over his brow. "The Lady Marlowe, my mother, with a troop of my people, passed along the road there half-an-hour since. signalled from the window. Could I have wrenched your bars aside, I might have leaped to the church roof, and so climbed down and followed her."

I

"And broken your Lordship's bones. Though I hate you, I should be sorry," said Jasper, and smiled, but not sweetly. "Your signal,-did they answer it?"

"I saw no reply," Harry said; "but I warn you, Master Tilney, it will by some means be discovered where I am. My own men are doubtless still at Ruddiford, waiting in confusion of mind my Lady's orders. There will be a search, and bold as you and your Fellowship may be, King's Hall will not escape. The Queen, too,-remember that she waits in the north, for the little help I may bring, and you are at least

supposed to be for Lancaster. You laugh, Sir?"

"I laugh at your ignorance, my Lord, at your rashness, too, for what is to hinder me from changing your lodging? I have dungeons under the river, as well as cells in the clouds, and if you divert yourself with signalling from our nest here, why, or there is a shorter way, my Lord, if we find ourselves in danger through keeping you. But as to your ignorance, do not believe Queen Margaret is waiting for you. Much has happened since Christmas morning. Without your help, they have fixed Duke Richard's head over the gate of York town. The snow and the rain and the wind have made a black object of it by this time."

Lord Marlowe sprang to his feet, his own affairs forgotten. "The Duke of York dead?"

"Ay, and the Queen is marching on London."

"And I not there! By heaven, Sir, you should have told me this before," -and without noticing Jasper's mocking laugh, he hurried out a dozen eager questions.

For a few minutes these two men of the Red Rose, the half-hearted and the true, talked of Wakefield, of Mortimer's Cross, of the nobles on either side, of Queen Margaret's dashing march and its chances. At last Harry stopped, drew a long breath, walked up to Jasper Tilney and seized him by the arm. As the young fellow, starting violently, tried to shake him off and snatched at his own sword, Harry's grip tightened and he cried impatiently: "Shame, Sir, shame! You a servant of King Henry, and draw on an unarmed man, your prisoner? Nay, come, you cannot keep me here. Give me arms and a horse, and let me ride after the Queen. Send word to my men to join me, and-"

Jasper stared at him fiercely under level brows. "Remember, my Lord,

you are your own prisoner, not mine. Promise you know what, and you are free."

With these words he seemed to hurl Harry Marlowe back into the slough from which the news of the Queen had lifted him. Renounce Meg! That was the condition of being free to ride abroad and fight loyally. Then it seemed he must rot in prison. He measured Jasper with his eye, then flung himself back into the chair from which he had risen.

"I have no new answer for that," he said. "But-" he thought deeply for a minute or two, while Jasper watched him. "But as you have the best of me, I will offer you this. No such promise can I make and live; but set me free from this hole of yours, let me ride to Ruddiford, speak on urgent affairs with my mother, take my men and follow the Queen. Hark to me, Master Tilney. In return for this courtesy of yours, I will not seek to have you punished, and furthermore, I will take my oath not to speak with Mistress Roden till my return from the wars." He lowered his voice, speaking reverently, as of some saint. "In her grandfather's charge," he said, "or in that of my mother, she will remain. If you choose to put yourself forward again among her suitors, you are free to do so. You will be answered as she and her guardians may will it. And my mother shall hear from me that I have made you this promise." While he spoke, Jasper never reMacmillan's Magazine.

moved his blue angry eyes from his face. That a prisoner, with every mark of suffering and hardship upon him, could look so majestically and speak so proudly, was not without its effect on a nature which had its better side. But even with the recognition of Lord Marlowe's great nobleness flamed up a fury of envious rage, and when Harry paused, the young man burst into scornful laughter.

"'Fore God, my Lord Marlowe, your insolence is beyond limit," he said. "You talk of saving me from punishment. Who will punish me, think you, or my bold Fellowship? And you suppose we have done nothing more than shut up your Lordship for six weeks in a garret, while your men sit round the fire at Ruddiford and spend your money in the alehouses? Ask the crows on the north moors what we have done with your men, and our sweethearts how we have scattered your money. And by all the Powers of heaven and hell, shall I thank you humbly for leave to woo my wife? No! die where you are, and we'll throw your carcass into the Ruddy, and Mistress Meg shall see it from the window whence she saw you first, floating down stream."

So saying, young Tilney flung himself out of the room. The door clanged, the bolts screeched into their places, and Lord Marlowe was left alone with his thoughts, while the darkness of night descended.

(To be continued.)

CLIMBING THE (JOINT-STOCK) TREE.

Among all that has been written in recent years concerning the education and equipment required by a youth who proposes to win his way to fortune, it is

rather surprising to find that little or no attention has been given to the question as to how far the young aspirant's task has been made more difficult or

more simple by the prevailing fashion which tends to turn all businesses into joint-stock companies.

For

It is evident that this development, which goes on its way steadily year by year, though occasionally checked after a debauch of over-capitalization on the part of company promoters, must have had memorable effects upon the industries that it has absorbed within the sweep of its net. For the industries themselves the effect has, on the whole, probably been beneficial. Concerns with a large body of shareholders ought, it may be contended fairly, to be better managed than those which are conducted in the interests of two or three partners who are likely to become ossified by routine after a few years of prosperity, and prone to leave well alone, and jog along easily in the path that has brought wealth to themselves and their forefathers. the shareholders are an ever-shifting body, and so are not in a position to console themselves with the thought that, after all, if the business is not doing very well now it has yielded fat profits, which were safely realized and snugly tucked away, in the past. The shareholder of to-day insists, or would like to insist, that the business shall be kept up to the mark as a profit-earning concern, and any sign of slackness on the part of the management is likely to be rewarded with criticism which is both prompter and more uncompromising than can be the case when those interested in the profits of an industry are themselves responsible for its management. This consideration gains still greater force when we remember that the old days of partnership management often tended to place the conduct of businesses in the hands of a family party, assisted, perhaps, by subordinates who had grown up in the service of the family, and regarded its members as both omniscient and infallible.

The picture that Dickens has given us of the counting-house of the Brothers Cheeryble is indeed a delightful commercial idyl, but it may safely be doubted whether, if Fortune happened to turn a sour face upon the efforts of that eminent firm of German-merchants, the mutual criticisms of the two brothers and of the faithful Tim Linkinwater would have given much assistance towards winning back her favor; and such a remedy as a change of management could not, from the nature of the case, have occurred to them as desirable, or even possible, under any conceivable circumstances.

This desire of the modern shareholder for steady and, if possible, increasing dividends has its drawbacks. When a business is being built up it is often better policy to husband all the profit earned and devote it to the consolidation and expansion of the industry, and on such occasions the power of the old partner-management to exercise self. restraint in the matter of distribution was a distinct gain: so much so that it may be argued that a partnership is best fitted for making a business, while the joint-stock system works best for keeping it going and getting the best possible results out of it. And it must also be admitted that the modern shareholder has shown quite as much ignorance and stupidity about the conduct of the industries in which he is interested as the most eager upholder of the old régime could have foretold. He wants his dividends, and as long as he gets them he recks little as to how they are earned or whether they are earned at all. Consequently he is more than likely by this indiscriminate craving for dividends to encourage bad finance, which will eventually result in his discomfiture. For instance, it is probable that the boards of English railway companies would not have indulged, as freely as they have in the past, in the vicious habit of drawing

on capital for expenditure which ought to have been charged to revenue if they had not been terrified into over-distribution by the thought of meeting their proprietors assembled in general meeting.

This ignorant shortsightedness, however, on the part of shareholders shows signs of wearing off, assisted by bitter experience, and, to some extent perhaps, by the efforts of financial critics, some of whom-in spite of sweeping condemnations which occasionally damn the whole financial press with book and with bell-are honest, keeneyed, and trenchant. Moreover, the shareholder likes not only to get regular dividends, but also to see the prices of the securities which he holds appreciate, or at least remain steady; and the price of a company's securities is very susceptible to bad management, for what is known as "inside selling" is pretty certain to affect this sensitive barometer, if anything is amiss, in a manner which opens the eyes of the most purblind shareholder.

The joint-stock system has thus brought with it a healthy publicity which has had an invigorating effect upon management, especially upon those businesses, such as banking and insurance, which depend for their very existence on credit. A large body of shareholders necessitated the printing and distribution of a yearly or halfyearly report and balance-sheet which were open to analysis and criticism. And it cannot be doubted that much of the astonishing success and prosperity of British banking since the joint-stock system was allowed a free hand to engage in it has been due to the necessity, under which the business has worked, of being able to show figures which are beyond cavil.

These considerations have an important bearing on our original questionthat of the position of the youth of LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVI. 1388

ability who proposes to climb to the top of the commercial tree. For anything that tends to keep the conduct of a business active and vigorous will inevitably improve the chances of any talented men in its service. It is true that the young Dick Whittington of to-day may find that certain short cuts, or backstairs ways, to the summit of his ambition have been closed to him by the joint-stock system. He is no longer, perhaps, able to achieve a ready-made position by marrying his employer's daughter or widow; but as. far as genuine ability and energy are concerned it cannot be doubted that they get nowadays a finer chance of bringing their possessor forward than they did in the old days of partner management. Publicity and criticism make nepotism less efficacious to put the square man in the round hole, though it cannot be denied that nepotism in industrial circles is by no means: dead, but too often still gives opportunities to those who have not earned them; nevertheless, if nepotism still gives chances unfairly it does not often suffice to keep a man long in a post for which he is manifestly unfit; if he is not good enough to take advantage of his chance he will, in most cases, sooner or later have to give way to those who are better qualified.

For, after all, the most notable effect that the introduction and expansion of the joint-stock system have wrought upon the financial and commercial world has been the extent to which it has fostered competition. The democratization of capitalism and the power of uniting the small subscriptions of a large number of comparatively poor investors for the purpose of exploiting an industry has given an elasticity to the supply of money for industrial purposes which was undreamt of before the Limited Liability Acts brought joint-stock enterprise within the reach of any one who had

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saved a five-pound note, or less. consequence is that as soon as any industry is seen to be earning profits above the average a swarm of company promoters come buzzing about it, and settle on its showiest blossoms, gather ing honey which they make haste to offer to the shareholding public. The joint-stock machinery and human nature being still by no means perfect, the result of this activity and eagerness is often unfortunate enough for the shareholders; but this ever-ready supply of fresh capital has a wonderfully exhilarating effect upon the com、 mercial organism, stimulating its activity and keeping competition always at high pressure.

It is difficult to over-estimate the benefit which this keen pressure of competition confers upon the aspirant to commercial success, whose prospects we are considering. If we are justified in claiming that the joint-stock system has stimulated, and is stimulating, competition, we may be certain that it has opened the door of success wider to the ambitious and able youth. For though it is very likely true that competition is by no means the last word in industrial organization, and that it involves waste of energy and overlapping expenditure of capital and effort which might be corrected by some saner system hereafter to be evolved, nevertheless this very waste of effort only stimulates the demand for able and energetic men to make it, and makes it more and more impossible to leave the conduct even of the least important departments of a business in the hands of those who are not properly qualified to manage them. Hence it is that the keener competition developed by the joint-stock system forces those who are in authority to be always keenly on the look-out for fresh talent, and youths of promise are looked for and pushed forward by the vigorous and active companies with an eager

ness that would have astonished our commercial forefathers.

The debt that a youthful ambition owes to competition is demonstrated in an interesting manner by the fact that, among joint-stock companies, those which are least liable to immediate and obvious competition are those among which nepotism and favoritism are still most rife. The railway companies, for example, are, as far as inland business is concerned, virtually in the position of monopolists. It is, of course, open to any one who has a bent that way to build a new railway wherever he likes if he can get the necessary Parliamentary powers and raise the needful capital; but the expense involved by the necessity for Parliamentary sanction is so great, and the power of an existing railway is so strong to put obstacles in the path of a newcomer that the existing lines can afford to regard their position as unassailable; while as for competition among themselves it has long ago been reduced, in most cases, to an amusing farce that is played with a very grave face by the various managements in order to gratify the public with the belief that its interests are being served in the best possible manner. Railway races are occasionally arranged, and sometimes we hear of one line or another putting on an extraluxurious dinner train; but as to serious competition such as would exist if railways were really a business in which a newcomer with ready capital had a genuinely free hand, the various boards have long ago quietly settled things in such a way that no such vulgarity is likely to disturb their slumbers. And the result is somnolence, nepotism, and a condition of selfsatisfied stagnation which is not only very discouraging to a youth who enters this monopolist industry with a view to climbing to the top, but also is a danger to British trade, a danger

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