at the theatre in a work of more or less contemporary fiction-at a petty provincial theatre which isn't even, as you might think, the place where Pendennis had his first glimpse of Miss Fotheringay. The evening at the Rouen playhouse of Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' has a relief not elsewhere equalled-it is the most done visit to the play in all literature-but, though 'doing' is now so woefully out of favour, my idea would be to give it here a precious pendant; which connexion, silly Canon Conti, the old fripperies and levities, the whole queer picture and show of manners, is handed over to us, expressly, as inapt for poetic illustration. What is equally apt for poetic or for the other, indeed, is the thing for which we feel 'The Ring and the Book' preponderantly done-it is at least what comes out clearest, comes out as straightest and strongest and finest, from Browning's genius-the exhibition of the great constringent relation between man and woman at once at its maximum and as the relation most worth while in life for either party; an exhibition forming quite the main substance of our author's message. He has dealt, in his immense variety and vivacity, with other relations, but on this he has thrown his most living weight; it remains the thing of which his own rich experience most convincingly spoke to him. He has testified to it as charged to the brim with the burden of the senses, and has testified to it as almost too clarified, too liberated and sublimated, for traceable application or fair record; he has figured it as never too much either of the flesh or of the spirit for him, so long as the possibility of both of these is in each, but always and ever as the thing absolutely most worth while. It is in the highest and rarest degree clarified and disengaged for Caponsacchi and Pompilia; but what their history most concludes to is how ineffably it was, whatever happened, worth while. Worth while most then for them or for us is the question? Well, let us say worth while assuredly for us, in this noble exercise of our imagination. Which accordingly shows us what we, for all our prose basis, would have found, to repeat my term once more, prepared for us. There isn't a detail of their panting flight to Rome over the autumn Apennines-the long hours when they melt together only not to meet-that doesn't positively plead for our perfect prose transcript. And if it be said that the mere massacre at the final end is a lapse to passivity from the high plane, for our pair of protagonists, of constructive, of heroic vision, this is not a blur, from the time. everything that happens happens most effectively to Caponsacchi's life. Pompilia's is taken, but she is none the less given; and it is in his consciousness and experience that she most intensely flowers-with all her jubilation for doing so. So that he contains the whole-unless indeed, after all, the Pope does, the Pope whom I was leaving out as too transcendent for our version. Unless, unless, further and further, I see what I have at this late moment no right to; see, as the very end and splendid climax of all, Caponsacchi sent for to the Vatican and admitted alone to the Papal presence. There is a scene if we will; and in the mere mutual confrontation, brief, silent, searching, recognising, consecrating, almost as august on the one part as on the other. It rounds us off; but you will think I stray too far. I have wanted, alas, to say such still other fond fine things-it being of our poet's great nature to prompt them at every step-that I almost feel I have missed half my points; which will doubtless, therefore, show you these remarks in their nakedness. Take them, and my particular contention, as a pretext and a minor affair, if you will only feel them at the same time as, at the worst, a restless refinement of homage. It has been easy, in many another case, to run to earth the stray prime fancy, the original anecdote or artless tale, from which a great imaginative work, starting off after meeting it, has sprung and rebounded again and soared; and perhaps it is right and happy and final that one should have faltered in attempting, by a converse curiosity, to clip off or tie back the wings that once have spread. You will agree with me none the less, I feel, that Browning's great generous wings are over us still and even now, more than ever now; and also that they shake down on us his blessing. HENRY JAMES. Art. 5.-THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE. 1. Stocks and Shares. By Hartley Withers. Smith, Elder, 1910. London: 2. Stock Exchange Law and Practice. By W. A. Bewes. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1910. 3. Rise of the London Money Market, 1640–1826. By W. R. Bisschop. London: King, 1910. 4. The Mechanism of the City. By Ellis T. Powell. London: King, 1910. 5. The Stock Exchange. By F. W. Hirst. Williams and Norgate, 1911. London WHETHER the profession or business of stockbroking belongs to the class of those which deserve to be labelled parasitic is a question frequently debated with considerable and natural heat. It may be taken for granted that society will have to be reconstituted on a basis very different from that which exists at the present time if the Stock Exchange is to become lost in the limbo of obscurity. Membership continues to be an ambition and an aim for many a father who is on the look-out for an answer to the increasing pressure of the question: What shall we do with our sons?' It would be an interesting theme to elaborate the various pros and cons that might be brought forward with reference to the Stock Exchange career; but, in a review of the London Stock Exchange itself, to go at all deeply into the matter would take us too far. At the same time, it may be stated, without fear of contradiction and as eminently appropriate to the consideration of the object, that, provided a man is possessed of average intelligence, a certain amount of capital, and the willingness to endure long periods of comparative idleness (which are so much harder to survive than times of activity), he may feel confident that the House (as it is generally called) offers, at all events, a fair field for the provision of an income, and even occasionally, to the specially favoured, the chance of making a fortune. The Constitution of the Stock Exchange as it stands at present was settled so far back as 1802; but in 1876 a new deed of settlement was executed, while further modifications were introduced a few years ago. However, most of the salient points noticeable in the earlier deed are preserved in the existing constitution; and these afford some justification for the frequent taunt that the Stock Exchange is old-fashioned, that it declines to move with the times, and that in many respects its government is erratic, its rules anomalous, and its practices inconsistent. Charges of this kind could no doubt be easily formulated with some degree of accuracy against any body or institution which has stood the test of time like the Stock Exchange; but the very slowness with which changes are made, both in its constitution and its rules, bears witness to the gravity with which they have to be considered in the light of the future as well as that of the present. There are nine managers who represent the shareholders of the Stock Exchange; there are thirty Committee-men, elected annually, who look after the wellbeing of the members; and with a dual control of this kind, it is fairly obvious that causes of friction will not infrequently arise. It has been the aim of Stock Exchange reformers for many years past to tune into harmony the jarring discord which must inevitably sound so long as two separate bodies are in control; and, by a scheme devised in comparatively recent years for making every member a shareholder in course of time, these difficulties are being gradually removed. Within the course of the next half-century it is pretty certain that the Stock Exchange, as a company, will belong to the members, of whom each will have a stake in the enterprise; and that happy consummation, when it arrives, will put an end to a good many minor problems which still harass the House in its working, and possibly check those bolder plans for reform which are advocated by many of the members themselves. Stock Exchange membership can be obtained in various ways. The easiest but most expensive method is to pay an entrance fee of 500 guineas, and to find three members who will be responsible for four years for the sum of 500l. each, this 15007. being forfeitable to the estate in the event of the new member being 'hammered' during the period. In addition, the candidate must buy three Stock Exchange shares, the price of which at present is about 1907. for the 137.-paid share; and he must also purchase from some retiring member a nomination, which can be bought for about 701., although, when nominations were first created, one is known to have changed hands for 7001. Incidentally, it may be related, as a strange irony of fate, that one of the buyers who paid this amount for his nomination was prevented by circumstances from carrying out his intention of membership, and he had to accept an offer of about 400l. for that nomination shortly after his purchase. The annual subscription is now forty guineas for all members who are elected, but older members who came in under a lighter scale pay thirty guineas, and there are some whose annual subscription is only twenty guineas. Even the latter is considerably more than the original subscription, which was ten guineas. The aspirant who wishes to become a member of the House under easier conditions has his entrance fee reduced to 250 guineas if he serves for four years in the Stock Exchange as a clerk; and for such persons less onerous conditions are imposed in respect of obtaining sureties and the purchase of shares. They need have only two sureties instead of three, and need buy but one share. The Committee every year elect a few candidates without nomination. The subscription, however, is the same for all, viz., forty guineas per annum, except in those cases just mentioned. Every candidate has to appear before the Committee prior to his election; and his sureties also must present themselves to answer questions, varying slightly from time to time, which are put to every candidate and his backers. One of these questions is: 'Would you take this man's cheque for 30007. in the ordinary way of business?' It is related that on one occasion a surety, who was not primed for this enquiry, replied in answer to it: Well, I should not pick it out'; and the incident has become classical. It will be seen, therefore, that the outsider who wants to come straight into the Stock Exchange as a member must be prepared to pay about 1200l., of which 570l. (the purchase price of the shares) is reproductive, substantial dividends being paid half-yearly. It is frequently contended that this expenditure is wholly inadequate, having regard to the highly responsible business which members of the Stock Exchange must undertake for the public: and certainly it seems very low as compared with the deposit required by Lloyds, the high price demanded for a seat in the New York Stock Exchange, or the |