TO THE READER.

This book has been on the anvil of thought two or three years. During that period it has assumed protean shapes; the practical results will be found in the succeeding pages.

Collecting, as is my custom, from time to time, everything of importance bearing upon topics financial and mercantile, it may be readily imagined that I should not allow to escape the extraordinary revelations which have marked the last decade; more particularly the Facts, Failures, and Frauds so prominently portrayed in the progress of commercial life.

The first notion was not to have compressed these, for the most part, painful narratives into a single issue, but to have extended them to a series, the materials at command and in store being sufficiently ample for the purpose. But on reflection, and after a great mass of matter had been preliminarily arranged, my time having meanwhile become more fully absorbed, that determination was altered, and on consultation with my friends, the Brothers Groombridge, it was agreed that one comprehensive volume should be the medium of communication between me and the public.

The work, notwithstanding it has entailed a considerable amount of labour, and no small share of expense, is not put forward as a pretentious or infallible production. To some of the views objections may be taken; and individuals whose conduct may have encountered criticism, will, probably, be tempted to think that they have scarcely merited the condemnation. But as in the majority of instances the verdict