On the Stock Exchange it is the right thing to bear or bull—that is, in plain word?, to operate fur a fall or rise; or, in plainest words, by every means to depreciate the commodity which you must buy by a certain day. This year we have ■een this great principle rather strained. Jt is a little strong to g.> about hinting that this or that firm cannot meet its bills, or whis pering that a terribl» half-yearly Report of this or that Comp.wy is fort^cmsrnj, or that some .pint stock bank or o'.uer ha? been bird h't. But if thia is d no o:i!y t > briu? certain shares down, and if it is ad mi?te,l not to Ijl" commercially immoral to bring shares up or dowi.l, if you ctri or how you cm, aud tiiat it '3 always some body e's;"s interest to couiitcrait t'lis 'psrati'in, com neruiul morality h int'i to knoun.-c it. A'lyhuv, coinnicrui.il mi "ulify •: ;y.5 it citi't be help.'d; it is ptr :i»pi awkward, nnpk-r.svit, unfortunate, s'.*plorab!c; but still i. can't b; remedied. The Stock- Krichange Comnii'te.t was call-.-d o do snrnctiiin:; to remedy tlii.n iitle awk ward matter of time bargain?. But the reply waa tVi". my attempt to deal •vith it v;o:il 1 restrict business. So with p ior Mr Wat kins. It nrght be vefy hard to have it hintcl tint he had stopped payment.; it wts, perhaps, unplea sant to Mr Watkin?. But thin, after all, the hint nb'.'iit hij s-olvency was only a friendly inquiry. It always does a untj good to siy that you really have come ground* for hofiing that he is not a murderer or adul'crer. A nod Is better than a wink when the horse U not blind. And then— why South-Eastern shares might be U'j\ •inii'fcly beared or bttik-d; and the coincidence that Mr Walkins was Chair mm of the S >-)th J.Ca<.tern wa3 not a S:ock Exchange ofliir. So the matu-r ris'.«i; and the value < f the incident is that we have s«cen what if, if nir. the legitimate, at lea«t the apparently inevitable, npp!ic:t!irm of the present i.lea of com ncrcial morality in ifn highest spiiere. 