ABSTRACT
A very short consideration would have proved to the speculators that no possible increase of population could justify the excessive competition for buildiug land and the inordinate suml! spent in erecting houses upon it. But at such times nobody reasons. Each expects that the good times will last until he is able to "get out " at a profit, and what the result may be when a crash does come--that is a. matter which can be attended to when it presses, not before. What concerned the gamblers for the moment was that building plots were fetching fully ten times what they were unsalcu.ble at a few years before ; that they were able to borrow on their purchases up to the hilt; and that no sooner were the buildings above ground than tuey could borrow· up to the hilt again. And so for the time the building companies made an exceedingly good showing and divided up large sums on paper. During the same period railway contractors and speculators such as Dt·. Strousberg, who at this time came to London and took a. mansion in Grosvenor Place, made vast fortunes likewise on paper, and also constructed railways so badly that, as was the cu.se with more than one firm of English contractors, they obtained so iufamous a. name for their fellow-contl'actors of the sam.: nationality that no English con-
