20 
neither be materially influenced nor its value 
altered by the variations which occur in the 
annual earnings of the Brighton Railway 
Company. Were these two points then the 
only influences upon the price of the Deben 
ture, its quotation must remain permanently 
unaltered year after year ; whilst, as a matter 
of fact, £100 nominal of the Loudon, Brighton 
& South Coast Railway 4^ per cent. Perpetual 
Debenture possessed a realisable value of 
£180 in the year 1896, and yet in the year 
1904 the same quantity of the same stock 
was worth no more than £134. Here, there 
fore, we have a practical example of an 
investment of a seemingly unalterable quality 
depreciating 46 points, or one quarter of its 
total value within the period of a few years. 
Neither is this example in any way an 
isolated one, for we publish a chart in The 
Investment of Trust Funds showing how a 
number of precisely similar securities depre 
ciated to a like extent during the same period. 
Not only does this chart show that the depre 
ciation in these stocks was identical during a 
period of years, but it also exhibits with 
startling clearness that the movement of each 
stock in the group, during each year, was 
reflected by the movements of all the other 
stocks, and finally, of course, of the whole group.