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 bricks and mortar in the form of breweries and public houses, the difference between what they may be expected to be worth and what they may actually fetch may be very considerable.

To point his moral and adorn his tale, he might cite the recent reconstruction of Vickers, Ltd., in the course of which it was found necessary to write more than ten millions off assets standing at 22¼ millions, and further to provide 2¼ millions to meet "contingent and other liabilities expected to accrue." (Economist, December 12, 1925.)

After this general denunciation of all balance-sheets, the critic would proceed to dilate in detail on the one before us. First of all, he would say that even assuming the figures of the assets to be correct, the position only represents the present situation of a business which is a highly prosperous member of a trace which many people believe to be doomed, because the consumption of alcoholic liquor is alleged to be diminishing; nearly the whole of the North American Continent is already (or is supposed to be) dry; and some prophets tell us that in a decade or two the social and economic results of the American experiment will be so overwhelming that the rest of the world will be driven perforce on to the water