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the early days of the Trust companies, when their history was chequered by the ailments of infancy, they were described by a city wit as institutions formed to hold collectively securities which no individual would look at. It was a pleasant gibe with just a spark of truth in it, because it is in fact quite possible for companies handling large funds, and consequently able to diversify risk on a large scale, to take investment risks which the prudent private investor should avoid. But it was said very many years ago, and the securities of the well conducted Trust companies have now established themselves as in many ways the finest form of investment that one can want.

And so they ought to be. As we have seen, the investor is born to risk and uncertainty as the sparks fly upward, and his chief refuge from these dangers is diversification. The Trust