uropean
Gould has risen up to "finance" Downing Street into submission, or to
meet the boldest move of Prince Bismarck by a fall of the Stock
Exchange. Of all the schemes however which we have suggested, this is
probably the nearest to practical realization. If not we ourselves, our
children at any rate may see International Congresses made possible by a
few people quietly buttoning their breeches-pockets, and the march of
"armed nations" arrested by "a run for gold."

Taking however men as they are, it is far more wonderful that no one has
hit on the enormous field which wealth opens for the developement of
sheer downright mischief. The sense of mischief is a sense which goes
quietly to sleep as soon as childhood is over from mere want of
opportunity. The boy who wants to trip up his tutor can easily find a
string to tie across the garden walk; but when one has got beyond the
simpler joys of childhood strings are not so easy to find. To carry out
a practical joke of the Christopher Sly sort we require, as Shakespere
saw, the resources of a prince. But once grant possession of unlimited
wealth, and the possibilities of mischief rise to a grandeur such as
the world has never realized. The Erie Ring taught us a little of what
capital might do in this way, but in the Erie Ring capital was fettered
by considerations of profit and loss. Throw these considerations
overboard and treat a great question in the spirit of sheer mischief,
and the results may be simply amazing. Conceive, for instance, a
capitalist getting the railways round London into his power, and then in
sheer freak stopping the traffic for a single day. No doubt the day
would be a short one, but even twelve hours of such a practical joke
would bring about a "Black Monday" such as England has never seen. But
there would be no need of such an enormous operation to enable us to
realize the power of latent mischief which the owner of great wealth
really possesses. An adroit operator might secure every omnibus and
every cab in the metropolis and compel us to paddle about for a week in
the mud of November before the loss was replaced.

It is quite possible indeed that gigantic mischief of this sort may find
its sphere in practical politics. Already Continental Governments watch
with anxiety the power which employers possess of bringing about a
revolution by simply closing their doors and throwing thousands of
unemployed labourers on the street; but it is a power whi