No amount of trouble would have been
likely to have increased my godson's estate one half so much as it had
increased without my taking any trouble at all.
Midland stock at the end of August, 1850, when I sold out Miss
Pontifex's debentures, stood at L32 per L100. I invested the whole
of Ernest's L15,000 at this price, and did not change the investment
till a few months before the time of which I have been writing lately-
that is to say until September, 1861. I then sold at L129 per share
and invested in London and North-Western ordinary stock, which I was
advised was more likely to rise than Midlands now were. I bought the
London and North-Western stock at L93 per L100, and my godson now in
1882 still holds it.
The original LI5,000 had increased in eleven years to over
L60,000; the accumulated interest, which, of course, I had
re-invested, had come to about L10,000 more, so that Ernest was then
worth over L70,000. At present he is worth nearly double that sum, and
all as the result of leaving well alone.
Large as his property now was, it ought to be increased still
further during the year and a half that remained of his minority, so
that on coming of age he ought to have an income of at least L3500 a
year.
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