Nobody has any money just now, trade being "depressed," the
agricultural interest "ruined," and taxation "exorbitantly high:, Consequently, the furniture, pictures, and objects of art sold from the Hamilton Palace are realising unheard-of prices. A secr6taire, which once belonged to Marie Antoinette, and is by no means pretty, fetched £4,600; and two other pieces of her drawing-room furniture £10,000 more. They may have been bought as relics, though this is not believed. Such purchases are not, of course, tests of national pro- sperity, but they are proofs that the standard of wealth has risen to a very high lever indeed, and that the very
wealthy have not much fear of any general collapse. The
millionaires are seldom rained in times of pecuniary trouble, indeed, they make very often fortunes out of them, but it is not in such times that such sales succeed. It is believed that, with the pictures included, the Duke of Hamilton will obtain at least £300,000 for the furniture of one house. Had Lucullus more P
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