The subject which I am about to bring under the notice of the members of the Institute is one as to which a good deal of misapprehension exists. An impression, I believe, very commonly prevails, that combinations of the nature in question are little better than rude and arbitrary arrangements, in which the rights of the several parties concerned are not much regarded, and which are usually carried out by sacrificing more or less the interests of one class to those of another. I propose now to show that such is by no means the case—that these arrangements are susceptible of the nicest and most accurate adjustment—that the advantages derived from them are appreciable with great exactness—and that the rights of all concerned may be most scrupulously maintained. It is true that, the details being somewhat complicated, persons unfamiliar with such subjects are not very well able to satisfy themselves of this; but the fact is so, nevertheless, as we will now endeavour to demonstrate.