The quarterly meeting of the directors of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce was held yesterday afternoon at 11 Melbourne Place—Mr James Currie, chairman, presiding.

The Proposed International Exhibition.

Bailie Turnbull moved that the Chamber give a guarantee to the extent of £50 towards the International Exhibition to be held in Edinburgh next year. It seemed to him, he said, most appropriate that the Chamber of Commerce should assist in such a work as this. The motion was seconded by Mr James Tod, and unanimously agreed to.

Public Salmon Hatcheries.

The report was unanimously adopted.

Imperial Federation.

Mr Begg said the idea of bringing forward a motion on this subject was suggested to him by the fact that the London Chamber of Commerce had petitioned the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the subject. This petition, after stating that a widespread feeling exists in favour of strengthening the bonds between the mother country and the colonies, he said, pointed out that the population of the Anglo-Saxon race and its wealth in our colonies are rapidly increasing; that the growth of trade with and of investments of British capital In these colonies is very great; that the colonists share our feelings and aspirations; that a unity of commercial interest between us is important in view of the growing hostility of foreign tariffs, and in order to direct to our colonies the stream of emigration which is constantly leaving our shores; and that, in view of these facts and for these reasons, it is desirable that official cognisance should be taken of the situation and facilities afforded for arriving at the best means of accomplishing the object in view. He presumed that it was hardly necessary to advance any arguments in a meeting such as that either in favour of the views stated or the importance of the question. At the same time it was certain that the magnitude of our colonial interests night to be kept constantly impressed upon the attention of the people of this country, for it was amazing how utterly ignorant numbers of people were upon this, subject. There was no doubt that a vast change had come over public opinion of late years, and that the ideas of the school of which Gold win Smith might bp regarded as the head had become to a large extent obsolete. Separation, as thè natural result of the effluxion of time and the evolution of circumstances, was no longer regarded as inevitable, or even probable. What was known as the "ripe pear" idea—namely, that a colony, so soon as it was thoroughly established, would by the gravitation of circumstances fall away from us of its own accord—was entirely exploded. Science in its wonderful modern development had by means of electricity and steam practically annihilated time and space, and it was now not so difficult to communicate, either personally or by correspondence, with the uttermost ends of the earth as it was in the days of our grandfathers to ascertain the views of the outlying portions of the British islands. We had not yet, however, arrived at the time when it was possible to formulate a complete scheme. That was not the question. But we were certainly in a position to endeavour to formulate our ideas, and the condition of public opinion pointed to the wisdom, if not the necessity, of so doing. The distant portions of our vast empire were beginning to attract the covetous eyes of not over-scrupulous foreign nations. If we were united by some living bond that would do much towards the discouragement of such ideas, towards the prevention of war, and the promotion and preservation of peace. He thought we would shortly find that nothing would preserve to us our colonial empire so successfully as a league, offensive and defensive, between the mother country and her dependencies, so that we might present a united front against all outsiders. The loyalty of our colonies was undoubted. Colonists, almost to a man, were enthusiastically loyal, and we had just had a striking proof of their willingness to stand by us, and make our quarrels their own, in the military contingent which our brethren in New South Wales had sent, at their own expense, to fight our battles for us in the Soudan. A group of colonies in Canada had been federated with the happiest results. The Australian colonies were themselves now moving in the same direction. It only remained that all classes of the community should be permeated with the grand idea of a federation of the empire, and a way would soon be found for its realisation. (Applause.)

Gambling on the Stock Exchange.

He said the reason this subject came up before them was this, that in view of the budget it occurred to him that some alteration on the stamp duties might be advisable and arrived at which would at the same time check and deter gambling which was well known to exist on the Stock Exchange. The result of the present arrangement was that many people carried on enormous transactions on the Stock Exchange and paid very little stamp duty, while bona fide transactors who bought stock out and out and took transfers required to pay the full stamp duty. He thought this was an infringement of one of the cardinal points of taxation-namely, that taxes were as far as possible to be equal. That motion would hit at those speculators and make them pay stamp duty, even where a transaction was not completed by transfer. If this Chamber was clear that a serious evil existed in the shape of Stock Exchange gambling, they should not allow the interests of any particular class, or any particular individual, to stand in the way of haying it removed when it was for the public good By his motion he wished to impose no new tax, but simply to extend the present tax to all sales, whether carried to a completion by transfer or not.

Mr Russel, wine merchant, seconded the motion.

The Chairman mentioned that he had been told the other day by a Glasgow banker that there was reason for such a resolution as that proposed. In Glasgow, he understood, they had experience of the inconvenience arising from the facilities when the present arrangement placed in the power of clerks and others, who certainty ought not to have them.

Mr F. Faithfull Begg said that as He was the only stockbroker present, perhaps he should not remain silent. (Hear, hear.) He supposed from the very fact that he was a stockbroker he would be considered as utterly prejudiced, and beyond all hope in this question (A laugh.) He tried, however, to take a fair view of the subject. The point that Mr Millar was aiming at—namely, to check and deter unwarrantable speculation—was certainly a most desirable and highly advisable thing to do. There could be no question about that, and he hoped Mr Millar would always act upon that principle. But to do it in the way which he proposed seemed to him to be singling out a particular industry—or business at all events—to be penalised for the benefit of the general community, because the same species of transaction existed in every other branch of trade or commerce throughout the country. They had it in cotton, in wheat, in pig iron, in hops, and so on—in fact, they could speculate in anything if they desired to do so. He could not see why any special branch should be struck at more than another. The point, however, about speculation which he wished to bring out was this, that speculation was entirely a relative term, which might be perfectly justifiable for him or for another, but for a third or fourth person might be perfectly unwarrantable. He believed that the whole of the enterprise of this country was based upon the idea of speculation, and if they had not in this country a very large number of men willing to speculate in every direction here and abroad the country would never be what it was, and their trade would be crippled. The idea, he added, that a speculator on the Stock Exchange was a different kind of animal from the speculator on every other market was erroneous. (Laughter and applause.)

Mr Harris (of Messrs Fleming & Co.) said that the imposition of any tax was altogether insufficient from the experience they had all over the world to put a stop to any form of gambling.

Mr Charles W. Anderson said he looked at the subject in the light that those who had real transactions were too heavily taxed, and that those who had transactions out of which they expected to make a profit ought to be taxed.

Councillor Pollard remarked that the question was a much wider one than was dealt with by the motion, because the same species of transaction occurred with heritable property, which might be transferred to several different parties without the title-deeds being actually transferred in each case and the duties paid. He suggested that they should remit the subject to the directors for further consideration, and get a report from them at a future meeting.—This was agreed to unanimously.

The meeting then terminated.