Fisheries to feed a canning Factory on the banks of the Amazon was one of them.

A principality to be bought in Madagascar was another.

As the grotesque details of these incredible transactions came out one by one ripples of laughter ran over the closely packed court--each one a little louder than the other.

The audience ended by fairly roaring under the cumulative effect of absurdity.

The Registrar laughed, the barristers laughed, the reporters laughed, the serried ranks of the miserable depositors watching anxiously every word, laughed like one man.