The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-11 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET.

SATURDAY ETINTNI.
It is a painful duty to have to record the suspension
of payments of the respected firm of Rickards,
Little, and Co., in the East India trade. Mr. Little is
a director of the Bank of England, to which poet he
was elected some two or three years sines. We are in-
formed, on what may be deemed competent authority,
that the responsibilities of this house, extensive as its
business formerly was, and large as the capital it
was understood to be endowed with, have been re-
duced to an amount which comparatively will not be
likely to lead to very serious consequences in any
quarter. The firm, it is stated, have been contracting
their business for two or three years, in consequence
of the discouraging nature of Indian commerce.
We have three failures reported besides of minor
importanoe ; one of which is M. Van Zeller, the Por-
tuguese consul. These casualties were not known till
ratker late in the day. One of the parties, it is stated,
who as a creditor attended the meeting held at Reid,
Irving, and Co.'s, for the inspection of their balance-
sheet, was advised only of his own insolvency by
finding subsequently at his counting-house an impe-
rative demand from the Bank of England for several
thousand pounds'on account of bills of insolvent esn-
.cieens lying there bearing his endorsement, though not
at murky.
At theyeeting of the creditors of Meter&

5,01 8 11

V7.1:-.2 1.)

27.1 n 10 8

6,V,432 S I

it will be seen that the credit side exhibits a consi-
derable surplus; but when the nature and substan-
tiality of the principal assets are considered, such as
the West India estates, credits, lands and shares in
the Mauritius, &c., it may be reasonably doubted
whether they will realise 50 per cent. of the
amounts set down, upon a rough average 'of all
together. The straits to which the house was driven,
and the wretched shifts to which it was reduced
for supporting a name which years ago ranked
all over the world as capitalists fully on a par with
the Barings and Rothschilds, may be gathered from
the extraordinary fact that, at the period of its sus-
pension, no more than 9,1531. of bills really good re-
mained in hand, whilst even the very office in which
its business was daily carried on, valued at 4,0001.,
was mortgaged, and figures as a doubtful asset for the
paltry excess (if any) which it may chance to yield.
Such in brief is the miserable wreck of a mighty
firm which has figured as loan contractors,supplying
millions to foreign states—princely merchants, carry-
ing on immense commercial exchanges with all quar-
ters of the globe, whose signature to any extent was
equal to gold--great cotton spinners and manufac-
turers (in Manchester under the well-remembered
firm of Benj. Gray and Co., with one of the largest
spinning factories somewhere about Ancoats)—and
directors or governors of the Bank of England.
Some angry observations naturally passed at the
meeting upon such a skeleton of assets, chiefly on the
score of the vast sum of bills drawn upon the house
recently from India. The unfortunate partners, how-
ever, of whom one only was present, found a gene-
rousdefender in a creditor for a large amount who
was present, and who testified from a knowledge and
intercourse of a quarter of a century, to the honour-
able character and integrity of their dealings. Such
testimony, creditable as it was, cannot be allowed to
pervert the sober judgment on even the most super-
ficial analysis of the materials of which the wreck is
made up. It 'is evident that for many years this
great firm has had no real tangible capital to trade
upon. The assets are made up of properties which
no sane merchant, as such, should have embarked in;
properties which, it is scarcely too much to say, can-
not be expected to realise 25 per cent of their stated
cost or nominal valuation. After some discussion, the
meeting came to the conclusion of winding up
the affairs of the house under inspection, and
Mears. Thomas Baring, Blythe (of the Mauritius
house of that name), and M'Clarey were ap-
pointed trustees and inspectors for the creditors.
Hopes were held out of an early dividend
of five shillings in the pound, but doubts may be
reasonably expressed whether such anticipations will
be verified, and whether, in fact, so much salvage will
in all be gathered from the mighty ruin.
We come now to the most painful part of a duty
which we would gladly have been spared, but which
is forced upon us no less by a consideration of this
melancholy affair than by the indignant comments to
which it has given rise in most respectable City
circles. The fair fame and credit of British merchants
and capitalists in all foreign lands are thought to be
nationally damaged or involved in the demoralising
and injurious exhibitions of this and other recent
failures. It is recollected, with an unhappy tenacity
of memory, that, on the demise of the late Mr.
Irving, the second partner then of the firm, the Times,
in remarking upon the event, under the Money
Market head we believe, stated that the deceased
stood possessed of large landed estates, and that the
personalty was sworn under 30,0001. The next, or a
following day, a letter, subscribed from the house,
appeared in the same paper, to the effect substantially
that Mr. Irving's vast wealth was too well known in
the City to render such an explanation neces-
sary, but that for the correction of unintentional
error it was deemed proper to advertise the journal
that Mr. Irving's personal estate was administered to
and rated as under three hundred thousand pounds,
instead of the small sum of thirty thousand. The
whole, or the bulk, of this property was understood
to be devised to a near relative, actually now a part-
ner in the concern, the partners numbering four we
believe. Mr. Irving has been dead some three or four
years. The whole surplus residue of the separate
estates of the partners (after payment of private en-
gagements) is stated in the balance-sheet at 25,000/.
only. The inquiry is naturally made, therefore, such
being the personal estate of the partner deceased,
whether that has had to bear singly the whole brunt
of the losses of the firm since, which would imply
that the other partners were really possessed of
nothing beyond a certain interest in sugar plantations
abroad returning no value, and commanding none in
the market. It need not be urged, deeply painful as
it is to seem to press upon the fallen, that some ex-
planation and reconciliation of these extraordinary
and contradictory circumstances are due, not to the
creditors only but to the public. We must add, in
behalf of the parties, and in explanation of some por-
tion of the large waste of property to which they have
been subjecteel, that, according to report, their loss
by the fall of prices in sugar alone during the present
year has been equal to 12/. per ton upon 9,000 tons,
say in gross 108,0001.
The funds opened heavily at 831 for Consols for
money and settling day. They declined subsequently
as low as 831 money, and S 3; for account. The
satisfactory character of the commercial and mone-
tary advice. from the United States by the Washing-
ton steamer, exclusively published in a sewed elition
of the Daily Netts, had an immediate effect in rally-
ing the quotations to 831, but they closed a shade
worse at 83Z to Z money, and 83Z for the 14th. Ex-
chequer Bills, 10s. to 3s. discount; small bills, par to
sa. premium. India Stock, 224 to 7. India Bonds,
30s. to 225. discount.
In foreign stocks the dealings were remarkably
few. Mextcan were reported at the close 184 to l9i.
Spanish Fives were called 18 to 19; the Threes,

27 to 8. Portuguese, 211 to 31. Dutch Two-and-e.-
Half per Cents., 53 to 4 ; the Pours, 821 to 31.
The reported short comings of the quarter's revenue
of about a million, with the discouraging exhibit of
the Bank returns for the last week, were the causes
which to-day, as for some days past, have operated so
injuriously upon the values of public securities. The
falling off in revenue, especially attributed to the
excise, is the more sensibly appreciated es an indica-
tion of diminished consumption among the people.
From the great increase of " other securities," re-
presenting bills discounted or loaned upon, in the
Bank returns for the past week, amounting to up.
wards of 11 millions, making, with that of the week
before, a total increase of 21 millions, it may be in-
ferred that assistance must have been very liberally
extended in some quarters, and to an extent
which, trammelled by its charter rules as it
is, would seem to trespass on a wise dis-
cretion—so much as only to be defended
by the overruling emergencies of the times. There
are grounds for believing, in fact, that the Bank wea
called upon, and compelled, to afford assistance to
Lombard•street interests placed in a situation of peril
by the withdrawal of deposits, and the continuous
claims upon them, notwithstanding the large capitals
of which possessed but otherwise engaged. I fence the
disquieting reduction of the reserve, which, coin and
notes together, was brought down to 3,8:i0,(H10/. And
-with this disproportionate fund the Bank had to face
the routine of its regular discount business now so
largely expanded by the incapacity, or unwilling-
ness, of all other banks to afford accommodation.
Assuming the average term of bills held by the Bank
at six weeks, the amount maturing weekly would
have been at the rate of three millions, which would
leave that sum to be replaced by fresh discounts. Bat,
in fact, the Bank had increased its discounts and loans
at the rate of 11 millions instead of three millions, for
the two weeks referred to. So much for the absurd
attempt to bind banking and credit within the brittle
iron filters of an act of parliament.

ENOLIBII FI'N DP.
3 per Cent Conk Am a., 8314#14 C0n...4. for Account. 83: i: 4 ,
111414 r,tork. 2e7 5 4:,. DPI., 11.0 M. 1.1.3 10 414.
hula Bond., zoo, a) m du. Itittn. £5BO, 11e
Ditto under 4..1.4M., .4.. 14 Ditto. =knoll, 4 IF. for SPM.
roarAoN FUNDS.
. ... .- . . .. _... . _

Tirar7llaz Bond": tio;;;i1;;V
81.6a.1.,t. Meal:l.'l.lBK 15 3 pre Colt_ ,rpaut.J.
Oct. 14, 1$ Oct 14.'_'';
per Ct. Portugue. Bomb. ni 4 per ('out. Du
6 per Cent. Sinni.h Drab, Dlr. VI
front Nut., 18P., IS
Ia.:11113G= AID STOCKII ADIIOAD.

for Amman..
' Pa ,I
PARIS. Oct.,. 1 itri± 1 , Wittrot. 1 1...........—e.
3 Per ' 73 73 10 174; 1-73"
:i ••
it •••• .1 114 2.5
; I Et. 1 114. tto 1 114 31 ll-44
7

• • ••
Esdaruge ott Loudon, 24 3).
L 111 In 6. W) Bre,. NNW.
Hank. Rente5........
Do. 6.412 Homan .nt
Do. 3
Do. I Bank blare. ...
VILY,A. (RT. I.—Anartin Fire per 19.3; ........ Four per
Cunt., 96 : Ditto, Thrwo par Tvroato,l a Half per
C,044.4. LAIRD of 1834 164: Ditto, 143 a, : Bank :shoe., lilt.
allon).:—Northeria. 154L,13kagnitz. 116: Vonloo 111.16 n. 161;
Leghorn. 8J; Paithil.ll ; Lonn..s.
BRI'MVA, of Bullt. . Ditto. 1842, , Ditto, 1.444.
8..1: Ditto. 1838, *IL .3.11;; Loan of thc (Ito. I$T2. aa Ditto. 164.),
Bank of Bolukuu, 83. Ludwig.:, on Landon, 26.66, two ...lib,. :AM!
ANTWIIII. 04/.9 —Eachanuti on London. 2125; two tnottuln. 23.14
25.36.
.4u,nran4tr, B.—Dutch Do.t, Teroands.ll2ofiar Cent.,
641..'•7:: inch% Three per Cent., tr.t. ; Ditto. Four per Dna.. u 6,,
84, IA , Ainort. Fund., Throu.ropl.a.ll6l( per 4WD., 84}. 641: (on,
Colman). 164 g, 164 g ; ateuiLth Now Pito per Cattu..l4l, 14/
Ditto, Throe per Cent,. mi. 1-1.4