The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-11 00:00:00

LI LISI7II.

TIDE Fri:six% sI M ISocAWD63. Messrs Y.mery & Price
Elsworthy. -1)0N +.:AAIt DE BAZA Messrs. Feaster.
j..nlan. awl A SI. All•pt . Mrs L 'Murray. and Misees Ileursde
and C. Leelercy.—And THE TWO POUTS. Mr. I%ldb:canto.

ATRAVD

.....
Tell EVP:NING, NIARRI ED DAUGHTERS AND YOrN4I HD&
RANDS.—E.4MERAI.OA . OR, THE SENAITION 04 IAT. Messrs.
Thorne, Jame, Uni.m, and Tumor Mesdames assaubonsugh,
Hughes, Newton, Viesthersby, Sc.—AlAd A BUIT UY IWYRIra.

HOLBORN.

Tine EMnimo, MT TURN NEXT. Mr. Delmore: Moms
loots sad Lesn‘m.—Amt FLYING SCUD. Mean. Neville, Bel-
mont, Blake, VaMare. Re. Meedsroes F. Josephs, C. Menders,
Bogs Foots. Valdes, Lamas, Raymond, &c.

BRIM

TAO rvicrwqn, TRF. CLOILSICAN BROTHER'—After which
the Opening id the PANTOMIME, ending with the Grand Trans.
formation Meet, gm Lane it Mi Jacnlsa—To conclude with
TILE LAMT LINK OF LOVE. Ulu* Milos.

RIGR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

TIIII sb. Sae.
TO•Moitow—Murnteg, sb. 56m Aitarnooa. Gb. lbsb.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 11.

Jr is to be feared that the House of Commons
is hardly up to the mark in discussing the daily
transactions of commerce. There are indeed
many members who are engaged in business, but
from some inexplicable cause their ordinary
shrewdness will not bear translation from the City
to Westminster-hall. Few debates are so unsa-
tisfactory as those on commerce. Bankers
of experience in their own affairs, As-
sessing an instinctive knowledge of an un-
sound bill or investment, when they pass from
practice to theory, bring forward the wildest cur-
rency doctrines, as far opposed to the public
expediency in one direction as our present
laws are in the other. Manufacturers who
have been powerful in battling against
protection when it related to corn, turn suddenly
round the moment the question is shifted to
their products. An illustration of this curious
kind of self-contradiction has been afforded
in tho past week. Merchants have been
pleased to dignify with the name of free
trade a speculative gambling which differs only
from that 0f the punters at Wiesbaden and
Ems, that in the latter case the losers ruin only
themselves, while in the former they inflict indis-
criminate ruin, for the chance of a small profit,
upon a thousand innocent families. It is fortunate
for the prosperity of the nation that this kind of
argument was not available some twenty years ago.
If the name of free trade could have been at
that time branded as it is now attempted to be,
with the impoverishment of widows and orphans,
for the sake of a few greedy speculators, the fact
might have created such a disgust in the mind of
the nation that the Corn Laws would have remained
unrepealed until this hour. The crisis of last year
has shown to shareholders in a joint stock bank that
a very valuable property may in critical times be
ruined in a few days, perhaps a few hours, by
half-a-dozen unscrupulous speculators. The plan
was very simple ; it consisted merely in spreading
what may be called a practical libel. Mr. A
did not venture to say that a certain bank was
worse than insolvent ; that would have been
actionable ; he, therefore, sold, through four or
five channels, as many shares as he could for deli-
very, not now, but a fortnight hence. Of course,
if the actual shareholders had taken no notice of
these tactics, A would have had in all probability
to suffer a heavy loss. But A knows human
nature ; he is very well aware that
a fall in the price of the shares will
shake the confidence of depositors, and of share-
holders likewise. A run, or something approach-
ing to it, may take place. The depositors will
withdraw their balances, and the shareholders will
sell at any sacrifice. Mr. A buys back his shares
cheap, at a large profit. In some cases the bank
is forced to go into temporary liquidation, and
perhaps, after a time, resumes business, its posi-
tion being, in fact, intrinsically sound, but in the
meanwhile a vast amount of suffering and loss will
have been inflicted.

There is no exaggeration in this example. Take
a case in point. One of our principal banks, hold-
ing at least 10,000,0007. of deposits, and with
cash balances in hand of over three millions,
was threatened with a run. Thu failure of
Overend, Gurney, and Co. affected this esta-
blishment so little that it had only about 30,000/.
on deposit there, or one per cent. of the total cash
balance. Yet it pleased certain speculators to
assume that this bank was driven to extreme
inconvenience by the great failure, and speculative
sales of the shares were pressed in consequence,
accompanied by the dissemination through the
country of all sorts of anonymous and defamatory
reports. The heads of the bank, however, hap-
pened to be both wealthy and courageous. They
bought as fast as the speculators sold, and
the consequence was that, greatly to their
chagrin, the latter had to pay heavily
on the settling day for shares they had not got to
deliver. This, however, is an exceptional case.
It is unfortunately too easy to find instances
where no such assistance was or could be given,
and thus the speculative sellers had it all their
own way.

Now, it is perfectly clear that this course of
business could not, in any possible degree, be
beneficial to the public. The point was univer-
sally understood, and it was desired to apply a
corrective. The first resort was to the Committee
of the Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, a portion
of that body happen to be beneficially interested in
these transactions, and cannot help, however un-