The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-08 00:00:00

HAYM ARK KT.

Trus I:vrxilia, THE IrVERLASII ROUTE. Messrs. C. Ma-
th .we, Buckxtone, Chlt.pentlale, 3e; Mesdames C. .lathewa,
Chlptaudele. Wright. ex. -Ballet Divertim,enkent. 'the Maim
lltalay.—TlLE CIVIC.—And MY 111:6BA-NDS GHOST.

STRAND.

'Fool ETEnrso, THE NIAIiiiIEIiBACHFI.,,R.—After which
WAITIN.: Foy, I NO —DLit FED:SCHUTZ ,
OR, ♦ GOOD CAST FOR A PIECE.—And JACK'S DELIGHT.

IMITANNIA.

Tills Errs MO, THE OLD cd LARY TREE. Mrs. Lane.—The
WoIIKT44III Brothers VIctort111: The Greet Vaulting Troupe; The
Wesel/el : U. Wardina ; The Louhoille illustrels.—And MARY
RDIII4IS 3TO.N E.

11101 T WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

T 1 DAT —Morning, lb. kfserhoon. Ih. 58ni.
TO.lloitl4,W—lluralug, lb. 17ni Attrrnovu, fte. 11.1 m.

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8.

LooKING down the official Share List, we be-
COlall aware of a new phase in this melancholy
year of financial disaster. Day alter day prices
continue to decline, the public seem to have but
one aim—to part with the securities they hold, no
matter how great the loss involved by the sale,
chiefly to escape liability to calls, nu matter at
bow Treat a sacrifice—to sell everything indis-
criminately, to concert all stocks and shares into
cash, and to hoard unproductive balances at their
bankers'. The wary speculators of the Stock Ex-
chaage, well used to feel the public pulse, to
gauge the tendency of public fashion in these mat-
ten, are lending themselves heartily to the down-
ward movement, and prices fall lower and lower

We have seen this state of things before ;
experience as well as reason teaches us that it
cannot endure. The necessity for interest upon
capital must soon make itself felt, especially in
those days of dearer living, and the more we now
give way to distrust the sharper and more rapid
will the reaction be. The present is a grand
opportunity for the shrewd and discriminating
investor ; he knows that although credit has re-
cAnvecl a severe shock, and cases not only of
gross and reckless mismanagement, but of down-
right fraud, have been rife, all directors are not
incompetent or criminal ; all joint stock enterprise
is not necessarily- unsound and insecure.
The question thus arises, what are we coming
to ? Is money to lie idle, and without return, in
the hands of our bankers, who are themselves,
from the circumstances of the time, unwilling' to
use it ? Money limy is rapidly accumulating, and
no one ventures to employ it. It is true that the
British public do not bury their capital in the
ground, like foolish Orientals, but they do much
the same thing by locking it up in a bank.
At the close of the last half-year the de-
posits with the Loudon joint stock banks fell
not far short of eighty millions sterling. The
private establishments held probably half as much,
and the Bank of England, excluding bankers'
balances and the Government account, about ten
millions more. This leaves an available total of
125,000,000Lt0 130,000,0001. in London alone,
without counting the deposits in the country. To
judge from the present stagnation, there appears
little doubt that this sum has now been largely ex-
ceeded. For what advantage is it desired to re-
taiu such an immense amount of moneyunemployed?
The rates of discount are steadily falling, and
probably before the close of the year the Bank
minimum will have touched three per cent. As
long as the extreme point of ten per cent. was
maintained there was an intelligible ground for
bolding back on the chance of a recurrence of the
Crisis. There is no such prospect now. As far
as strictly monetary matters are concerned no
sautes for the slightest apprehension exists.
Some months ago it was generally feared
that the autumn would not pass over without a
collapse in the Indian trade. The prediction has
been happily falsified. It is true that a large spe-
culative house and an Eastern bank have fallen,
but the contingency had in either case been long
foreseen and provided against. Neither is there
much ground for uneasiness on account of the har-
vest. No doubt the yield has been comparatively
deficient, but not to an extent to warrant the
apprehension of a considerable export of specie.
There is in reality nothing to be frightened about,
and yet the public per,,ist in being alarmed. This
phase of opinion is neither uncommon nor, on the
whole, inexcusable after the severe crisis we have
lately gone through. It may be irrational not to
shake off panic the moment the motives for it
disappear ; but that we cannot do so is a fact, un-
philosophical and absurd though we confess it
to be.

In all these questions the point that first strikes
the observer is the unreasonable manner in which