The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-23 00:00:00

JOHN BROGDEN.

ORIGINAL GOLD CHAIN MANUFACTORY,
16, ItENIUNIT.6-BTIULKT. COVCIT-GARDEN.

JOHN BROODEN'S 18-carat GOLD CHAINS.

*OHN BRAGDEN'S GOLD_GUARD CHAINS.

-OBEN BROGDEN'S GOLD ALBERT CHAINS.

-OHN BROGDEN'S GOLD BROOCH CHAINS.

TURTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE.
Clear, ThloY,_sad Invalid TURTLE SOUPS always ready.
ST. JAYEEM-RALL, REGENTATREET, PICCAMLY.
WM. DONALD, Proptietor.

9rWEST-END DINERS.—The WELLING-
TON, St. James's-street, Piccadilly. Saloon
Dining-room on the first door. The satecriptlon rooms are now
open. Terms, twelve months, 11 lla Id ; sir months, tl la—
Apply to D. Cameron, 1.9, St. James's-street.

LONDON must have a SUPPER and MUSIC
ROOM for Gentlemen—Remember, we watt for you at
" EVA.Ntr," eke the Covent Garden Opera and the Theatres.

the OVPrtfO•

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Advertisements !Mended for "The Express," London Evening
Paper, most be at the Mice, 10, Bouveriewtreet, by Two
o'clock on the day of publication.

HAYMARKET.
TRH HYMNING. A ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT. Mean.
Comptes sadW. trarren Mims AdaCavendish.—THS FAVORITE
OF FORTUNE. Newt Bucksione, Chippendale, and Bothers;
Yn Chippeadsle, Ex.—And A DAUGH'FIE TO MARRY.

PRINCESS'S.
Tits EVES/1M A GHOST IN SPITE OF HIMSELF.—Atter
which THE STREETS OF
Mn
Mtwara Vining, T.
E.
D. Murray, Shore, and Villiers ; ra H. Manion, and Misses E.
Barnett and I< Rodgers.

LYCEUM.
Tani lirininel, A DAY AFTER THE WEDDING.—And THE
MASTER OF RAVENSWOOD. Mears. Jordan, Norman,
Vein, Emery, Widdicomb, Fitzpatrick, Re. ; Mesdames Teresa,
Hlsworihy, Irene, and C. Leclemq.

BRITANNLL
THISIVZIKKO, THE SAILOR'S RKTURN.—T6e4lfehastenualll.
—CLOUD AND SUNSHINE. Mr. James Anderwan.—To eon-
clnde with THE DARK KING OF THE BLACK MOUNTAIN&
Mist Oars St Cum. Mrs. S. Line.

HIGH-WATER AT LONDON-BRIDOL
TIM DAY —Morning, Bh. 29m Afternoon, 911. 9EL
To-Monnon—Morning, 9h. fam Afternoon, 10d Ma

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 23.

THE past week has been marked by another of
the large joint-stock company failures which have
recently created such widespread alarm among the
shareholding public. The revulsion in the cotton
market could hardly have passed over without
some commercial disasters, at Liverpool especially,
but the stoppage of Barned's Bank has taken
everybody by surprise. The event appears to
have been as unexpected as it was sudden, and its
occurrence a month ago would probably have exer-
cised a far more serious effect. It is satisfactory,

_
however, to find that the public have in a great
degree recovered from the indiscriminate panic
which lately prevailed, and hence the news of the
present misfortune has been received with compa-
rative equanimity. The usual transition appears
to be taking place from a period of wild appre-
hension to one of deliberate caution, and even the

supposed imminence of an European war fails to
arrest this favourable change.
- - • •

~•It is intelligible enough that the depression in
the stock markets should have chiefly affected the
shares of the new financial institutions. Their

recent origin and the diversity of opinion which
prevails with regard to their public utility natu-
rally singled them out for the first objects of dis-
trust. The mere fact, also, that they are engaged
in a line of business with which the British public
are generally unfamiliar would necessarily tell
against them even in the absence of other sup-
posed defects. The payment of enormous divi-
dends has been their radical mistake, as we very
recently urged. It is too transparent that such
profits could only have been acquired by the as-
sumption of risks wholly inconsistent with sound
commercial principles, or what is worse, the
exaction of equally enormous premiums for
floating new undertakings, which, however
promising in themselves, must be permanently
injured by this levy of what may be fairly called
black mail in the first stage of their existence.
What is the consequence ? Nearly all these new-
born enterprises are seriously depreciated in the
market, and their credit in a great sense destroyed
at the very time when it most required fostering,
and when, if they really possessed the merits
with which they were heralded to the public,
they could scarcely have fallen to their present
disrepute, except for their unfortunate parentage.
The whole policy is so short-sighted that it is
marvellous that men of business experience and
ordinary acuteness do not recognise and abandon
it. The system cannot last. We re-afiirm our
conviction that financial societies, properly admi-
nistered, may become great elements of useful-
ness in our commercial and monetary world, and
pre-eminently valuable in the development of in-
dustrial and other enterprise ; but no glazing
statements, no declaration of startling dividends
will beget the confidence they essentially need,
nor reconcile the world at large to the belief that
such profits can continue to co-exist with the ruin
of the companies from which they are derived.
Great as the mischief has been and ia,we hold it to
be open to remedy ; and, in fact, it will rapidly
cure itself. We desire the success of these new
financial institutions, but the way to ensure it is by
dealing impartially, yet fearlessly, with the errors
already committed, and by warning their directors,
their shareholders, and the public alike, from a
course of action which has led to such serious evil,
and which, if persevered in, will certainly at no
distant date involve the ruin in reputation and
pocket of all concerned.
That the shares of banking companies should
have also experienced a severe fall was only to be
expected, considering the lapse of confidence
caused by some of the recent revelations. In fact,
it is impossible that in any period of distrust the
banks could altogether escape. They may not
have experienced any great losses, but the repu-
tation that they have will of course equallyprejudice
them in the eyes of the public. Unfortunately,
the practice has been lately introduced of bankers
usurping the legitimate functions of a financial
society, to the double detriment of appearing to
embark in a class of business beyond their fair
scope, and at the same time of incurring the more
than ordinary risks which, at this period especially,
attach to it. It will be difficult to remove the im-
pression that a departure from the strict rules of
banking has brought down the establishment of
Beittrzn and Co. Already public rumour has as-
signed the cause of the failure to excessive advances
to speculators in cotton, iron, and the like. Al-
though this report is probably ill-founded—at all
events to any material extent—the stigma
is sure to remain, and to affect other
concerns about which the same assertion could not
possibly be made. The reckless manner in which
all aorta of reports are circulated in times of diffi-
culty cannot be too strongly reprobated, and their
fabricators should be compelled in every sense to
bear the whole responsibility. It cannot be
dcnied, however, that the late proceedings of some
of our banks have lent a certain probability to