The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-11 00:00:00

I

SPRLEG OVERCOATS, for the RACES and
pewees liesina. an kept ready for use, sad other &Alain
d pealesaes's drew reads to order at HAMILTON sod
lIITPION S, 106. Strand. opposite Exeter Hall

MIIRTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE.
Clear sad Invalid TURTLE Wig may.
sr. ;Alms- spancrirrurr, plocApiur.
11)I. DOMALIN troPriskic

mo WIRT-INEFDENKRE3.—The WELLING-
-IL TQN, St lIIMINeII4IIIII4. PleadMy Last Saban
illmatroem ea the Drat Door. Tbe eatecriptlon rooms are now
epee. to
twelve months, Al ; eh months, al M—
AIO to D. Cearwoe, St Jamee'rotreet.

LONDON mast have a SUPPER and MUSIC
mon ter Oentlemen.--Remember, we watt for you M
"NUM" attar the Covent Garden Opera and the Theatres.

ght El:PrefO•

HAYMARKET.
BYMMu• • ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT. Hamm
317TrandE. Panes ; Man Ada Caveadlan —THE FAvozrrs
ITIIKII. MaaQa Enakatone, Chlppandalak, and IMAM= ;
Man CRlDEanden. an. —And • DAUGHTER TO MARRY.

PRINCE:BM
svunto, ♦ LUCKY HlT.—Aftsr which TIM STREETS
OW LONDON. Wain. 'Mini, T. Mad, D. Murray, Shaw, and
lmlers ; lbs. N. Mantua, mil Minis K Berwett awl K. Rodgers.

L 1131711.

TAO =toss, A DAY APT&H THE WEDDING. Merin
Hamaan Pitzpatrick, and Clifford; Mrs. linesman, de—And
HAMLET Means. Pechter, Emery, Addison. Widdloomb, Perin,
Jordon, lttspatrick, &a ; Mesdames Elawortby and C. Lsobtros

BILITANITIA.
?Es Puma. TIO LAST APPEAL—THE rarßox cum
sir. Joao Antitirean. —To coadado with THE DARK KING OF
TRI MACK IKOUNTAI2i& Nias Clara 8t Canis, Mrs, & Lama
aad Yids IL Sanders.

HIGH-RAUL AT LONDON-BRIDOL

tars DAT —Morning, On..
To-MOisorr—Morning, N00n...

.AftenoOl7, Ilk Me.
.Afternooe, Ob. Om.

-LONDON, FRIDAY, MA Y 11.

YERTZZDAY was, beyond all comparison, the most
painful and difficult day ever experienced by the
commercial and financial community of this city.
The aims has gone on steadily culminating, and
the time-honoured house of Overend, Guraey, and
Co., established at the beginning of the century,
and familiar as a household word throughout the
kingdom, has succumbed to the pressure of the
times, and stopped payment. No announcement
of the kind within our recollection has produced
so deep or so painful a sensation, or has excited so
many testimonies of sympathy for the heads of the
establishment. It was only nine months ago that
the private firm of Messrs. Overend, Gurney, and
Co. was transformed into a " limited" company,
with a subscribed capital of 5,000,0001., in
100,000 shares of 501. each, of which
151. per share, or 1,500,0001., has been
paid up. It was recently notified in some of our
contemporaries that the first general meeting of the
shareholders would take place at the middle of the
present month, when a dividend was to be de-
clared, and a large sum carried to a reserve fund.
Latterly, however, a desperate onslaught has been
made upon these shares by speculative sellers, both
within and outside of the Stock Exchange ; the '
price has gradually descended to a discount, and a '
steadily increasing pressure for the repayment of
deposits has been experienced. Wednesday was a
bard day for the company, and yesterday there was
a " run" to such an extent that it became necessary '
for them to apply to the Bank of England for as-
sistance. Their application, being a matter of great
moment, was referred to the weekly court of di-
rectors, which, however, did not meet till 2 o'clock,
in consequence of it being Ascension-day, when
according to tradition the directors are supposed to
attend Divine service. The court promptly came
to the resolution to refuse the assistance prayed
for, the motive of refusal being the extraordinary
pressure of the times, and this in face of the fact
that the bills offered were of an unexceptionable
character, and that the Bank's total reserve (as
shown by last night's return) is still nearly 6,000,0001.
The refusal transpired with a peculiar rapidity ;
the rush for deposits vastly increased; and the
managers of the company were most reluctantly
compelled, shortly after half-past 3 o'clock, to
notify a stoppage of payment, and to order the
doors to be closed. When it is stated that the
direct liabilities of this great establishment,
irrespective of a large amount of bills under
discount, which may be expected to run off
at maturity, represent no less than about
12,000,0001., the gravity of the event will be un-
derstood, even allowing for the fact that, as we are
assured, all but three or four millions of these
liabilities are secured by bills of exchange. The
announcement will produce a great sensation in
every country to which our commerce extends, but
the moat serious consideration now demanding
attention is the effect it will have in our provincial
districts. Overend, Gurney, and Co. have, during
a long series of years, had extensive and close re-
lations with a largo number of country banks, to
whom their stoppage cannot fail to be
productive of extreme inconvenience, and,
in many cases, absolute embarrassment. In
addition, the general commercial connexions
of the house are most widely ramified,
and numerous mercantile failures can scarcely be '
averted. It is far from our wish to make one single
remark calculated to promote alarm at this time of
unparalleled distrust, but there are periods when to
be outspoken is to do good service to the common-
wealth, and this is one of them. It becomes our
duty, then, to report that not even in the panics of
1847 and 1857 has the apprehension shown yester-
day been equalled. The circulation of mercantile
bills, no matter how good, is completely paralysed.
Merchants who have even the most undoubted
paper in their portfolios are finding themselves
under the risk of inability to meet their engage-
ments by reason of the partial or complete collapse
of the discount market, ordinarily so termed. The
Bank of England is, in fact, the only establishment
at which accommodation is freely granted ; and even
there, as is well known, certain limits are imposed.
It is a serious question what may be expected
quickly to become of the credit of the great body
of mercantile firms who do not keep a discount ac-
count with the Bank. Putting together this state
of the discount market, the complete congestion of
the usual channels of monetary circulation, the
vast area over which the embarrassments of Over-
end, Gurney, and Co. will extend, the effect upon
their numerous customers and connexions, espe-
cially in the cotton districts, already em-
barrassed by the serious depreciation in the
value of that staple and of the fabrics
woven from it, and, finally, the probability
that the alarm of the public will now be displayed
in the form of a rush upon a number of banking
and financial establishments in London, the pro-
vinces, and even Scotland and Ireland, we are jus-
tified in affirming that affairs are now rapidly
approaching a crisis calling for instant and excep-
tional measures of relief.

It would be unsafe to attach too much import-
ance to the, at first eight, comparatively reassuring
character of the weekly Bank return, issued last
night, and analysed in our City Article column.
The reserve of notes, being 4,950,3261., pre-
sents, it is true, an increase of 111,0751.
over last week ; but this increase is accompanied
by and due to the large increase of 858,837/. in the
Bank's liabilities in the shape of government de-