Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-10-26 00:00:00

ARRIVAL OF THE ARABIA.

• The royal mail steamer Arabia arrived shortly
before nine o'clock last night, with 150 passengers,
and New York advices to the 14th inst.
The steamer Atlantic, which was to sail on the
same day, had been postponol to the 24th inst.

The news is of a most formal character as it
contains full particulars of a

BANK PANIC AT NEW YORK.

The Banks of the City of New York,- by their
officers 'assembled at the Clearing House on the
night of the 13th instant, resolved to suspend
specie payments, and appointed a committee to
proceed to Albany and request the Governor to
convene the Legislature to consider the necessity
ef enacting some law to give relief in the present
financial emergency. They also resolved to make
the most energetic exertions for the resumption of
specie payments at en early day, and recommend
that no dividends be made to stockholders until
such resumption. The cause of this action on the
part of the Banks, was a severe run upon them,
which commeneed that morning and continued
throughout the day, compelling, during its progress
many of their number to succumb to its pressure
and placing before the remainder the certainty of
the same fete, in the certain renewal of a run still
more severe, in ease they opened their doors to
admit it. Never, indee 1, says the New York
Courier and Enquirer of the 14th instant:—
"Never, indeed, in the financial history of New York,
was there a more trying and exciting time than yesterdsty.
For weeks the merchants of New York he'd fallen in
numbers, like so many sacrifices, in the threshold of the
Banks, beyond whose iron doors came no response to their
appeals; yesterday a multitude, like a Clest,oying army,
came do•n on the Banks themselves' and sacriaced them
in turn within the doors which they had eodeavoured to bar
so strongly. How far the latter was the legitimate result
of the former, how far it was in actual revenge of the former,
we leave for the reader to determine for himself with the
antecedents of the run of yesterda• Wore him. We need not
describe this run in its outward features, each one sees
the picture though he may not have been in Wall-Street or
in the neighbourhood of the up town banks—la street
crowded with two distinct classes, the one, thirsting fer
gild, crowding iu hundreds the doors of the banks, and
forming long lines up the steps and through the balls,
with anxious feces, and hands nervously ciutchedfiver
their checks and drafts, crowding and jostling; and the
other, the lookers-on, crowding the side walks, jokiegand
wondering how long the Barks e mild stand the run—such
was the picture. Between, the distresses of the merchants
who have been called upon to pay when they hcict noi'hing
to pay with, and the almost total destruction of e nfidence
among the poorer classes of the people, there were chaos
and confusion throughout the city. Early in the day there
was a simultaneous run up.m the several barks of
the city, we believe without a single exception.
The Bank of New York, the oldest in New York,
one alwa3s liberal to its cus'omers, and especially so
during the late contraction, payed out its specie manfully
until about one o'clock when it ceased and payed nothing
but bank notes and certified checks for the rest of the day.
The Leather Manufacturers' Bank payed out also, until,
about noon, when it also stopped, although ninety thousand
dollars in specie were due it on its ex hangs account in
the Clearing House, bat which could not be obtained.
And so the run progressed one after another of the
banks ceasing to pay specie, and paying bank notes instead,
or closing their doors entirey. The following is the
list of the banks suspended yesterday. There were reports
of others, bat this we believe comprises all.
Capi'al Circulation.
D 11 Dols
I. Merchants' Exchange 1,500,000 104 963
II Ocean
111 North River
IV. Irving .
V. St. Nicholas 750,000 95,000
VI. Citizens
. VII. Market
VI11. Merino
IX. The radesnien's Berk
X. The Butchers & Drovers Bank 800,000 127,000
X( The Leather Manufac Bank 600,000 220,000

XII. The Bank of New York 2.525000 312:000
XIII. The Chatham Bank
XIV. The New ork Exchange Bank 130,000 112,000
XV. Bull's Head Bank
XVI. Bank of the State of N. Y 2 00.),000 533 000
XVII. Broadway Bank
XVIII. Artizans' Bank 60),000 76 000

XIX People's Bank
Many of the banks that maintained themselves kept
open their doors until late in the afternoon, so as to give
a chance to get their specie. Among these were the Bank
of America, the Bank of Commerce, and the Bank of the
Commonwealth. The Bank of America paid out some
150,000 doll in specie, the Bank of North America 85 000
dole, the Bank of the Commonwealth 90 000 dole, and the
payment of specie in all was about in this propartion of
.their relative strength The insolvency of the Marine
Bank,, we are informed, was averted by a coup de main of
friends, scme of whom obtained a writ of injunction
upon their proceed cgs. This will come on for trial
in its regular course, without any suspension of
vitality, or of its charter; and when at the end of the
trial the Bank shows its own strength, it may resume
business without forfeiture. The run upon the banks was
at first merely by a few billholders ; and if they had been
ea'isfied there would have been no serious run. On Satur-
day, for instance, the -directors of the East River B tnk
met as usual for discounting, and there was no serious run
upon it until the middle of the day. The Bank wanted
twenty thousand dollars only,in coin, to sustain themselves;
and, in this emergency, applied to several large Banks
down town for assistance. These latter instead of making
a common cause with the weaker ones, seam'','ermined to
break the latter in Order that they may retain tha'r own
presumed strength.. .The East River Bank and the Bowry
Bankshou'd both have been aided by the stronger Banks,
as a matter of, public interest; for it cannot
be denied that each failure precipitates that
of others by occasioning a loss of confidence. On
Monday the approached to several Banks were
filled with eager depositors and bill-holders, and the
Groce-s' Bank exhausted its specie funds and soon closed
its doors. This, too, was unnecessary, if the other banks
had rendered assistance, and thereby quieted the excite-
ment. In a matter of this kind, of general distrust and
dread, the banks of the city should have made common
cause, and sustained each other; but by allowing one or
two to fail, they created distrust of alt Even had this
course been pursued, and the whole body of banks good
together and made a common fund of their specie, we
question whether they 'mull hare enstained the persistent
run. Before yesterday the demands were mainly confined
to bill-holders ; but this morning the depositors seemed
disposed to move in a body and claim their funds.
The paper from which we have just quoted the
above endeavours to account for this uuexszupled
panic. It seys:—
There is no difficulty in tracing these dep:orab'ed results
immediately to the vacillating course of the Banks (with
some few honourable at d praiseworthy exceptions), and
indirectly to a combination of unfavourable foreign trade
and of unsound banking. We pointed out, two or three
week, ago, the then prevailing causes of discontent among
our merchants, who were then suffering, as well as now,
from an injndicioud curtailment of loans—the want of
harmony and consistency in the movements of the Betake,
and the necteiity existing for ..a reasonable expansion of
Bank loans to those who have payments to make
At a meeting of Banks a few days afterwards, all
the e things were conceded, and some assurance
was given that an increase of loans equivalent to
five per cent would promptly take place The mere
promise of this extension gave great yelief the next
day ; and had it been executed in good faith by every
bank in the city, we believe that one-half of the subsequent
suspensions among our merchants would have been averted,
as well as all the bank failures IN New Yorte AND OUP
OF IT. We speak the sentiments of the whole commercial
community, when we use this language; and we repeat
what we have frequently said in these columns within the
past three weeks, that the banks unnecessarily sacrificed the
merchants ; and in doing this, they not only weakened
themselves but gradually exasperated the merchants as
a body. This view of the case has been taken by
several of our leadirg bank officers, who have strenuously
urged a more liberal course, provided it were adopted by
all: but who could not adopt this course without general
assent In fact a proposition was submitted by Mr.
Withers, of the Bank of the State of New York, to the
effect that the Banks ehou'd enlarge fire per cent.—bat
this was negatived. The prevalent opinion yesterday was
that a few of the old strong Banks combired together to
force the maiority into liquidatioe, and thus confine the
business to a limited number. In doing this, the smaller
Banks were compelled to carted their operations, and in
the general restriction, many of our most wealthy,
honourable, and useful firms have been sacrificed. We
speak within bounds when we say that this course has