The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-13 00:00:00

BANKING INSTITUTE.

A meeting of members of the association was held
yesterday evening at their rooms, 6.3, Threadneedle-
street, for the purpose of hearing a paper read by Mr.
Francis, of the Bank of England, on " The advan-
tages of Commercial Crises." The chair was taken by
Mr. Alderman Challis, M.P., who opened the pro-
ceedings with a few preliminary observations, after
which

Mr. FRANCIS proceeded to say that his object was
as much to raise a question as to offer an opinion.
When speaking of a commercial crisis he did not mean
merely one of those panics which frequently occurred,
but, taking a broader view, included in his considera-

tion the long previous period of prosperity of which
the panic was the climax. The word " panic" had
been a word fraught with superstitious terrors to
the commercial world, but looking at it as only the
termination of a long period of previous excitement,
he would venture to suggest that •it should not
be looked on as an unmixed evil, but as a fact,
which although often sad in its immediate
consequences, often produced great good in its ulterior
results. But whether for good or evil, panics were
now fairly naturalised among us, the last being that
of 1847 ; and the worst might be said of them in the
words of Shakspere—" There is a soul of goodness
in things evil." Of the good it might be said, that
public companies were the offspring of such excite-
ments ; but although Mr. Gilbert had called this the
age of public companies, he would venture to remark
that there were public companies in this country so
far back as the year. 1294, one of which farmed the
Customs at 201. a day, or something more than
6,0001. a year, the came being now worth 21 mil-
lions.—(Hear, hear.) Periods of excitement had
given us the Russia, Turkey, and Iludaea'a Bay Com-
panies, and to a similar cause we owed most of our
banking, water, and railway companies. In the excite-
ment of 1694, the great bank to which he had the
honour to belong was established, and the princi-
ples of banks of credit were ventilated. In 1720,
another excitement sent forth some new principles,
and of all the companies then started, not more than
ten per cent. could be called bubbles, although some
of the schemes might be called Utopian. One was for
naturalising silkworms, for which purpose a planta-
tion of mulberry trees was laid out at Chelsea ; another
proposed a hospital for bastard children ; and a third
undertook to import asses from Spain, to improve the
breed of British mules.—(Laughter.) But, on the
other hand, the guarantee principle was then mooted,
the project for improving children's fortunes, and that
of mutual marine insurance, which was now likely
.to
be carried out. Life and fire assurance companies
were also started, and although scouted and lamp ooned
at the time, were now ascertained to be true in prin-
ciple. Thirty per cent. of our charities emanated
from those periods; amongst other instances of which
he might mention the munificent foundation of
Guy's Hospital, which now enjoyed an income of
25,0001. a year. One proposal was to extract silver
from lead, and it was thought so ridiculous as to be
lampooned by Swift ; but the process was now known
' to be perfectly feasible, and to have been carried. on
extensively in ancient times. Amongst the curiosi-
ties of the time he might mention a company
for the
insurance of female chastity, one from making deal
beards from sawdust, and one for a general fishery
for gudgeon.—(Laughter.) But then the germs of
free trade were planted during the mania, which was
only a sort of convulsive leap to the greatness we h.ad
since reached. The next crisis was in 1793, which
resulted in 500 bankruptcies, and the fail u. re of up-
wards of 100 country banks. But then it gave us
the first step towards the formation of our magnificent
docks and bridges—of one of which (Waterloo) Ca-
nova said it was worth while coming all the way
from Rome to see it. That year gave us Waterloo,
Southwark, and Vauxhall bridges. Ihe crisis of
1825 was heralded by symptoms of pros-
perity in every branch of trade . commerce..
Up to that remarkable period, the principle ofpublic
companies bad been slowly but surely progressing, as
may be collected from a somewhat remarkable state-
ment of those associations which were formed prior to
824 :

Capital. Capital.
63 canals £12,202,000 4 bridges £2,452,000
7 docks
25 insurance 20,488,000 7 roads
16 watercomp. 2,973,000 ( 7 various 1,530,000
Of the canals, the Trent and Mersey paid a divi-
dend of 75 per cent. per annum ; the Coventry-canal
paid 44 ; the Stafford and Worcester, 40 ; the Mersey
and Irwell, 35 per cent. ; the Oxford, 32 ; the Forth
and Clyde, 25. Seventeen others gave dividends
varying from 20 to 10 per cent. ; twenty paid from 10
to 5 per cent.; while thirteen paid dividends varying
from 5 per cent. to nothing, or were so good as not
to be in the market. Of the dock companies, the Com-
mercial paid 8*; the London, 4f ; the West India,
10 per cent. The assurance companies, again, paid
dividends varying from 10 per cent. downwards, while
the privileges of the Bank of England were curtailed,
and the ruinous restriction preventing the formation
of a banking company with more than six partners
within the metropolitan district was abolished. Rail-
roads were first formally introduced to the money
market, and mechanics' institutions, which, he was
sorry to say, were dying out so fast in 1852, began to
spread over the land. An Atlantic and Pacific rail-
road was also projected and scouted to be revived
with every prospect of success at the present day, to-
gether with an improved telegraph system, which was
now receiving so complete a development. The crisis
of 1847 was so recent that he could hardly touch it
further than to say that was only a climax of a long
way, and
system of overtrading brought suddenly about by the
potato blight. We were now entering on a period of
excitement which was producing various projects ;
amongstw others a new Crystal Palace, with its rail
y' nd-
company
Fromfor theall complete development
and
the electric
rememb •
ering Lord Bacon's aphorism that "
Money'
like muck, must be spread out to do good," he inferred
that commercial c • rises were seldom an unmixed evil,
but generally resulted in much ulterior good.
A short conversation followed arising out of the
various points touched upon
in the paper, after which
thanks were voted to Mr. Francis and the chairman,
and the meeting separated.

The newly- erected church at Tunbridge, dedicated
to St • Stephen, will be consecrated the week after next, by
the Archbishop of Canterbury.
LONDON, OCT, 13.—Toe Baltic, of and from Philadel-
phia, from Leghorn, was abandoned in a sinking state on
the 11th Sept., lat. 42, long. 47 ; crew saved.