The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-20 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS. ■

PROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—The public were greatly taken by surprise
to-day by the failure of a very old and highly respect-
able West India-house, Messrs. W. IL and S. Mitchell.
The failure of crops in the West Indies is assigned
as the cause, and it is thought they are indebted in
a very large degree, though not to the commercial
world. One of the firm is a Director of the Bank of
England.
Perhaps a more unexampled case of cross-bill accom-
modation was never disclosed than at the examination
which lately took place before the Manchester Bank-
ruptcy Commissioners, in the investigation of the .affairs
of Messrs. Baneks and Co., booksellers, of Manchester
and London, who had so managed their business that to
the question, " What is the amount of the whole of the
bills you put in circulation in London during the time
that you had been financing ?" the answer was—" The
total amount was, on an average, 10,000/. per month ;"
while in a prior part of the examination it is stated that
" as near as could be told," from 35,0001. to 40,0001. of the
total amount of liabilities, which was 51,0001., no value
had passed. The system pursued in respect to these
transactions was of the loosest character, and appears
to have been carried on with the assistance of a firm in
London (since bankrupts), merely with a view to meet
the demands of the moment, at a reckless hazard of
future consequences, since it could not ever have been
sincerely anticipated that such a course would have
conduce(' to sound prosperity. Their accounts were kept
in the most complete state of disorder, and letters, and
other collateral sources of information, were sedulously
destroyed, and all means of giving information were so
absolutely precluded, that it was deemed useless to exa-
mine one of the bankrupts because "he knew so little."
Notwithstanding the Commissioners were inclined to
pass, and ultimately did pass, the bankrupts, such was
the strong feeling of the creditors that they had been
the victims of gross fraud, that the same course adopted
in the cage of the Wakefields of the Stock-Exchange at
the London Court of Bankruptcy was resorted to--
namely, that of retaining the articles found upon their
persons when they make a declaration of the surrender
of all their property, which is the greatest indignity that
a body of creditors can offer to a bankrupt.
We have again to remark on the length of time
which has been suffered to elapse between the pe-
riod to which the returns of the Bank of England
are made up and the day on which they are pub-
lished. They purport to be for the four weeks
preceding the 21st of August, and are not inserted in the
Gazette' until the 17th of September, being a delay of 27
days, and which is three days longer than on the last
occasion, when the making up of the returns from so
large a number of Banks, and on a new system, might
perhaps be•supposed to offer some excuse for the time
employed before publication. The excuse of novelty can-
not now be pleaded, and yet they are actually still fur-
ther delayed than on the previous occasion. We trust
that this is not a contrivance of the Bank of England for
preventing the public from reaping the full advantage
from the new returns. As the matter stands at present,
instead of having the return of the last month, we have
the return of a period nearly two months back.
POST.-----At en extraordinary general meeting of the
Shareholders of the Commercial Bank of England a state-
was laid before the Shareholders, showing the position
o f their affairs, from which it appeared that not only
was all the surplus fund absorbed, but that one-fourth
of the paid up capital had been necessarily employed
to meet the losses. After some discussion it was pro-
posed and carried " that the Directors do adopt the ne-
cessary stets for dissolving the Company so soon as the
debts antkobligations of the Bank be discharged. This
is one of the ephemeral establishments which so plen-
tifully sprung up some few years since, and to the work-
ing of which the embarrassment, not only of the cus-
tomers, but of the Shareholders, is to be attributed.

CHRONICLR—A private letter, emanating from
a highly and influential quarter, and just received
from Portugal, annOunces the important fact that
the Pope, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, have ap-
pointed Ambassalors to the Court of her Meat
Catholic Majesty, who are daily expected to pre-
sent their credentials. It also communicates that deci-
sive measures have been taken by the Finance Minister
for endowing the Board of Public Credit with ample
means for the.punctual payment of the future Dividends
on the foreign debt,' and pays a well-merited eulogium
to the services of Sir S. L. Goldsmid, Bart., for his ex-
ertions and generous conduct in supporting the credit of
Portugal at the worst of times.