The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-22 00:00:00

The Recent Commucial Crisis.

The following circular has been transmitted by the
Foreign-office to the British Embassies and Lega-
tions throughout Europe :

" Foreign-office, May 12.

" Sir,—The monetary crisis through which this
country is now passing will naturally attract great
attention in other countries, and it is therefore de-
sirable that a clear conception should be formed,
both of its nature and probable extent, but more
particularly of the measurea which her Majesty's
Government have adopted to enable the mercantile
sciotrau„altilionngni.ty. to meet the difficulties of the present
-continued prosperity in commercial affairs,
and the general Wealth consequent on it, have pro-
duced their ordinary results in encouraging specula-
, tion, especially of a monetary or financial character,
and fostering hopes of acquiring wealth by more
speedy means than are presented by the ordinary
methods of commercial industry. Again, the events
which are taking place on the Continent have tended
not only to produce immediate derangement in com-
mercial transactions, but also to shake that confi-
dence in the future without which a return to sound
state in monetary matters was not to be looked for.

" The immediate cause, however, of the crisis lap
in the stoppage of thegreat discount house of Over-
end, Gurney, and Co., in whose hand were lodged
many millions sterling, which, in other times,would
in great part have formed, and which, perhaps,
ought to have formed, the reserves of the various
private and joint stock banks of the country. This
failure directed the action of the panic against the
banks in London, and it was to be apprehended that
the movement in the capital would be followed by a
similar agitation in the rest of the kingdom, where,
in addition to the large deposits in the hands of the
bankers, there are manymillions of paper circulation
resting only on the commercial credit of the issuers.

" In this state of things it could not be surprising
that the reserve•of the Bank of England was heavily
affected yesterday, and it was the combined conside-
ration of what had then actually happened and of
what might follow on subsequent days which in-
duced her Majesty's Government to adopt the mea-
sures on which, in the course of the evening, they
decided. For the money drawn from the banks, hav-
ing been withdrawn from circulation under the in-
fluence of panic, the Bank of England might, with-
out some new resource, have been unable to continue
its accustomed assistance. Thus the crisis, which
had been anxiously apprehended from this combina-
tion of circumstances, has come at last, but with a
severity and suddenness in regard to its immediate
consequences which could not have been anticipated.
" The Bank of England is prepared to extend re-
lief, to the utmost of its means, to all cases which
are justly deserving of its support; while her Ma-
jesty's Government, in full reliance on the eventual
sanction of Parliament, should it be necessary to go
beyond the law as itnow stands, have signified to the
Bank of England their permission to hold itself free
from the observance of the ordinary limitations on
its issues, if the exigencies of the time require such
an extraordinary measure. Her Majesty's Govern-
mentpi:r_
icnrecii .euses,sttaattibhdiai tthhhi:yveetnl itibss e
ewt
ni
cce
are
assistancebasedt
onha 1 l
ps
rcoooupt
sound
dr-
prudence, will be enabled to withstand the shock to
to which the panic occasioned to the recent great
great failure in the city will have exposed them. Her
Majesty's Government have no reason to apprehend
that there is any general want of soundness in the
ordinary trade of this country which can give rea-
sonable ground for anxiety or alarm either in this
country or abroad ; they are satisfied, on the con-
trary, that the present crisis, peculiar and unprece-
dented as it is, is one of a character essentially more
favourable than others which have been successfully
passed through ; and that all that is required is that
all classes should co-operate with the Government
in endeavouring to allay needless alarm, and in
acting with prudence and forbearance while so much
agitation prevails.

It appears to her Majesty's Government to be of
great importance that the commercial interests
abroad should be reassured in regard to what is
passing in this country, and I have, therefore, lost
uttoh owrhi s
which
hg you
youa
are
m eo
accredited,
cc
raekdei t
ed, knownand to the
gene-
rally
nGtiemrtnoemtilnelonaste who have a direct interest in such
matters, the view taken by her Majesty's Govern-
ment of the present state of affairs, the active mea-
sures which have been adopted to avert any evil
consequences, and the confidence which her Ma-
jesty's Government feel that those measures will be
attended with success.

" The abatement of the panic in the city this
morning is, her Majesty's Government trust, an
earnest of the good result likely to attend the mea-
sures which they have authorised the Bank of Eng-
land to adopt.—l am, with great truth, your most
obedient humble servant,

" CLARENDON."

POPULATION, REVENUE, AND REPRESENTATION.—
A Parliamentary return just published shows that
the estimated population at the middle of the year 1866 was
—in England, 21,210,020 ; in Scotland, 3,153,413 ; in Ire-
land, 5,571,971 ; and the total of the United Kingdom was
29,935.404. The aggregate amount of revenue derived
England) £102,639,522 ; in Scotland, £17,305,325 ; and in
Kingdom would have if the 658
from taxation in the two years ending Dec. 1865, was in
making for the United Kingdom a
Ireland, £12,821,817 ;
he gUonui teed o f Commons were allotted to them
the estimated population in the
which total amount
so
the
ble32;m76m6be,66r4.ofdrt.olpbrleeseisntgaitvivenesi returnnwthhiech each
of
e
tonof' proportionately
revenue.tG middle
a numbers t h
npatdrloleeos:
rtetltnehstd4eyfiearrst;head,
4
membersdivision ofof thet
2d, to amount of revenue in
the two years ending Dec. 31, 1865 ; and 3d, to the mean
proportionately to population and
would be iven to
England, 69 to Scotland, and 122 to Ireland; under the
second, England would have 508, Scotland 86, and Ireland
64; and under the third, England 487, Scotland, 78, and
Ireland 93. At present England has 500 members, Scot-
land 53, and Ireland 105.

MiiS. JEFFERSON DAVIS having been permitted to
visit her husband, arrived at Fortress Monroe
lately from Montreal. The official report of the capture of
Jefferson Davis has been sent to the War Department by
Colonel Pritchard, who commanded the troops who over-
took his party, and should set at rest forever the absurd
story of Mr. Davis having disguised himself. Colonel
Pritchard says when the capture was made, it was so dark
that he could not distinguish the uniforms, and in the course
of his narrative adds :—" On my return to camp
I was accosted by Davis from among the pri-
soners, who asked if I was the officer in com-
mand, and upon my answaring that I was, and asking him
who I was to call him, he replied that I might call hint
what or-whoever I pleased; when I replied to him that I
would call him Dayis-_-,-and,,upon- a moment'shesitation.he-'said that was his nameovhen he suddenly drew himself
up in true royal dignity and exclaimed, ' I suppose
that you
consider it bravery to .charge a train of defenceless women
and children—but it is theft, it is Vandraism! " Nothing
is said in the-narrgive about hia.being disguised, and had
been true Colonel Erita would the disguise story hard Cer-
tainly have mentioned it.