The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " REVUE DES DEUX MONDES" ON THE ENG-
LISH COMMERCIAL PANIC.—The Revue des Deux
illondes contains a paper by M. Wolowski, entitled,
" The Black Friday, and Limited Liability Com-
panies." It thus commences with a sketch of the
state of the City on the day of the suspension of the
great house of Overend, Gurney, and Co.:---" That
date will long be remembered in London. It was
a day of distress and terror, and seemed to be
the signal of general ruin. No one was sure of any
one else, nor of himself, the momen tit became known
that the great house had closed its doors. It was by
hundreds of millions that the engagements of that
gigantic financial firm, whose fall made the very
ground tremble, were counted. The settlement of
a great portion of the commerce of the world is con-
centrated in England : the settlement of the com-
merce of England was concentrated in the city ;
and the house of Overend, Gurney, and Co. held
one of the foremost places among the small number
of establishments in whose houses is the settlement
of the commerce of the city. For a long time it en-
joyed immense credit; it disposed of enormous
securities ; a renown more than European had multi-
plied the number of its customers, and augmented
the amount of deposits confided to it. 'Thus the
fatal Friday which witnessed the disaster continues
to be popularly known as the Overend Friday."
In noticing the letter addressed by the Governor
and Deputy-Governor of the Bank of England to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 11th of
May, M. Wolowski asks whence come the firmness
and confidence of the Governor of the Bank, and
replies that it is from the accumulation of private
deposits which resisted the temptation of invest-
ments at high rates of interest, and preferred the
cellars of a company who offer no profit, but whose
credit grew greater at the very moment when that
of others was shaken. I may observe, says the
Paris correspondent of the Times, that M. Wolowski
differs toto ccelo from a certain number of French
economists, who contend that Sir Robert Peel's Act
(1844) is no security for the financial interest of
England; but, from the monopoly which, accord-
ing to them, it gives to the bank of England, is
rather a restriction on the freedom of commercial
and financial enterprises. M. Wolowski, on the
contrary, is an ardent defender of that act, and no
one more than he admires the judicious manage-
ment of the Bank. He took the trouble,
during a recent visit to London, to make him-
self acquainted, by personal inspection, with all
the details of that Management, and, by convers-
ing with the most distinguished financiers, has ac-
quired an immense stock of information on sub-
jects with which many in France seem to be imper-
fectly acquainted :—" The liberty of labour, the
liberty of commerce, the rapid modes of communica-
tion, the unity of weights and measures—all these
we make use of, and profit by them every day,
without thinking of the efforts their acquisition has
cost. These great benefits successively acquired
after so many struggles and sacrifices we enjoy
almost without perceiving it, like the air we breathe.
The same may be said of the stability of the cur-
rency, the happy fruit of the refOrm accomplished
by Sir Robert Peel. Hence comes a sort of indif-
ference, that would be downright ingratitude were
it premeditated, with which many distinguished men
treat the wise provisions of the legislator of that
period. His work may not be perfect; prudence
and foresight may, as is shown by the management
of the Bank of France, dispense with the use of a
rigid mechanism, and lead to the same result by a
different way ; but, such as it is, the act of 1844
has rendered incontestable service to England, and
the defects it is reproached with are to be attributed
more to the nature of things than to any mistake that
can be imputed to the legislator. . . . The emotion
produced by that failure reached such aheight on the
11th of May as not to allow of calm reflection. The
Bank reserve had diminished by one half in one day.
Discounters refused the best paper so long as they
were not assured that the Bank would continue in-
dispensable advances. The most eminent merchants
and the most accredited bankers of the city called
for a fresh suspension of the Act of 1844. The
Government acted wisely, for the practical adminis-
tration of affairs does not allow of inflexibility in
circumstances so pressing. It agreed to a compro-
mise without abandoning a principle, for the per-
mission of an extraordinary issue met, as in 1847
and 1857, the necessary counterpoise of a high
rate of discount which should be maintained
until the Bank recovered its legal situation. In this
way there is no risk of an exceptional measure being
turned from the only application which it may
receive without danger. The idea of all in-
variable limit with the apprehension of the abso-
lute exhaustion of the disposable reserve vanished ;
and, as if by magic, calm returned to peoples' minds
without the necessity of printing a single additional
banknote. By this means the real danger was
avoided, that real danger being the notion that a
fictitious capital offered on easy conditions would
be thrown into circulation. Far from being, as
some persons want to make us believe, a complete
tearing up of the Act of 1844, that exceptional
measure did no more than carry out the true spirit
in which the law was conceived, and follow up the
provisions of its illustrious author, Sir Robert Peel."
In the second part of his paper, " Causes of the
Crisis," M. Wolowski gives a detailed account of
the nature and working of private banks in Eng-
land, of Joint-Stock Banks, of Limited Liability
Companies, &c., and of the reckless speculation
which led to the great crisis. He continues :
" We may derive a useful lesson from that crisis—
namely, that to the solidity of the currency, as gua-
ranteed by the Act of 1844, it is owing that pri-
vate disasters have not degenerated into a public
disaster. If, on the one hand, certain establishments
have foundered, the great and beneficial institu-
tion of banks of deposit—the active agent between
capital and demand---has come out of the ordeal
stronger than ever. The saturnalia of reckless
speculation may have dissipated a great amount of
capital, but not affected theprinciple of the general
good. The banks of deposit reposing on the un-
shaken basis of circulation guaranteed by the Bank
of England from the powerful lever of productive
activity. We in France cannot do better than study
its mechanism and appropriate it completely. Bear-
ing greatly contributed to the convulsion of the
Overend Friday ; and it strengthens the opinion
which considers the crisis of 1866 not as a panic of
capital proceeding from the exhaustion of resources,
not as a commercial panic the result of irregular
speculation, not as a bullion panic caused by a dimi-
nution of the precious metals, or a suspicion thrown
on bank paper, but as a financial panic brought on
by an unhealthy credit in consequence of the explo-
sion of limited liability companies, the manoeuvres
of speculators for the fall, and the false combina-
tions in which the construction of railroads reposed.
The Act of 1844, on which it is sought to cast the
responsibilty of this panic, furnished, on the con-
trary,a powerful means of defence against the
and among those who are authorities on
tchriesiqsestion, hardly one demands unlimited issue of
paper, for they know that, instead of preventing a
recurrence of the evil, it would only aggravate it."

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.—The stone facing
to the west side of the Speaker's Tower, Westmin-
ster, is now complete ; thus that portion of the Parliament
House may be described as finished. The panelling of the
upper portion of the tower has been by this process car-
ried to the ground, in place of the blind brick wall that
was originally left, in order to the junction of that side of
the tower with the once-contemplated wing to face 'West-
minster Hall. The open space looks rather bare. It is a
pity Mr. E. M. Barry's proposed arcade for the reception
of statuary, and its substructure, has not been adopted.
The difference of level between the surfaces of Palace
Yard and Bridge-street would this be made advantageous
to the architectural effect of the locality, instead of remain-
ing painfully discordant, as is now the case. Something
may be done when the railway-station is built at the foot
of the bridge.—Atheneum.

ALL BUT DROWNED !—On Tuesday, about noon,
Mr. S. Wilks, M.D., of London, who is staying
with his family at the Alexandra Hotel, Scarborough,
started (alone) to walk along the sands, expecting to roach
Filey. After walking about five miles, ho found the pro-
jecting rocks hindered his further progress. lie attempted
to retrace his steps, but tho tide having risen considerably '
he was soon hemmed in. He promptly sought refuge in
the cliffs. When the tide receded it bad become dark, so
that he durst not come down, but was obliged to remain
the whole eight, and unfortunately when daylight appeared
ma
the tide had again returned and he was compelled to wait
for hours. Search WAS made, but without effect. On Wed-
nesday morning-Mrs. Wilks and her son proceeded to Filet'.
and having no tidings of him, engaged the services of some
fishermen, who, with the assistance of ropes
io
ewent
ogvee r th
built
cliffs and explored the rocks. After
hsearching
espooir Iviona vain
sae
some time, they found that Dr. Wilks, exhausted,
n ,
see-
had
-
him, and ad-
IciiplotAnylethdeobveearath, the rocks
ks taodmthiessdiooon. door ofT a m
is clothes, which were
niniignibs
ti se
rNevdr eat c h
littlee d
bra condition,ndy
to at onceadmitted
him.
H saturated to the neck, were immediately taken off, and he
was put to bed, and messengers afterwards despatched to
Scarborough for a carriage, by which he was taken home
to his hotel.

The ages of some of the principal living theo-
logians-of the Church of England are :—Dr. Pusey, 66 ;
Doan Alford, 56; Birks, 56 ; Carus, 62 ; Archdeacon
Churton, 66; Archdeacon Denison, 61 ; the Archbishop of
Dublin, 59 ; the Bishop of Ely, 55; Archdeacon Evans,
75; Archdeacon Garbetl, 56; the Bishop of Gloucester,
47 ; Professor Jowett, 49 ; the Bishop of Llandaff, 68 ;
the Bishop of London, 55; F. D. Maurice, GI ; T. Mozley
and J. Mozley, GO and 53 ; Dean Stanley, 51 ; Dr. Temple,
45 ; Dr. Williams, 49; tho Archbishop of York, 47.