The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE "EXAMINER" ON THE PANIC IN THE MONEY
MAnKET.—The stoppage, on Thursday, of the great
City discounting bank, Overend, Gurney, and Co.,
established 60 years since, aggravates enormously
the panic in the money market that was already
serious enough to cause such a house to fall. Only
last August half a million was paid for the goodwill
of its business, and it passed to a company in which
shares u ere at such a premium as indicated the
opinion that a million and a half would not have
been too much purchase money. The depreciation
caused by a continued selling of its shares, dining
the recent panic, with the knowledge of its losses
from the frauds of Pinto, Perez, and Co., and a
growir, distrust of almost all kinds of investment,
are said to have caused the fatal defection of de-
positors. We are told that under its later
management the form of Lu6iness at the bank
was modified. Less restricted to the safe and
quick employment and return of money in the dis-
counting of merchants' bills, it locked up so much
money in investments giving no immediate return,
that it had not enough within call to meet any great
emergency of panic. The Bank of England was
applied to and refused to intervene as a protector.
If Overend, Gurney, and Co. (Limited) had been -
able to show that its investments of the money of
its customers, though not admitting quick returns,
were safe, if it had been able to show that time, not
prudence, was the one thing wanting to maintain
its solvency, we cannot believe that the Bank of
England would have refused its support. The ex-
tinction of a great centre of commerce like the
endangered Banking Company would lead to many
serious disasters, and if there had not been some-
thing unsound in the case on which it founded its
request for help, it is not in reason that—iu face of
the far-reaching calamity of such a stoppage—
means of averting it should have been ref used. The
Bank of England must have had reason to know
that it was not to be averted honestly ; stoppage,
therefore, was inevitable, with ten million of lia-
bilities and assets hereafter to be estimated. Such
! a stoppage at a crisis like the present is a calamity
of which nobody yet can see the end. The imme-
diate consequences in wide-spread loss and ruin are
most serious, but the shaking of confidence now
causes simultaneous runs upon solvent and insolvent
firms and companies, giving a shock that even the
solvent may not be able in all cases to sustain. It
is not many weeks since Barned's Bank, at Liver-
pool, which stood well in the market, and had also
been sold to a company, broke down, disclosing a
substructure of actual dishonesty. The funds had
been for some months seriously depressed, the newly
opened prospect of a European war had given real
cause for alarm, affairs of the money market seemed
to be at the worst, when this great failure occurred,
and gave for a time a knockdown blow to the
already staggering confidence of investors. The
suspension of Overend, Gurney, and Co. was
succeeded yesterday by the " temporary sus-
pension " of the newly - established English
Joint Stock Bank, which was founded in
1864, and bought, within this year, the old
established private bank of Olding and Co. The
English Joint-stock Bank, which has thirty branches
in the country, closed its doors betimes, declining
to Stand the test of the very severe run to which
seven or eight other banks were yesterday subjected.
It is of no use to dwell upon the fatal effects of that
general rush of panic which creates the ruin from
which it would fly. When the coach is jolting
among ruts, Hold tight, is the word given to its
passengers. It is precisely at a time like this that
the man who has used proper care for safe invest-
ment of his money should stick to the position he
has once deliberately taken. Rash and speculative
investments are now in great peril, but firms and
companies of character thus far unblemished, are
entitled, in a day like the present, to a double trust.
It is every man's interest to hold on by them and
keep them from
upsetting.ffThe safest boat may be
capsized by the very people she is carrying, and
well able to carry, safe to harbour, if, in panic
among themselves, they recklessly derange her
balance. The strong demand for discount at the
Bank of England caused the rise of its rate yester-
day from Bto 9 per cent. within the week. But
even before the aggravation of the panic it has been
a question whether yesterday's rise was not fairly
to be expected.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON
IN COMMITTEE.—The course su
ggesetnt measures
Bouverie with regard to the G
°th'ice.rtuwil•lo bills can be
TELE REFORM BILLS
is undoubtedly the best, and the
fused together in Committee.
y
that no very great amount
necessary for the time It
nima• ei
dl
be
be yfhipoulNpitelrdd. •
the Redistribution Bill. All ttlfol ft
thathe se
involved,ciosndi:eadin g ofi
admitting its general principle, is that some borough
seats of
bero .lsshouldto be taken aamijady t and n e
Ngv il7aCrlgl
e toc
ognrsot
tliTe
detailsc lnea thisn
b e
discussedti edetailsCommittee.areeve everything, i n
It is
very
important that men of all parties should go into
Committee with a desire to pass a Reform Bill if
possible; and it is also very desirable that the Con-
servatives should be aware that they will incur a
most serious responsibility if they offer the bill that
kind of opposition which is not based on a definite
maintenance of adverse principles, but merely seeks to
triumph by superior obstinacy and the arts delay.
But we do not see that either danger is probable.
The general desire of the country for a settlement
of the Reform question makes it certain that the
house will share and reflect that desire ; and the