The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-27 00:00:00

a free line of discounts ; instead of that, they were
forced by their fears into an unnatural contraction,
which has brought them to their present condition.
The example of the Conservative Bank of Com-
merce deserves commendation. In the mifist of the
contraction it has maintained its old line of dis-
' count almost impaired.
Among the great failures outside of the banks
three have especial interest for Englishmen. First
is the Illinois Cntral, the stoppage of which will
probably excite less surprise in London than it did
in New York. The notes payable of this company
amount to 3,510,000 dols. of which 2,400,000 dole.
fall due previous to the Ist of January next, and
the remainder in 1858. The optional scrip also
falls due in January to the amount of 750,000 dols.
Against this liability certain provisions had been
made in London, the details of which I need not
go into. Suffice it to say, that about three weeks
since the company received authority to draw st. r-
ling bills to the amount of 200,0001. Unfortu-
nately, there was no sale for exchange. The bills
were offered. Erie was also in the street with
sterling credits ; and exchange fell to a point where
gold could be sent here from London at a profit of
nearly 10 per cext. It was impossible to contend
against this, and ou Saturday last it was announced
that the company had made an assignment of all
its property out of Illinois. Another instrument
is being prepared, and is either executed to-day,
or is to be this week, conveying the property within
that State, thus divesting the corporation of its
whole assets. The trusts provide for the expenses
of runing, ac., and then prefer the endorsed paper
on which the directors' names stand. Part of this
had been previously taken np by sterling bills, but
a large amount is still outstanding. Certain other
claims, the payment of which is necessary to dis-
charge collateral, are also preferred, and. the re-
mainer are charged with the general floating debt.
The directors suppose that they have thus pro-
tected the property against judgments, and that
the company will be enabled to resume. No state-
ment has yet been made to the public.
New York and Erie has also gone to protest ;
the property is still in the hands of the corpora-
tion, and no steps have been taken to sequestrate
it. Some of the directors' friends charge gross
mismanagement upon the late president. At a
public meeting of the friends of the route a week
since I beard very strong language used on this
subject, but no details have yet been made
public justifying it. I believe it to be true,
however, - that that officer failed lately, owing the
corporation some 75,000 dots. or 100,000 dole.
for freight (he was a large lumber merchant) upon
goods delivered in violation of the customary rules
of the company, and under some special agreement.
It may be that the rumours and charges grow out
of this small but highly discreditable transaction.
Three years since the corporation were advised (by
an independent committee selected to examine their
affairs) to require its president to abandon ail other
avocations. The advice was declined, and we now
see the result.

Michigan Central has also gone to the board,
without any rumours of fraud or mismanagement.
These suspensions must do away with the system
of floating debts. The fall of all thEsc corporations
can be directly traced to this pernicious system. In
the midst of such a general overthrow it is pleasant
to see a railway with a good statement. The New
York Central will show for the fiscal year ending
September the 30th gross savings of more than
8,000,000 doll., being an increase of more than
300,000 dole., and will report itself as without any
floating debt. It is also very agreeable to record
the strength of the leading private banking houses.
They have had ample opportunity to strengthen
themselves for the crisis. In the general suspension
they are forced to pursue the same course as the
public banks—namely, suspend specie payment ex-
cept to specie depositors.. Otherwise they would
liquidate for the whole community. But this ought
not to, and will not, shake their general credit.
They' feel—indeed, everybody must feel—that this
country is rich, and that the banks and merchants
only need act with a little more harmony than of
late to make its wealth available.

The state of affairs is thus described in the New
York Herald of the 14th :

" The town was rife with rumours of commercial
failures on Monday, most of which were entirely
without foundation. The Grocers' Bank, however,
stopped payment, and there was somewhat of a
run on one or two of the savings institutions, among
them the Bowery Savings Bank. The depositors re-
ceived their funds as fast as they could be counted
out. This bank on Monday received 607,000 dols.
from the Secretary of the Treasury, for redeemed
Government securities, and may, therefore, be re-
garded as impregnable. The Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, on Monday, by a vote of 34 to 56,
defeated the Senate bill, legalising the suspension
of payments by the 'banks.
"The money panics has- indeed become a crisis.
Never has Walt-street presented such a scene of in
tense excitement as was witnessed yesterday. From
time to time the announcement of city bank sus-
pensions was made, until the total failure of these

I ,
institutions number 18. The Hudson County Bank
of Jersey City also closed its doors. It is somewhat
remarkable that there were no failures of commer-
cial houses, or at least none of any importance. The
officers of the various unsuspended banks held a
meeting last evening, and after a discussion of some
three hours' duration, resolved to suspend to-day.
Furthermore, a committee was appointed to pro-
ceed to Albany, to urge upon the governor the
necessity of calling an extra session of the legisla-
ture to pass measures of relief. The run of the pre-
vious day upon the savings banks fell off yesterday
forenoon, and before the close of business it had
nearly ceased. The Pennsylvania Legislature yes-
t:lrday passed a relief bill, and adjourned sine die.
The second Monday in April is the time fixed for
the resumption of specie payments in that state."

A reporter in the same paper gives the following
sketch of the excitement in Wall-street

" Since the financial crisis has been upon us the
city has not passed through so severe an excitement
as was witnessed yesterday.
" At an early hour in the day rumours were rife
that several of the city banks had suspended, and
immediately the vicinities of the different institu-
tions mentioned, and in fact of all the banks in the
city, were surrounded with anxious and alarmed
crowds, whose excitement was not allayed by see-
ing the ominous announcement on the doors of the
11(sed banks, ' This bank has suspended.'
" Wall-street in particular exhibited a scene which

it has not presented since the terrible time of 1837.
The banks were literally besieged, not alone by
those particularly interested, but by multitudes of
idlers and alarmists. To such an extent did this
reach that the aid of the police had in some in-
stances to be called in to enable the clerks to trans-
act business. On the streets the panic manifested
itself in thousands of alarmed faces either passing
hurriedly along from bank to bank, or gazing in
silent stupor from the opposite sidewalks at the
crowds awending or descending the steps of the
banking houses upon which the excitement seemed
to concentrate. It may hardly be necessary to say
that much of this alarm was needless ; but when we
look at the actual number of banks whicksuspended
during the day, irrespective of the vague rumours
with reference to others flying around through an
already over-excited community, it is no wonder
that the equanimity of. the city should have been
seriously disturbed."

The New York Times thus speaks of the distress
which prevails in that city :
" It is certain that more than 2,000 girls, engaged
in the various departments of mantilla and cloak
making, are already out of employment. Nearly
every eat daliahment of numerical importance has
reduced the number of hands from one-third to
one-half, and some of them more. Bulpin's esta-
blishment, before the failure, offered employment
to from six to eight hundred girls ; and Mlienzie's
establishment in Canal-street, before his failure,
gave employment to over two hundred girls, all of
whom have been discha•ged with the exception of
two.

"The bonnet business has not suffered so much
as many other traded, al, hough th et e is not so much
doing as is common at this season. The stock of
fdl bonnets is not so large as usual. The principal
manufacturers are endeavouring to make up in ac-
cordance with each day or week's demand, so that
there have not been so many employed, and as the
dema!Jd continues, there have not been so many
discharged. The decrease is estimated at from 800
t 1,000 hands.
" The jewellery business is already seriously
affected. Several estiblishments that have em-
ployed from 20 to 50 men have discharged, some
one-third and others one-half their usual number.
But as the quantity of jewellery manufactured here
is but small in cotnparison wish the Trinity irn-
poste 1, the curtailment in the numb-r of men em-
ployed in manufacturing is frit large. The effect
the pre sure comes cLiefly upon the wholesale
and retail de tiers. A heavy importer of French
J ,wellery in Na sau s'rdet informed onr reporter
that he Was the only person who hid en era bi
establishment in three v, •3lls He had had no pur-
chaser; neither had there tKeti any one sufficiently
urious as to
uo
and inquire. a.wit he was getting along to step in
nearly at a " standt-e-Itr.ough the city the trade i
"Messrs. Starr andllinderhill, 127, Maiden lane,
who have recently suspended,
were largely engaged
in the manufacture hats,which were made in
Bloomfield, Orange, and
ark, N.J. , and St a-
pleton, Staten Island. TheNe;furnished employ-
ment to about 300 hands, who are now
of work. Their payments were from thrown out
$l,BOO every Saturday. They had t'discounting)
facilities with the country banks, which, one after