Star.
London, England, 1825-12-15 00:00:00

MEE I'ING OF MERCHANTS

AT TILE ATANSIoN 'IMAM UPON TUr. SUBJECT OF TIC
PANTING D.ISTAEsS IN TilE CITY.• .

Before t wo o'clock ye terday some of the most affluent
and respertab e Nlerchants of the City of Londoh;
asselohl d at the M insion-h -iise,. upon. the ',object of
the (listless to which several of.the fist Banking -finti-e4
in the Nlesropolis were sedorede in consequ nce of the
existing panic. T e I.ord Tlayot !.al called the M cling.
'Elie City re ro,en: ed dining the moining.the most .'xtta-
oldiliary spe.tacle ; multitudes of persois of r-specta.
bilay ueie seen running in and out of tie
house, and ho'ding consultations in gro.ips in the
neighhouiliond. The Lind Mayor,'-who had intended
to pei form his public &stirs ip toe Justice Room, was
Obliged to request Al4eFoisul Wood and Alderman
Lucas, alteinately, to sitjor him, hi, Lordship having
found it necessary ti; gibe his whole auction to the
great subject, which agitated (very man of property
in the. City. . . . .
At two o'clock, the tord.Mayor, attended by the. City Repra.
stntativ.s, entered the large parlour, where the Merchants were
assembled, and was unsnimously cal:ed to the Chair.
kris LottOittiP it • was outliers:4ly for him to
state for si hat e.rpose they h id assembled. He regi cited
deep!y that the h.:fluent oliich had late y taken place
in the City, had been attended with such disastioua
consequences as had for some day s displayed itself.—
It would be pi estimptuous in him to attemiit to account
for so catraarJinary a state of things in the presence of
'so.niany Gentlemen, who had much better opp oteni-.
ties of ascertaining the causes. It was on!), necessary
for him to draw their attention to the &acts of the exist-
ence of the ran c, ss hich had been attetitied_ with such
lamentabki effects. He at the same time thought it
necessary to :tate, that he had caled this Meeting in
consequ nce cif a cortsultation with his brother
pis!r Airs, and several other Gelid :often, who took a deer
interest is what was going 1 or wa d —(bear !) •
Mr. YOUNG said, he hoped that upon an occ ision sal
this kind, some Resolutions were it, scaliness. He trusted
that the •Meeting would not thi..k it wcessary to go into
the abstract question, •but at once proceed to do Viat
which was ca., ulited to relieve the embarrassments
that existed' to so alarming a degree. •
WiLsoze, M.P. rose, amidst cries of Ilear !
He saideit u as with considerable diffic,ilty he rose to
h aitdreSs• the fleeting on a que,tion of such vital import.
ance; and be regreted that it had not fallen int., more
able hands; but as he was one of the Representatives of
the City of London, lie could nut adapt any other course
thin that which proved he had the inte; eats of his Coo-
'stituentS most warmly at helm He should not at-
tempt to.explain the origin of the evils which were now
to be seen in the metropolis; but he thought it lic-
e-vary to state, that the difficulties were, in a great
degree, ascribable to the circumstance of their being
ovens helmed w ith money, and not. having made the
most provident use of it. It appeared to him, that the
Bankers had locked up their money in longer-winded
securities than they were accustomed to take, and, that
certain war aol.,ns which had taken place in cotton
and other at ticlei of trade, combined to wink a change
of an injurious tendency. This was,. he tleiught,
great cause of tne inconveniences experienced at present.
fhe C..nimirtee, which had met that morning upon tile
subject, laboured under consideriOle dnllicu ty in de-
ciding upon the best course for the adoption cf the
Meeting ; and, af.er a great deal ef cons deiation, it
occurred to them that it would be advisable to propse
a resolution, which was perfectly simple, and not at all
dangerous, at the same time it would fully express the
opinion of the Merchant, of London as. to what had oci.
cursed, and what was likely to put a stop to tl.e
excitement that so unfoftunately existed. lie knew
that more depended upon the Meeting, in this case, than
upon any other body. What the Backers felt now was
the want of c. nfidence. There were amongst them sonic,
perhaps, who were richer men than. any in that as•
sembly. Many of .h ,se who were now suffering tr..ni
the extraordinary panic, %sere able to pay 4U, 50, or GO
'shillings in tree pound; and it Na, to be expeeted, that
under such clic .nistatices, the. Met cfnuits ut Londoa
I v (mid come for wind, tor the purpose of sustaining the
highly respectabl petos upn ►
tire difficul ie
were pool ing dosse r o
u.--( !Jeer ). It wasn for the M.eiing s
to Cnit•iiJot, othetii.r they were or were not sa.e in pay-
ing their hio .ey into the hands of the Bankers? and tl
they thought they v eie secure in doing they were
'bound to p 4 it in c,urcuitently.—((;Leers). They Neie
all aware ot the necessity of .supposing the credit I f the
Bsnk-rs; And the I) rector, of the bunk of England.
'had assured the L' rd Mayor, in at; ipariview i•pcka the
bub• . ct, ,that Oct w.O s( d 6 ever) thipg iii then power
io al4ltate dist leis Of. the,citrand 4.;usruti i Bin kei
Aei?). NT. Wilgus theit statO, to It • he
tlicught a ;es:Julio', might, be pored, adopte4 to die
rffecti— . •
" Ton at a Private Alretinit,of Merchants, held at the. Mansion.
House, it otitis soden, that the liankia England iutendcd to make
every effort, calculated to allay the O:lumens existing, with
respect to the Ilaakers, that Course appeared to be the
mai/liable of adopiluu. and that it is unn • • ry to tall a Public
Meeting urn, the stiti, Ct." •
13.-titisrd, • avityvb-111 called upon by many
voices, rose and übseised, toakisohaii,ily it Wastage*,
'tile to ent doubt.thArt•e date of things. a"
i,,e..eni x sin .s unitquinate and as Keg:natl.

with evil as it had 11-.• en described to hr. roe his own
part he had recently had little to do with busiues and
had not been in Lon..'oe for the last three months...Pv-
sent circumstance-, however, hid made him feel.tirat it
was hardly fair, in any person connected as ith the pity,
rerna'n a passive spectator of the scene of dimes%
and difficulties which surrounded him—(epplagse). If
he had not attended the etimmittee for the purpose or
assisting; in drawing noltes lutions to he suletnitted to
the Meeting, it was becei.se his mind was not made tip
as to the cour.e which it would b• Fewer to purrine—
whether an v thing shmili be done, and if anything, what
that rlineld be—whether public interference was ed-
visel;le, or wite.her the pies lit evils should not be left
to cure themselres ? The :Lime awkwatdness which he
had felt on this point had, he f •und, beet) particip :ted
in by othe.s, and the consequence was. that they were
now essembied witheut any person h ing prepared to
pr pose anything very decisive for th-ir adripion.—
Wen had been ptopmed by the Me t her for the City
was certainly consistent with truth, and calculated to
do good as far as it went: There could be no doubt
that it would be productivi of benefit t., make known the
'determinvion of the Batik Daeetors tract with prom).
aitude and decision, in eat/intim; ing to re:rye the els.
tre,ses which it was tbeinly in aheis 'power to
At the same time he had hoped that the Met cheies
London, havieg assembled together on such an OCc4-
sion, would have put fort's som. thing like a general de-
clar yin i of the substantial soli sty of the banking eea-
blishre.ents of their City, than which these were lenge in
my pl ee on the face of the gl.the w too presented more
real J.: curity—(dpidardse).—lf it :tele title, as had been
state .f, that houses had been coin :eiled tot i op, which
neves th ess vette capable of pay in e 40s. or 0.),. iii the
pound, it was a calamity which mu,t be met by an ex-
preesiori of public ootifi .tence, and by acting upon that
exiression in a practical manner. It was useless on the
present occa ion to enter upol au examinalon of the
general principles rf mercantile_ to ansections. °eta-
sionall y, certain chokes or stoppages of :lie system took
place, which readere I it necessary to d part from gene-
ral principles, and to airily a special remedy to the par-
tieulat. case. It was the same in the political system,
when circumstatices sommini-S reneered ram) th • sus-
pension of our libet tics necessary. plsw ie the peculiar
marks of the wisclosit of the people of this country was,
that thing's they ad toed wi.ll neat tenacity to gene-
Jai inc•pl .s, they nevertheless weie Away, ready to
apply a special remedy to a special grievance. That
them were no members of the B.lii k Direct-is rresent
mast tint be attlibutei to any. indifference on e pal tof
those hid viduak to the object f. r sine t the Meeting
had as.eintiled—( a°, ito).,--They had, no. doubt, ab•
sewed them,elves !rem motives of 'delicacy; kitowitz
that if they were pie ,ent they might he ten elect. to
give exidanation, which they cou d not with prpptirty
twins!). Feelings of delicacy would also operete, to
rest die attendance of members of private Ba .k-
-iiig Es ablishmetas ; for they might suppose that tee
mere fact of their king present at a eting of this
nature would he const• tied to betray an ay piehensive-
tiess on their pat t of the security of the !theses to wlli.h
they be:nnged. These circumsteuces would accottet
for the Meeting not being so tiumetously at•ended as
might otherwise have been r xptcted. (The Loeb
Melon olisetved that the Meeting was composed otity
•,f per, ias spec'aily invited to ,ttene). It it was use-
less to enter upon the theo.iea of circulation and nier-
caut.le transactions, it was nut. much: less futile' to
dwell upon the origin of the present ,distresses. The
Honig', able Member for tr.e.Qaty had 'dated. that the
present crisi; hail atisen from a plethora ofriches ; but
the lion mi Able Membe'. 'perheps, in order to plej-e
11s. C. nstituents, had kept back thelact, th it dent
pleat ra had led to peculaeolis wheel, fur f liy
and ebto,dity, were never surpassed—(clear,. hca,;).
Any re; son who witnessed the fever of last year iniget
have anticipated the distresses of the prese4—tt t, eel-
tainly, to the extent to whi. h they had preceedejetor
they had gone beyond all calculatimi, and they aet e
prolonged by apa tic—a mere noise and sound—which
Magnified the public mist-truffles, and at ributed to them
greater imp rte. ce than they moot d. .It was, boa.-
ever, as he before observed, anticipated by all rational
men, that the fever of last year weuld be succeeded by
the cold and Olivet ing th which was now, exerc.sing its
influence on the mercantile in-eae•t. It s.a, impusehle
that there viol,' be two opinions on the primary cause
of the pleseht state of things, and therefore it was
useless to dwell upon that part of the question. But tress
it proper or jeatshable, that because thspree an misfor-
tunes had their at gin in telly and impudence, persons
should selfishly say, " It is their own fault that they
suffer : let them take t e consequences id ineir impitt-
dence"—(erpplanse). The cousequetices, unfoe tuneely,
fell upoiethose who had been perlectly innocent of the i .1,-
erudence. The effects of the folly were telt by some of
the most opulent and prudent amotig the conimmety.
lit looking at the constitution of the Bankers of L &I.
don, it was, he thought, impossible to cites an au one
favourable hipressiiiii of any of them, because is should
eappen that they requited ass stiuce to enable them to
carry oa their transactions. Why should such a cis.-
Curnstence be matter of ..topeise, much less of at um?
Eyetyluidy knew that it was the business if a Banker
to use the deposits-placed in his hands, ant cher efose it
was impossible fliehim to meet, at any particular mo-
ment, the claims of all his covotriere,• although there
could be no doubt of hie capability to do so eventually.
If a Barker should say that he could'at any particular
Jay pay out of his hottae all that had 14.. II II '4l hot,. it,
,he would conside, hint a very .stupid perstnyand one
v.eay ignoc•int of his business. He kiiew,tot t notigh
Banking concerns to tineertike deterni tie what
[quantity of money paid into his hands, a Banker
should employ (or Ins pro fit—whether it we,. .s.
.bird or o :e.fouttli, he could not say--but of Attie : e
was convinc.d, that when in tolisequence 'oh a< pan e
(and it was a paeic.: which prevailed at prebe..u,
and nodal ar, el e,—(Loud tries of Hear) an vas
made upon" a Banker, there was no event of sacri-
fice which could protect the most' prudent and the
Arent opulent. He was speakint!' nom his ctvn
obs:grampus, for heliciged it to be undergo:-d that Le
tad. held no .cattint4eicetieti with ATI 'Banker. He
4setatinly violet :mot. widen eke to Saw that: trice cite
isotetinte Fee ti i iburkei .s wit had lately seized 0.,e ut

.: