The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-09-20 00:00:00

MONETARY AFFAIRS.

A HIM. Or THE UNITED STATES BANK DISHONOURED.
n. 4
9?=l-,(Prom the Morning Post.)
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• q.b...
vy received last night the subjoined most important com-
munication from Havre. The dishonour of a draft of the
United States Bank is an event that cannot fail to produce a
very great sensation throughout the whole of the commercial
world. There seems, however, no doubt of the fact, and we
can only say that we deeply regret it. As regards the amount
of the draught in question, we should think there must surely
be some mistake ; yet we have no alternative but to present
to our readers the information we have received upon the
subject as it comes before us. It is from our own corres-
pondent :
" HAVRE-DE-GRACE, Saturday, September, 14.—Three
o'Clock.—This town, or rather the commercial portion of it,
is quite in a commotion, in consequence of a circumstance of
immense importance which has just occurred in the mercan-
tile world here. You are, of course, aware, that Havre is the
great entrepot of the products of the New World, as far as
France is concerned ; and that its transactions with the Uni-
ted States of America, carried on by a double line of packet-
ships from hence to New York and New Orleans, are there-
fore, the transactions of the French nation. In their ambi-
tion to rival the manufactures of England, and consequently
to dispense with them altogether, the commercial capitalists
of this country have, for the last two or three years, over-
traded in cotton. One of the fearful results of this gambling
system of speculation has just fallen on this city like a thun-
derbolt. This morning a bill of the United States Bank for
a,-sum little short of a million sterling was dishonoured by
the house on which it was drawn in Havre, one of the oldest
and most opulent commercial establishments in France, and
connected with the house of Baring, Brothers, and Co. of
London. You can hardly conceive the consternation this'
cirrumstance has caused here, or the injury which is likely
to accrue from it to the mercantile community. Many per-
sons say that the act was rash and unadvised, and urge in
strong term& the certain solvency of the United States Bank ;
while others, on the contrary, say that it was a well-timed
and well-managed tour d'addresse, to prevent the Americans
playing the same trick with France as they did with England
in 1837 ; that is, in plain terms, overreaching their too cre-
dulous European correspondents. This latter opinion pre-
vails amongst the majority of the men of business in Havre.
Be this, however, as it may the American merchants in the
town, as well as those native houses less largely engaged in
heavy transactions with the Western Continent, or not so
well informed as the house in question, are all in utter de-
spair ; and the Americans, so long everything with the French
nation, are now as much out of favour as they were before
preferred by them. Since Havre became the Liverpool of
France never was 'Change in so agitated a state as it has
been all this day. America is now looked on as bankrupt once
more."
The United States (Biddle's Bank,) was, it will be recol-
lected, the National Bank of America, up to a recent period,
when, upon the expiration of its charter, the renewal of it
was successfully opposed by the government. The establish-
ment has, nevertheless, lost but little, if any, of its influence
andpower. The capital of the bank is thirty-five millions of
dollars, or seven millions sterling; and as, upon making in-
quiry in a well informed quarter, we find that its liabilities do
not exceed ten, millions of dollars, its solvency may be calcu-
lated upon as undoubted. The Havre house (that of Hot-
tingner and Co. we believe,) will possibly be prevailed upon
tq lay the draft at maturity ; but, however this may turn
out,, it is satisfactory to know that its non-acceptance, or even
its non-payment eventually, is not likely to produce any bad
result in England. The firm recently formed in Lancashire,
are not „drawn upon by the Bank of the United States, and
they catuaot therefore, be inconvenienced by its bill transac-
tions. The Bank of England was said to have made advances
tothe agency here, butthis was contradicted by our city cor- '
respondent two or three days since, and we are enabled to
confirm the accuracy of his statement.

(From the Morning Herald of Tuesday.)
Considerable sensation was created during the early part
of the day amongst our leading commercial interests by the
announcement that the private letters from Paris and Havre
contained information that the highly respectable banking
firm of Hottinguer and Company, of the latter city, had dis-
honoured the drafts of the United States Bank which were
drawnupon them. The amount of the bills thus dishonoured
his been greatly exaggerated, since we have good reason to
believe that it is not over £280,000 sterling. We also un-
derstand that means have been adopted for the taking up of
,these bills for the honour of the parties who drew them, by
firms of great eminence here. There is not much reason to
believe, as the French papers assert, that these bills originated
in cotton speculations ; at the same time however, it is pretty
evident that the bank of the United States has over-rated the
resources of its agency in this country. The bills in question
have undoubtedly passed through this money market, and,
being rejected here, have passed to the Paris discount mar-
ket, which is somewhat fortunate, or the effects of their dis-
hoimur might have been more serious. It is hoped that oc-
cnrrences like this will not again occur, else the bank of the
United States, while it obtains much discredit, must injure
the commercial interests on this side of the Atlantic. No
blame whatever has been ascribed to the firm of Hottinguer
and Company, but the loose manner in which the United
States bank has acted, offers a powerful moral. Mr. Jaudon,
upon Whom these bills were drawn, and who by consequence,
is to a degree an unwilling agent, has left London for Paris,
it is p'restuned, to arrange this matter.

• (From the Morning Herald of Thursday.)
CITY.—WEDNESDAY EVENING.—The affair of the dis-
honour of the bills of the Bank of the United States has
lost nothing of its importance amongst our monetary and
commercial interests, who still remain seriously anxious as
to the results. No advices have been received to-day from
Paris or Havre, which throw much light upon the subject ;
letters, however, have been received from Mr. Jaudon, which
express a decided feeling that she will be enabled to make
arrangements on behalf of the honour of the United States
Bank. We cordially trust that he will succeed, as this is a
period when the money markets of the world can but with
difficulty bear anything like extraneous or accidental pressure.

COURT CIRCULAR.
W. 4 NDSOR, TUESDAY.—Her Majesty, accompanied by the
King and Queen of the &leans and the Duchess of Kent,
wept this morning to Bagshot-park, the residence of her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester. Lady Charlotte Dun-
dase the Hon. Miss Pitt, and Colonel Wemyss followed the
illsatrious party in another Royal carriage and four. The
Rgyjkl party returned to the Castle at 2 o'clock precisely.
The Earl of Minto left the Castle this morning for town.
The Countess of Sandwich and the Hon. Mrs. George
Campbell are expected to arrive this evening at the Castle to
succeed Lady Lyttelton and Lady Harriet Clive as the Lady
and Woman of the Bedchamber in Waiting on the Queen.
The Earl of Fingall and Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Otway
left the Castle this morning, and will be replaced as the Lord
and Groom in Waiting on Her Majesty by Lord Byron and
the Hon. Major Keppel.
The Royal dinner party of this evening is expected to in-
clude the Belgian Minister, the Duke of Wellington, the
Russian Charge d'Affaires, the Prussian Charge d'Affaires;
Countess Dowager and Lady Frances Cowper; Viscounts
Melbourne, Palmerston, and Torrington ; the Dean of W ind-
sor and the Hon. Mrs. Hobart, Hon. Sir Edward and Lady
Cust, Sir Robert and Lady Gardiner, Hon. Miss Paget, Hon.
Charles Howard, Hon. William Cowper, and the ladies and
gentlemen of the Royal suite.

A STRANGE CASE OP BIGAMY.—Last Wednesday night,
Dodgson and Davidson, two of the new police, in Bury,
apprehended a man, named Thomas Sharrocks, of Bury,
overlooker of power-looms, on a charge of bigamy; and on
proof of the facts connected with the transaction being made
before Mr. E. Grundy and J. Renton, Esqrs., he was com-
mitted to the New Bailey, to take his trial at the ensuing
quarter sessions. The facts are, perhaps, the strangest con-
nected with a case of bigamy on record. About four years
ago, Sharrocks married his first wife, Betty Hibbert, at
Ratcliffe, and it appears that they lived together com-
fortably. It seems, however, that he thought another wife
would make his happiness and his household complete ; and
he accordingly succeeded in persuading a young woman,
aged about eighteen years, of prepossing appearance, un-
known, to her parents. to become his second wife, and they
were married on the 29th of July last. The strangeness of
the,transaction is, that the first wife went to her husband's
second marriage—officiated as bridesmaid—and actually
pulled her own wedding-ring from her finger, and with that
ring the ceremony was performed. On the apprehension of
Sharroeks, his wives " thought it hard that the law should
interfere with them if they were comfortable." After
Sharrocks :had been committed, and had been removed to
the station, he was visited by both his wives; and the fellow
there boasted that no man ever had two better wives at once,
and that when he came back he would stick to them through
life, and lose his last drop of blood in their defence.—Man-
choler Guardian.