The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-04-27

the in4stuatioo, stock rose to $50 per cent and
when the scheme exploded, the stock in the market
was computed to amount to two thousand five hun
-dred millions of dollars This epidemic again an
peared in England in 1926, when mining compa-
MES, insurance, building, shipping coonizing, rail-
way and other companies, most of them ephemeral,
were incorporated to the number of 532-represent-
ing a capital of two thousand millions of dollars.
When the crash came, the kingdom presented de-
ldorable scene of confusion, dismay, and bank
ruptcy-more than hundred banks having sus-
pended payment.
Everything seems to indicate that we are about
entering similar scenes in the present day. This
speculative epidemic is again beginning to make its
appearance in the growth of the mining bubbles
which have been created in France, England, and
this country. Many are good, but some are of
precisely the same character as the Mississippi
and the South Sea schemes; and il they sue
coed in practising on the gulbiity of the people,
a great amount Of suffering will result from
them Such institutions as these exert q very
pernicious influence on the industrial classes The
magnificent prospects they hold out dazze the minds
Of the people; and when they see what they imagine
to be royal road to wealth, they naturally become
dissatisfied with the profits Of steady industry, and
neglect their legitimate calling to pursue this Will
o'-the-wisp. These newly organized associations
promise the most advantageous returns on invest
ments; and generally these promises pass unques-
toned and the bait is greedily swallowedthc stocks
being purchased upby ''foos aspiring to be knavss.'
All this to indicate that we are indeed enter
ing Of popular wildness, deusion, and ex-
element, hardly less than those which marked
the former epochs of this strange mania. Ca
lifornia and Australia are beginning to operate
in the same way as Mexico and Peru, but with
this diference-that the former are open to the
competition Of the whole universe, whereas the
right of trading with the latter monepslized BY
the Spaniards. The proceeds Of the Spanish and
Portuguese mines in South America, up to 1906
though worked SO ineficicntly-amounted to nearly
six thousand millions Of dollars; bat the value Of
the mineral wealth Of California, and the influence
it is calculated to exert on mankind no enc can ss
innate. The special report of the Surveyor General
of that State, submitted to Congress the other day.
gives the extent fits mineral lands at fty-two mil
lions ofacres, nearly eighty-two thousand square
miles This vast territory presents inezhaustible
field foY mining operations and there is no doubt
but that bona fde companies resolved to carry ont
their plans for developing its mineral wealth with
resolution, honesty, and capability, would be able
to pay large dividends on the investments; but We
repeat, that we are impressed with the convic-
ton that some Of the mining associations which
are spripging up, do not purpose carrying out
the project in good faith, but are mere speculative
concerns, got up by kjobbers and nancers, who
will withdraw from them as soon as they can get
them well pulled up, and the stock disposed of at
high prices. These societies will then explode and
involve thousands in disappointment, bankruptcy,
and ruin. Notwithstanding all these swindles and
humbugs, emigration will continue to How into Cali
fornia until that State becomes the eaepotfor the
worlds commerce.