The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-07-21
Wall Street.-The Merchants-'The brokers
md the BsnIss-The Hubble CoIlapslng.

Wall Street.-The Merchants-The Brokers
and the BsnIss-The RuDbIe COtlspsing.
Wall street, since the Schuyler accident, has
been in state Of ftfnl and feverish vacillation;
up little to-day, down again tomorrow; but
upon the whole, gradually tending to collapse.
and to the crisis of general financial confusion.
Something of this sort appears to be the in
evitable and the only process for cooling and
purifying the atmosphere Of Wall street, and
for bringing down the prevailing mischiefs Of
speculation, overtrading and stock,jobbing
within reach Of remedial agencies.
The general decline in stocks, good, bad and
Indifferent genuine ana spurious, betrays the &C.
neral alarm; and the universal admission that
Notwithstanding the panic and its fluctuations,
money is comparatively abundant and easy on
perfectly safe securities, betrays the fact OF
most extraordinary schedule Of stocks, bonds,
loans and mortgages, involved in suspicious
mystery and distrust. The bulls will convince
any man by facts and arguments that the exist
ing panic is absurd--that the danger is actual
ly over-that there is no possibility Of an ex-
plosion, when the pressure of steam is, by fifty
psr exSt IAsz than the ascertained strength of
the boilers; and but that from the extraordinary
and unnecessary curtainneut IN rvis.srg
prices Of the paper of all sorts Of corporations,
the financial affairs Of the country are in re-
Taxed condition, unusually sound and elastic.
Yet single growl from solitary bear is
sufficient to silence all the bulls of Basham.
The instincts and presentiments OF men are
often superior to the shallow sophistries OF
facts and figures. As in the Schuyler case, the
Wall street basis Of calculation may be err0-
neous and delusiye in many other cases and
the over-shadowing fact that there has beer q
prodigious amount Of overtrading throughout
the country, is scarcely sufficient to allay the
prevailing suspicion and disirust One or two
Schuylers have been detected hui there may
be Others sheltered behind the most favored
stocks on Change. Who knows. Now ard
then, too, we are beginning to hear Of the fall
ure of some country merchant, having bills
unpaid in New York and other Atlantic cities,
far beyond his assets. If we are not mistaken,
this class OF failures win Increase before many
months are over, TO an extent corresponding
with the excess Of country purchases Of the
last yeas, beyond the last years consumption
of goods and the payments therefor
For the fiscal year ending June 80, 1854,
the total Of foreign imports into the United
States was about $2S0,000, 600 or an increase
Of nearly sixty millions upon the preceding
year Among our exports were some thirty
two millions of California gold, or its eQuiva-
lent in specie; aud still a debt remains to be
paid 10 Europe on account Of the excess OF last
years imports, Of perhaps not less than fly
millions Of dollars. The European war is driv-
ing our trans Atlantic creditors to call upon
us for their money-our importers are calling
upon the retailers of the interior, and they upon
their customers; but all Of them having lived
beyond their profits, in the excuses and extrava-
gances Of 1858. the whole line, by touching the
first one, must, from the infedble law Of gravi-
tation, successfully fall like a row of bricks
within striking distance of each other. The
cxtravagant importer is crushed in bis efforts
to meet Lis Wholesale purchases--he falls upon
the oTer-sanguine retailer, and the retailer
having sold out upon loose credits, or not har-
inc sold at all, Is borne down by the weight Of
his New York liabilities, carrying with him the
little circle Of business operations Of which ne
was the centre.
IL l. urged, on the other hand, in eNtcnuG" n
OF the excessive morus-multicaulis commerce i
operations OF 1858, that they will be provided
for in corresponding reduction in the imports
and wholesale aud retail operations ofis54. Al
ready, We are informed that the revenues Of
our customs, for the month Of June, 81, fall
short by over million and half Of dollars
The receipts for the same month in 1865. which
y nearly equivalent TO 4 reduction IN i'm.
ports OF thirty per cent We may safely a.
sumo. therefore, that from the imports Of 1858
there is large existing surplus of goods still
unconsumed-that large proportion Il still
unpaid for, and HAT neither marble PALACES,
nor schuyler frauds, nor gambling debts, nor
general decline in stocks, nor downward ten
dency in breadstufs and provisions, is calcu-
lated TO quist the panic in Wall street, or to
stave OF The general day Of accounts 4 panic
naturally operates 10 hurry up settlement.
and 10 precipitatc revision which might
otherwise be materially softened by general
exercise Of confidence and forbearance.
The new business policy which appears 10
have been very extensively entered into Of late
by our laanks may have been adopted with re-
ference 70 these insecurities Of mercantile pa
per; but IL is policy which, none the less, is
calculated to facilitate the crisis Of general
crash The public OBJECT in the institution Of
a oans IL me pao,.c accommodation Where IL 4