The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-09-25

just seutenc an Irishman, named Henuigssu,
convicted Of highway robbery, to forty years i'm
prieoCment In the State prison The punishment
has been commented upon - being excessive,
and as having 'endeocy to defeat its otje,t,
but We cannot concur in such absurd reasoning
1t Is these refined g-adstons Of puaiehueot
which more than anything else have contributed
to neutrallze the power aud efficiency of our
criminal laws They afford scope for legal In
genuity to exercise itself In to the profit and bsne
ct of the dangerous classes, and to the great in
Jury Of the honest portion of the community. l.
there is any class of offences which should be
visited with DracoDian severity 1t is that Of which
HfnDiphan was convicted. All hesitation or
ter derness in such q case is misplaced, aud Judge
Resell deserves the thaoks of the public for the
signal example be has made Of such rusIian.
The Car OF WOLF" Nor ALWAYS VAIN
ALARM.-Voltaire once boosted In letter to 9
friend that, without quitting his arm chair at
Ferney, he could make as much money rs he
pl, ased In the Paris money market He was
enabled to do this, he added through the agency
of one of his old associates, who was in the Bank
of France and who gave him timely information
when the bank was about to curtan or expand
lite operations.
Our present financial sufEerings are to be traced
to the same simple but occult influences as those
to which the Ferney philosopher gives us the
key. Those who attribute them to the agency Of
the press know nothing Of ansnciering either in
it's theoretical or practical bearings The per-
sons who utter such absurditiee are simply the
outeiders and dupes who are periodically pluck
ed and pige0ned, and Who in the gatherings of
their distress, wildly Geek to cast ths blame Of
their misfortunes on their nearest ostensible in
strument Nothing can be more silly or more
calculated to blind the uninitiated to the unscru
pulous Vaccinations of which they are the vic
Tins As we'll might they blame the bank note
reporters for the stoppage Of the banks whose
bills they record as uneouud.
If we substitute for the literary speculator at
Ferney the numbers of wealthy monopolists
connected with our banks aud railroads who
make use of their positions in those concerns
solely to control the market and to conduct to q
successful issue their own private operations, we
will fed the true explanation of the financial
phenomena which from time to time disturb and
distract our community. When the banks begiu
to contract their discounts, they obey the Impulse
of regular, and not of irregular Influences
as is vulgarly supposed. The curtailment and
expansion of their operations are directed by an
agency as infexible and almost as periodically
exact as that OF the ebb and flow of the ocean
1t Is the invisible but all controlling power of the
great money monopolies which produces with
premeditated purpose these financial psuics, for
through them their largest gains are usually
made. 1t Is . matter Of no consideration
to these interests that In order to swell
their Ill gotten profits they must con-
tribute to the ruin and destruction Of
thousands. When they have got superfuity
of idle funds they must be employed at any cost
of humanity or principle, and they accordingly
curtail discounts and put the screw on trade
knowing we'll that in the crash which these mea-
cures viii occasion they must benefit largely by
the sacrifices Of property to which they will
lead.
We can illustrate this position by the state
ment of q simple fact Within the last two
months the banks of New York and the leading
Atlantic cities have curtailed their discounts to
the amount of about $50, 00O, 900. Ia view OF the
excess Of our imports over our exports little
caution was undoubtedly required, but were there
in our commercial condition which
called for an amount Of contraction like thisY
The county was never more prosperous th an IL
is at present; never, we believe, have our banks
and mercantile houses generally been In 50 sound
a state. If they were not so, the pressure from
which they are now suffering would have swept
them away ny shoals. We are, therefore jussi-
fed In saying that were there no new papers in
existence, the extreme measures adopted by the
banks would in themselves be sufficient to pro.
ducc all the existing alarm aud distress.
The fact Ia that the press has had bat little to
do In aggravatiDg the present crisis. The first
evidence which it had of the storn that WAS ap-
preaching was that derived from the quarreIs
aud exposures connected with the Michigan
Southern Railroad line-the next the Ohio Trust
explosion. We would have been grossly want.
ing In our duty to the public II we had not
cautioned them as to the downward movement
that WAS preparing Had we not raised the
voice of warning in time, the mischief would
have been infinitely more wide spread and
calamitouA
THArBrsos LAST GRAsp Coscsrr The last Of rhaibere's
ers for the present season sissnaed night