Nebraska advertiser., 1857-10-22

who feeitho force Of t~hepFesent pres
sure, who we're then among the crowd
that gathered around the Chestnut
street Gamaliel and derived comfort
and consolation from his promises of
succor and support. But q little time
after, and BiddIe, Bank and all we're
involved in one common smash. With
the fall of the United States Bank fell
also the financial supremacy of Phila-
delphia, and New York became, by the
natural order of affairs, the financial
centre Of the American continent
But ity1s a cehtre without a point, an
Empire without an Emperor. There
is no Nick Biddle now to whose power
and wisdom the people can appeal
Instead of q manager they have a sys-
TEN, and it is only by understanding,
sustaining and trusting in this that
they can sustain themselves. The
present furry, for serious as the fnan-
cial pressure has been, we cannotregard
it as anything more, while it tests this
system, will also make it more widely
known to the country, and, as it is
adopted elsewhere, will insure US
against the recurrence of what has
been. deemed an inevitable commercial
revulsion about once in twenty years.
This city. is now regarded as the
financial regulator of the whole country.
Before Boston could determine whether
to suspend specie payments or not she
waited first to know what New York
would do; and Philadelphia is now
convinced that if she had acted with
the same prudent caution she might
have saved herself from the CONNER
ciaI disgrace which she has brought
upon herself.
There are several marked phenom-
ena attending the present crisis in
money affairs, which have never been
witnessed in any previous commercial
Revision, and one Of the most remark
able of them is that the reypIsion has
come when the entire country is in a
condition Of uunwQnted prosperity,
when the great staples of the country
are more abundant than they were
were ever before, and when the whole
nation has been literally flooded with
gold. The great panic of 1887, which
extended over nearly five years, could
easily have been ~foreseen, or at least
accounted for by the merest tyro in
political economy the breaking up Of
a long7establjshed banking system, and
speculation in fictitious land projects,
the ""great fire" and q succession of
short crops, produced the great mer-
camille disaster of that period. Since
then we have enjoyed a succession of
prosperous years, and the only dis
turbing causes have been the discovery
of the California gold mines, and the
growth of Jul railroad system. But
these are elements of prosperity, and
not of ruin. Our railroads have cost
US something more than $500, O00, 900,
which has been expended during the
past fifteen years, and a considerable
portion of which has been contributed
from abroad, and not been repaid. 1t
is about the amount that England
spent in two years in her Crimean war
for which she received not a shilling
in return, while, our railroads. have
more than paid for themselves by de-
veloping the resources of the country.
Monetary panics have heretofore been
universal in their influence, but we
now find certain classes Of merchants
who do notappear to have been touched
by the panic. In the list Of the re-
ported failures, we do not find the
names Of any grocery; yet they form
q most important class Of u business
men and their transactions are to very
heavy amounts. One of the assigned
causes of the superior stability of the
grocers is thattheygiv shorter credits
than other jobbers, but the real cause
probably is that the commerce in arti-
cles which come under the head of
groceries is limited to the actual wants
of customers, while in dry goods and