New-York daily tribune., 1858-08-24

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cunuls.:rg large for.unes-b,nks making large
d;v;deLds-snd the Treasury vaults being gorged
with the precious metals. Old foges, Ike our.
selves, DID, il is true, feel some doubts about the
reality Of this prosperity-doubts suggested BY
tte facts, that the capitalist was obtaining double
in.erssf, While the aborer found gre,tor difficulty
10 purchasing supplies Of food-taat p.uperism was
ircres,Dg rapidly, while city palaces were daily
gaining in sperdor-hat the necessity for becoming
hunters after public Office was becoming srester
frtn day TO dsy-hat factories, furnaces AMI ships
bad CEASED 70 pay their owners-aud THAI, wi lie
population was Increasing at the rate Of million
year, tie power TO diversity the employmeIts Of
cur people was as regularly decre.sing-a of these
pheLonens being, o. il appeared to us, evidence
of growing poverty and weakness, ard no! Of TO-
crsasirg wealth and strer 9Th. tn. Journal Of
Comm,res and the Secretary Of the Tn~ury as
tured W, however, that We we're certainly be,om
ing rieher ard strorge, from day 10 day; and how
could We hesitate t. pin our faith upon the assur
| aDces Of men whose claims to commercial knowl-
e6se, aid TO perfect accuracy of statement, had
| teen 70 often ard 20 fully vndicated
| Ayesr ego, England, too was highly prosperous
and that prosperity was increasing fton hour to
hour-proOf Of this being found in the fact tba
more goods were being carried in and cut Of he
ports to the great advantage Of those employed in
| carrying thtm, owners Of ships and railr0sd
wagons. In this case, however. as in our own We
ventuIed to doubt the reality Of their prosperity
the great fact being everywhere presented for con-
siderator that TIE attractive power of the British
,lands was steadily decreasing, whether considered
in regard to men or money. Large as had been the
receipts Of the precious metals sine, the discovery
Of the Californian and Australian treasures, the
stock of gold held by the bank was less than it had
been ten years earlier; and great as had been the
emigration ofpIeyous years, the people Of all the
,lands were steadily yrg to distant lands 10 search
of the food and clothing denied them at home.
Nevertheless, we had the assurance Of The London
Times on the one hand and that of The Journal Of
Commoe on the other that all this English prosperi
tywas certainly realthat it was due to the adoption
of free-trade rnciples-and that the way to be-
come ss prosperous as England was to follow al
ways in her lead. Models of accuracy, and Of ve
racity, too, as thoie journals are can our readers
wonder that we were at times almost tempted to
doubt the CORE ctness of our own conclusions
According to all these high authorities, then, the
British and American skies, a year since, were
clear and bright-so bright that there existed not
the slightest dagger of any storm commencing
amcDs thsmsslyes. Elsewhere, however, clouds
appeared to them to be distinctly visible-FrAnce
and Germany being much excited and the building
of roads, mills and furnaces in both tbo-. oonntriAa
being pushed to an unwarrantable extent There,
and there aloIe, lay the scene Of danger. At
htme there was nOne aud all that the English aud
American people would be required to do would
be TO keep care iul watch over the movements
of the Credit Moblitr, and Of the French and
German banks. There the volcano must burst
forth aud there the great commercial trouble would
be fourd Such, as our readers must we'll remem-
Der, have been the predictions continued durngtwo
entire years Cf those very journals that are now go
al xious to demonstrate to their readers that the
crisis 10 over-thst danger is psst-that commerce
is about to resume ts former actvity-that labor is
to cone into demand-that paupersm will dimin-
ish-that credit will be re established through the
country and that the Treasury will again be filed.
What is the real value of the predictions now 80
confidently obtruded upon the world, and how far
our people will be justified in placing confidence in
them, may, perhaps, be determined after brief
examination of the facts of the past eventfu year,
place siGe BY side with the prophecies to which re-
ference has above been made.
France, which was to prove heiself the great
center of disturbance, bas passed through the
ciisis almos! entirely unharmed-her great bank
havre fully maintained its credt-her merchants
having paid their notes, and there having been ex-
peIitrced throughout the country no othsr diff
Guilty than tha. resulting from the collapse of her
two great cu,tomers, America aad Epglaad. Ger
many, within the Zoll Verein, has experienced no
other trouble than that which has resulted fro az To-
ability to purchase goods or pay for those already
purchased. AT no period has that country been in
80 excellent position a. that in which il at
present stands, with domestic commerce that is
growing with great rApidty, and rapidly increasing
its indept ndencs of the fluctuations Of British
markets. Belgium has suffered so little that we
have 10 recollection of having even Teen her name,
as corrected with the critis. Russia, too, has
passed unhsrmed notwithstanding the vast ex-
pereiture Of the recent war. Throughout the
north and center Gf Europe, little or no iucon.
venience has been felt, except that produced by
the dersr gemeIt of affairs in England and among
Ourselves; yet there it WAS, as We were assured,
that the cra.h was to be most ,everely felt.
Where, then, has tie crisis been most
seyerel In those two countries in which, accord
ing to our yeracious neigbbors the prosperity wa,
40 very real-Englsnd ard the United States. In
the first Of these, banks and individuals have failed
with liabilities amounting TO many hundreds of mil.