The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-28
- LII ronll dis;ress "his


ord Macaulay, in hIs "Hstory Of England"
lie ansW cred thus;-"It 1s a little morhtylng
nat Macaulay should 81 have held up our
honorable predecessors; not that they were
ertect or were ever held up as such, as far as
know; but they were eXtraor jluary men,
wonderfully elucldating and maintaining the
ruth. am not prepared, oowever TO say mat
Fox was clear of 6ccentricitles, and that at
ines he was not, to a certain extent, under
.ucn influence on his conduct; but, taking hun
Tor all in all, he was wonderfully gifted
sdered by Fnends whether there should
be an answer somewhat official to these
attacks On our two worthless. rather lean to
II, although il would BE- impossible 70 reach
wherever Macauay's book may go; yet, II we'll
done 1t mish have a beneficial effect upon the
puollc .In lnlhu and upon our young people. Ihere
Is, however one eonsolatiOn:-'Tbe truth, as 1t
is in Jesus,'-the truth as maintained by
Friends is Interchangeable and remains the same,
however feeble, or even faulty, its supporters
ten from Nice. whittier Samuel Gnrnev had gone
very soon after the death OF his wile hoping to
improve the health that had been greatly snat-
tered by his loss and the anxiety that preceded
H. But IN that he was mistaken. Growing
worse in tho spring OF 1856. he hurried home
wards, hoping 10 end his days in his own coun-
try, and among his kindred. He reached Paris,
but could 90 no further. There he died, on the
5th OF June 1866, seventy years of age, and one
OF the richest and most envied men in Europe.
we need not trace the history OF his family
any 1urther; but the history OF the house which
through his enterprise and ability, may be fol-
lowed right TO the end. Samuel Gurney had
not mucn TO do with the business of Overend,
Quincy ~ Co. tor some time previous to his
death. On his Withdrawal from IT, the chief
management was during rlany years with Mr..
David Barclay Chapman, who retired, in his
turn, at the end of 1867, having first led the
establishment safely through the panic of that
year. Then the business iell into less skilfuL
hands, and the disastrous failure OF last May
was the consequence.
TIn ,f., a. L..
worth careful noting, helping u.s. as they do, to
an understandlngof Of the entire series OF imam
Cial troubles 10 which 1t led the way or served
as stepping.stone The difficulties began
last year, or even sooner, convincing proof
to those who cared to be convinced -
of the weak condition of the business
being IN its exchange from private haads
into the form OF limited liability company.
Those difficulties had, IN part, resulted from the
great error, perslstently avoided by old Samuel
Quincy, OF combining commercial speculation
with legitimate financial operations A man
VINO simply lends money of his own can never
TAIL so long as he makes profits enough to pay
his working expenses. If he bOrrows money to
Iend again at profit, the principal part OF all
bankers business NOWADAYS, he is still quite
sale, PROVIDED he takes care TO deal only with
customers who can be relied upon, and who are
pledged to return the funds lent 10 them within
reasonable time. But if he borrows money on
the pretense of lending it for short terms and to
trusty borrowers and then locks it up in
mining undertakings, railway companies, or
other commercial speculations, whence it
cannot possibly be drawn out at short
notice it necessary, he has only himself to
thank when he gets into trouble. This seems
to have been the grievous fault of 0verend,
Gurney d Co., before 1t was reorganiZed, under
the Limited Liability act, i'm August. 1865. 1t
was continued after that change; and the great
dlscounting house found itself worse OH than
ever in the spring
It's embaIrassments were shared by other
banking establishments; the high rates of in-
terest offered by the trading or mining Compa-
nies Tor all money lent to them being tempta-
| tions too great for resistance Nearly all the
| banks that failed during the summer OF 1866
owed their failure, in part TO this source Of
| weakness. The Birmingham aDd the Preston
| Banks last i'll the order OF failure, had been
| crippled fer years through their having made
| large advances TO Spectators in the iron and
| cotton trades. The Agra and Masterman'5 Bank,
| with a much larger field OF operations, had erred
| in the same way, risking its safety through con-
| neclon with the great cotton houses OF Bombay
! and other parts of India. The house OF 0verend,
| Gurney d Co., as we saw, was chiefly involved
| with railway and iron contractors.
This seems to have been an immediate cause
| OF the disasters. On the 9th of May, three suits
| brought against the Mid-Wales Railway Com
pany by Overend, Quincy Company and two
other dscounung houses were decided in the
Court OF Common Pleas. The suits were for
bills Of exchange amounting to 100000. drawn
by the three houses named and accepted by the
Railway Company, but dishonored by 1t on their
falling due. The Court decided that the Rail-
and that they, and all others like them, we're
meIe waste paper. By these transactions them
selves Overenu, Gurney & Company dld not
lose much; but they were known to hold
immense quantities of the same sort of paper;
and, il all this was good for nothing, the esta-
blishment was in very dangerous position.
That, at any rate, was the general opinion
among city men on the morning OF the 10th of
May. The result was a rush on the Lombard
street house, which ended in the closing OF its
doors before the day was out, and next morning all
England was startled by the news that il had
tailed, with liabilities exceeding Gl0,0O0,000,
That news led Immediately to the breaking OF
the Bank OF London for about &4,00U, ,000 the
Consolidated Bank for nearly as much, and
several other establishments for lesser sumss
the crowniLg though not the final event of the
panic being the failure OF the Agra anu Master
mans Bank tor upwards OF fl5, ,00O, 900. To
say that the total losses OCcasloned by the panic
amounted to f60,000,0 coo would be certainly
| within the mark.
But they were not all losses; and the fnan.
cial blunders TO which we have referred we're
not the only causes of the catastrophe Two
very different sorts of people have made profit
out of the troubles of their neighbors. OF the
one sort are the great capitalists who have had
money to lend a; the eXOrSitant rate of ten per
cent, or at higher interest still; the
body OF rich men whose most sue
Cessul possession is the Baak OF England
endowed with very considerable privileges
and opportunities of moneymaking in return
for its services to the State. The other and
much less respectable class continues a body of
men known vaguely as STOCKHOLDERS, whose
wits are their principal capital and who have
lately found congenial employment tor those
wits in what are called "bearinp operatiOns.D -
In Stock Exchange jargon bulls" are the Job
bers VINO speculate for a rise in the price Of
shares, mat Is, who buy when shares are low,
! win the intention of selling them again when
Ihey nave "a, risen IN price; bears are those who