, 1866-04-27
( From the London Times, Marcel 30
THE UNITED STATES.
(FROM AN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS
PHILADELPHIA, MARCH Is.

bllC1NuALA9S 'AlONSANHN wv
States. People are beginning to fear
coming. Gold is going down, and in a
week the PREMIUM has suhh1O per cent,
unsettling stock and prodlcf markets,
driving customers out Of retail shops,
and threatening bankruptcy TO merchants
without good. credit. All prices are
falling, and dealers are generally caught
with large amapunts Of goods On hand.
There have Been vast Combinations
throughout the Country to Keep up prices,
which have ruled the markets for months
past, but they are GRADUALLY breaking.
Millions of bushels of corr are stored
away by spectators who can never get
the price they gave, and must break
huge warehouses are filled with dry
goods that will not bring enough money
to pay the manufacturers prices the
Government bonded stores are packed
with foreign goods on which the duties
are unpaid, and probably, by their pre-
sent owners, never will be and the
languid state Of trade existing all over
the country, North and South-all sci
lers and few buyers-bodes no good. 1t
is not surprising, therefore, that dealers
resort to strange means to eXtrlcatc
themselves from difficulty. Enormous
robberies are frequent, and Wagon loads
of silks, or laces, or other portable goods
appear now to be stolen with the ease Of
a petty larceny. Warehouses stored
with goods on which there is a heavy
insurance suddenly catch fire and are
burned to the ground. la some quarters
men pressed by debts run way. We
have no bankrupt law in the United
States, and there is bat Slight probability
that the one now pending IN Congress
will ever be passed, so that relief can
scarcely be hoped for in this way. The
whole country is tending to the i%neyita-
BILE result of the wild speculation that
has so long ruled. The oiI-sharc bubble
has exploded, wrecking many men OF
apparent fortune there have been re-
peated collapses among joint-stock com
panies /; bankers and brokers innumera-
BILE have failed or absconded and now
has come the turn of The other interests.
The corn trade, the iron, cotton, and
woollen manufacturers, the importers
all must suffer, for the fall in gold fore
tells depression in everything else.
The first result of the threatening
storm has been a great curtailment in the
orders sent abroad for goods. America
is importing enormous stocks now, upon
orders sent out last year but the stag
nation in trade has stopped nine-tenths
of the orders that would otherwise be
sent abroad for the fab trade. The
balance against US for which we are
paying in gold and 5-20's is getting
frightful, and any state Of affairs that
Il win check the swelling debt will give
: comfort toiip1r rfpapciers,o In January
and February 1866, sasA7o,e69 gold
value of goods were imported into New
York, against $8,O74,325 in the same
months Of 1866. Yet to pay for this we
send abroad very little corn, or pork, or
beef, or cotton. The expectation of all
these articles is very small when compar-
ed with the expectation of previous
years, and the balance Of the debt is paid
in bonds and gold, thousand of dollars
worth going abroad by every steamer.
During 1868, 1864, and 1865, the bal