REVIEWS THE CANADIAN ALMANAC. 511 



the TJnited States country Banks (of which there are over 1000) suspended in 

 dozens, the Banks in Philadelphia followed suit, and on the thirteenth of October 

 several Kew York Banks gave way. On the next day, by general agreement, the 

 whole New York City Banks (except the Chemical) suspended specie payment. 

 The turning point was now reached and men began to breathe freely. The notes of 

 the great majority of the United States Banks being secured by stocks passed freely, 

 and for nearly two months scarcely a Bank in the United States paid specie at its 

 counter. 



From the United States the panic passed to England and the continent of Europe. ■ 

 At first it was thought that England could stand the shock without serious difficulty, 

 but the intimate relations which bind commercial nations together had not been 

 accorded their due importance. Houses in the American trade began to give way 

 and in their fall involved others in ruin. Banking houses of long standing toppled 

 down side by side with the wild speculator or reckless adventurer. The fair fame of 

 Scottish banking was stained by the failure of one of the principal Banking Institu- 

 tions under circumstances so discreditable as to thrown even the wild cat banking of 

 our western neighbors in the shade. An institution with seven and-a-half millions 

 of dollars of paid up capital, and thirty millions of deposits became hopelessly 

 insolvent, and caused, it is said, an amount of suffering in Scotland greater than 

 that entailed upon the country by the Russian "War." 



Eavoured as we have long been in many respects, in Canada, it was 

 impossible tbat we could be mere idle or uninterested onlookers 

 during a crisis which made itself felt throughout the whole civilized 

 world. Nevertheless there have not been wanting just grounds for 

 congratulation. When after reviewing the disasters and sufferings 

 of other countries we turn to our own Province, we learn with 

 feelings of pride and satisfaction, that while an universal suspension 

 of specie payment existed in the neighbouring States, and even 

 travelling was for a time clogged by the difficulty of obtaining change 

 at one resting place, which would pass current beyond the next stage ; 

 and when the American Bankers were collecting our Bank notes over 

 a frontier of a thousand miles, and demanding specie at every Bank 

 counter : nevertheless our Canadian Banks conducted their issues as 

 usual, paid specie on demand, and retained public confidence uninter- 

 ruptedly to the close of the panic, and the resumption of specie 

 payments by the TJnited States Banks. How is this to be accounted 

 for, and why is it that after thus triumphantly maintaining our credit 

 before the world, we now suffer under a depression, worse to many 

 than the crash which visited the neighbouring States ? 



" We must not [directly] attribute the prostration of business in 1858 to the 

 panic of 1857. Canada Ir^st comparatively little by the crisis. She was a debtor 

 s^t a creditor, both as regards England and the United States. Her great difiiculty 



