............. 30,000

IN BLACKBURN.

Roget and Co............................. 76,000

IN LONDON.

Freemanand Cook.......................... 350,000

Sargeant, Garden, and Co................. 150,000

Thurbonand Co............................ 120,000

Coates and Co............................ 100,000

Leaf, Barnet, and Co..................... 100,000

Farmer and Ward......................... 55,000

Ryder, Wimbolt, and Co.................. 50,000

Pemberton and Co........................ 30,000

Abbot and Co............................ 30,000

Besides the great number of mercantile firms which failed, several banks
were reduced to the same necessity: the West India, the Shrewsbury,
Market Drayton, and the Honiton, were among the principal. Many foreign
mercantile establishments which had connections with British houses also
stopped payment, adding to the distress and alarm.

During the ensuing month large imports of bullion arrived from the
continent and America, and the aspect of affairs became more hopeful.

Throughout the year the English populace experienced much distress, and
bore it with patience; still there were food riots and disturbances of
various sorts, which had to be put down by the strong arm of the law.

Notwithstanding the gloomy condition of all monetary and mercantile
transactions, there were men of enterprise, who contemplated future
undertakings of great magnitude. Among these projects was one proposing
the formation of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez, which,
however, was not carried into effect. The French government and people
were very desirous to have such a work accomplished; but English
politicians regarded it with jealousy, especially Lord Palmerston, then
the highest authority in England on foreign affairs. By him the
measure was regarded as impracticable, at all events, as a pecuniary
speculation; and in its political tendency, likely to separate Egypt
from Turkey, and to give France, as a great Mediterranean power,
an undue preponderance. He also regarded it as endangering, and not
remotely, English empire in India. At all events, Mr. Stephenson, the
great English engineer, investigated the subject, and surveyed the line
through which certain French speculators proposed that the canal should
be cut. As the subject is technical, Mr. Stephenson's views are