COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS.
This year was one of severe trial to Great Britain. The credit of many great mercantile houses was shaken, and many failed. The distress which prevailed at the beginning of the year, both in Great Britain and Ireland, disheartened the trading community, and impeded the usual course of business. When the French revolution suddenly burst forth, business received a shock such as only political events of the greatest magnitude can communicate; but when that event was followed by a series of continental revolutions, destroying the old European system, and convulsing nearly all the great monarchies, commercial affairs were nearly paralysed. The threatened disturbances in Ireland, and the chartist agitation at home, aggravated the evil effects which so many other causes produced. Banking accommodation was extremely difficult of attainment, and the funds fell very low. About the end of March affairs assumed some hopefulness, and the funds rose; but so many events crowded on in rapid succession, like dark clouds impelled by the storm, that these encouraging indications were checked. Still, public confidence in the stability of British institutions sustained public credit, and the disturbed state of other countries likewise caused the investment of capital in England to a surprising extent, keeping up the funds, and extending commercial transactions. As soon as the great chartist demonstrations of April were over, and the safety of the government placed beyond doubt, monetary and mercantile matters rapidly improved; and although English merchants and bankers suffered from the fluctuations of credit on the continent, yet the security of England reacted upon all European commerce, and caused the continental losses of our capitalists and traders to be far less than could have been expected in a season so politically tempestuous.