24 AUGUST 1872, Page 3

There has been a bad failure in the City. Messrs.

Gledstanes and Co., leading India merchants (Shand, Fairlie, and Co., in Calcutta), suspended payment on Thursday, with liabilities secured and unsecured to the amount of two millions sterling. The house, a most respectable one, had suffered severe losses some years since, and of late its trade has been moat unprofitable, the fall in the prices of all imports from India having been serious. It will be some days before the truth is known, but judging from precedents, a failure of this kind ought to shock the whole India trade, and seriously affect the speculations of all pur- chasers of Indian bank shares. It looks very much as if this branch of commerce had for some time been a little unsound.