The City has just escaped a panic. It was announced
on Monday evening that the Aberdare and Plymouth Iron Companies had failed, and that Messrs. Sanderson and Co., bill brokers and heirs of much of Overend Gurney's business, had suspended. The iron Companies are known to have been in difficulties for some time, and Messrs. Sanderson seem to have discounted their paper to the amount of nearly three-quarters of a million, in dread of losing their original advances. Messrs. Sanderson's other liabilities, moreover, were so large--upwards, it is said, of five millions— that a panic set in, not diminished by a parallel which the Times drew on Tuesday between their fall and that of Overends. It was found, however, that they held no other unsecured bills than those of the two Iron Companies, no failure of importance fol- lowed, the Bank declined to raise its rate, and on Friday all was fairly quiet again.
