Lord Clarendon adopted the somewhat unusual course of writ- ing
on the day after the panic a circular to the various British embassies and legations throughout Europe, explaining that the crisis in England had been a credit crisis, arising from the un- sound operations of finance companies, that the general com- merce of England was sound, and that the authority given to suspend the Bank Act was only a precaution against the danger that really sound firms might not in the present state of general distrust be able to get the advances they might need. Lord Clarendon understands these subjects well and writes clearly, but we are not quite sure that his official explanation will not excite even more distrust among the unintelligeet abroad than the English panic itself. There are many places where it will be thought that the state of things in perfidious Albion must have been very bad indeed, before the Foreign Moe would have attempted to make light of it for the reassurance of Europe.
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