Less effect than was anticipated appears to have followed the
ad- vance by the Bank Directors of the rate of interest. As money is to be obtained at present on lower terms elsewhere, it merely tends to keep the discount and the cashier's office without applicants. Looking to its effect on the circulation, it is calculated by persons who are well acquainted with this department of the Bank transactions, that if the whole of their di•,eount btoiness were taken away, it %You'd not diminish the circulation by more than 1,500,000/. or 2,000,0001. — Times.
A most extraordinary and alarming failure, accompanied with forgery, has taken place nit Buffido, in the state of New York. It is of great extent, but probably not so extensive as rumoured. Time person is a Air. Benjamin Rathbun. and the demands against him are It'prt'SI /It ed variously at from 1,000,000 to 2,000000 dollars. Ale Balaton was a merchant in Bonin in 1S'34; his credit was limited, ;Ulf! his !nisi] ess not extensive. When the mania Iii land speculatien commeneed, ue- fortunately be launched hi; then tattering bark into this upriting sea. He purchased vacant lots in Buffalo ; and by means of bank-loans, 8.:e. built splendid houses upon them. The property nominally increased in value, and other citizens were tempted to follow in his track. In many instances the lots rose 40, ;:)0, and even 100 per cent. it) a few months. As Arr. Rathbun's operations were large and visible, his wealth, apparently, became enormous, and his credit was increased in the same ratio. His most opulent neighbours were his endorsers, for almost any sum or sums that he required; while the local banks were willing to discount for him on what, under other ciretunstanees, would have been considered doubtful security. He became a principal owner in a small bank in the state of New Jersey, near the city of New York. So immeose were the transactions of Mr. Rathbun, and especially in building, that at the time of his failure he employed more than 1000 men, and about 200 horses. His brother Lyman Rathbun is implicated with him, in the uttering and issuing, if not the forging, certain endorsements. At what period these forgeries commenced is not accurately known, but probably within eight or ten months Some of the small interior banks, it is supposed, will be greatly injured by his operations. In the United States all banks, it is believed without a single exception, are banks of discount, deposit, and issue. They all circulate paper, all receive deposits, and all make loans. In some of the States the amount of their circulation is limited by law ; but they have a refinement in banking by which they make a distinction between issuing and circulating. In Mr. Rathbun's case, it is sup- posed that large sums of paper have been granted by country btoks, fOrs which were not to be circulated, and that by this evasion of the law these small institutions will sustain great loss. The modes operandi by means of which this has been effected is as follows. Mr. Rathbun, it is said, would take his own notes, with forged endorsements, to a small bank and procure a discount, for the amount of which he would receive the notes of this bank under a pledge that they should not be circu- lated. With these bank-notes be would proceed to some capitalist or large bank, and obtain a new loan on his own, or a forged bill, deposit- ing as collateral security the country bank-notes. Mr. Rathbun was a -man of untiring industry and good moral habits. Ile was avaricious ; but as he accumulated wealth, became ostentatious and fond of the display of it. This was probably intended to aid in keeping up his ,credit. There appears, however, to have been a species of insanity -about him. He would forge whole sheets of paper, and put them in circulation in every city in the state of New York, as if for the sola purpose of causing a detection. As soon as the forgeries were dis- covered, the two brothers absconded, the principal having previously made an assignment of his property to trustees. It is uuderstood that they are both taken, and are now in prison. He has, as a matter of course, left a large landed estate ; and by sonic it is believed that the loss to his creditors will not exceed 25 or 30 per cent, of their claims. But this estate must be greatly encumbered, and possibly beyond what it will now produce at a forced sale, as mortgages were given with re- ference to its nominal value. This is the most extensive forgery that has ever been committed in the United States. —Correspandeat ty.ths Times.
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