INDIAN FAILURES.

The Times of Wednesday contains an elaborate article upon the late extensive Indian failures, the distress which they Lave ereasioned, and the causes which led to them. After stating that the calamity lies struck not only the " highest and most towering establishments, but be modest treasure and bumble competency of privacy and retirement," the article thus proceeds.

" Since the hegiiining of January 1,4:10, four C.lcutta Wises have failed for the suns of about 5h711iog, one It.:1111,:iy heuse fir the sum of 250,000/, and two London houses connected with the fernier for the rinnient of nearly 3,006,000/. more—making in till I5,60tbraine—an amount of debt which, little more than a century ;mu, would have shaken the Government of this country with a fear of bankruptcy, and which even now few of the second or third-rate nations could borrow on the mortgage of half their revenues.

" The following is the list of failures to which we have alluded ; and though, out of the debts marked against each house, a considerable dividend wary IN re- alized, the distrust, difficulties, and anxiety, which their bankruptcy has mica- slotted, together with the other failures which it may afterwards tender neces- sary, will not be much alleviated by a partial recovery of their assets— .101m Palmer and Co. Calcutta, about 3 000no0 Alexander net Co. ditto :.i.50ono0 Atackintml■ and Co. ditto hi Iii D5s. ;104

Colvin and Co. ditto Shotton and Co. Rumba.

To which if there is added, as theta:mie uet:et! of thew, that of

1,airlieattl Um Loudon 1.!-,aoo.tie)

Itickanis and Markintosh, ditto 951.1.coa The lumi a 15,00,00" n still be 0(.

The eallSeS of these failures are then investigated.

" But it is now of mote importance to hirpi ire into the (-anise of these alarming insolveneies, and to dishe• . from their ilia ills the moral which they might to yield, than to emblaze:1 their extent on to deer the rhea- pressure. t The ;.;-reatost number:of them, is are per-uld,d, might litre been lo5.-e411. as their sr:ilia:an, we" neither kiddy" though the result seems to bare taken the imblit• by surprise. There kis not, indeed. bet n any reccut stir or political convulsion to acenunt fu them. India has been iv, II governed and in peace since the Burmese conquest ; noel if the credit of a great 311,1.ra:dile emtattunitv has been shaken, we may say, as in Cuwper's lines on the loss of the Ratan George- • It was nit hi the ha lice, No meiped Give the shook' Nor have they been conms.ted with any viidenee, bad faith. or fraud on the part of our Indian I fevernimed, tior with any elmoge in the laws of our Eastern empire. They Ii rve been oreasionral solely Iry the mode in se Liu h the great Calcutta agency-homes have I wen transacting- busitn.ss hustle last ten or fifteen years—by the rage for spceitlatimi or inordinate gains on the part of their di- rectors. and the trio vieeer rr ceetirkut cupidity of tl eir custoniels. ‘ Aft(' the retiewal, of the Company's charter, which opened Indian ennui:ere,. to the more revive 4,11up•tition of private adventurers, a great 1111111- her of nun trading cd eI I liments were erected at Calcutta. These new houses entered iutu it vIgm nos compet ‘vith houses winch had been founded more

than half at century ; and the latter, to preserve their relative superiority,

were stimulated to exia Cams and led to the practice of arts which they thrinerly had not attempted uric centemplated. They made large advances to indigo planters, to our ar, v ,oar of the trust hitZillfhttni kill& of cultivation. They stimulated likewise the 'mim:time of sugar, cotton, and ot Lea articles, which have not yielded the profits that they anticipated. Their iirlyances to the indigo planters amounted frequently to el,0(10,0110.i. or 1,511 toutie a ti ir ; while the produce of the plant was so purer Mils and fluctuating- that in I een it anioneted to 10,71;00:0ibs , mid in the fellewing Scar only to 6,70(00011,s. ; and, again, ill 11427, to ll,OU0,(4:011ts. ; and iu I;-z2-t., to only 7,:300,0001bs. Latterly, prices h. aving fallen in the Ent epean market, more than a third of these rule-am:es to t indigo planters is uncalled ler and unproductive; while the houses ire finestioit continued to (word (lie solve totrre4 iv their customers ore fleposets winch had Leanne unprvitottc. fee the wseTees."

The evidence of a pertner in the house of Alexander and Co. of

Calcutta, given before a Committee of the House of Commons about eighteen months ago, is adduced in proof of this latter assertion; and the fact of a bank of issue, discount, and deposit, having been esta- blished by the Indian Government, is mentioned as another cause of the diminution of the profits of the agency-houses, although they still continued paying the same interest to depositors as formerly,—that is to say, from 6 to S per cent., when Government could borrow money in the market at 4 or 5 per cent.

" Thus, over-trading, improvident enterprise, extravagant miscalculation, end excessive expense in living, have, no doubt, been the cause of the recent failures. 'flue victims of these wild schemes are, no doubt, in many instances, to be pitied; lint thee are not themselves altogether blameless for their ewri misfor- , tunes. It VC,I■ the t•CIIIIiht•Ilve tt Lich they 1119111111 by their deposits which tempfed III, iu

A correspondent of the Tinws demurs to this at-count of the causes \Odell led to the failure of the ealcutta houses, and ascribes their losses to the theuelitless operations of Government in the money market.

":1 nee, Mr speculation,- saws this wt iter, " was so fir from hying indulged by the nal-ell:tuts of Calcutta of late years, that the:I-extreme backwardness, want at I steep: and i:OSTIVVIIV,S in supplying the means of' sreenlation to others, have he,' evial made matter or tipo,...li in fart, they might have been as tyke or It ;illy other merchants usually are, but they had nut the means, our have thee hail since the commeneem Burmese War. To that v ent of the e,ot. to state of thh,;,:s ill which it already found these agency-houses, we must look for the causes et the 'nese:tit crisis. Not many inemrlis before that ill-adviseil and most is liexpected war opened, commercial interest in ( 'alcutta was nominally at per cent., but the fact is worthy of not ire that even at that rate offers of deposits were then %•ery largely declined by most of the ( 'aleutta houses; an I in the p !rtieular case of one of the firms which hats now failed, constituents with laige b :1:::ices were at that time expressly solicited to withill.te- a portion of their funds. Snell Wat the abundant state of the Calcutta money market, and such was generally ( parr icular eases of lie prudence may be quoted, tin doubt, as in all countries) tine cautious policy which the merchants were then pursuing; when, without one word of warning, or note of preparatienovith an indifference to the effect on mercantile credit, not to he paralleled, 1 believe, in the history of any c011ittlercial country, the Government suddenly announced a new loan, and commenced a series of financial measures which almost instantly gave a fear fully unnatural enhancement to the value of money, and in a short time tilled indeed their treasury, not only with the redundant capital in the market, but with much more than the trade of the country could conveniently spare."

The agency-houses then, according to this writer, who professes to be peculiarly well-informed on the subjeet, were forced, in order to re- tain their business and prevent an exhausting run upon their funds, to "outbid the Government in the terms of interest." The severe measures of retrenchment then adopted by the Indian Government re- duced the nutans of their debtors, and gave the finishing blow to the unfortunate Calcutta houses. He thus thinks that he has established "a close and fatal connexion between the acts of the Indian Govern- ment and the failure of these houses."

We subjoin a paragraph from a Bombay paper, which, if correct, would weal to prove that some persons in the Indian trade are not to be taught prudence by the bitterest reverses.

A private letter from Hyderabad brings intelligence of a very important na- ture, to the mercantile world of India. great I lvderabad house of Palmer and Co., it is stated, either has actually reopened, or is about to reopen business, under the management of Sir William Bumbold, and offers twelve per cent. for all deposits of money. Sir William, we learn, is living in great splendour in the Nizam's capital, and has lately built a palace at the Neilgheries, which cost one hick of rupees! The letter gives no details as to what principle of settle- ment is to be adopted with it-garil to the former debts of the concern ; butt slimild the dceision of l‘lr. Adams have been nullified and the house be enabled to reenter the whole t,f its claims an the Nizain, with the original interest, it does riot strut improbable that all its creditors nutty be paid in turn to the full amount.-_ lionthoy Gazette, April 6.

This twelve per cent. business cannot last ; and indeed we should be inclined to question very much the correctness of the intelligence con- veyed in this paragraph.