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Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February,
1858, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858
Author: Various
Release Date: May 10, 2004 [EBook #12319]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY,
A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
* * * * *
VOL. I.--FEBRUARY, 1858.--NO. IV.
* * * * *
THE GREAT FAILURE.
The crucial fact, in this epoch of commercial catastrophes, is not the stoppage of Smith, Jones, and Robinson,--nor the suspension of specie payments by a greater or less number of banks,--but the paralysis of the trade of the civilized globe. We have had presented to us, within the last quarter, the remarkable, though by no means novel, spectacle of a sudden overthrow of business,--in the United States, in England, in France, and over the greater part of the Continent.
At a period of profound and almost universal peace,--when there had been no marked deficit in the productiveness of industry, when there had been no extraordinary dissipation of its results by waste and extravagance,--when no pestilence or famine or dark rumor of civil revolution had benumbed its energies,--w