The spirit of our institutions does not admit of the concentration or entailment of property. And here, if a man has property, and will act honestly, he need not wait the term of his mortal existence, for his children to ruin themselves afterwards, by spending it. He can ruin himself, and them too, by simply placing himself in the vortex of a single panic. But, on the contrary, if his tastes lead him to choose the former expedient, this affords him an ample field, for no scheme can be devised better calculated to make the rich richer than this is. It places the dependent debtor wholly in the power of the creditor, and he may take his pound of flesh with interest, without extracting a groan or a sigh from his patient. Nay, he will rise up from the operation, and thank him for not taking two. A panic, then, serves to hasten changes of property from one to another, and thereby acts in accordance with the spirit of our institutions, which encourages rotation. Its advantages, also, to the separate classes of dealers, who inhabit Wall-street, deserve each a passing notice. It enables the stock-dealer, who has heavy contracts to fulfil, to complete his engagements at a great profit to himself. It is of no consequence that what he gains, another must lose; the advantage to him is unequivocal, and, accordingly we find that these gentlemen are great panic makers on their own account. WHY SOME MEN LOVE PANICS. It enables exchange dealers to demand double rates on all distant places, and, although the effect is to reduce the value of all debts due from those sections to citizens here in the same proportion—yet, _he_ is benefited, and if people will not pay him his rates, they have the option to go and collect their money themselves. The greater and the more frequent the panic, therefore, the better for the exchange dealer. It also enables those Banks which have a speculative turn, to divert their capital from the paltry business of discounting, to speculating on their customers’ wants, by becoming dealers in exchange. It greatly increases the profits of the Bank-note dealer, by enabling him to increase the rates of discount, and one peculiar beauty of his business is, that the more discount he asks, the more ready his customers are to sell. This class of dealers are deserving the particular regards of the country Banks, since _their_ interest advances exactly in proportion as they can discredit them. I have passed hastily over all these classes, although the ways and means by which each one of them contrives to turn a panic to their advantage, contain a fund sufficient for a long evening’s entertainment. But my descriptions are not intended to be wire-drawn, and, besides, I wish to leave room for future lucubrations, without the necessity for gleaning too closely. CONSEQUENCES OF PANIC.