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could answer; the telegraph wires were in great requisition; and business was almost at a standstill. Towards night, speculation was rife as to the probable "winding-up", and men's minds became calmer under the impression that the public loss would be less than was at first anticipated. Throughout the following week, "Anything more of the Bank?" or a similar question was put by almost every person one chanced to meet; and no wonder, for everyone hereabout was more or less directly or indirectly affected by the unlooked-for calamity. Every other event - even the dreadful catastrophe near Liverpool (in which more than one hundred persons were injured) and the alarming news from India (the revolt of the native Indian army) failed to excite so great a degree of attention as did the absorbing topic of the Bank failure. At the first announcement of the affair, our local community exhibited symptoms of a complete panic. Dejection was depicted on every countenance and gloomy forebodings reigned paramount in every homestead. So extensive were the connections of the Hastings Old Bank, so long had it existed, such accommodation had it afforded, and so unlimited a confidence had it acquired, that nothing short of a terrible reverse could be imagined capable of so suddenly arresting its career. Farmers and fishermen, tradesmen and tally men, clergymen and collectors, building societies and benevolent societies - all were supposed to be involved, and almost every individual, separately or collectively, it was thought, would be drawn into the general vortex of complete or partial ruin. Suddenly, however, a ray of light, "no bigger than a man's hand" appeared, which gradually assumed a form of greater magnitude until the elastic mind sprang up from a feeling of despair to one of hope. A favourable prospect was now indulged in, a dividend of 15s., 18s., and even 20s. to the pound was freely spoken of. Then again, the fair prospects became o'ershadowed by a cloud, and fifty was the highest per-centage likely to be realised that the most sanguine would venture to predict. But whether the dividend proved to be a good one or the revers, one thing appeared certain - that the step taken in suddenly closing the doors was the one best calculated to secure to the creditors the greatest amount of fairness. There appeared to be but little doubt of the firm having been for a considerable time in a state the reverse of solvency or that it was rapidly becoming so, and that if such a course had been persisted in much longer the result would have been still more disastrous. The first to experience inconvenience would be those persons engaged in commercial pursuits who had -