The speech of Mr. David Powell, Governor of the Bank
of England, on Thursday, is by no means so favourable to the prospects of the Baring Liquidation as that of Mr. Lidderdale was last year. It is true he stated that the total of liabilities on August 31st had been reduced to £5,113,613, of which £5,045,000 was owing to the Bank, and that the assets were worth £8,391,000; but this last sum was only reached by taking the valuation as it stood in October, 1890. The reduction has been immense since then, and Mr. Powell could only " trust " that "the expectation held out to the guarantors would be ful- filled." That means that, if things do not get better, the members of the old Baring firm will be ruined. The one chance for them is that, after October 12th, when the new President of the Argentine Republic comes into power, he will make a determined effort to rehabilitate the credit of his State. It is believed locally that he will ; but he can do nothing without Congress, and the willingness of Congress to separate the finance of the nation from the finance of its States is very doubtful.
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