The panic on the Paris Bourse last Saturday is described
as the worst since the war of 1870. Spanish Four per Cents dropped to 74.50, Turkish Four per Cents to 75, and French Three per Cent. Rentes to 93.5$, or a fall since the 1st of the month of 11.60, 11, and 4.10 per cent. respectively. The fall in Russian stocks was comparatively less considerable, the reason alleged being that they are largely held by investors, while Turkish and Spanish stocks are mostly held for specu. lation. The simultaneous departure from London of Count Benckendorff, the Russian, and M. Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador, on which the most sensational interpretations were placed, is generally regarded as the immediate cause of the panic. But the natural reaction from the wholly unwarrantable optimism which prevailed in Paris up to the very outbreak of hostilities, the national habit of the French to fly to extremes, the ominous dearth of war news, and the lurid deductions of imaginative journalists, all contributed to aggravate a panic which has since subsided, a marked all- round improvement in prices taking place on Monday.
