"The statements to be exhibited, will shew you the rest, and I trust too much to the gentlemen present, most of whom have been long acquainted with me in the way of business, to imagine, that, I shall suffer by my absence, especially, as I shall be ready on all occasions, to give any further explanation that shall be deemed necessary.

"If the matter can be immediately adjusted, it certainly will be of infinite importance to the interests of my family, as giving us the only chance to preserve unimpaired our retail business; and actuated by this feeling, I am induced to make offer of the following terms of composition, which, a comparison of the nature of the stock, with the state of the times, I trust, will convince you all, are reasonable.

Here follows the offer, with some particular reasons upon which it is founded; but as a matter of private concern, or what only concerned those interested in it at the time, I shall not here dwell on.-The general statement, however, here subjoined, will afford some idea of what these terms were, or ought to have been.

GENERAL STATEMENT of my affairs, on the 14th April, 1819, as per inventory, abstract, &c. amounting to 39 pages folio, in which, every thing was distinctly and minutely specified :

Amount of funds as per do. £3553 12 11

£6100 7 0

£6253 12 11

Which, added to stock, and funds presently considered available, although requiring a considerable time, to realize the greater part of, will make being upwards of One Hundred and Fifty Pounds over what would have been necessary, had no such losses and draw backs otherwise, have taken place ;-which sufficiently shews, that, had it not been for these disastrous results, we would have been in the way of rather making something over tear and wear, rent, taxes and family expenditure, than falling short to such a lamentable extent.

But, so it appears to have been again decreed, that ALL SHOULD GO-that all our labour and exertions, so far, should be once more swept away, by the irresistible impulse of those protracted misfortunes, which made it again necessary, that we should seek shelter, in so humiliating an arrangement.*

* Whatever these terms, however, were, it appears that my good friends on this occasion, were rather disposed to befriend me, than otherwise; for the following Notandum, which I observe, is added to my own statements, viz. “In addition to these losses stated by Mr M. a considerable deduction, was judged necessary by the gentlemen connected with the Book trade, present at the meeting, upon examining the Inventory;" which, I presume, refers to the item of £600, deducted as above, from £1800 present stock, to make it marketable, which evidences, that this item was not of my fixing, or, at least, was considered highly reasonable, although, could I have foreseen what was still to follow, I might have considered it all little enough.

CHAPTER XXVIII.-1819 (CONTINUED.)

Pitiable as our situation, or condition in life, may be at any particular period, yet it is possible to conceive a case still more pitiable.—A most striking illus. tration of the truth of this remark, on the day, on which my meeting took place at Edinburgh.-I am able to go west, contrary to expectation. My new trouble not supposed to have been long a stranger to me.—Mine, not the only affecting, or most tragical occurrence of that day. An execution of a poor young unfortunate.-Meet with, and lay my affecting representation, with its accompanying documents, before my creditors. Every thing adjusted according to, or, beyond my most sanguine wishes.-Leave Edinburgh on the 14th, with very different sensations, from those I entered it with, on the day before. Melancholy thoughts, will still intrude themselves.-Chiefly occasioned by the old complaint, of not having done so much as I could have wished. Get over present difficulties -Congratulations and kind offers of service, pour in from all quarters —A few specimens.-Get into better spirits. -A short pleasure tour, or, rather tour of health.-Accompany two friends on a visit to the Rumbling Bridge.-Need all my stock of health and renovated spirits, and patience too, on my return.-One good effect of the April settlement.-Winter campaign commences at Berwick.-My northernmost agent similarly employed in Orkney and Caithness-Sales in November and December, by a new auctioneer, in Dundee and Perth.-Home circuit routes to the end of the year.-Remittances continue to arrive regularly from my northern agents. A visible falling off, however, soon becomes more and more apparent. One comfort in the midst of falling off remittances.-Another. -Reasons for being so particular, in my past details -Must now confine myself to more circumscribed limits,-&c.

I HAVE often had occasion to observe, in the progress of my journey through life, that, bad as our condition may at times be, yet it is possible that it might have been worse; and, pitiable as the situation to which we may have been reduced at any particular period, yet, it is possible to conceive a case still more pitiable.

This observation, which must have struck many a one besides me, was most strikingly illustrated, on the day, I attended the meeting at Edinburgh.

I have already noticed, at the end of the chapter preceding the last, that I was able to go west, contrary to my expectations in consequence of the occurrence of another ailment, and that ailment, from the circumstance of my being obliged

to have recourse to a coach to carry me from my lodgings, in the house of a friend, (where, accompanied by my faithful companion in joy and in sorrow, I had arrived the day before,) to the place of meeting in the Royal Exchange, spiritless and disconsolate, with my head bound up,-I am inclined to think, was of the same description, if not the commencement of that series of rheumatic affections in the head, which has so often laid me up, during the winter and spring months since has now left me almost toothless-and of which, I have had more than a double quantum, during the currency of the year, I have been busied in preparing these pages for the press; so that, I write this with my head still bandaged up, after the lapse, since I was seized with this second attack within the year, of, more than ten months;—and this circumstance, of the likelihood of my not being able to attend personally, it will also be observed, is alluded to, in the abstract of what I then laid before the meeting, in my last chapter.

But, however pitiable my situation was,-and however depressing, from various considerations, must have been my thoughts, as the coach approached the entry to the Exchange, -I was speedily reminded, when the vehicle stopped at that entry, that mine, was not the only, or most, tragical occurrence of that day, by the assembled crowds a little farther up the High street, either taking their places to witness the execution of the unhappy young man, who, on that day, had been doomed to expiate the crime of having abstracted money from letters in the post-office, by the sacrifice of his life—or, perhaps, if the hour of execution had been previously altered to eight in the morning, which I think was the case, the crowds might still be continuing to gaze at the removal of the scaffolding, or other operations connected with, or following said execution.

Be this as it may, low as I was brought that day, and humiliating and pitiable as was the situation in which I was about to be placed, I had this dreadful memento sounded in my ears, just before I entered the place of assembly, that a more pitiable, a more deplorable case still, had just been, or was about to be, exhibited, in our immediate vicinity.

I need scarcely add, that after having laid my affecting representation before the meeting, accompanied by its several luminous statements, (which I had taken care, under the idea of my probable absence, to render peculiarly so) and other satisfactory documents, I found them disposed to grant me every indulgence; and, in fact, the matter may be said to have been adjusted, fully up to my most ardent wishes, and to the utmost extent of my most sanguine expectations :—and it may easily be conjectured, that, upon the breaking up of the meeting, I lost no time in conveying the pleasing intelligence to my wife, who, from what she once witnessed on a former occasion, when I was far better able, and at home, in my own house, to stand the buffets of fortune, than on the present, had, as I observed before, accompanied me to Edinburgh, and must have felt extremely anxious to know the result.

The sensations with which I left Edinburgh on the Wednesday afternoon, must have been very different, in various respects, from those under which I entered it on the day before;yet, I am certain, that, from the train of thought I had been indulging in during our journey homewards, notwithstanding all the cheering arguments, either of my fellow travellers could use, a melancholy gloom must have been spreading itself over my countenance, and have had a visible effect by the time we reached home.-And what, may my readers think, was the cause of all this? Not surely any compunctious visitations I might have felt on the supposition that I had been remiss, or indolent, in the execution of my duty; for, the whole tenor of my statements, and their accompanying documents, which I had just been exhibiting, go to show that I had nothing to reproach myself with of that kind. Nor could it arise from any consciousness that, in the execution of my arduous task, I had been guilty of what too often neutralizes the efforts of the utmost industry, viz. been too lavish, or profuse in my expenditure, in bringing so many articles to market ;-no, the making all the available members of my own family, and myself among the rest, take such an active part in the business, must put an end to any surmise of that kind.