Chap. VI.]

THE MERCANTILE PROFESSION.

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to the responsibility of the drawer. How seldom is it so in fact ?Experience has taught every one, that the drawer and endorserare so linked in with each other, so equally bound in mutual re-sponsibilities, that the failure of one is the failure of the other,and that the security of both is no better than that of either.Excessive credit is the fatal bane of commercial honor andhonesty. The transactions of business, so called, are, to animmense extent, little better than fictions. Goods are soldwithout being paid for, and a note is taken for them which willnever be paid. This is followed by forced sales and ruinoussacrifices of property for immediate relief, temporary relief, andthe whole winds up with an assignment, when there is nothingof any value to assign. This, assuredly, is an unwholesome stateof trade, and corrupts and undermines the whole commercialcommunity.

Moreover, money so easily obtained is as lightly spent, andthis brings us to another dark and deep stain on our commercialreputation.* The proud splendor, the heedless extravagance,the unbounded luxury, in which these ephemeral princes indulgethemselves, during their transit, are always immoral, shockinglyso, when, at the conclusion of the farce, it appears that it wasshowed off at the expense, perhaps on the ruin, of creditors. 'Magnificent mansions in town and country, gorgeous furniture,shining equipages, costly entertainments, in short, a style ofliving, an exuberance of expenditure, which would be unwise,in this country, in any affluence of fortune, and is absolutelycriminal in the actual circumstances of the spendthrift. And,when the blow falls, that prostrates all this grandeur, what arti-fices are practised upon the good nature of the creditors, to re-tain as much as possible of these gaudy trappings for the family ,instead of casting them away as the ensigns and testimonies offraud and dishonor. Little consciousness is shown for the inju-ries and losses of those who have fed, with their substance, thesplendid folly of the delinquent, little regard to public opinion, orsense of decorum or shame ; but every thing is hurried to a con-clusion, that he may resume what he calls his business, and be-

* Hopkinson’s Lecture on Commercial Integrity, p. 14.