to live luxuriously to-day. The whole system of Debt, by means of
which we forestall and anticipate the future, is wrong. They are almost
as much to blame who give credit, and encourage customers to take
credit, as those are who incur debts. A man knows what his actual
position is, if he pays his way as he goes. He can keep within his
means, and so apportion his expenditure as to reserve a fund of savings
against a time of need. He is always balanced up; and if he buys nothing
but what he pays for in cash, he cannot fail to be on the credit side of
his household accounts at the year's end.

But once let him commence the practice of running up bills--one at the
tailor's, another at the dressmaker's and milliner's, another at the
butcher's, another at the grocer's, and so on,--and he never knows how
he stands. He is deceived into debt; the road is made smooth and
pleasant for him; things flow into the house, for which he does not seem
to pay. But they are all set down against him; and at the year's end,
when the bills come in, he is ready to lift up his hands in dismay. Then
he finds that the sweet of the honey will not repay for the smart of the
sting.

It is the same as respects the poorer classes. Not many years since,
Parliament passed a law facilitating the establishment of Small Loan
Societies, for the purpose of helping small tradesmen and poor people
generally to raise money on an emergency. The law was at once pounced
upon by the numerous race of Graballs, as a means of putting money in
their purse. They gave the working classes facilities for running into
debt, and for mortgaging their future industry. A few men, desirous of
making money, would form themselves into a Loan Club, and offer sums of
money ostensibly at five per cent, interest, repayable in weekly
instalments. The labouring people eagerly availed themselves of the
facility for getting into debt. One wanted money for a "spree," another
wanted money for a suit of clothes, a third for an eight-day clock, and
so on; and instead of saving the money beforehand, they preferred
getting the money from the Club, keeping themselves in difficulties and
poverty until the debt was paid off. Such a practice is worse than
living from hand to mouth: it is living upon one's own vitals.

It is easy to understand how the partners in the Loan Club made money.
Suppose that they advanced ten pounds for three months at five per cent.
It is repayable in weekly instalments