a poor shopkeeper in Chester had a large parcel of goods lying there,
perhaps newly landed in order to be brought up to the city, but were all
swept away, if, I say, the poor tradesman were ruined by the loss of
those goods on that occasion, the creditors would see reason in it that
they should every one take a share in the loss; the tradesman was not to
blame.

Likewise in the distress of the late fire which began in Thames Street,
near Bear Quay, a grocer might have had a quantity of goods in a
warehouse thereabouts, or his shop might be there, and the goods perhaps
might be sugars, or currants, or tobacco, or any other goods in his
way, which could not be easily removed; this fire was a surprise, it was
a blast of powder, it was at noonday, when no person coud foresee it.
The man may have been undone and be in no fault himself, one way or
other; no man can reasonably say to him, why did you keep so many goods
upon your hands, or in such a place? for it was his proper business both
to have a stock of goods, and to have them in such a place; every thing
was in the right position, and in the order which the nature of his
trade required.

On the other hand, if it was the breaking of a particular chapman, or an
adventure by sea, the creditors would perhaps reflect on his prudence;
why should any man trust a single chapman so much, or adventure so much
in one single bottom, and uninsured, as that the loss of it would be his
undoing?

But there are other cases, however, which may happen to a tradesman, and
by which he may be at once reduced below his proper stock, and have
nothing left to trade on but his credit, that is to say, the estates of
his creditors. In such a case, I question whether it can be honest for
any man to continue trading; for, first, it is making his creditors run
an unjust hazard, without their consent; indeed, if he discovers his
condition to one or two of them, who are men of capital stocks, and will
support him, they giving him leave to pay others off, and go on at their
risks, that alters the case; or if he has a ready money trade, that will
apparently raise him again, and he runs no more hazards, but is sure he
shall at least run out no farther; in these two cases, and I do not know
another, he may with honesty continue.

On the contrary, when he sees himself evidently running out, and
declining, and has only a shift here and a shift there, to lay hold on,
as sinking men generally do; and kno