Memoirs of a banking-house

Till ADDRESS OF THE AUTHOR TO HIS SON.
very great extension of the business of our house during the last
twenty years must, in a great measure, be attributed. To illus-
trate this part of my proposed subject, I have subjoined to my
narrative a short and, I must acknowledge, a very imperfect
sketch, collected from the best authorities I could meet with ; to
some of which, my situation as a man of business has given me
peculiar access. The subject is curious, and to me extremely
interesting ; as I have lived in the very period when this improve-
ment of our native country has assumed some form, and seems
still to be making daily advances to yet greater prosperity — a
reflection highly grateful to me as a Scotsman.
To my own memory this narrative will recall many scenes on
which I cannot look back without the most heartfelt gratitude to
that Almighty Being, who has been graciously pleased to shower
down upon me so large a share of prosperity. Nor can I contem-
plate the many years I have spent in business, and the number of
friends of whom death has in that interval deprived me, without
the most serious reflections on the rapidity with which this life is
wearing away, and the propriety of my bending my thoughts
towards another — a subject of meditation at all times proper for
a rational being ; but peculiarly so for one who has lived so long
as I have done in the hurry and tumult of a constant intercourse
with the busy world — a state extremely unfavourable to sober
thought and reflection.
I cannot conclude this address to you, my dearest William, in a
better manner than by expressing my hope that this narrative will
confirm you in a love for that profession which you probably
adopted at first on my suggestion. My wish certainly was to
insure your succession to the fruits of my labours, as far as I have
had any merit in helping to raise the house to its present flourish-
ing state. If you continue to pay the same attention to business
that I have done (I trust I may speak it in this place without
vanity), I have no doubt that, by the blessing of Heaven on your
endeavours, you may preserve the house in credit and respect-
ability long after I shall have paid my debt to nature. But I
never can too often nor too earnestly inculcate that the continu-
ance of that credit and prosperity, under Providence, must entirely
depend on yourself. If you prove yourself worthy of the notice of
your father's friends (of which I must do you the justice to say, I
have at this moment the fairest hope), you may expect their most
cordial support, as well as a continuance of that favour and pre-
ference with which they have so long and so steadily honoured
me. But if your own endeavours be wanting — if negligence take