Memoirs of a banking house

16 MEMOIRS OF A BANKING-HOUSE.
the future continuance of the houses, had they not been desirous
of preserving them for the sake of their uncle-in-law, Mr Stephen,
as well as for rendering them subservient as a provision for
another uncle-in-law, Mr William Cochrane, married to their
mother's sister,* who was still alive, and to whom they Avere much
attached. They were besides, indeed, not without a personal
pecuniary interest in the question, what was to become of the
houses. For, as Messrs James and Thomas Coutts were the
representatives of their two elder brothers, Patrick and John,
they were, in fact, responsible for the current engagements of the
houses, and they also had at stake a large sum of outstanding
debts, which could noway be so effectually recovered as by con-
tinuing the houses under a new set of partners. Among these
outstanding debts was one of considerable amount owing by Mr
Stephen himself, who, never having had any capital stock of his
own, and having been occasionally forced to draw money from the
house for the payment of debts he had contracted in his mercantile
concerns before he was connected with it, was now its debtor
for a considerable balance. Mr Cochrane had been originally a
woollen-draper in the Luckenbooths, Edinburgh, in partnership
with Mr Walter Hamilton, but had been some time retired from
business, living on a small estate in the neighbourhood of
Korth Berwick. He was a man of honourable character and
agreeable manners, but altogether unacquainted with any
species of business beyond that of the retail shop in which
he had acted. Mr Stephen, as I have said, was a man of
the most slender abilities ; and Mr Hunter and I were both
of us too young and too little known in the world to be solely
trusted to for conducting the house at Edinburgh, while that of
London stood still more in need of an able head. It naturally
occurred, therefore, to Messrs Coutts, that, if they meant at all to
preserve the two houses from sinking into insignificance, and
render them of any value as a provision for Mr Stephen and Mr
Cochrane, it was absolutely necessary that some new arrangement
should be formed, and some persons of established reputation and
abilities be found who might be associated with the others, and
might conduct the business on a plan that should promise success.
Some occasional correspondence Avith this view had taken place
with Messrs Coutts, but without anything decisive being resolved
on. Finding Uttle progress made, therefore, towards such a
consummation, and having as a separate inducement a violent
desire to visit London, I obtained Messrs Coutts's permission to
« [Lillias, daiighter of Sir John Stuart of AHanbank, Bart.]