Memoirs of a banking-house

26 MEMOIRS OF A BANKING-HOUSE.
credit of the house there gave us a right to embark in it with a
prospect of advantage, a measure in which my unwillingness to
oppose any scheme of theirs induced me to acquiesce, contrary, in
some degree, to my own sentiments, which rendered me averse
from any hazardous kind of business. Conscious as we were,
however, that Mr Stephen was not possessed of any property, we
conceived it to be folly to share the gains which we looked for
from this underwriting business with one who was incapable of
bearing his share of the loss, if such should be the ultimate issue
of the concern. We therefore entered into a mutual agreement to
carry on the underwriting business for our own separate account,
without Mr Stephen's knowledge or participation ; a measure
extremely reprehensible among partners, and, indeed, in direct
violation of one of the articles of our contract, by which all of us
were debarred from engaging in any trade or concern separate
from the general business of the house : an exception in the con-
tract had been made in favour of Mr Herries, but merely as far as
related to the concerns of his house in Spain. This led also to a
concealment from Mr Stephen of the private correspondence
between Mr Herries, Mr Hunter, and me, which, till then, we had
always mutually communicated to each other. As his bodily
strength decayed with increasing years, he began also to exhibit
symptoms of mental debility, and, like all weak men, felt not only
a jealousy of his being deemed a cipher in the counting-house, but
a desire to exhibit himself as a man of business. In those days it
was the custom for the merchants and bankers in Edinburgh, to
assemble regularly every day at one o'clock at the Cross, where they
transacted business with each other, and talked over the news of
the day ; and as there were among the merchants at that time — I
speak of the period before 1772 — several gentlemen of a literary
turn, and possessed of considerable powers of conversation, we were
joined by many who had no concern in the mercantile world, such
as physicians and lawyers, who frequented the Cross nearly with as
much regularity as the others for the sake of gossiping and amuse-
ment merely. Amidst this motley group did poor Mr Stephen
insist on exhibiting himself daily, a walking spectre of mortality,
hanging on his servant's arm, in a manner extremely distressing
to us his partners, and to every friend who wished him well. All
these circumstances combined to make it desirable for Mr Herries,
Mr Hunter, and me, to arrange for his withdrawing from the
copartnery, which we were fortunate enough to accomplish by
means of his two sons-in-law, Mr Fall of Dunbar, and Mr Blair
of Balthoyock, with whom we agreed that we should make Mm