CHAPTER XV.-1816 (CONTINUED.)

The author's wish to descend to the grave in charity with all mankind —His prospects brighten a little.-A temporary glimpse of sunshine in the month of June. Despatch my new Agent to the north.Reasons for doing so.The most likely field to produce a golden harvest.—This not a new thought. —Had long an eye to, and been in the way of making preparations for it.—A rather strange question.-Nevertheless, very easily solved. My new Northern Agent arrives at his destination.-Flattering nature of his first weekly return. -Method of calculating my profit.-Prudent arrangements with my men.Future returns from the north, still continue favourable.-One good effect of these flattering prospects. The calm, alas! of short duration. The bad consequence of hope deferred. My friends begin to manifest tokens of impatience Golden prospects in the distance, attended with much present outlay, not the balm I want.-Reasons for perseverance. The conflict becomes too hard for me-Laid up by indisposition.—Bodily trouble, not the worst kind of indisposition I had to bear up under.-Affecting extract from some of my papers at the time.-Almost induced, in despondency, to give up the contest." An awful calamity" befals a person who was otherwise disposed to serve me, and in consequence, an unwelcome piece of intelligence.-Worse and Worse-Another unseasonable disappointment.-An appalling discovery. -Lose my last hold of the anchor of hope.-Unhappy alternative to which I am reduced, in the words of an old friend,

WERE I to attempt to draw the attention of my readers, to the afflicting details of all that befel me during the three ensuing months, it would be only to lacerate their feelings, and harrow up my own, besides placing the conduct of some persons in rather an unfavourable light, than which, nothing is more remote from my intention at the present moment. No! whatever faults or failings these persons had, and however certain measures which I considered rather of a premature or hurried nature, at the time, may have caused, at that time, a momentary irritation, I have had much since to sober and cool down the heat of that irritation; and I trust, that I will now be quietly allowed to descend to the grave, in charity with all mankind, in regard to past events.

In the beginning of June, however, there seems to have been a temporary glimpse of sunshine, after the gloomy appearances of the month of May, and that glimpse, I seem to have embraced, in making preparations for, or rather for the

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final despatch of a young man, a native of that district, but with whom I had now got pretty well acquainted, from his being, for some time, employed in some of my home circuits, or in our own neighbourhood, to open up a wider field of operations for himself, with full powers to employ so many additional hands as he should find full occupation and occasion for, in the town of, and country around, Inverness.

And, lest any of my more critical readers be disposed to impute this to a want of prudence, considering the state into which the country had already got in sundry districts, as mentioned in my preceding chapter; and the indications I had already had, although on but a small scale, that all was not gold that glittered, even in this new line; I must premise, that this was the quarter originally recommended to me by Mr ——, as the most likely of any, to be productive of a golden harvest, -that to this quarter I had all along been directing my attention, and making preparations for, although that attention and those preparations had been too much distracted, or turned aside from it, of late, by other considerations-that my preparations were now in a very complete and efficient state —and, above all, that the ground was represented by this young man himself, as well deserving immediate cultivation, and was yet unoccupied, and, besides, whatever discouragements I had met with, or was meeting, from other attempts, matters, in this line, even in my more nearly situated vineyards, were beginning, or had begun, to assume a most encouraging aspect. Without this, it is impossible to account for an expression in a letter from a friend, about that period, "Do you really, in the space of a week, realize upwards of £50"-but which, paradoxical as it may appear, receives some corroboration, from the consideration, that the howling of the storm, of which we had so many evident proofs, from its devastating effects, at a greater distance, to the west, to the east, to the south, and in one district, at a no very great distance, to the north-had only as yet, been heard from a distance, at, and in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and along the whole of the midland districts, from Renfrewshire to East Lothian and Berwickshire on the east-in course of which I appear to have had six labourers pretty actively employed

during the month of May, if not sooner, including the young man, to whom I have just alluded, as being removed from it to other ground, before the middle of June.

I say paradoxical, as it may appear to my readers that I had, at last, fallen upon such a mine of wealth, in such times, at least, in my own calculation, founded too upon pretty good data; it receives, however, some countenance from the above considerations, corroborated as any hint of the kind must have afterwards been, from the VERY FIRST return I had from my now new Northern, or Inverness-shire district agent, who appears to have got his final despatches, or sailing orders, from me, on the 8th of June, and whatever way he accomplished his journey, whether by land or by water, appears to have reached his ground, and commenced his operations, by Monday the 17th; for his first return, which in no respect belies the expectations we had formed, and comprehending, on a printed form, in a very distinct manner, day and date for every thing, beginning on that day, and ending on Saturday the 22d,* contains the very flattering intelligence, that he had himself sold, or got subscribers for, in course of that week, to the retail amount of £15: 3s., notwithstanding the time he must have lost in making his arrangements, and setting things a-going-that a young man, a friend of his own, and who afterwards succeeded him in the management of the business, had operated to the amount of no less than £57, 3s. 6d. more-while a third, another lad that he had by this time engaged, produced his statement, to the extent of £12, 16s. in addition, making in all £85: 2: 6! Now, if calculating upon the principle of one-third going for materials to work with, another third for necessary expenses of doing up the numbers, paying the men their wages, and other incidental expenses, &c. in getting subscriptions, and in the after delivery of the books, till completed-and the remaining third as a profit, is there any thing unreasonable in the supposition

⚫ I was very particular in making my agents adhere to filling in these printed forms, a plentiful supply of which, as well as with the other necessary apparatus of portfolios, and canvassing Catalogues, &c. my men were furnished.I had also printed terms and regulations for their guidance, which they were requested to sign, so that, if any thing went wrong, it was not for want of the necessary means being adopted to prevent it,

that, if three men, one of them evidently much shackled by engagements otherwise, and one of them, as I think it turned out afterwards, no great hand at the business, could realize, (alas! that it should only have been in anticipation, and on paper,) upwards of £28 in a single week-double that number, or perhaps more than double that number, in another quarter, should produce returns, leaving a profit to the amount of £50. In whatever way I may have been influenced in making the report to my friend, one thing is certain, that, as I could have had no interest in, so I could have no intention of deceiving him, and with whatever incredulity he might be disposed to receive the intelligence at the time, and with whatever sensations of surprise it may be viewed, both by my readers and myself now, I have no doubt whatever, that I had stated the fact exactly as I believed it, without the smallest intention, on my part, either to exaggerate or deceive.

Nor did my future returns, which arrived regularly at the time appointed weekly, give me the smallest cause to regret, that I had at last, made the attempt, on that ground; which, if any thing, I had reason to conclude, had rather, from causes which I could not foresee, been already too long neglected ;—for these returns certainly were flattering in the extreme, and I was far from finding any fault with my agent, as he successively added from time to time, new labourers, to that part of my now extensive vineyard.

There was one effect which these brightening prospects could not fail to have upon me, they must have done much to bear me up, under the effects, which so many recent disappointments and short-comings, in my other endeavours and pursuits, must have had upon me; for it is much to be feared that the expedition to London, from which my two sons had recently returned, had also fallen short of my expectations.

The calm that I enjoyed under these flattering prospects, was, however, doomed to be of short continuance, for hope deferred, it has been well said, maketh the heart sick, and the protracted nature of my disappointment, of the means, soon began to produce their natural effects, upon those who had the most considerable claims against me, so that arrange

ment after arrangement succeeded each other with fearful rapidity, and I soon found, that golden prospects in the distance, to be created only by much present outlay,—and enlarged by a great deal of additional expense, were not exactly the kind of balm I wanted, at that critical and interesting moment.*

Still, from a conviction that to attempt to recede now from the business in which I had so largely embarked, would be certain destruction to all my hopes from that source, while every addition to the number of my subscribers, I was equally convinced, was putting it more in my power, ultimately to surmount my difficulties, with credit to myself and profit to others. I struggled on with the most unflinching and persevering assiduity, until my severe conflicts betwixt what I considered my own interest and the interest of others, and my ability, brought me into that severe state of bodily indisposition, which I had almost forgotten, but which I am reminded of by the following extract from the letter of a friend, dated the 8th of July, in which he hopes "you are still continuing to mend, and are again able to go about in your usual way."-But bodily indisposition was not the worst I had at that time to bear, for I see that some proposal made to me in the course of the arrangements above alluded to, but which I must do the gentleman who made it the justice to say, was humanely receded from, in consequence of my affecting representation and remonstrances, had such an effect upon my spirits, as almost to drive me in despondency to give up the contest, as appears evident from the following extract from one of my papers written about this period : "Were it not that the fate of the family depends so much

To give an idea of the slow returns and great outlay I experienced from this business, during the first quarter, or that ending the 21st of September, it may be sufficient to state, that up to that date, at an expence of £136: 14: 71, and sending out goods to the amount of £813:0:8, I had only got one solitary remittance of £10 sterling! But I was taught to believe, and indeed had reason to expect, that, after so much outlay in sowing the seed, &c. the golden harvest would one day come; but, it will be seen, alas! that it was long in coming; while there was no remission, but rather from the employment of additional hands, in order to raise the circuit the more expeditiously, an increase in the expenses. So that, no aid was to be expected from that quarter, for some

time at least.