pon the supposition that
no better conditions can be had. It is the plain language of the thing,
for no man accepts of less than he thinks he can get: if he believed he
could have more, he would certainly get it if he could.

And if the debtor is able to pay one shilling more than he offers, it is
a cheat, a palpable fraud, and of so much he actually robs his creditor.
But in a surrender the case is altered in all its parts; the debtor says
to his creditors, 'Gentlemen, there is a full and faithful account of
all I have left; it is your own, and there it is; I am ready to put it
into your hands, or into the hands of whomsoever you shall appoint to
receive it, and to lie at your mercy.' This is all the man is able to
do, and therefore is so far honest; whether the methods that reduced him
were honest or no, that is a question by itself. If on this surrender he
finds the creditors desirous rather to have it digested into a
composition, and that they will voluntarily come into such a proposal,
then, as above, they being judges of the equity of the composition, and
of what ability the debtor is to perform it, and, above all, of what he
may or may not gain by it, if they accept of such a composition, instead
of the surrender of his effects, then the case alters entirely, and the
debtor is acquitted in conscience, because the creditor had a fair
choice, and the composition is rather their proposal to the debtor, than
the debtor's proposal to them.

Thus, I think, I have stated the case of justice and conscience on the
debtor's behalf, and cleared up his way, in case of a necessity, to stop
trading, that he may break without wounding his conscience, as well as
his fortunes; and he that thinks fit to act thus, will come off with the
reputation of an honest man, and will have the favour of his creditors
to begin again, with whatever he may have as to stock; and sometimes
that favour is better to him than a stock, and has been the raising of
many a broken tradesman, so that his latter end has been better than his
beginning.

CHAPTER XV

OF TRADESMEN RUINING ONE ANOTHER BY RUMOUR AND CLAMOUR, BY SCANDAL AND
REPROACH

I have dwelt long upon the tradesman's management of himself, in order
to his due preserving both his business and his reputation: let me
bestow one chapter upon the tradesman for his conduct among his
neighbours and fellow-tradesmen.

Credit is so much a tradesman's blessing that it is the choicest war