any examples of this kind; and here the honest
tradesman has the labouring oar indeed; for instead of being assisted by
a diligent industrious partner, whom on that account he took into the
trade, he proves a loose, extravagant, wild fellow, runs abroad into
company, and leaves him (for whose relief he was taken in) to bear the
burden of the whole trade, which, perhaps, was too heavy for him before,
and if it had not been so, he had not been prevailed with to have taken
in a partner at all.

This is, indeed, a terrible disappointment, and is very discouraging,
and the more so, because it cannot be recalled; for a partnership is
like matrimony, it is almost engaged in for better or for worse, till
the years expire; there is no breaking it off, at least, not easily nor
fairly, but all the inconveniences which are to be feared will follow
and stare in your face: as, first, the partner in the first place draws
out all his stock; and this sometimes is a blow fatal enough, for
perhaps the partner cannot take the whole trade upon himself, and cannot
carry on the trade upon his own stock: if he could, he would not have
taken in a partner at all. This withdrawing the stock has sometimes been
very dangerous to a partner; nay, has many times been the overthrow and
undoing of him and of the family that is left.

He that takes a partner into his trade on this account--namely, for the
support of his stock, to enjoy the assistance of so much cash to carry
on the trade, ought seriously to consider what he shall be able to do
when the partner, breaking off the partnership, shall carry all his
stock, and the improvement of it too, with him: perhaps the tradesman's
stock is not much increased, perhaps not at all; nay, perhaps the stock
is lessened, instead of being increased, and they have rather gone
backward than forward. What shall the tradesman do in such a case? And
how shall he bear the breach in his stock which that separation would
make?

Thus he is either tied down to the partner, or the partner is pinned
down to him, for he cannot separate without a breach. It is a sad truth
to many a partner, that when the partnership comes to be finished and
expired, the man would let his partner go, but the other cannot go
without tearing him all to pieces whom he leaves behind him; and yet the
partner being loose, idle, and extravagant, in a word, will ruin both if
he stays.

This is the danger of partnership in some of the best circumst