The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-10 00:00:00

[MORNING CIIRONICLE.J

An ingenious French writer, in order to over-
come the prejudices of his countrymen against
merchants, who were supposed to be intent only
on the acquisition of wealth, and not very scru-
pulous as to the means by which it was acquired,
affirmed that " There was no shorter or surer
way of succeeding in commerce, than a high re-
putation, and that this reputation could only be
acquired by a probity, proof against every trial, ,
and exempt from the slightest suspicion. In
fact, the very soul of commerce is good faith.
It is good faith which gives confidence, which
lays the foundation of credit, 'which leads to
preference ; in a word, which forms the tie of
fraternity, so necessary among correspondents.—
It may be affirmed, then, that no one can ever
succeed itl commerce without being a very re-
spectable man." This, we own, was the idea of
merchants which we ourselves entertained : and
it is the idea which used to be entertained more
particularly of the English merchants. Have we
been cherishing a delusion? Is there no foundation
for the opinion ? Must we cease to believe in the
possibility of honour and honesty in persons em-
barked in mercantile pursuits? Must we rank in
the same class the gambler, the stock-jobber, the
trader, and the swindler ?—We must confess that
the language which is used almost universally of
late, when merchants are spoken of, would
nearly lead one to suspect that the honour of
merchants was an illusion.—" The honour
of a British merchant (says a writer in
the new Number of The IVestminster Re-
view) has been proverbial ; but can we calmly
and justly look back to the history of a few
years, in our commerce, and say that it is
what it has been esteemed ? The 4 Sabbath-
less' pursuit of wealth (to use Bacon's ex-
pression) is the present disease of Britain : it is
honour, virtue, distinction, or it is the substitute
for them all, for all the virtues, even for acquire-
ments and intellect. This is the dangerous am-
bition which Britain has to fear." That frauds,
of the most disgraceful nature, -have been prac-
tised of late years, by men holding a high
rank as merchants in the City of. London, is
beyond a doubt. Every day discloses the ma.
nceuvres of some confederacy of " British mer-
chants"—respectable British merchants, as the
phrase is,—to delude and plhnder the un-

wary and unsuspecting. One day we see a re-;
spectable British merchant with cool effrontery
circulating through a daily Paper a flourishing
account of the revenues of a Foreign State, though
an official account of the revenues of the very
same. State, of a very different complexion, had
been published not+ a twelvemonth before, with-
out the- least explanation respecting the cause
of the difference in the result. Another day
we find another British merchant, with equally
high claims to respectability, playing the me-
diator between the British public and a
worthy foreigner of his acquaintance, who,
in order to tempt John Bull the more easily to
loosen his purse-strings, comes forward with a
statement of the revenue of the country for which,
nolens' volens, he wished to borrow a sum—only -
about three times larger than ever was raised in
the country in question, the said respectable
British merchant having of course no suspicion
that his friend, the worthy foreigner, was stating
that which he knew to be as " false as hell."—
We see one set of respectable British mer-
chants selling shares of mines in the moon ;
others, again, kindly taking upon themselves the
management of the concerns of a joint-stock
company, and, to prove their skill in manage-
ment, commencing by making themselves the
medium of transfer of property to themselves
and. their brother shareholders, transferring by
the way one hundred and fifty pei' cent of the
price into their own pockets. This is the
sort of trade in which respectable British mer-
chants have been engaged. for a year or two
back ; these are the examines held up for the
imitation of this moral and religious nation. We
say nothing of the daily exposures of frauds
said to be common to whole trades, such as
that at Guildhall some time ago, when a jewel-
ler asked the Sitting Alderman whether it was
Rot usual in his trade to pass off baser metal for
gold, whether a man could sell genuine articles
and keep himkelf out of the Gazette ?—we say
•nothing of the adulterations by wholesale and re-
tail every day forced on the public attention.'