In due course of evolution, no doubt, we shall breed this dishonesty out of the race, or else the kind of poor, simple tradesman who gives credit without inquiry will become extinct.
At present there are quite a number of people who regard laws not so much as guides to good conduct, but as difficulties to be overcome in the obstacle race of life. A learned king’s counsel, a well-known expert in bankruptcy and bills of sale, told me of an interview he had with a secretary of a social society who came to ask him to deliver a lecture. The secretary explained that their members were mostly cabinet makers and small furniture dealers, and they had a meeting and a discussion every month. The king’s counsel agreed to come, and asked what sort of subject they would like him to speak about.
“Well,” said the secretary, “our president, Mr. X——, you may know him——”
The king’s counsel shook his head.
“Well, he has been bankrupt twice—I thought you might have met him. He proposed a very good subject, and the committee were quite pleased with it.”
“And what did he suggest?”
“Well, seeing we are nearly all interested in the furniture trade, he thought there would be a good turn up if you would come and lecture on the Bills of Sale Acts and how to avoid them.”
And I suppose a brainy man, with a good wife, and, what is almost as rare nowadays, a good bill of sale, can live on nothing for about as long as it can be done.
That candid poet, Arthur Hugh Clough, pointed out many years ago that the ancient decalogue did not cover all our sinful modern ways, and amended the eighth to run thus:
Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat
When it’s so lucrative to cheat.