method of bookkeeping, that he may follow it, if good; and learn a better, in time, if not.

The tradesman should not be at a loss how to keep his books when he is to begin his trade; that would be to put him to school when he is just come from it; for his apprenticeship is, and ought to be, a school to him where he should learn everything that may qualify him for his business; and if he finds his master either backward or unwilling to teach him, he should complain in time to his own friends that they may some how or other, supply the defect.

A tradesman's books are his repeating clock, which, upon all occasions, are to tell him how he goes on. If they are not duly posted, and if everything is not carefully entered in them, the debtor's accounts kept even, the cash constantly balanced, and the credits all stated, the tradesman is like a ship at sea steered without a helm; he is all in confusion; he can give no account of himself to himself, much less to anybody else; and is far from being qualified either to receive or make proposals in relation to marriage, or any other considerable event in life.

It is true there is not a great deal of difficulty in keeping a tradesman's books, especially if he be a retailer only; but yet, even in the meanest trades, they ought to know how to keep them and if the bookkeeping be small, it is the sooner learned, and the apprentice is the more to blame if he neglects it. Besides, the objection is much more trifling than the advice; the tradesman cannot carry on any considerable trade without books; and he must, during his apprenticeship, prepare himself for business, by acquainting himself with everything needful for his going on with his trade, among which, that of bookkeeping is least to be dispensed with.

The last essential article to a young tradesman, is to know how to buy: if his master is kind and generous, he will consider the justice of this part, and let him into the secret of it, of his own free-will, before his time is fully expired; but if that should not happen, as often it does not, let the apprentice know, that it is one of the most needful things to him that can be, and that he ought to lose no opportunity to get into it, even whether his master approves of it or no.

Indeed, the case, in this age, between masters and their apprentices, stands in a different view from what it did a few years past; the state of apprenticeship is not a state of servitude now, and hardly of subjection; and their behaviour is, accordingly, more like companions than servants. On the other hand, many masters seem to have given up all expectations of duty from their apprentices for a sum of money; what is now taken with apprentices being very exorbitant, compared to what it was in former times.

It is evident that this is no furtherance to apprentices; the liberties they take towards the conclusion of their time are so great, that they come out of their times much worse finished for business and trade than they did formerly; and though it is not the proper design of this work to enlarge on the injustice done both to master and servant by this change of custom, yet it renders the advice to apprentices, to endeavour to finish themselves for business during the time of their indentures, so much the more needful and seasonable.

Nor will any but the apprentice himself suffer by the neglect of it; for if he neither will acquaint himself with the customers, nor the books, nor with the buying part, nor gain judgment in the wares he is to deal in, the loss is his own, not his master's,

and both his money and his seven years are all thrown away.

Nay, one way it is the master's advantage to have his servant be good for nothing when he comes near out of his time, since he will do his master the less injury at his going away; though an honest master will not desire an advantage at such a price to his apprentice. But if this was really always the case it would still strengthen the argument; for so much more ought the apprentice to take care of himself, and to qualify himself while he is with his master, that at his coming away he may be able to make as good a figure as possibly he can in business upon his own account.

CHAPTER II.

Of the tradesman's writing letters.

I COME next to mention what I think is very material, viz., the young man's learning how to indite his letters in a tradesman's style, and to correspond like a man of business.

As plainness and a free unconstrained way of expression is the beauty and excellence of speech, so an easy concise way of writing is the best style for a tradesman. He that affects a rumbling and bombast style, and fills his letters with compliments and flourishes, makes a very ridiculous figure in trade. Observe how such a one writes out of the country to his wholesale-man at London, upon his first setting up:

SIR,―The destinies having so appointed it, and my dark stars concurring, that I, who by nature was framed for better things, should be put out to a trade, and the time of my servitude being at length expired, I am now launched forth into the great ocean of business. I thought fit to acquaint you that last month I received my fortune, which by father's will had been my due two years past, at which time I arrived to man's estate, and became major; whereupon I have taken a house in one of the principal streets of this town, where I am entered upon my business, and hereby let you know that I shall have occasion for the goods hereafter mentioned, which you may send to me by the carrier.

This fine flourish, which the young fellow dressed up with much application, and thought was very well done, put his correspondent in London into a fit of laughter, and instead of sending him directly the goods he wrote for, he sent down into the country to inquire after his character, and whether he was worth dealing with.

The same tradesman at London received by the next post the following letter from a young shopkeeper in the country:

SIR,-Being obliged, by my late master's decease, to enter immediately upon business, and consequently open my shop without coming up to London to furnish myself with such goods as at present I want, I have sent you a small order as under written. I hope you will use me well, and that the goods may be good of the sorts, though I cannot be at London to look them out myself. I have enclosed a bill of exchange for 75l. on Messrs. A and Band Company, payable to

you, or to your order, at one-and-twenty days sight. Be pleased to get it accepted; and if the goods amount to more than that sum, I shall, when I have your bill of parcels, send you the remainder. I repeat my desire that you will send me the goods well sorted, and well chosen, and as cheap as possible, that I may be encouraged to a further correspondence. I am

Your humble servant,

C. K.

This was writing like a man that understood what he was doing; and such a letter could not want its proper effect upon such a correspondent in London.

In short, a tradesman's letters should be plain, concise, and to the purpose; no quaint expressions, no book phrases, no flourishes, and yet they must be full and sufficient to express what he means, so as not to be doubtful, much less unintelligible. I can by no means approve of studied abbreviations, and leaving out the needful copulatives of speech in trading letters, they are affected to the last degree; for, in a word, it is affecting to be thought a man of more than ordinary sense, by writing extraordinary nonsense; affecting to be a man of business by giving orders, and expressing your meaning in terms which a man of business may not think himself bound by. For example, a tradesman at Hull writes to his correspondent at London the following letter:

SIR,-Yours received, have at present little to reply. Last post you had bills of loading with invoice of what had loaden for your account in Hambro' factor, bound for said port. What have further orders for shall be despatched with ex