knowing that we should never pay more than
a shilling in the pound. The committee praised
both Mr. Velardi and myself for the very
efficient aid we had afforded them in the investigation
of our affairs, and, at my partner's request
—which came before the creditors as the request
of the committee—he obtained three more
months' delay, and also in the mean time we
the partners in the concern were to have leave
to recommence business in our own names:
only our accounts in what may be termed the
new firm, were to be kept perfectly distinct
from those of our former trading. This was
what Mr. Velardi had been driving at all along.
Within a week we were in full work again.

We did not even change our offices; but
commenced business once more, though on a very
much smaller scale, as if nothing more than a
temporary holiday had occurred to interrupt our
trading. Mr. Velardi's Greek friends all rallied
round him, and among many English and other
merchants who were not creditors, it was
supposed that, as we had recommenced business,
we must have paid off the old scores. The
secret of my partner's plans was, in fact, to
work off our former debts by the profits of our
new business, or rather to make the latter a sort
of guarantee that we would pay the former.
So, shortly after we were started again, he
made, through the committee, a proposition to
the creditors. To pay them five shillings in the
pound; one shilling in cash; one in six months;
one in twelve months; and the remainder in a
year and a half.

This proposition was at first scouted by
all, save and except our Greek friends, who
stood by their fellow-countryman upon all
occasions; but were wise enough not to
appear as too urgent advocates of our cause.
In public these gentlemen denounced our
proposed settlement as vehemently as any of the
rest, but in private they assured us that when
the proper time came they would be the first
to sign. Some of our creditors talked largely of
taking us into the Bankruptcy Court, and even
of attacking us by criminal information before a
magistrate. What all this meant we knew very
well, and were fully aware that the fiercer the
storm now, the sooner it would calm down.
Through our accountant and solicitor we
demonstrated clearly—to our own satisfaction
—that by taking us into the Bankruptcy Court,
the assets we now had at our disposal would be
swallowed up, and instead of five shillings in the
pound our creditors would not get five pence,
while, if any extra expenses were incurred they
would fall upon such of our creditors as had
forced us to become bankrupts. We likewise
managed, through our friends, to spread the
report that the composition we offered came
really, though not nominally, from wealthy
supporters, who were willing to go so far, but
no further, to help us; and that if our affairs
should be more thoroughly investigated it
would be found that we could not offer even
two shillings in the pound.

As time wore on, our creditors began to get
more careless. Many of them regarded the
money we owed them as lost for ever, and became
quite indifferent. Others said they would be glad
to sell the claims they had upon us for half-a-crown
in the pound, down. Of these we managed
through friends to buy up several for small
sums, and thus put many of our most bitter
opponents out of our list.

In the mean time our firm continued to work
on, and as the commercial world was now fast
recovering from the effects of a late crisis, we
were able to obtain a certain amount of credit,
and made money, although not so much or so
fast as formerly. We did not seek to re-establish
any of our foreign firms. That at Alexandria,
indeed, had never stopped payment, as, in
consequence of Mr. White being a partner in it,
the branch house there had never gone largely
into the bill-accepting business. Of the money
Mr. Velardi had made by our former dealings,
he withdrew a thousand pounds from what had
been settled upon his wife, and, placing it in a
bank on current account, gave out that the sum
had been advanced by a wealthy Greek firm
abroad, in order that he might start fresh. Moreover,
we now worked more legitimately than
before, or at any rate not so wildly. What we
professed to do almost exclusively, was to
ship Manchester goods abroad upon commission,
and to receive produce from the Levant
upon the same terms. This kind of business
involved no drawing or accepting of bills,
except such as were against goods sent from
or brought to England in the legitimate way
of trade. We were careful to keep a balance
of never less than a thousand pounds at our
banker's, and always provided for our bills two or
three days before they became due. In the City
it was reported that we were not working solely
upon our own account, but that some wealthy
foreign firms were behind us, and would help us
in case of necessity. This tale, though utterly
groundless, we neither denied nor affirmed, and
as it very soon came to be universally believed,
our credit increased in proportion.

"To him that hath shall be given, but to him
that hath not shall be taken away even that
which he hath," is a text of which the full
practical meaning and bearing upon every-day
life, is only understood in the commercial world.
So long as our creditors believed us to have
nothing, and to be struggling into a business
which would afford us a bare subsistence, they
bullied and badgered us beyond belief. We
were "mere Greek adventurers;" "swindlers;"
"scoundrels;" men who had "over-traded;"
who had "obtained money on false pretences;"
who had "commenced without any capital."
But no sooner did we get our heads a little
above water, than some of those who had been
our bitterest enemies and most vehement
denouncers, began by degrees to cultivate a sort
of business-like friendship for us. Little by
little, some even of our gruffest English
creditors began to speak to us when we met in the
City, and some of those who had formerly abused
us in no measured terms, were heard to say that