It is our business to buy and to
sell, and so that both parties come to us, it matters little; one's
money is as good as the other. If I had one set of creditors deeper
in my books than another, I might wish their party to gain the day,
for it would, maybe, set them up in funds, and I might get my
money; but, as it is, it matters little. There is not a customer I
have but is in my debt. Money is always scarce with them; for they
are reckless and extravagant, keeping a horde of idle loons about
them, spending as much money on their own attire and that of their
wives as would keep a whole Scotch clan in victuals. But, if they
cannot pay in money, they can pay in corn or in cattle, in wine or
in hides.
"I do not know which they are fondest of--plotting, or fighting, or
feasting; and yet, reckless as they are, they are people to like.
If they do sell their votes for money, it is not a Scotchman that
should throw it in their teeth; for there is scarce a Scotch noble,
since the days of Bruce, who has not been ready to sell himself for
English gold. Our own Highlanders are as fond of fighting as the
Poles, and their chiefs are as profuse in hospitality, and as
reckless and spendthrift.
"But the Poles have their virtues. They love their country, and are
ready to die for her.
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