which it was not possible he should foresee, as fire, floods of water,
thieves, and many such--and in those cases the disaster is visible, the
plea is open, every body allows it, the man can have no blame. A
prodigious tide from the sea, joined with a great fresh or flood in the
river Dee, destroyed the new wharf below the Roodee at West Chester, and
tore down the merchants' warehouses there, and drove away not only all
the goods, but even the buildings and altogether, into the sea. Now, if
a poor shopkeeper in Chester had a large parcel of goods lying there,
perhaps newly landed in order to be brought up to the city, but were all
swept away, if, I say, the poor tradesman were ruined by the loss of
those goods on that occasion, the creditors would see reason in it that
they should every one take a share in the loss; the tradesman was not to
blame.

Likewise in the distress of the late fire which began in Thames Street,
near Bear Quay, a grocer might have had a quantity of goods in a
warehouse thereabouts, or his shop might be there, and the goods perhaps
might be sugars, or currants, or tobacco, or any other goods in his
way, which could not be easily removed; this fire was a surprise, it was
a blast of powder, it was at noonday, when no person coud foresee it.
The man may have been undone and be in no fault himself, one way or
other; no man can reasonably say to him, why did you keep so many goods
upon your hands, or in such a place? for it was his proper business both
to have a stock of goods, and to have them in such a place; every thing
was in the right position, and in the order which the nature of his
trade required.

On the other hand, if it was the breaking of a particular chapman, or an
adventure by sea, the creditors would perhaps reflect on his prudence;
why should any man trust a single chapman so much, or adventure so much