THE LATE PETER EWART, ESQ. 123 
hundred guineas, to get over another week and 
keep his people alive. He told me that he and 
his partner had been constantly amongst them, 
and by entering into all their distresses, had pre- 
vailed on them to be extremely patient and 
reasonable. At their last meeting, they had 
agreed to wait this young gentleman’s return 
from Liverpool, and what money he was able to 
raise, they had consented should be laid out in 
oatmeal, which being boiled up with water, pota- 
toes, and some of the coarser pieces of beef, 
should be shared out in fair proportions among 
them ; and thus in the cheapest manner provide 
for their subsistence. As the house had many 
thousands owing them in Liverpool, though he 
knew there was no hope of any considerable debts 
being paid, he had no fear of not being able to 
procure the sum immediately wanted. He had 
been using every effort for two days, and had 
actually threatened to arrest two of our principal 
merchants on the exchange, but he had not been 
able to raise a single guinea. How he was to 
face the poor people he knew not, each of whom 
had four to six weeks’ wages due. But he could 
appeal to Heaven for the anxious exertions, which 
he had made, to relieve distresses which he could 
neither foresee nor prevent. As I looked at this. 
