126 The Naturalist of Cnmbrac. 



In the early days of the income-tax the business 

 of his firm was assessed considerably beyond the 

 return which the partners had made. This of course 

 implied that they had made a false return, or, to 

 speak more politely, an erroneous one. Mr. Robert- 

 son was by no means likely to submit to such an 

 implication, and he therefore appealed. He assured 

 the commissioners that the expenses and profits of 

 his firm had to come out of the difference of ten per 

 cent, between the price at which they bought and 

 that at which they sold. This they could not believe, 

 and met his offer to prove it by allowing him only 

 two hours in which to bring forward the proof. 



Indignant and disgusted, he nevertheless hurried 

 back to the shop, had the various ledgers and account- 

 books placed on a barrow and carted off to the place 

 where the commissioners were sitting. He showed 

 them by the invoices that the manufacturers charged 

 them the very same price at which they sold the 

 goods to their customers, the margin being secured 

 by the circumstance that the manufacturers allowed 

 them a discount of ten per cent, on payment, whereas 

 their customers paid them the full price. The commis- 

 sioners then wanted to know how much they had at 

 the bank, and were again surprised to find that, not- 

 withstanding the magnitude of the business, they had 

 nothing there. They kept a cash-box of their own 

 without at that time troubling any bank. 



In the end, as the commissioners, or inquisitors as 

 some might feel inclined to call them, were not willing 

 to encounter the task of examining the books in detail, 

 there was no course left for them but to deduct the 



