GENERAL ANNUITY FUND. 
154 
moderate and right judging, who form the large majority of the 
body, faction must hide its diminished head : surely the adoption 
of such a proposal as Mr. Baker’s is one which cannot be made an 
arena for the display of rancour of party or personal enmity. 
It has often struck me, that the position of a professional man is 
not rightly understood. A trader, when he starts in the career of 
life, lays out a certain sum in the purchase of his stock in trade ; 
and, supposing him to be ordinarily successful in his pursuits, even 
if he be not able to lay by a something towards the future support 
of those who may be near and dear to him, has, at least, his stock 
or original capital to leave behind, or to turn to useful purpose ; 
further, supposing that his health should become impaired, he can 
obtain some one more or less capable of carrying on his business 
during the period he himself is incapacitated from attending to it 
personally ; but when we reflect that the professional man lays 
out his capital in the cultivation of his mind, to lit him for carry- 
ing out that to which he has devoted himself, he has, in fact, made 
his mind his stock in trade , but which stock is so placed that no 
one save himself can render it available, no one under such cir- 
cumstances can find another to turn to account such a stock in 
trade, supposing that loss of health or any untoward turn of cir- 
cumstances render him unable to carry on his pursuits in person. 
And should he be prevented during his active life from making any 
provision for the future, he has nothing of his original capital in 
any way available for such purpose : it has been sunk, and is irre- 
trievably gone. Again, the success of a professional man depends 
upon confidence being felt in his capability to exercise his profes- 
sion with skill, and which is generally of slow growth, and which 
may be lost from no fault of his own : an untoward event entirely 
beyond his controul, the envenomed breath of slander, may at one 
fell swoop destroy a business which has been the labour of years to 
forfn. To this the trader is less exposed, because his pursuit is not 
so much dependent upon confidence as on the supply of necessities, 
or, what is equally of importance to very many, of luxuries ; and 
should his commodity not suit one, it may another ; but it does 
not follow that, should the acquirements of the professional man be 
unappreciated by one, they should be more truly estimated by 
another ; for, resting upon opinion, it generally follows that if one 
utters an unfavourable opinion, others are always found to promul- 
gate it ; and hence we often see that a professional man is nearly 
or entirely ruined by the malevolence of one evil-disposed person 
to whom he may have unconsciously given offence ; while to the 
trader it would not be of any moment. And if we add to these 
reflections the uncertainy of health and even life, it becomes doubly 
