and Mr. Fordyce, thinking his luck would be perpetual, ventured for sums which involved his own character and his partners’ fortune. The game was with him; the funds were constantly on the rise; and, fortunate as daring, he was enabled to purchase a large estate, to support a grand appearance, to surpass nabobs in extravagance, and _parvenus_ in folly. He marked the “marble with his name” upon a church which he ostentatiously built. His ambition vied with his extravagance, and his extravagance kept pace with his ambition. The Aberdeen hosier spent thousands in attempting to become a senator, and openly avowed his hope of dying a peer. He married a woman of title; made a fine settlement on her Ladyship; purchased estates in Scotland at a fancy value; built a hospital; and founded charities in the place of which he hoped to become the representative. But a change came over his fortunes. Some political events first shook him. A sensible blow was given to his career by the affair of Falkland Island;[2] and he had recourse to his partners’ private funds to supply his deficiencies. Like many, who are tempted to appropriate the property of others, he trusted to replace it by some lucky stroke of good fortune, and redoubled his speculations on the Stock Exchange. Reports reached his partners, who grew alarmed. They had witnessed and partaken of his good fortune, and they had rejoiced in the far ken which had obtained the services of so clever a person; but when they saw that the chances were going against him, they remonstrated with all the energy of men whose fortunes hang on the success of their remonstrances. A cool and insolent contempt for their opinion, coupled with the remark, that he was quite disposed to leave them to manage a concern to which they were utterly incompetent, startled them; and when, with a cunning which provided for every thing, an enormous amount of bank-notes, which Fordyce had borrowed for the purpose, was shown them, their faith in his genius returned with the possession of the magic paper; and it is doubtful whether the plausibility of his manner or the rustle of the notes decided them.