erroneous. The booby is warlike, he lives fearlessly near the frigate, and swallows the fish which he has captured in peace. Buffon, Cuvier, and Temminck, on the contrary, evidently give credence to the narratives of the frigate persecution, and indeed it is difficult to believe that so many eye-witnesses should be mistaken. Feuillée says, 'I have had the pleasure of seeing the frigates give chase to the boobies. When they return in bands towards evening from their fishing, the frigates are in waiting, and dashing upon them compel them all to cry for succour, as it were, and, in crying, to disgorge some of the fish which they are carrying to their young ones. Thus do the frigates profit by the fishing of the boobies, which they then leave to pursue their route.' Leguat, in his voyage, thus writes: The boobies come to repose at night upon the Island Rodriguez,* and the frigates, which are large birds, so called from their lightness and speed in sailing through the air, wait for the boobies every evening on the tops of the trees. They rise on the approach of the latter very high in the air and dash down upon them like a falcon on his prey, not to kill them but to make them disgorge. The booby, struck in this manner by the frigate, gives up his fish, which the frigate catches in the air. The booby often shrieks and shows his unwillingness to abandon his prey, but the frigate mocks at his cries, and rising, dashes down upon him anew till he has compelled the booby to obey.' William Dampier observes that he remarked that the man-of-war birds and the boobies always left sentinels near their young ones, especially while the old birds were gone to sea on their fishing expeditions; and that there were a great number of sick or crippled man-of-war birds which appeared to be no longer in a state to go out for provision. They dwelt not with the rest of their species, and whether they were excluded from their society or had separated themselves voluntarily, they were dispersed in various places, waiting apparently for an opportunity of pillage. He adds, that one day he saw more than twenty on one of the islands (the Alcranes), which from time to time made sorties to procure booty. The man-of-war bird that surprised a young booby without its guard gave it a great peck upon the back to make it disgorge (which it instantly did) a fish or two as big as one's wrist, which the old man-ofwar bird quickly swallowed. He further speaks of the persecution of the parent boobies by the able-bodied frigates, and says that he himself saw a frigate fly right against a booby and with one blow of its bill make the booby give up [Sula fusca] These may have been the species known in the island by the name of Oiseau-boeuf, apparently referrible to Sula candida, Brisson, and Pelecanus Piseator, Linn. Soc. Zool. Proc., 1833, p. 32. † Nuttall observes that these separatists were probably the males after incubation, a fish just swallowed, upon which the frigate darted with such celerity that he seized it before it reached the water. Catesby and others mention similar encounters. Nuttall says, the boobies have a domestic enemy more steady, though less sanguine in his persecutions, than man; this is the frigate pelican or man-of-war bird, who with a keen eye descrying his humble vassal at a distance, pursues him without intermission, and obliges him by blows with its wings and bill to surrender his finny prey, which the pirate instantly seizes and swallows. ***The booby utters a loud cry, something in sound betwixt that of the raven and the goose; and this quailing is heard more particularly when they are pursued by the frigate, or, when assembled together, they happen to be seized by any sudden panic.' The Their nests, according to Dampier, are built in trees in GANNETS OR BOOBIES OF COMPARATIVELY COLD The Gannet of the English; the Solan* Goose, or Soland-Goose, of the Scotch and English; Sula of the Färoe Isles; seems to be the only recorded species of this division. This bird is the Fou de Bassan and Oie de Bassan of the French; the Solend-Ganss, or Schotten-Gans, of the Germans; Jaen van Gent of the Dutch; Gan and Gans of the antient British: Der Bassanische Pelikan of Bechstein; Weisser Tolpel of Meyer; Le grand Fou and Le Fou tacheté of Buffon; Anser Bassanus of Sibbald, Gesner, and others; and Anser Scoticus, Sula Bassana, and Sula Major of Brisson; Sula Hoieri of Clusius; Sula alba of Meyer; Pelecanus Bassanus of Linnæus; Pelecanus Bassanus and P. maculutus of Gmelin; and Gannet Corvorant of Pennant. Its geographical distribution may be stated, as a general proposition, to be over the arctic regions of the old and new world, for it is one of those marine birds which is found on each side of the Atlantic, though in its migrations for food it is said to have been seen plunging for sardines as low as the mouth of the Tagus. In Europe the strongholds of the solan-geese seem to be in Norway and the Hebrides. St. Kilda, and the Bass in the Firth of Forth, are favourite haunts. Pennant observed their northern migrations in Caithness, and says they were passing the whole day, in flocks of from five to fifteen each. They appear migratory on the shores of Holland, and are seen on the coast of Cornwall at the end of the summer, arriving with the pilchards, and disappearing with them about the end of November, according to Pennant; but Montagu observes that they have been frequently seen in the English Channel during the winter, and as late as the month of April. In Iceland they breed, and are numerous; and they are occasionally seen in Greenland. They are found on the coast of Newfoundland, and they are common on the north-west coast of America. In the summer they are extremely abundant on some rocky islands in the bay of St. Lawrence, and not uncommon on the coasts of the United States, especially to the south of Cape Hatteras. On the south side of Long Island and the neighbouring coast they are seen in numbers in the month of October, associating with the velvet ducks and scoters. Bonaparte (Prince of Musignano) notes it as rare and occasional at Philadelphia. To give the reader some idea of the multitudes of these birds, we will select one or two accounts from the many that might be quoted. The surface of the Bass island, according to Dr. Harvey, is almost entirely covered in the months of May and June with their nests, eggs, and young, so that it is scarcely possible to walk without treading on them. When in flight they overshadow like clouds, and make such a stunning noise, that it is scarcely possible to hear your next neighbour. The sea all around is covered with them, and Martin says that 'solan' is derived from an Irish word expressive of quickness of sight, a quality for which the solan-goose is remarkable. † Nuttall.-N. B. Bewick states that they are said to be met with in great numbers about New Holland and New Zealand, but he gives no authority, the flocks in the distance can only be compared to vast swarms of bees. Martin states that the inhabitants of the small island of St. Kilda consume annually upwards of 22,000 young birds of this species, in addition to an immense quantity of their eggs, which form their principal support *. The same author says that at the small isle of Borea the neavens were darkened by those flying overhead, and that their excrements were in such quantity, that they gave a tincture to the sea, and at the same time sullied the boat and clothes of the party. The Gannet Rock in the Bay of the St. Lawrence is about 400 feet in height, and of several acres in extent on the summit. On the 8th of June, according to Audubon, this rock was covered with innumerable gannets upon their nests, so crowded or closely arranged as to give the appearance of a huge mass of snow, while the hovering crowds seen around that inaccessible marine mountain forcibly presented at a distance the appearance of a snow-storm. attached to the skin; a beautiful fan-shaped muscle was also spread over the external surface of the air-cell anterior to the os furciforme. The use of these muscles appeared to be to produce instantaneous expulsion of the air from these external cells, and by thus increasing the specific gravity of the bird, to enable it to descend with the rapidity necessary to the capture of a living prey while swimming near the surface of the water.' This is a beautiful adaptation of means to an end. The descent of the bird on its prey has been not unaptly compared to that of an arrow, the beak of the bird forming the arrow-head, and the body and wings the feathered shaft of the weapon: we here have the secret of its heavy fall; the same machinery restores the buoyancy at the proper moment, and the bird rises with its fish aloft. Some idea will be formed of the rate of the gannet's descent from the following authentic anecdote recorded by Pennant:- About four years ago* one of these birds flying over Penzance (a thing that rarely happenst), and seeing some pilchards lying on a fir-plank in a cellar used for curing fish, darted itself down with such violence, that it struck its bill quite through the board (about an inch and a quarter thick) and broke its neck.' To this Pennant adds that these birds are sometimes taken at sea by a deception of the like kind. The fishermen fasten a pilchard to a board and leave it floating, and the gannet is decoyed to its own destruction. Peter Pindar has immortalized this mode of booby-catching in those droll lines with which our readers are doubtless familiar. Before we enter into a description of the habits of the gannet, it may not be uninteresting to give a sketch of its organization, which is somewhat peculiar, and admirably adapted to promote the buoyancy of the bird and the rapidity of its descent on its prey. Montagu's observations on this part of its economy (the situation and connection of the air-cells, see Supplement to Ornithological Dictionary, article 'Gannet') are very interesting, but as the researches of Owen and Yarrell differ in some particulars from his, it will be sufficient to refer to the former; and we proceed to give Mr. Owen's notes of the examination of a gannet that died in the garden of the Zoological Society of London in 1831. It will be seen, on reference to Montagu's statement, that he says by reason of some valvular contrivance, the skin could not be artificially inflated through the lungs.' *** It is also clear that there is no direct communication be-doubt, and Camus leans to the opinion that it is a gull (Latween the sides.' There are some parts of Aristotle's description of his Karappáктng (catarractes) (Hist. Anim. ii. 17. ix. 12.) that suit well with our birds, and the very name accords with its habits. Bochart and Michaelis both leave the question in rus Catarractes, Linn.); but no gull precipitates itself into the sea with the violent plunge described by Aristotle (ix. 12). Pennant hints that in the cataracta of Juba (Pliny. x. 44) some characters of the gannet may be found. The bird hardly deserves the reputation which its alliance with the other boobies has in some places procured for it. Its habits and its struggles for liberty show that the selfpreserving instinct is as strong as in other birds except at the breeding season, when every other feeling seems to be merged in the ardour of incubation. Thus it has been stated that some of their number always keep watch at night, and that the sentinel, by varying his intonation, apprizes the flock of the approach of danger. The specimen sent by Dr. Borlase to Pennant was killed at Chandour, near Mountbay, but not till after a long struggle with a water-spaniel, assisted by the boatmen, for it was strong and pugnacious. The person who took it,' adds the doctor, 'observed that it had a transparent membrane under the eyelid, with which it covered at pleasure the whole eye, without obscuring the sight or shutting the eyelid; a gracious provision for the security of the eyes of so weighty a creature, whose method of taking its prey is by darting headlong on it from a height of a hundred and fifty feet or more into the water.' In the examination,' writes Owen in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, our attention was chiefly directed to the air-cells, which, in this bird, as in the pelican, have a most extensive distribution. We commenced by a gentle but continued inflation through the trachea, a pipe having been introduced into the upper larynx: in a short time the integuments of the whole of the lateral and inferior parts of the body rose, and the air-cells seemed completely filled, especially that which is situated in front of the os furciforme. Being thus satisfied that they all had a free communication with the chest, we next proceeded to see at what points these communications took place, and in what degree the air-cells communicated with each other. For that purpose the air-cells on the left side of the body were laid open, and, shortly after, those of the opposite side collapsed, indicating the existence of apertures of communication, although the septum which ran along the middle line of the body appeared at first sight imperforate. There was a free communication between the lateral air-cells of the same side of the body from the os furciforme to the side of the pelvis; but the air cell in front of the os furciforme remained still tensely inflated. The lateral air-cells had a free communication with the cavity of the chest at the axilla, at which part the air had entered these cells during the inflation. The organization above alluded to gives the gannet great The pectoral muscles and those of the thigh presented a buoyancy when swimming, and it swims high like a guil. singular appearance, being, as it were, cleanly dissected, When one which Montagu kept alive was placed on the having the air extended above and below them; the axil-water of a pond, nothing could induce it to attempt to dive; lary vessels and nerves also passing bare and unsupported by any surrounding substance through these cavities. We traced the air-cells down the side of the humerus, ulna, and metacarpal bone, into all of which the air entered, and even into the bone corresponding to the first phalanx, which agrees with what Mr. Hunter has described of the pelican (Animal Econ. p. 92). As none of these proceedings had any effect on the air-cell in front of the os furciforme, which still continued distended, it was evident that inflation by the humerus could not have filled it except through the medium of the lungs themselves. We next proceeded to detach the integument from this air-cell to see its shape and extent: this required to be done with great care, as it adhered pretty closely to the skin and roots of the feathers; it was of a globular form, about four inches in diameter, and communicated with the thorax at its anterior aperture below the trachea. Numerous strips of muscular fibres passed from various parts of the surface of the body, and were firmly * Some idea of their voracity and numbers may be formed from the assertion of Buchanan, who, in his View of the Fishery of Great Britain,' conjectures that the gannets of St. Kilda destroy annually one hundred and five millions of herrings, and from the manner of its putting the bill and sometimes the whole head under water, as if searching for fish, it appeared to Montagu that the prey is frequently taken in this manner. Withered grasses and sea-weeds, bleached by many a sun and shower, form the nest, which is placed on the ledges of the overhanging precipice, or in the fissures of the rock. Martin says that they frequently rob each other, and that one which had pillaged a nest flew out towards the sea with the spoil, and returned again as if it had gathered the stuff from a different quarter; but the owner, though at a distance from his nest, had observed the robbery, and waited the return of the thief, which he attacked with the utmost fury. This bloody battle,' adds the narrator, was fought above our heads, and proved fatal to the thief, who fell dead so near our boat that our men took him up, and presently dressed and ate him.' From a date in the letter of Dr Borlase, to whom it appears that Pennant was indebted for his communication. the time alluded to must have been somewhere about 1758. The gannets are supposed generally to fly coastwise. VOL, V.-Y The number of eggs are stated at one, two, or even three, if the two first laid are taken. Temminck gives two as the number, others three, where none have been abstracted. They are white, equally pointed at each end, rough on the surface, and less than those of a goose. These birds sit close together. It is said that the male and female hatch and fish by turns, and that the fisher comes back to the nest with five or six herrings in its gorget, all entire and undigested, which the hatcher pulls out from the throat of its provider and swallows, making at the same time a loud noise. The young birds are a favourite dish with the North Britons, and Pennant observes that, during the season, they are constantly brought from the Bass Isle to Edinburgh, where they are sold roasted, and served up as a whet. Our readers will remember that the relishing Solan goose, whose smell is so powerful that he is never cooked within doors, formed a part of Mr. Oldbuck's dinner, though the state in which the odoriferous offering' was presented excited the antiquary's just indignation. The proprietor of the Bass is said to derive a considerable profit by taking the young and sending them to market, and by an old Scottish law he has a right, it is said, to visit the neighbouring isles and drive away his wandering gannets to his own domain. The variations in the plumage of the gannet are very great, and, as in the instances of many other birds, the changes have given rise to the record of species which have no foundation but the natural alteration in the feathery covering Old birds at the age of three years. Summit of the head and occiput of a clear ochreous yellow. The rest of the plumage milk-white, with the exception of the quills and the bastard wing, which are black. Bill of an ashy blue* at the base, but white at the point. Naked membrane surrounding the eyes bluish, and that which forms the prolongation of the opening of the bill and extends to the middle of the throat, dusky blue. Iris yellow. Legs dusky, in front bluish-yellow (Temminck says clear green); connecting membrane of the forward toes very strong, and nearly as transparent as glass (Temminck says blackish). Nails white. Tail cuneiform, or wedge-shaped. The two exterior quills have the end of the barbs truncated, according to Temminck. Length two feet seven to two feet nine inches. The female is less than the male. Young, a few days after their exclusion from the egg. The covering is a white and lustrous down, making the nestlings look like powder-puffs. [Sula Bassana. Old male.] • When the bird is alive the bill is of a bright bluish grey. Near the base of the upper mandible is a sharp process and suture, which enables the bird to move it a little in the act of swallowing a large fish, First year. All the plumage of the upper parts spotless, blackish-brown. Lower parts brown varied with ash-colour. Bill, naked parts, and iris brown. The tail rounded. One year old, or second moult. Head, neck, and breast of an ashy brown, covered with small lanceolated white spots very closely approximated. Feathers of the back, rump, and wings of the same colour, and marked with spots of the same kind but more distant from each other. Lower parts whitish, varied with ashy brown. Tail and quills brown. The first conieal with white shafts. Bill ashy brown, but whitish towards the point. Naked parts of a bluish-brown. Iris yellowish. Front of legs and upper part of toes greenish-brown. Membranes of an ashy brown. Nails whitish. Two years old, and during the moult. At this age the bird is already partially covered with white feathers, while the rest of the plumage is still brown and spotted with white. The young of the age of one and two years are the Sula major of Brisson, Pelecanus maculatus of Gmelin, Le Grand Fou and Le Fou tacheté of Buffon, and the Great and Spotted Booby (the head of which is given by Catesby) of Latham. BOOK-KEEPING. Book-keeping is that art by which all the transactions of commerce are so methodically recorded as to exhibit a perfect picture of a merchant's affairs. When we consider that property embarked in commerce is in a state of constant flux, by which it undergoes perpetual transformations, and reflect upon the intricate nature of many mercantile operations, especially those arising out of joint adventures and foreign exchanges, we cannot hesitate to admire the ingenious though unknown contriver of a system which enables the merchant not only to register with clearness every fact touching his estate, but to ascertain with certainty the result of all those facts whenever he chooses to collect them together. As an art it is not easy to overrate its value. The wonder indeed is, that both in and out of trade there are any persons who are insensible to its importance. To every man engaged in business the utmost accuracy of accounts is essential, and yet it is notorious that in this great trading community the practice of book-keeping, particularly among retailers, is extremely loose and unsatisfactory. As an invention hook-keeping is undoubtedly modern, being with great probability referred to the fifteenth century. Venice is said to be its birth place, and the first known author was Lucas de Burgo, who published in 1495 a regular treatise in the Italian language. France. England, Italy, and Germany, have subsequently produced a great variety of works, in all of which the true principle is laid down with sufficient perspicuity; but students in search of serviceable instruction should consult the most recent authors, who, being either practical men themselves, or in close communication with those who were so, have greatly simplified the plans of their predecessors, and by adapting successive expedients to the real exigencies of trade, have introduced a high degree of elegance and neatness into their methods, combining accuracy with expedition and brevity with clearness and completeness, which is the very perfection of the art. In order to accomplish these objects, every event affecting the property must be recorded in such a manner as to show in the simplest form and with the utmost perspicuity all the essentials of each transaction, that is to say, the subjectmatter of it, the day of its occurrence, the person on whose account and the person with whom it takes place, together with the mode of its performance. It is evident that in very large concerns there must be always a tendency to intricacy and confusion, where concurrent operations are in constant progress, and circumstances of great variety are crowded into a short space of time. Malcolm, who published his New Treatise at Edinburgh in 1718, is therefore justified in declaring it to be a work of no small skill and labour to evolve out of this confusion the lucid statement which a perfect balance-sheet presents. Yet it is in large concerns, generally speaking, that fulness and facility are to be found, because the conductors, strongly impressed with the ruinous consequences of obscurity, take effectual means to guard against it by maintaining an establishment and a system commensurate with the extent of their business. The principle of book-keeping is of such inflexible rigour, that it never admits of relaxation under any conceivable circumstances, although it • Temminck. adapts itself with equal facility to every possible` matter of account. With regard to the particular plans which ought to be put in practice by individuals it would be vain to enter into minute directions, since every person engaged in trade is in some respects situated differently from every one else, and if the general principle is understood and kept in view, details may be safely trusted to experience. It will be more useful to lay down general rules in such a way as to answer the double purpose of illustrating the true character of perfect book-keeping, and of affording a guide to those who may have occasion to construct a set of books for any particular undertaking. Everything brought into the concern, either at its origination or in subsequent dealings, is, of course, property Inwards, but the generic term Property must, in respect to book-keeping, be subdivided into as many species as the nature of the particular business requires. The broad subdivision is into Cash-Bills-Book-debts-Stock, and, in conformity with it, every regular house of business keeps a separate place for the registry of all its transactions -under one or other of these heads. another book-when and to whom paid away-folio where debited in another book. On the Continent it is customary with those who negociate foreign bills to copy into their bill-book the names of all endorsers. With inland bills such minuteness is not so necessary, and is a practice never observed. The bills-payable book contains the same inherent particulars, except the name of the drawee, which is in fact the concern itself. The relative circumstances are also recorded, but in a reverse order, to correspond with the opposite character of the transaction. Both books are furnished with a column for a running series of numbers, written also on the face of each bill respectively, by which means it is pointedly referred to in subsequent entries, and readily identified when occasion arises. Book debts are personal demands for which no acceptances have been given. The record of each sale being originally made in a sold day-book, with full particulars as to quantities and prices, the sum is carried forward into a ledger to the debit of the buyers, who are respectively charged under their names with the value delivered to them, each account having a distinct folio or division to itself. This constitutes a list of debts receivable,' and is called the sold ledger. The bought ledger, on the contrary, exhibits a list of debts payable, digested under the names of persons from whom goods have been received into the concern, and is founded upon entries, with full particulars, in a book kept for the purpose called invoices inwards,' or 'bought daybook.' The remaining subdivision is stock, a term loosely employed, sometimes to signify all the property possessed by a concern and sometimes the surplus property-more strictly called capital-in the concern, after deducting every obligation. Its more definite sense is limited to goods of all descriptions bought or manufactured with a view to profit. The cash-book is perfectly simple in its frame, containing on the left hand page separate spaces for the date-the person who has brought any cashInwards, and the exact sum, all ranged in a horizontal line. These sums are placed one under another, so as to be easily cast up in a column, at the side of which runs a second column shewing the folio where the amount of each entry has been carried forward into another book to the credit of each payer respectively. On the right-hand page provision is made in the ruling for the same particulars, in the same arrangement, respecting cash paid * Outwards,' with a posting column also to show where each entry has passed onward to the debit of the receiver. Solomon, according to the city proverb, was a wise man and Sampson was a strong man, but neither could pay away money that he had never received. It follows as an undeniable consequence that the left-hand side of a cash-row, take the shape of bills receivable the next day, and in book, correctly kept, can never amount to a less sum than the right-hand side. The difference, if any, of the totals will so accurately point out the balance remaining on hand, that, should any discrepancy appear, the book-keeper has, in that circumstance, a convincing proof of error, and instantly addresses himself to its discovery. The cash-book being familiar to the generality of persons, is best fitted for exemplification, but, in truth, every account, when well kept, is equally simple and exhibits the very same features. An account, whether of persons or things, in the book-keeping sense of the term, is a chronological collection of all the events by which the property of a concern has been affected by the person or thing in question, the eventsInwards' being ranged on one side and confronted with the events Outwards' on the other side. The book-keeper is therefore historiographer of the property. ་ Bills, which form the second head of subdivision, are either receivable or payable, and each description requires a book to itself. They act upon the concern in directly opposite ways, bills receivable being one of the avenues through which debts are collected from the world, and bills payable being one of the channels through which the concern discharges its obligations. From this consideration it is clear that the identical bill, which the acceptor enters in his books as a bill payable, appears as a bill receivable in the books of the party for whom he accepts it, and this circumstance elucidates the nature of book-keeping in general, since what is true of bills is equally true of all other transactions. The same indentation takes place universally, so that if two men accurately record their mutual dealings their books must be counterparts of each other, exactly dovetailed at every point of their connexion. It sometimes happens that a man's own acceptance is remitted to him, in which case the same piece of paper is entered both as bill payable and bill receivable. The bills-receivable book should contain spaces for all particulars, both inherent and relative. Those inherent in the bill itself are, the drawer his residence-to whom payable-on whom drawn -where payable-date-time-when due-amount. The relative or contingent particulars are, when received from whom-on whose account-folio where credited in With regard to stock, it cannot be denied that its incomings and outgoings are exactly as much entitled to a regular record as any other portion of the property, since that which is stock to-day may become book-debt to-morcourse of time form part of the balance at the banker's. There can be no reason whatever why the banker's account, the bills receivable, and the sold ledger, should be carefully kept, which does not apply with equal force to the stock account. The method here, as everywhere else throughout the entire range of book-keeping, is simple. Each description of goods, bought or made, should have a place of its own, either a book or a page as the case may require, for an accurate register of the dates and quantities inwards, on the left hand, confronted with the dates and quantities outwards, whether the delivery outward take place to a buyer or only from one department to another within the concern. For example, in a brewery the account of malt should show the quantity deposited in the malt room confronted with the quantity taken out of the malt-room, so as to give the balance of malt on hand by deducting the smaller from the larger total, exactly as in the instance of the cash-book. One of the fundamental and indispensable laws in perfect book-keeping is that every discharge must be specific. When the account is with persons, the discharge answers in value to the charge; but when the account is of things, the discharge must answer in kind. Thus if a brewer receives inwards 1000 quarters of malt his books are not perfect unless they tell him specifically how that quantity was disposed of. By charging to the buyers the quantity resold, and charging to the account of his own mash-tub the quantity actually put into it, he gives himself the means, and the only means, of knowing whether he has had the full benefit of all his malt; and if he finds a deficiency, he can instantly address himself to the discovery of the cause, just as he would have done if his cash had been deficient. There is one mischievous error in some of the more antient treatises, against the misleading influence of which the youthful student should be effectually guarded. It is sometimes stated that among the devices of book-keeping imaginary accounts are raised. Nothing can be further from the truth. The book-keeper, if he understands his duty and adheres to it, knows well that the imagination would be altogether out of place, and plods his way from fact to fact, with painstaking perseverance, using his utmost care to prevent the admission of whatever is false, and the | the supply of provender to the Stables. It is evident that ommission of any fact bearing upon the property. It is customary, even in modern treatises intended for the use of schools, to divide book-keeping into two kinds, under the names of double entry and single entry. This fallacious representation of so important a subject cannot be too speedily exploded, as there is reason to think that the absence of system, so prevalent in the book-keeping of retail traders and professional men, may be ascribed to this original vice in their education. There is this in common between the two, that the transactions, as they occur in business, may be primarily registered in the same way by both methods-that is to saysingle entry has its cash-book, its bill-book, its day-book, and its ledger, for personal accounts; but even in these, so completely is the caprice of the book-keeper free from the control of principle, that matters the most distinct in their nature are frequently jumbled together, bills receivable and stock being confused with cash, and the day-book being perverted, from its only proper purpose, into a receptacle for all sorts of incongruous transactions. But here the similarity ends, and here begins the superiority in power and beauty of double entry, historically called the Italian method. That method, grounding itself upon the scientific axiom that the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts,' is satisfied with nothing less than a perfect equilibrium between the total amount of all the debtor accounts on one side, compared with the total amount of all the creditor accounts on the other side. It arrives at this ultimate result by exacting, at every step of its progress, the same equilibrium between debtor and creditor in each entry; and by suffering no event either inwards, internal, or outwards, to take place without a self-balancing entry, it secures at last its great object of presenting a perfect picture whenever all these separate parts are collected together as a whole. It effects this purpose by resorting to every original entry, whether that entry relates to the delivery of goods inwards or outwards, or to cash, or to bills, or to wages, salaries, brokerages, insurances, del credere commissions, or to any of the numerous labours of body or mind which constitute the ground of debt from one man to another. For these original entries too many treatises unskilfully refer the learner to one general waste-book; but the true theory of a waste-book is, that it is that book where the first entry of a fact is made in the handwriting of the person who was cognizant of that fact; and to preserve the chain of responsibility unbroken throughout any establishment, it is an excellent regulation to make each person answerable, by means of his own handwriting, for the accurate record of all events within his own department. In this corrected view, the cash-book is the waste-book for cash, the bill-book is the waste-book for bills, the day-book is the waste-book for goods, and so on through all the original books. In double entry these original particulars are digested into various heads of account, without the omission of a single event. The act of digesting these original entries is technically called Journalizing, because they are collected together in a book called The Journal, where they for the first time put off their individuality, and are massed together according to some rule of affinity previously established in the mind of the book-keeper, who is held to this indispensable condition, that he must raise exactly as much matter of account to the debit as to the credit. each of these causes differs from the other two in its nature, and at the annual summing up it is of great importance to distinguish them in the accounts. The first cause is the purchase of an article for sale or manufacture. The second is a permanent addition to the cost and value of the place. The third is one of the expenses of trade. Double entry requires and provides for the statement of this important distinction. Single entry indolently or ignorantly satisfies itself with carrying to the personal credit of the parties the amounts respectively due to them, omitting altogether a separate record of the reason why the debts were con tracted, and thus shutting out some of the most interesting points of information. According to the customary mode of book-keeping by double entry, the supposed facts would take the following form in the journal, the word 'sundries' being an abbreviation for sundry accounts:" at 16. He accordingly opens folio 29 in his ledger, where he had previously written the word 'Iron' in large characters at the top of the page, and annexing the proper date, posts the sum of 31747. 15s. to the debit of that account, and refers in a column ruled for that purpose to the page of the journal. He then looks to his index for the accounts of Jones & Co., Smith & Co., and Thompson & Co.; or if there had been no previous dealings with them, he opens an account with each of these parties on separate pages of his ledger, and posts to their credit the several sums which he finds in the journal, carefully stating in his ledger the page in the journal where the entry came from, and in the journal the folio of the ledger where the entry is gone to, in conformity with an invariable rule that no entry should, in any instance, be carried forward from book to book, without a distinct reference in each book to the page of the other. After posting the three supposed journal entries, the ledger will exhibit the same facts in a new form. Dr. 1835 Dr. Dr. Dr. 1835 Jany. Dr. Dr. STABLES. To Chandler & Co. 63 14 10 The distinction between single and double entry becomes apparent in the different ways in which they dispose of the very same facts. Thus, suppose the book-keeper by double Jany. To Carpenter & Co. entry to be occupied with the invoices inwards, and to find that since he made his last Journal entry from that book, his employer has contracted debts amounting in the whole to 36907. 188. 4d. By the contrivance of journalizing, the book-keeper not only states this total, and assigns the amount due to each creditor, but he charges also the same total to one or more debtors, asking himself in each instance the particular reason why each debt has been contracted, and charging the amount of it to that reason; or, in other words, he considers the sources from which his employers must seek a return of their outlay, and charges the due quantity to each source. To avoid multiplicity, let us suppose three causes to have given rise to this amount of debt, and these three causes to have been the purchase of Iron, the repair of Premises, and Chandler & Co. Jan. By Stables Cr. Cr. 3000 0 0 Cr. 1267 10 0 Cr. 907 5 0 Cr. Cr. 452 8 6 Cr. 63 14 10 The attentive reader will have taken notice that the iron purchased of Thompson & Co. on the 24th of the month is journalized in the same entry with the iron purchased twenty-three days before, from Jones & Co., and will infer that in many conjunctures of business, such a delay might be highly inconvenient, especially in cash and bills. Such an inference is quite correct, and the only pretext that can be alleged for persisting in single entry is, that it carries |