![LETTER LXXI.
The Coxcomb.—Fashionables.—Fops—Egyptian Fashions.—Dances.—
Visiting.—Walkers.—The Fancy.—Agriculturists.—The Fat Ox.—The
Royal Institution.—Metaphysics.
Whether the Coxcomb be an animal confined to Europe I know not,
but in every country in Christendom he is to be found with the same
generic character.
Pien di smorfiose grazie,
E mastro assai profondo
Nelle importanti inezie,
Nei nulli del bel mondo;
E in quella soavissima
Arte tanto eloquente,
Che sa si lungo spazio
Parlar senza dir niente.
Con tratti di malizia,
A spese altrui festivo;
Sempre in bocca risuonagli
Quel tuono decisivo,
Quell' insolenza amabile,
Che con egual franchezza
Con un' occhiata rapida
O tutto loda, o sprezza.[26]
There is however no country in which there are so many varieties
of the animal as in England, none where he flourishes so
successfully, makes such heroic endeavours for notoriety, and enjoys
so wide a sphere of it.
The highest order is that of those who have invented for
themselves the happy title of Fashionables. These gentlemen stand
highest in the scale of folly, and lowest in that of intellect, of any in
the country, inasmuch as the rivalry between them is which shall](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-23-320.jpg)
![beggars who write their petitions upon the flag-stones in the street.
This is so excellently done, that one should think it would be painful
to trample on and destroy any thing so beautiful, even though only
made to be destroyed. These things indicate the same sort of want
of feeling as the ice-palaces of Russia, and the statue of snow made
by Michel Angelo at Pietro de Medici's command. We are surrounded
in this world with what is perishable, that we may be taught to set
our hearts and hopes upon the immutable and everlasting;—it is ill
done, then, to make perishableness the food of pride.
The system of visiting in high life is brought to perfection in this
country. Were a lady to call in person upon all the numerous
acquaintance whom she wishes sometimes to crowd together at her
Grand Parties, her whole time would be too little to go from door to
door. This, therefore, being confessedly impossible, the card-
currency of etiquette was issued, and the name dropt by a servant,
allowed to have the same saving virtue of civility as the real
presence. But the servants began to find this a hard duty, and found
out that they were working like postmen without any necessity for
so doing; so they agreed at last to meet at certain pot-houses, and
exchange cards, or leave them there as at a post-office, where each
in turn calls to deposit all with which he is charged, and to receive all
which are designed for him.
I have spoken elsewhere of the Turf, a road to fame always, and
oftentimes to ruin; but for this so large a fortune is required, that
the famous must always be few. A man, however, of moderate, or of
no fortune, may acquire great glory by riding a score of horses
almost or quite to death, for the sake of showing in how short a time
he can go fifty leagues. Others, with a nobler ambition, delight in
displaying their own speed. I know not whether Christoval de Mesa
would have said of this sort of walking or of running, as he did of
the game of pelota:
Es el que mas a la virtud se llega,
que ni entorpece, ni el ingenio embota,
antes da ligereza y exercita,
y pocos que la juegan tienen gota.[27]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-26-320.jpg)
![of the general passion for distinction: the easiest way of obtaining
access into literary society, and getting that kind of notoriety, is by
professing to be a metaphysician, because of such metaphysics a
man may get as much in half an hour as in his whole life.
At present the English philosophers and politicians, both male and
female, are in a state of great alarm. It has been discovered that the
world is over-peopled, and that it always must be so, from an error
in the constitution of nature; that the law which says "Increase and
multiply," was given without sufficient consideration; in short, that
He who made the world does not know how to manage it properly,
and therefore there are serious thoughts of requesting the English
Parliament to take the business out of his hands.
[26] Full of affected graces, and a master sufficiently
profound of the important inanities, the nothings of the fine
world; and of that sweetest art so eloquent, which can talk so
long and say nothing; with traits of malice, mirthful at another's
expense: always in his mouth that decisive tone, that amiable
insolence, which, with equal freedom at a glance, praises or
condemns by wholesale.—Tr.
[27] It is that which most approaches to virtue, which neither
stupifies, nor degrades the understanding, but, on the contrary,
exercises it and gives agility, and few who play at it have the
gout.—Tr.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-30-320.jpg)
![flourish upon it at the resurrection, for which purpose it is to be
presumed, she chose to have it at hand.
This mischief, which might have been in its consequences so
deplorable, was occasioned by the carelessness of some plumbers,
who were at work upon the roof. Old St Paul's was destroyed just in
this way: it is surprising how many accidents of this kind have
happened from the same cause, and provoking to think, that so
great and venerable a work of piety and human genius, and human
power, should have been so near destruction by the stupid
negligence of a common labourer! They burn in the hand for
accidental homicide in this country;[28] a little application of hot iron
for accidental church-burning would be a punishment in kind for a
neglect of duty, so dangerous, that it ought not to be unpunished.
When carelessness endangers the life or welfare of another, it ought
to be regarded as a crime.
A fire is the only ordinary spectacle in this great metropolis which
I have not seen; for this cannot be called such, though in its effect
finer than any conflagration.—Fires are so frequently happening, that
I may consider myself as unfortunate. The traveller who is at London
without seeing a fire, and at Naples without witnessing an eruption
of Vesuvius, is out of luck.
The danger of fire is one to which the Londoners are more
exposed than any people in the world, except, perhaps, the
inhabitants of Constantinople. Their earth-coal must be considered
as one main cause—pieces of this are frequently exploded into the
room. The carelessness of servants is another; for nothing but
candles are used to give light for domestic purposes, and accidents
happen from a candle which could not from a lamp. The
accumulation of furniture in an English house is so much fuel in
readiness; all the floors are boarded, all the bedsteads are of wood,
all the beds have curtains. I have heard of a gentleman who set the
tail of his shirt on fire as he was stepping into bed, the flames
caught the curtains, and the house was consumed. You may easily
suppose this adventure obtained for him the name of The Comet.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-34-320.jpg)
![ladder to throw the balls in, the ladder was always thrown down; so
that, as the life of every person who attempted to use them was
thus endangered, the thing was given up.
The machine for escaping is a sort of iron basket, or chair, fixed in
a groove on the outside of the house. I have never seen one at any
other place than at the inventor's warehouse. The poet, Gray, was
notoriously fearful of fire, and kept a ladder of ropes in his bed-
room. Some mischievous young men at Cambridge knew this, and
roused him from below, in the middle of a dark night, with the cry of
Fire! The staircase, they said, was in flames. Up went his window,
and down he came by his rope-ladder, as fast as he could go, into a
tub of water which they had placed to receive him.
[28] Don Manuel confounds homicide and manslaughter.—Tr.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-36-320.jpg)
![translation of an octave stanza. Their words are shorter; and though
in many cases they must use two and sometimes three, where we
need but one, still if the same meaning requires more words, it is
contained in fewer syllables, and costs less breath. Weight for
weight, a pound of garvanzos[29] will lie in half the compass of a
pound of chesnuts.
Frenchmen always pronounce English ill; Germans, better; it is
easier for a Spaniard than for either. The th, or theta, is their
shibboleth; our z has so nearly the same sound that we find little or
no difficulty in acquiring it. In fact, the pronunciation would not be
difficult if it were not capricious; but the exceptions to any general
rule are so numerous, that years and years of practice are hardly
sufficient to acquire them. Neither is the pronunciation of the same
word alike at all times, for it sometimes becomes the fashion to
change the accent. The theatre gives the law in these cases. What
can have been the cause of this preposterous and troublesome
irregularity is beyond my knowledge. They acknowledge the defect,
and many schemes have been devised by speculative writers for
improving the orthography, and assimilating it to the oral tongue:
but they have all so disfigured the appearance of the language, and
so destroyed all visible traces of etymology, that they have only
excited ridicule, and have deserved nothing better.
It is difficult to acquire, yet far less so than the German and its
nearer dialects; the syntax is less involved, and the proportion of
Latin words far greater. Dr Johnson, their lexicographer, and the
most famous of all their late writers, introduced a great number of
sesquipedalian Latinisms, like our Latinists of the seventeenth
century. The ladies complain of this, and certainly it was done in a
false taste,—but it facilitates a foreigner's progress. I find Johnson
for this very reason the easiest English author; his long words are
always good stepping-stones, on which I get sure footing.
If the size of his dictionary, which is the best and largest, may be
regarded as a criterion, the language is not copious. We must not
however forget that dictionaries profess to give only the written](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-39-320.jpg)
![[29] A species of lupin used as food.—Tr.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/15792-250423020720-b29f25c8/85/Intermediate-Accounting-Reporting-and-Analysis-2nd-Edition-Wahlen-Solutions-Manual-42-320.jpg)
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- 5. 9-1 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. CHAPTER 9 Current Liabilities and Contingent Obligations CONTENT ANALYSIS OF END-OF-CHAPTER ASSIGNMENTS NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S 9-1 Liabilities Definitions 1 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-2 Liabilities Example of legal, equitable, or constructive liabilities 1 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-3 Liabilities Basic characteristics 1 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-4 Liabilities Basic characteristics 1 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-5 Current Liabilities Definitions 1 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-6 Current Liabilities Define operating cycle 2 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-7 Current Liabilities Liquidity 2 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-8 Current Liabilities Financial flexibility and accounting for liabilities 2 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-9 Current Liabilities Materiality and accounting for liabilities 2 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-10 Current Liabilities Computation of proceeds from non-interest-bearing note payable 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-11 Current Liabilities Classification of currently maturing portion of long-term debt. 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-12 Current Liabilities Reporting of long-term debt callable by creditor; exceptions to the general rule 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension
- 6. 9-2 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S 9-13 Current Liabilities Criteria for classifying short- term vs. long-term liability 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-14 Current Liabilities Criteria for classifying short- term vs. long-term liability 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-15 Current Liabilities Balance sheet classification of unpaid cash dividends vs. stock dividends 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-16 Current Liabilities Measurement and reporting for property taxes 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-17 Current Liabilities Unearned revenue; reporting 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-18 Payroll Current liabilities associated with payroll 4 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-19 Compensated Absences Accounting for compensated absences 4 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-20 Contingencies Definitions 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-21 Contingencies Application of matching principle with respect to contingencies 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-22 Loss Contingency Two criteria associated with reporting loss contingencies in financial statements 5 Easy 5 Analytic Reporting Comprehension 9-23 Loss Contingency Timing issues associated with recognition of loss contingencies 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Application 9-24 Loss Contingency Litigation 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-25 Loss Contingency Probabilities of loss and accruals; U.S. GAAP; IFRS 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-26 Loss Contingency Range of possible outcomes and accruals; U.S. GAAP; IFRS 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension
- 7. 9-3 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S 9-27 Warranty Costs Accounting for warranty costs 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension 9-28 Gain Contingency Criteria for recognition of gain contingencies 5 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Comprehension M9-1 Accounts Payable Items included and excluded in accounts payable 3 AICPA Easy 5 Analytic Reporting Comprehension M9-2 Current Liabilities Accounting for notes payable and accrued interest 3 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Reporting Comprehension M9-3 Current Liabilities Accounting for customer deposits 3 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension M9-4 Current Liabilities Items included and excluded in accrued expenses 4 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Reporting Application M9-5 Compensated Absences Accounting for future employee absences 4 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Reporting Comprehension M9-6 Compensated Absences Accounting for future employee absences 4 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application M9-7 Payroll Accounting for accrued payroll liability 4 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension M9-8 Gain Contingency Definition 5 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension M9-9 Loss Contingency Definition; accrual vs. disclosure 5 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension M9-10 Warranty Costs Accounting for estimated vs. actual warranty costs 5 AICPA Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-1 Note Payable Account for purchase and note payment; journal entries 3 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension RE9-2 Note Payable Account for purchase and non-interest-bearing note payment; journal entries 3 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension
- 8. 9-4 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S RE9-3 Property Taxes Accounting for monthly property tax expense; journal entries 3 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Comprehension RE9-4 Compensated Absences Accounting for compensated absences; journal entries 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-5 Payroll Accounting for payroll and compensated absences; journal entries 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-6 Sales Tax Payable Sales tax adjusting journal entry 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-7 Payroll Journal entries for payroll and payroll taxes 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-8 Bonus Obligation Calculate bonuses and taxes for the current year 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-9 Warranty Costs Journal entries for assurance- type warranty costs 5 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-10 Warranty Costs Journal entries for service- type warranty costs 5 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application RE9-11 Loss Contingency Journal entries to record estimated liability from pending lawsuit 5 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application E9-1 Accounts Payable and Cash Discounts Accounts payable, perpetual inventory system; net-of-cash discount approach; journal entries; conceptual extension; next level 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Application
- 9. 9-5 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S E9-2 Notes Payable Periodic inventory system, interest-bearing; journal entries to record transactions 3 Easy 5 Analytic Measurement Application E9-3 Non-Interest- Bearing Notes Payable Non-interest-bearing; journal entries, balance sheet disclosure; effective interest rate calculation; conceptual extension; next level 3 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-4 Discounting of Notes Payable Discounted, present value techniques; journal entries; balance sheet disclosure 3 Moderate 15 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-5 Disclosure of Debt Balance sheet disclosure of currently maturing portion of long-term debt 3 Easy 10 Analytic Reporting Application E9-6 Short-Term Debt Expected to Be Refinanced Expected to be refinanced; balance sheet disclosure 3 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-7 Short-Term Debt Expected to Be Refinanced Refinanced; balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 3 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-8 Refundable Deposits Journal entries to receipt and refund of deposit; forfeiture of deposit 3 Easy 5 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-9 Unearned Revenue: Gift Certificates Journal entries to record transactions; balance sheet disclosure 3 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-10 Property Taxes Monthly journal entries; amount of year-end liability 3 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application E9-11 Property Taxes Accruals; journal entries to record all property tax transactions 3 Moderate 10 Analytic Measurement Analysis
- 10. 9-6 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S E9-12 Compensated Absences No sick leave taken; journal entries; balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 4 Easy 10 Analytic Reporting Application E9-13 Sales Taxes Journal entries to record various transactions 4 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application E9-14 Payroll and Payroll Taxes Payroll taxes; journal entries to record payroll transactions 4 Moderate 10 Analytic Measurement Analysis E9-15 Bonus Obligation Computation of bonus and income tax expense 4 Moderate 10 Analytic Measurement Analysis E9-16 Loss Contingency Necessary journal entries and/or disclosures; IFRS terminology 5 Moderate 10 Analytic Measurement Analysis E9-17 Assurance-Type Warranties Journal entries; balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 5 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-18 Service-Type Warranties Journal entries; balance sheet disclosure 5 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-19 Premium Obligation Journal entries to record sale; premium plan; balance sheet disclosure 5 Moderate 15 Analytic Reporting Analysis E9-20 Premium Obligation Journal entries to record premium promotion; balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 5 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Analysis
- 11. 9-7 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S E9-21 Cash Rebates Journal entries to record cash rebate and redemption 5 Moderate 10 Analytic Reporting Application E9-22 Gain Contingency Discussion of accounting treatment as called for by GAAP; next level 5 Easy 10 Analytic Measurement Application P9-1 Accounts Payable and Cash Discounts Accounts payable, net-of- cash discount method; journal entries, balance sheet disclosure; current ratio calculation; conceptual extension; next level 3 Moderate 25 Analytic Reporting Application P9-2 Notes Payable and Effective Interest Interest-bearing, non-interest- bearing; computation of cash received, effective interest rate, interest expense; journal entries; conceptual extension; next level 3 Moderate 25 Analytic Measurement Application P9-3 Trade Note Transactions Interest-bearing; journal entries to record transactions; year-end adjusting entries 3 Moderate 25 Analytic Measurement Application P9-4 Short-Term Debt Expected to Be Refinanced Expected to be refinanced; balance sheet disclosure before and after refinancing; next level 3 Moderate 25 Analytic Reporting Application P9-5 Short-Term Debt Expected to Be Refinanced Expected to be refinanced; balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 3 Moderate 15 Analytic Reporting Analysis
- 12. 9-8 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S P9-6 Non-Interest-Bearing Note Payable: Present Value Non-interest-bearing; present value techniques; journal entries; balance sheet disclosure 3 Challenging 35 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-7 Property Taxes Monthly journal entries; balance sheet disclosure 3 Moderate 25 Analytic Reporting Analysis P9-8 Compensated Absences Sick pay, vacation pay; journal entries, balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 4 Challenging 35 Analytic Reporting Analysis P9-9 Payroll and Payroll Taxes Payroll taxes; calculation of tax amount; journal entries 4 Moderate 25 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-10 Bonus Obligation and Income Tax Expense Computation of total compensation and income tax expense 4 Moderate 20 Analytic Reporting Analysis P9-11 Sales Taxes Journal entries, balance sheet disclosure 4 Moderate 15 Analytic Reporting Analysis P9-12 Contingencies Journal entries for various types of contingencies; explanations; account for IFRS differences; next level 5 Challenging 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-13 Contingencies Determine journal entries or note disclosures for subscriptions, self-insurance, and two lawsuits; account for IFRS differences 5 AICPA Challenging 25 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-14 Assurance-Type Warranty Journal entries, balance sheet disclosure; conceptual extension; next level 5 Moderate 25 Analytic Reporting Analysis
- 13. 9-9 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S P9-15 Service-Type Warranty Implied service contract; journal entries 5 Moderate 15 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-16 Premium Obligation Journal entries to record sales, purchases, redemptions; closing entries; month-end balance sheet disclosures 5 Challenging 35 Analytic Reporting Analysis P9-17 Comprehensive Various current liabilities; journal entries 3, 4 Challenging 35 Analytic Measurement Analysis P9-18 Comprehensive Various current liabilities; journal entries 3, 4, 5 Challenging 40 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-1 Short-Term Debt Expected to Be Refinanced Various debt to be refinanced; liability classification; balance sheet disclosure 3 Moderate 20 Analytic Reporting Analysis C9-2 Loss Contingencies Warranty; self-insurance; accrual or note disclosure 5 AICPA Moderate 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-3 Contingency Conditions and Disclosure Conditions for accrual and note disclosure 5 AICPA Easy 20 Analytic Measurement Application C9-4 Pending Damage Suit Disclosure Loss contingency; accrual or note disclosure; litigation 5 Moderate 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-5 Various Contingency Issues Product defect; promotion campaign; claims for damages; accrual or note disclosure associated with loss contingency 5 AICPA Moderate 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis
- 14. 9-10 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. NUMBER TOPIC CONTENT LO ADAPTED DIFFICULTY TIME EST. AACSB AICPA BLOOM’S C9-6 Various Contingency Issues Accrual or note disclosure associated with loss contingency 5 AICPA Moderate 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-7 Product and Lawsuit Contingencies Accounting for warranty costs 5 AICPA Moderate 20 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-8 Ethics and Environmental Damage Ethics; contingent liabilities; environmental liabilities Challenging 25 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-9 Analyzing Starbucks’ Current Liabilities and Contingencies Disclosures Using real company annual reports; current liabilities; accounts payable; loans or notes payable; contingent liabilities Moderate 25 Analytic Measurement Application C9-10 Analyzing Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s (LVMH) Current Liabilities and Contingencies Current liabilities; short-term borrowings; provisions; other current liabilities; IFRS; using real company annual reports Moderate 25 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-11 Researching GAAP Accounting for inventory, notes payable, storage fees, repurchase agreements, etc.; using the FASB Codification System Moderate 30 Analytic Measurement Analysis C9-12 Researching GAAP Accounting for product recall liabilities; loss contingencies; using the FASB Codification System Challenging 30 Analytic Measurement Analysis
- 15. 9-11 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. ANSWERS TO Got IT? 9-1 Liabilities are the probable future sacrifices of economic benefits arising from present obligations of a company to transfer assets or provide services to other entities in the future as a result of past transactions or events. Probable refers to what can reasonably be expected or believed based on available evidence or logic. Obligations refer to duties imposed legally or socially which one is bound to do by contract, promise, or moral responsibility. 9-2 A legal liability is incurred in a transaction that is contractual and requires payment of cash or provision of services to other entities in the future. Examples are accounts payable, notes payable, and sales taxes payable. Equitable and constructive liabilities are those where there is no legal requirement for assets to be transferred, but a transfer of assets typically occurs as a part of the normal operations of a business. Examples of equitable and constructive liabilities are obligations for vacation pay and year-end bonuses to employees. 9-3 The three characteristics of a liability are: 1. It is a present obligation that will be settled by a probable future sacrifice involving the transfer of assets, provision of services, or other use of assets or at a specified or determinable date. 2. The company has little or no discretion to avoid the future sacrifice of economic benefits. 3. The transaction, event, or arrangement obligating the company has already happened. The main features of these three characteristics are the transfer or use of assets, the requirement for settlement of the obligation, and the fact that the liability transaction must have already occurred. 9-4 False. A company does not need to know the identity of the recipient before the time of settlement, as long as the three characteristics of a liability are met. 9-5 The primary issues include: (a) the identification of liabilities—the detection of a company’s obligations; (2) valuation and measurement of the liabilities and the related revenue or expense—the determination of an amount to record for each obligation and to record as a revenue or expense; (3) the reporting on the financial statements—the specific disclosures in both the company’s financial statements and the related notes. 9-6 The operating cycle of a company is the period of time that elapses between the use of cash to buy inventory, the sale of this inventory resulting in accounts receivable, and the collection of these receivables in cash. 9-7 The liquidity of liabilities is important in accounting for them because users (investors, creditors, and other decision makers) evaluate future cash flows in their decision- making processes. In part, financial statement users predict future cash inflows from liquid assets relative to future cash outflows needed to meet liabilities coming due.
- 16. 9-12 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 9-8 Financial flexibility refers to a company’s ability to use its financial resources to adapt to change and to take advantage of opportunities. This involves the management of cash and other resources as well as the potential to create new current and long- term liabilities and to restructure existing debt. Therefore, a company with greater financial flexibility generally has a greater ability to manage its debt relative to a company with less financial flexibility. 9-9 Conceptually, a company should record and report on its balance sheet all liabilities at the present value of the future payments they will require; however, in practice current liabilities are valued at their face amount. Due to the short time period involved, the difference between the maturity amount and the present value of current liabilities is not material. The slight overstatement which results from recording current liabilities at their maturity amount is justified on the basis of materiality and the cost constraint. 9-10 Both interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing notes payable are promissory notes that require the borrower to repay a sum of money on a specific date. Both notes require the payment of interest and principal. For an interest-bearing note, the principal amount equals the face value of the note, and the interest rate is stated explicitly on the note. For a non-interest-bearing note, the face amount of the note includes both principal and interest to maturity. The borrower receives less than the face value of the note, and, therefore, the interest is implied as the difference between the face value of the note and the cash received. The proceeds of a non-interest-bearing note are computed by multiplying the face value times the interest rate times the fraction of a year until maturity, and then subtracting this amount from the face amount. 9-11 Generally, a company classifies the currently maturing portion of long-term debt as a current liability. Therefore, the entire amount of the bonds payable ($300,000) would be reported as a current liability to show the effect on the company’s liquidity. 9-12 If a liability becomes callable by the creditor within 1 year, a company should report the entire amount of the long-term obligation as a current liability. The only exceptions are if (1) the creditor has waived the right to request repayment for more than 1 year from the balance sheet date or (2) it is probable that the company will resolve the violation within a specified grace period, thus preventing it from becoming callable. 9-13 The two criteria that must be met before a company can classify a short-term debt that is expected to be refinanced as a noncurrent liability are (1) the company intends to refinance on a long-term basis and (2) it has the ability to refinance on a long-term basis. 9-14 A company demonstrates the ability to refinance currently maturing short-term debt in one of two ways: 1. The company has issued long-term debt or equity for the short-term debt after the date of its balance sheet but before that balance sheet is issued. 2. The company has entered into a long-term financing agreement before the balance sheet is issued that clearly permits the company to refinance the short- term debt on a long-term basis.
- 17. 9-13 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 9-15 Declared but unpaid cash dividends are reported as current liabilities on a company’s balance sheet if the company expects to distribute the cash dividend within the following year. In contrast, stock dividends (dividends payable in shares of stock) are not reported as a current liability because they do not require a distribution of assets. Instead , they require a distribution of a company’s own stock and are reported as an element of shareholders’ equity. 9-16 Donald should estimate and accrue property taxes in equal monthly amounts during Orange County’s fiscal year. Therefore, Donald will begin accruing a property tax liability in October based on its estimate. This liability will be reported as a current liability on Donald’s balance sheet. (If Donald has paid the property tax prior to the end of the year, a prepaid asset may be reported.) Any difference between the actual and estimated property taxes is treated as a change in accounting estimate. 9-17 Unearned revenue arises when a company collects amounts in advance of satisfying its performance obligations. Because the amount has been collected but the performance obligation has not yet been satisfied, it is reported as a liability. If the company expects to satisfy the performance obligation (e.g., deliver the good or perform the service) within the upcoming year (or operating cycle, if longer), the liability is classified as a current liability on a company’s balance sheet. 9-18 An employer has various types of payroll-related liabilities. First, the employer has a current liability related to employee withholdings for income taxes. The employer must remit these withheld amounts to the appropriate governmental authorities at specified times and through specified channels. Second, social security legislation requires that employers withhold Federal Insurance Contribution Act (F.I.C.A.) taxes from the wages of each employee. These amounts are remitted to the Internal Revenue Service along with any income taxes withheld. Third, the employer incurs a liability for unemployment insurance taxes. Finally, any voluntary payroll deductions of the employee (e.g., group health insurance, life insurance, union dues, retirement contributions) create a current liability of the employer until these amounts are remitted to the appropriate entity. 9-19 Compensated absences are employee absences including vacation, holiday, illness, or other personal activities for which a company pays its employees. Items such as severance pay, share options, and long-term fringe benefits are not included. A company accounts for compensated absences by recording an expense and accruing a liability if: (1) the obligation is based on employee services already rendered, (2) it relates to rights that vest or accumulate, (3) payment is probable, and (4) the amount can be reasonably estimated. If all conditions are met except the ability to make a reasonable estimate, the company discloses the facts relating to the other conditions in the notes to its financial statements. 9-20 A contingency is an existing condition, situation, or set of circumstances involving uncertainty as to possible gain or loss that will be resolved when a future event occurs or fails to occur. Here, “uncertainty” means that a company is uncertain about the outcome of the future event that will either confirm or deny that a liability exists due to an event that has already taken place.
- 18. 9-14 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 9-21 The matching principle refers to the fact that a company should match expenses arising from an existing condition with current revenues. To wait until the contingency is confirmed to account for it would overstate current income and understate future income. Accounting for contingencies is conservative because generally only loss contingencies are accrued. Gain contingencies are usually not recognized until they are actually realized. 9-22 The two criteria that must be met before a loss contingency is reported in a company’s financial statements are: (1) it is probable that a liability has been incurred (or an asset has been impaired), and (2) the company can reasonably estimate the amount of the loss. 9-23 The event that results in a possible loss must have occurred by the balance sheet date. A company has until the date of issuance of the financial statements to assess the probability of loss. 9-24 The conditions that must be met for a company to accrue the loss from an unfiled lawsuit include: 1. The event resulting in the possible lawsuit must have occurred before the date of the financial statements. 2. It is probable that the outcome of the lawsuit will result in a loss unfavorable. 3. The amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. 9-25 Under IFRS, a provision that has a 51% chance of occurring is accrued because IFRS use probable to mean the outcome is more likely than not to occur. Under U.S. GAAP, the term probable is used to mean the outcome is likely to occur, which is a more stringent threshold. Because of this difference in the use of the term probable, it is likely that the amount would not be accrued under U.S. GAAP. It is “expected” that there will be more accruals of loss contingencies under IFRS than under U.S. GAAP. 9-26 Under IFRS, if there is a range of possible outcomes with no amount being more likely than another, the amount accrued as a provision (loss contingency) would be measured as the mid-point of the range ($80,000). 9-27 For an assurance-type warranty, a company recognizes the estimated warranty expense and a liability for future performance in the period of sale. For a service-type warranty, a company defers revenue from the sale of the warranty contract and generally recognizes it as the company satisfies its performance obligation (on a straight-line basis over the life of the contract). Any costs necessary to satisfy the warranty are generally expensed as incurred. 9-28 A gain contingency is a potential increase in its assets or a potential decrease in its liabilities, dependent upon the occurrence of some future event. A gain contingency may be disclosed in the notes to the company’s financial statements, but care should be taken to avoid misleading users as to the likelihood of realization of the possible gain.
- 19. 9-15 © 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. ANSWERS TO MULTIPLE-CHOICE 1. c $1,200,000 + $85,000 + $40,000 2. c 3. b 4. a ($800,000 – $200,000) × 0.06 = $36,000 + ($6,000 × 6/12) 5. d $100,000 + $25,000 6. c 2 weeks × $500 = $1,000 7. d 8. a 9. b 10. d ($1,400,000 × 0.12) – $63,000 SOLUTIONS TO REVIEW EXERCISES RE9-1 October 1: Inventory ...................................................................................................... 30,000 Notes Payable...................................................................................... 30,000 December 1: Notes Payable............................................................................................. 30,000 Interest Expense ($30,000 × 10% × 60/360).............................................. 500 Cash....................................................................................................... 30,500 RE9-2 October 1: Inventory ...................................................................................................... 29,250 Discount on Notes Payable ($30,000 × 15% × 60/360) .......................... 750 Notes Payable...................................................................................... 30,000 December 1: Interest Expense.......................................................................................... 750 Discount on Notes Payable................................................................ 750 Notes Payable............................................................................................. 30,000 Cash....................................................................................................... 30,000 RE9-3 April 1 and May 1 journal entries: Property Tax Expense ($17,400 ÷ 12)........................................................ 1,450 Property Taxes Payable ...................................................................... 1,450 June 1 journal entry: Property Taxes Payable (2 × $1,450)........................................................ 2,900 Prepaid Property Taxes.............................................................................. 14,100 Cash....................................................................................................... 17,000 July through March monthly property tax expense: $14,100 ÷ 10 months = $1,410 per month
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- 21. Hittites, be gone! no more appear to hurt or to annoy: Now Israel's sons in peace succeed, and Canaan's land enjoy. Behold from Edom I appear with garments dipt in blood; My sons are freed and saved, and wash'd amidst the purple flood. The law, or moon, imperfect was to save— But now the star points dead men to the grave. "Mercy benign appears—The Gospel Son embraces all—The Spirit and the Bride invite, and offer wine and milk—but not to mockers here. Infinity of love and grace! Gentiles and Jews unite, no more from love to part. Six days are past—Peter, and James, and John, behold my glory in my word. "The Law and Prophets now are seen with Jesus' word to shine, But what hast thou, thou serpent here, to do with love benign? "Tremble and flee,'tis done. The seals are burst—the vials pour and end thy destiny. "These are a small part of the thoughts of the judgments of God pronounced on Satan," concludes the writer, who is a gentleman of vast respectability. One of her books has the title printed on the last page, because it was ordered that the book should contain neither more nor less than forty-eight pages. Another has a seal in the middle of it, bearing the letters J. C.—the J., it is said, being meant for Jesus and Joanna!!
- 23. LETTER LXXI. The Coxcomb.—Fashionables.—Fops—Egyptian Fashions.—Dances.— Visiting.—Walkers.—The Fancy.—Agriculturists.—The Fat Ox.—The Royal Institution.—Metaphysics. Whether the Coxcomb be an animal confined to Europe I know not, but in every country in Christendom he is to be found with the same generic character. Pien di smorfiose grazie, E mastro assai profondo Nelle importanti inezie, Nei nulli del bel mondo; E in quella soavissima Arte tanto eloquente, Che sa si lungo spazio Parlar senza dir niente. Con tratti di malizia, A spese altrui festivo; Sempre in bocca risuonagli Quel tuono decisivo, Quell' insolenza amabile, Che con egual franchezza Con un' occhiata rapida O tutto loda, o sprezza.[26] There is however no country in which there are so many varieties of the animal as in England, none where he flourishes so successfully, makes such heroic endeavours for notoriety, and enjoys so wide a sphere of it. The highest order is that of those who have invented for themselves the happy title of Fashionables. These gentlemen stand highest in the scale of folly, and lowest in that of intellect, of any in the country, inasmuch as the rivalry between them is which shall
- 24. excel his competitors in frivolity. There was a man in England half a century ago well known for this singular kind of insanity, that he believed his soul had been annihilated within him, while he was yet living. What this poor maniac conceived to have been done by his soul, these gentlemen have successfully accomplished for themselves with their intellect. Their souls might be lodged in a nutshell without incommoding the maggot who previously tenanted it; and if the whole stock of their ideas were transferred to the maggot, they would not be sufficient to confuse his own. It is impossible to describe them, because no idea can be formed of infinite littleness: you might as reasonably attempt to dissect a bubble, or to bottle moonshine, as to investigate their characters: they prove satisfactorily the existence of a vacuum: the sum total of their being is composed of negative quantities. One degree above or below these are the fops who appear in a tangible shape; they who prescribe fashions to the tailor, that the tailor may prescribe them to the town; who decide upon the length of a neck-handkerchief, and regulate the number of buttons at the knees of their breeches. One person has attained the very summit of ambition by excelling all others in the jet varnish of his boots. Infinite are the exertions which have been made to equal him,—the secret of projection could not be more eagerly desired than the receipt of his blacking; and there is one competitor whose boots are allowed to approach very near to the same point of perfection;—still they only approach it. This meritorious rival loses the race of fame by half a neck, and in such contests it is aut Cæsar, aut nihil. To have the best blacked boots in the world, is a worthy object of successful emulation,—but to have only the second-best, is to be Pompey in the Pharsalia of Fashion. During one period of the French Revolution the Brutus head-dress was the mode, though Brutus was at the same time considered as the Judas Iscariot of political religion, being indeed at this day to an orthodox Anti-Jacobin what Omar is to the Persians; that is, something a great deal worse than the Devil. "I suppose, sir," said a London hair-dresser to a gentleman from the country,—"I suppose,
- 25. sir, you would like to be dressed in the Brutus style." "What style is that?" was the question in reply. "All over frizzley, sir, like the Negers, —They be Brutes you know." If Apollo be the model of the day, these gentlemen wear stays; if Hercules, the tailor supplies breasts of buckram, broad shoulders, and brawny arms. At present, as the soldiers from Egypt have brought home with them broken limbs and ophthalmia, they carry an arm in a sling, or walk the streets with a green shade over the eyes. Every thing now must be Egyptian: the ladies wear crocodile ornaments, and you sit upon a sphinx in a room hung round with mummies, and with the long black lean- armed long-nosed hieroglyphical men, who are enough to make the children afraid to go to bed. The very shopboards must be metamorphosed into the mode, and painted in Egyptian letters, which, as the Egyptians had no letters, you will doubtless conceive must be curious. They are simply the common characters, deprived of all beauty and all proportion by having all the strokes of equal thickness, so that those which should be thin look as if they had the elephantiasis. Men are tempted to make themselves notorious in England by the ease with which they succeed. The newspapers, in the dearth of matter for filling their daily columns, are glad to insert any thing,— when one lady comes to town, when another leaves it, when a third expects her accouchement; the grand dinner of one gentleman, and the grand supper of another are announced before they take place; the particulars are given after the action, a list of the company inserted, the parties who danced together exhibited like the characters of a drama in an English bill of the play, and the public are informed what dances were called for, and by whom. There is something so peculiarly elegant and appropriate in the names of the fashionable dances, that it is proper to give you a specimen. Moll in the Wad is one;—you must excuse me for not translating this, for really I do not understand it. Drops of Brandy, another; and two which are at present in high vogue are, The Devil among the Tailors, and Go to the Devil and shake yourself. At these balls, the floors are chalked in colours in carpet patterns, a hint taken from the lame
- 26. beggars who write their petitions upon the flag-stones in the street. This is so excellently done, that one should think it would be painful to trample on and destroy any thing so beautiful, even though only made to be destroyed. These things indicate the same sort of want of feeling as the ice-palaces of Russia, and the statue of snow made by Michel Angelo at Pietro de Medici's command. We are surrounded in this world with what is perishable, that we may be taught to set our hearts and hopes upon the immutable and everlasting;—it is ill done, then, to make perishableness the food of pride. The system of visiting in high life is brought to perfection in this country. Were a lady to call in person upon all the numerous acquaintance whom she wishes sometimes to crowd together at her Grand Parties, her whole time would be too little to go from door to door. This, therefore, being confessedly impossible, the card- currency of etiquette was issued, and the name dropt by a servant, allowed to have the same saving virtue of civility as the real presence. But the servants began to find this a hard duty, and found out that they were working like postmen without any necessity for so doing; so they agreed at last to meet at certain pot-houses, and exchange cards, or leave them there as at a post-office, where each in turn calls to deposit all with which he is charged, and to receive all which are designed for him. I have spoken elsewhere of the Turf, a road to fame always, and oftentimes to ruin; but for this so large a fortune is required, that the famous must always be few. A man, however, of moderate, or of no fortune, may acquire great glory by riding a score of horses almost or quite to death, for the sake of showing in how short a time he can go fifty leagues. Others, with a nobler ambition, delight in displaying their own speed. I know not whether Christoval de Mesa would have said of this sort of walking or of running, as he did of the game of pelota: Es el que mas a la virtud se llega, que ni entorpece, ni el ingenio embota, antes da ligereza y exercita, y pocos que la juegan tienen gota.[27]
- 27. I know not whether he would have said this of their exercise; but this I know, that some of the English gentlemen would make the best running footmen in the world. Another school—to borrow a term from the Philosophers—is that of the Amateurs of Boxing, who call themselves the Fancy. They attend the academies of the two great professors Jackson and Mendoza, the Aristotle and Plato of pugilism,—bring up youths of promise from the country to be trained, and match them according to their wind, science, and bottom. But I am writing to the uninitiated,—bottom means courage, that sort of it which will endure a great deal. Too much vivacity is rather against a man; if he indulges in any flourishes or needless gesticulations he wastes his wind, and though he may be admitted to be a pleasant fighter, this is considered as a disadvantage. When the champion comes off victor, after suffering much in the contest, he is said to be much punished. There is something to be attended to besides science, which is the body: it is expedient to swallow raw eggs for the wind, and to feed upon beef as nearly raw as possible: they who do this, and practise with weights in their hands, are said to cultivate the muscles. Upon the brutality of this amusement I have already said something, nor is it needful to comment upon what is so apparent;— but it is just that I should now state what may truly be said in its defence. It is alleged, that in consequence of this custom, no people decide their quarrels with so little injury to each other as the English. The Dutch slice each other with their snickersnees; we know how deadly the knife is employed in our country;—the American twists the hair of his enemy round his thumb, and scoops out an eye with his finger;—but in England a boxing-match settles all disputes among the lower classes, and when it is over they shake hands, and are friends. Another equally beneficial effect is the security afforded to the weaker by the laws of honour, which forbid all undue advantages; the man who should aim a blow below the waist, who should kick his antagonist, strike him when he is down, or attempt to injure him after he had yielded, would be sure to experience the resentment of the mob, who, on such occasions, always assemble to
- 28. see what they call fair play, which they enforce as rigidly as the Knights of the Round Table did the laws of chivalry. The next persons to be noticed are those who seek notoriety by more respectable means; but, following wise pursuits foolishly, live in a sort of intellectual limbo between the worlds of Wisdom and Folly. The fashionable agriculturists are of this class: men who assume, as the creed of their philosophical belief, a foolish saying of some not very wise author, "That he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, is the greatest benefactor to his species." With these persons, the noblest employment of human intellect is to improve the size of turnips and cabbages, and for this they lay aside all other studies. "When my friends come to see me in the summer," said one of these gentlemen, "I like to hear them complain that they have not been able to sleep in their beds for heat, because then I know things are growing out of doors." Quicquid amat valde amat, may truly be said of the Englishman; his pursuit always becomes his passion; and, if great follies are oftentimes committed in consequence of this ardour, it must not be forgotten that it leads also to great actions, and to important public benefits. Of this class the breeders are the most remarkable, and least useful. Their object is to improve the cattle of the country, for which purpose they negotiate with the utmost anxiety the amours of their cows and sheep. Such objects, exclusively pursued, tend little to improve either the intellect or the manners:—these people will apply to a favourite pig, or a Herefordshire bull, the same epithets of praise and exclamations of delight, which a sculptor would bestow upon the Venus de Medici, or the Apollo Belvidere. This passion is carried to an incredible degree of folly: the great object of ambition is to make the animal as fat as possible, by which means it is diseased and miserable while it lives, and of no use to any but the tallow-chandler when dead. At this very time there is a man in London belonging to a fat ox, who has received more money for having fattened this ox than Newton obtained for all his discoveries, or Shakspeare for all his works. Crowds go to see the monster, which
- 29. is a shapeless mass of living fat. A picture has been painted both of man and beast, a print engraved from it in order that the one may be immortalized as the fattest ox that ever was seen, and the other, as the man that fed him to that size; and two thousand persons have subscribed for this at a guinea each. A fat pig has been set up against him, which, I know not why, does not seem to take. The pig is acknowledged to be a pig of great merit, but he is in a manner neglected, and his man complains of the want of taste in the public. To end the list of fashions, what think you of philosophy in fashion? You must know that though the wise men of old could find out no royal road to the mathematics, in England they have been more ingenious, and have made many short cuts to philosophy for the accommodation of ladies and gentlemen. The arts and sciences are now taught in lectures to fashionable audiences of both sexes; and there is a Royal Institution for this purpose, where some of the most scientific men in the kingdom are thus unworthily employed. I went there one morning with J. and his wife,—whom you are not to suspect of going for any other purpose than to see the place. Part of the men were taking snuff to keep their eyes open, others more honestly asleep, while the ladies were all upon the watch, and some score of them had their tablet and pencils, busily noting down what they heard, as topics for the next conversation party. "Oh!" said J. when he came out, in a tone which made it half groan half interjection, "the days of tapestry hangings and worked chair- bottoms were better days than these!—I will go and buy for Harriet the Whole Duty of Woman, containing the complete Art of Cookery." But even oxygen and hydrogen are not subjects sufficiently elevated for all. Mind and matter, free will and necessity, are also fashionable topics of conversation; and you shall hear the origin of ideas explained, the nature of volition elucidated, and the extent of space and the duration of time discussed over a tea-table with admirable volubility. Nay, it is well if one of these orators does not triumphantly show you that there is nothing but misery in the world, prove that you must either limit the power of God or the goodness, and then modestly leave you to determine which. Another effect this
- 30. of the general passion for distinction: the easiest way of obtaining access into literary society, and getting that kind of notoriety, is by professing to be a metaphysician, because of such metaphysics a man may get as much in half an hour as in his whole life. At present the English philosophers and politicians, both male and female, are in a state of great alarm. It has been discovered that the world is over-peopled, and that it always must be so, from an error in the constitution of nature; that the law which says "Increase and multiply," was given without sufficient consideration; in short, that He who made the world does not know how to manage it properly, and therefore there are serious thoughts of requesting the English Parliament to take the business out of his hands. [26] Full of affected graces, and a master sufficiently profound of the important inanities, the nothings of the fine world; and of that sweetest art so eloquent, which can talk so long and say nothing; with traits of malice, mirthful at another's expense: always in his mouth that decisive tone, that amiable insolence, which, with equal freedom at a glance, praises or condemns by wholesale.—Tr. [27] It is that which most approaches to virtue, which neither stupifies, nor degrades the understanding, but, on the contrary, exercises it and gives agility, and few who play at it have the gout.—Tr.
- 32. LETTER LXXII. Westminster Abbey on Fire.—Frequency of Fires in England.—Means devised for preventing and for extinguishing them; but not in Use. I was fortunate enough this morning to witness a very grand and extraordinary sight. As D. and I were walking towards the west end of the town, we met an acquaintance who told us that Westminster Abbey was on fire. We lost no time in going to the spot; the roof was just smoking sufficiently to show us that the intelligence was true, but that the building was no longer in danger. The crowd which had collected was by no means so great as we had expected.—Soldiers were placed at the doors to keep out idle intruders, and admit such only as might properly be admitted. The sight when we entered was truly striking. Engines were playing in the church, and the long leathern pipes which conveyed the water stretched along the pavement. The roof at the joint of the cross, immediately over the choir, had fallen in, and the huge timbers lay black and smoking, in heaps, upon the pews which they had crushed. A pulpit, of fine workmanship, stood close by unhurt. Smaller fragments, and sparks of fire, were from time to time falling down; and the water which was still spouted up in streams, fell in showers, and hissed upon the hot ruins below. We soon perceived that no real injury was done to the church, though considerable damage was inflicted upon the funds of the chapter.—The part which was thus consumed had not been finished like the rest of the building; instead of masonry, it had been from some paltry motives of parsimony made of wood, and lined on the inside with painted canvas, in a miserable style. All this patchwork was now destroyed, as it deserved to be; and the light coming in from above, slanted on the fretted roof, the arches and pillars, which stood unhurt and perfectly secure.
- 33. The Westminster boys were working an engine in the cloisters with hearty goodwill. D., who had been educated at Westminster himself, said they were glad at the fire; indeed, he confessed that he did not himself look without satisfaction upon the ruins of the pew, where he had formerly been compelled to sit so many hours in the cold. The pavement in that part of the abbey which is called Poet's Corner sunk considerably in consequence of the water, the earth in the graves probably sinking when wet: so much so that the stones must be taken up and laid anew. What an opportunity of examining the skulls of so many celebrated men! If professor Blumenbach were but an Englishman, or if the dean and chapter were physiologists, these relics would now be collected and preserved. One of the graves would exhibit curious contents, if any such curiosity should be indulged. An old countess, who died not long since after a very singular life, gave orders in her will that she should be buried in Poets' Corner, as near as possible to Shakspeare's monument, dressed in her wedding suit, and with a speaking trumpet in her coffin. These orders her executors were obliged to perform to the letter. Accordingly, a grave was solicited and granted for a due consideration in this holy ground; the old lady was equipped in her bridal array, packed up for the journey, and ready to set off, when it was discovered that the speaking-trumpet had been forgotten. What was to be done? This was in a remote part of the country; there was not such a thing to be purchased within a dozen leagues, and the will was not to be trifled with. Luckily some person there present recollected that a gentleman in the neighbourhood had a speaking-trumpet, which had been left him by a sea-captain as a memorial of an old friend, and which for that reason he particularly valued. A messenger was immediately dispatched to borrow this; of course he was careful not to say for what it was wanted: as soon as it was brought, it was put by her side in the coffin, the coffin was soldered down, off posted the funeral for London, and if the rightful owner does not look after his trumpet now, he will have no other opportunity till he hears the old lady
- 34. flourish upon it at the resurrection, for which purpose it is to be presumed, she chose to have it at hand. This mischief, which might have been in its consequences so deplorable, was occasioned by the carelessness of some plumbers, who were at work upon the roof. Old St Paul's was destroyed just in this way: it is surprising how many accidents of this kind have happened from the same cause, and provoking to think, that so great and venerable a work of piety and human genius, and human power, should have been so near destruction by the stupid negligence of a common labourer! They burn in the hand for accidental homicide in this country;[28] a little application of hot iron for accidental church-burning would be a punishment in kind for a neglect of duty, so dangerous, that it ought not to be unpunished. When carelessness endangers the life or welfare of another, it ought to be regarded as a crime. A fire is the only ordinary spectacle in this great metropolis which I have not seen; for this cannot be called such, though in its effect finer than any conflagration.—Fires are so frequently happening, that I may consider myself as unfortunate. The traveller who is at London without seeing a fire, and at Naples without witnessing an eruption of Vesuvius, is out of luck. The danger of fire is one to which the Londoners are more exposed than any people in the world, except, perhaps, the inhabitants of Constantinople. Their earth-coal must be considered as one main cause—pieces of this are frequently exploded into the room. The carelessness of servants is another; for nothing but candles are used to give light for domestic purposes, and accidents happen from a candle which could not from a lamp. The accumulation of furniture in an English house is so much fuel in readiness; all the floors are boarded, all the bedsteads are of wood, all the beds have curtains. I have heard of a gentleman who set the tail of his shirt on fire as he was stepping into bed, the flames caught the curtains, and the house was consumed. You may easily suppose this adventure obtained for him the name of The Comet.
- 35. Means have been devised for preventing fires, for extinguishing them, and for escaping from them. David Hartley, son to a great English philosopher of the same name, proposed to line every room with plates of metal, and Lord Stanhope invented a kind of mortar for the same purpose. Both methods have been tried with complete success; but they will never be adopted unless a law be passed to compel the adoption. For houses in London, and indeed in all large towns, are built for sale, and the builder will not incur the expense of making them fire-proof, because, if they are burnt, he is not the person who is to be burnt in them. And if he who builds for himself in the country, were disposed to avail himself of these inventions, should he have heard of them, the difficulty of instructing labourers in the use of any thing which they have not been used to, is such, that rather than attempt it, he submits to the same hazard as his neighbours. You would suppose, however, that there could be no objection to the use of any means for extinguishing fires. Balls for this purpose were invented by Mr Godfrey, son to the inventor of a famous quack- medicine; but the son's fire-balls did not succeed so well as the father's cordial.—Succeed, indeed, they did, in effecting what was intended; for, when one of them was thrown into a room which had been filled with combustibles and set on fire for the purpose of experiment, it exploded, and instantly quenched it. But there was an objection to the use of these balls which Mr Godfrey had not foreseen. It is a trade in England to put out fires, and the English have a proverb that "All trades must live;" which is so thoroughly admitted by all ranks and degrees, that if the elixir of life were actually to be discovered, the furnishers of funerals would present a petition to parliament, praying that it might be prohibited, in consideration of the injury they must otherwise sustain; and in all probability, parliament would permit their plea. The continuance of the slave trade, in consideration of the injury which the dealers in human flesh would sustain by its abolishment, would be a precedent. The firemen made a conspiracy against Godfrey; and when he or any of his friends attended at a fire, and mounted a
- 36. ladder to throw the balls in, the ladder was always thrown down; so that, as the life of every person who attempted to use them was thus endangered, the thing was given up. The machine for escaping is a sort of iron basket, or chair, fixed in a groove on the outside of the house. I have never seen one at any other place than at the inventor's warehouse. The poet, Gray, was notoriously fearful of fire, and kept a ladder of ropes in his bed- room. Some mischievous young men at Cambridge knew this, and roused him from below, in the middle of a dark night, with the cry of Fire! The staircase, they said, was in flames. Up went his window, and down he came by his rope-ladder, as fast as he could go, into a tub of water which they had placed to receive him. [28] Don Manuel confounds homicide and manslaughter.—Tr.
- 38. LETTER LXXIII. Remarks on the English Language. He who ventures to criticise a foreign language should bear in mind that he is in danger of exposing his own ignorance. "What a vile language is yours!" said a Frenchman to an Englishman;—"you have the same word for three different things! There is ship, un vaisseau; ship (sheep) mouton; and ship (cheap) bon marché."—Now these three words, so happily instanced by Monsieur, are pronounced as differently as they are spelt. As I see his folly, it will be less excusable should I commit the same myself. The English is rather a hissing than a harsh language, and perhaps this was the characteristic to which Charles V. alluded, when he said it was fit to speak to birds in. It has no gutturals like ours, no nasal twang like the Portugueze and French; but the perpetual sibilance is very grating. If the Rabbis have not discovered in what language the Serpent tempted Eve, they need not look beyond the English; it has the true mark of his enunciation. I think this characteristic of the language may be accounted for by the character of the nation. They are an active busy people, who like to get through what they are about with the least possible delay, and if two syllables can be shortened into one it is so much time saved. What we do with Vmd. they have done with half the words in their language. They have squeezed the vowel out of their genitives and plurals, and compressed dissyllables into monosyllables. The French do the same kind of thing in a worse way; they in speaking leave half of every word behind them in a hurry; the English pack up theirs close, and hasten on with the whole. It is a concise language, though the grievous want of inflections necessitates a perpetual use of auxiliaries. It would be difficult to fill eight lines of English, adhering closely to the sense, with the
- 39. translation of an octave stanza. Their words are shorter; and though in many cases they must use two and sometimes three, where we need but one, still if the same meaning requires more words, it is contained in fewer syllables, and costs less breath. Weight for weight, a pound of garvanzos[29] will lie in half the compass of a pound of chesnuts. Frenchmen always pronounce English ill; Germans, better; it is easier for a Spaniard than for either. The th, or theta, is their shibboleth; our z has so nearly the same sound that we find little or no difficulty in acquiring it. In fact, the pronunciation would not be difficult if it were not capricious; but the exceptions to any general rule are so numerous, that years and years of practice are hardly sufficient to acquire them. Neither is the pronunciation of the same word alike at all times, for it sometimes becomes the fashion to change the accent. The theatre gives the law in these cases. What can have been the cause of this preposterous and troublesome irregularity is beyond my knowledge. They acknowledge the defect, and many schemes have been devised by speculative writers for improving the orthography, and assimilating it to the oral tongue: but they have all so disfigured the appearance of the language, and so destroyed all visible traces of etymology, that they have only excited ridicule, and have deserved nothing better. It is difficult to acquire, yet far less so than the German and its nearer dialects; the syntax is less involved, and the proportion of Latin words far greater. Dr Johnson, their lexicographer, and the most famous of all their late writers, introduced a great number of sesquipedalian Latinisms, like our Latinists of the seventeenth century. The ladies complain of this, and certainly it was done in a false taste,—but it facilitates a foreigner's progress. I find Johnson for this very reason the easiest English author; his long words are always good stepping-stones, on which I get sure footing. If the size of his dictionary, which is the best and largest, may be regarded as a criterion, the language is not copious. We must not however forget that dictionaries profess to give only the written
- 40. language, and that hundreds and thousands of words, either preserved by the peasantry in remote districts, or created by the daily wants and improvements of society, by ignorance or ingenuity, by whim or by wit, never find their way into books, though they become sterling currency. But that it is not copious may be proved by a few general remarks. The verb and substantive are often the same; they have few diminutives and no augmentatives; and their derivatives are few. You know how many we have from agua; the English have only one from water, which is the adjective watery; and to express the meaning of ours, they either use the simple verb in different senses, or form some composite in the clumsy Dutch way of sticking two words together; agua, water; aguaza, water; aguar, to water; hazer aguada, to water; aguadero, a water-man; aguaducho, a water-pipe; aguado, a water-drinker, &c. &c. And yet, notwithstanding these deficiencies, they tell me it is truly a rich language. Corinthian brass would not be an unapt emblem for it,— materials base and precious melted down into a compound still precious, though debased. They have one name for an animal in English, and another for its flesh;—for instance, cow-flesh is called beef; that of the sheep, mutton; that of the pig, pork. The first is of Saxon, the latter of French origin; and this seems to prove that meat cannot have been the food of the poor in former times. The cookery books retain a technical language from the days when carving was a science, and instruct the reader to cut up a turkey, to rear a goose, to wing a partridge, to thigh a woodcock, to unbrace a duck, to unlace a rabbit, to allay a pheasant, to display a crane, to dismember a hern, and to lift a swan. Their early writers are intelligible to none but the learned, whereas a child can understand the language of the Partidas, though a century anterior to the oldest English work. This late improvement is easily explained by their history: they were a conquered people: the languages of the lord and the subject were different; and it was some ages before that of the people was introduced at court, and into the law proceedings, and that not till it had become so
- 41. amalgamated with the Norman French, as in fact to be no longer Saxon. We, on the contrary, though we lost the greater part of our country, never lost our liberty—nor our mother tongue. What Arabic we have we took from our slaves, not our masters. I can discover, but not discriminate, provincial intonations, and sometimes provincial accentuation; but the peculiar words, or phrases, or modes of speech which characterize the different parts of the country, a foreigner cannot perceive. The only written dialect is the Scotch. It differs far more from English than Portugueze from Castilian, nearly as much as the Catalan, though the articles and auxiliars are the same. Very many words are radically different, still more so differently pronounced as to retain no distinguishable similarity; and as this difference is not systematic, it is the more difficult to acquire. No Englishman reads Scotch with fluency, unless he has long resided in the country—I have looked into the poems of Burns, which are very famous, and found them almost wholly unintelligible; a new dictionary and new grammar were wanted, and on enquiring for such I found that none were in existence. The English had no good prose writers till the commencement of the last century, indeed with a very few exceptions till the present reign; but no book now can meet with any success unless it be written in a good style. Their rhymed poetry is less sonorous, less euphonous, less varied, than ours; their blank verse, on the other hand, infinitely more rhythmical than the verso suelto. But their language is incapable of any thing between the two; they have no asonantes, nor would the English ear be delicate enough to feel them. In printing poetry they always begin the line with a capital letter, whether the sentence requires it or not: this, which is the custom with all nations except our own, though at the expense of all propriety, certainly gives a sort of architectural uniformity to the page. No mark of interrogation or admiration is ever prefixed; this they might advantageously borrow from us. A remarkable peculiarity is, that they always write the personal pronoun I with a capital letter. May we not consider this great I as an unintended proof how much an Englishman thinks of his own consequence?
- 42. [29] A species of lupin used as food.—Tr.
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