After inspecting the book, Salmond said: "The theme running through the messages is one of solidarity.
During the 1980s, in the store's early days, customers would come in and stay all afternoon, carefully inspecting the books that were packed tightly together, spine to spine.
The US company McCormick abandoned a proposed takeover of Premier, which also makes Mr Kipling cakes, in April, saying that after inspecting the books it could not offer a price acceptable to Premier.
The private equity giant, along with a separate bidder, the activist investor Carl C. Icahn, had been inspecting the books of the personal computer maker before deciding whether to make a rival bid to the $13.65-a-share offer to take the company private from the company's founder, Michael S. Dell, and Silver Lake Partners, a technology-focused private equity firm.
Bank examiners from the Federal Reserve and the Comptroller of the Currency are inspecting the books of the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as the Bush administration prods Congress to approve a plan that would enable it to inject billions of dollars into the companies.
I would have liked to inspect the books in the library, but I couldn't make out the titles.
Of course, some firms also enjoy the lighter touch of the S.E.C., which inspects the books at advisory firms roughly every 11 years on average.
Under 39 U.S.C. 404 and any regulations issued pursuant thereto, the United States Postal Service may inspect the books and records of the substation.
Officials of the National Security Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are authorized under section 5 of the Act to inspect the books and records listed in § 5.500(a).
"All the lenders had the right to inspect the books and records" as long as it did not disrupt Adelphia's business, he said.
But technology, greater openness in government operations and the creation of a statewide auditor who inspects the books in both offices have eliminated the possibility of another financial scandal, supporters of consolidation say.
