SKCRET MEMORANDUMS. 151 



transmit his name to future times, is in itself a sufficiently melan- 

 choly reflection ; but when he considers that if he ever should be 

 drawn out into the light from his anonymous obscurity, and his 

 fragmentary members be put together, all the little posthumous fame 

 he might acquire is liable to be damped by the charge of a want of 

 principle being brought against him, it is a possible contingency of so 

 grievous a nature to my feelings, that I would rather die away en- 

 tirely and go out like a mutton luminary, whose last flicker in the 

 save-all illumines the wise-teeth of eternal Oblivion. 



As all the different parties in politics are represented in their re- 

 spective magazines, it follows that a contributor to all the magazines 

 must take up the cause of every party. To be* of no party is not the 

 same as to be of every party. It might be argued ; but 1 fear there 

 would be sophistry at bottom, as far as principle was concerned. I 

 once had a long conversation with a great Scotch editor upon the 

 subject, and stated to him my qualms on the score of conscience. 

 " I'm muckle surprised at ye, Mr. Ell worthy/' said he, " and vera 

 much amused at yer simplecetee. Ye canna be in yer perfeck senses, 

 laddie ! What has princeeple to do wi' the matter, I should like to 

 know ? What has party speerit to do wi' the pocket except as the 

 best means of filling it? Naething naething at all. The great cir- 

 culation of the Enbrugh Brazenface is the proof of a' I am saying to 

 ye. We fight unco strongly on our ain side o* the question, and 

 we shall continue to do so, as long 's it pays. But as you are a writer 

 in a' the magazines, you have just ane thing to do as a general rule : 

 e maun tak up the cause, whatever it be, just as an advocate taks up 

 is brief, and so do yer best." 



" Lawyers are considered a respectable class in society," thought I, 

 " and barristers rank as men of some consequence ;" and so I mixed 

 this somewhat " flattering unction" with my ink, and wrote an article 

 for the Tory Brazenface, which appeared the same month as one of 

 my best in the High Scotch Republican ! 



But conscience varies excessively in the nature of its influence on 

 different men. I found that mine did not possess the philosophic 

 remorselessness of the editor of the Brazenface, nor had it the 

 accommodating facility, ease, or flagrant dormancy, of the lawyers 

 and advocates. My necessities were great I may say, imperative 

 (which is the best of all saving clauses) ; but I was nevertheless tor- 

 mented by the qualms of that moral principle which was natural to 

 me, and not to be quieted with any "hush-money." But the man 

 who could succeed, despite the innumerable difficulties, in becoming 

 a paid contributor to all the magazines, by a practical perseverance 

 in the scientific simplicity of multiplying nine by itself, was not so 

 poor in resources as not to be able to do something by way of recon- 

 ciling all parties, even with so sensitive and kicking a thorough-bred 

 as conscientious principle. 



I will give an example of the method by which I effected this very 

 difficult object, by quoting extracts from the various critiques I wrote 

 on a poem, entitled the " Rise of Liberty," by William Fisher Wim- 

 ble, which was making some noise at the time. As a whole, the pro- 

 duction was not perhaps above mediocrity. It contained, however, 



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