162 A Journey to London in 1840. 



reading was unusually great; his memorv prodigious. He in- 

 herited no library, perhaps not a single volume, but his desire to 

 purchase books was unbounded, and he was in circumstances that 

 enabled him to gratify his wishes to a considerable extent. In 

 addition to the necessary class books, he was pretty frequently 

 buying a work bn history or statistics, departments to which he 

 devoted his private reading. He went about this time into the 

 office of James Greig, W.S., now, if not then, of Eccles, in 

 Berwickshire, a respectable person, who is still in business under 

 the firm name of Greig & Morton. How long he was in Mr 

 Greig's office I cannot at present say, but it was not long. The 

 truth is, he did not like the law, nor was he very strong. Besides, 

 he was born to property, including houses in Isle of Whithorn, 

 the yearly \alue of which at that period was about £400. Having 

 a strong and unconquerable love of letters, and being so indepen- 

 dent in his fortune, he was not likely to be a keen student of law 

 or of any department in which his mind and heart were not 

 centred. It is Sir Matthew Hale, I think, who says that he 

 never knew any indi\idual born to £500 a year who ever became 

 a great lawyer or made a figure at the bar. There is much truth 

 in this remark. When the great stimulus of necessity is removed, 

 when one has got a competency prepared for him, howe\-er small 

 it may be, his energies are apt to be paralysed, and he is ready 

 to sit down and make himself as comfortable as he can on this 

 limited or miserable income. This is more likely to be the case 

 if his desire for literary study is very great and engrossing. Mr 

 M'Cul loch's condition seems to have been of this description. 

 He did not prosecute law to almost any extent, but gave himself 

 wholly up to study. Meanwhile he became of age, namely, on 

 1st March, 1810, at which period he had full command of his 

 property. The law suits in which he was involved with his grand- 

 father, and to which I have before referred, cost him both much 

 monev and anxietv, but still he had a competency remaining for 

 a man of simple wants, who preferred a life of literature to one 

 of wealth. Accordingly, without any regular business by which 

 he might eke out his income or advance himself in the world, he 

 chose literature as his profession and resolved, as he has ever 

 since done, to devote to it his time and all the energy of his mind. 

 But while he was thus quietly prosecuting study and making 

 himself acquainted with books not generally known to or read by 



