1C4 A Journey to London in 1840. 



to Edinburgh, not to a house of her own, hut to li\e with him 

 under the roof of his mother and father-in-huv. This was rather 

 a trying position in which to jjhace a young wife. A mother and 

 a daughter-in-law, it is said, if living constantly under the same 

 roof seldom agree. The former is apt to assume a good deal, 

 while the latter, jealous of her privileges and sensible of her great 

 inferiority as to experience, is liable to take offence where none 

 is meant and to expect a degree of deference which she is not 

 willing to pay. But Mrs M'Culloch and her mother-in-law lived 

 for years together in love and harmony. A jarring note was 

 never heard .under their roof, and when in 1820 Mr M'Culloch, 

 having bought the flat of a house, No. 10 Buccleuch Place, went 

 thither to reside, his wife and mother parted as they met, affec- 

 tionately and with mutual esteem. 



Meanwhile Mr M'Culloch continued re.solutelv and success- 

 fully to prosecute his studies. His reading was confined chieflv 

 to history, statistics, and political economy. In these depart- 

 ments he was almost without an equal. The extent of his know- 

 ledge of political economy, and of the existing commercial cir- 

 cumstances in which the different leading nations of Europe stood, 

 was proved by two essays published in 1816, the one being a more 

 ample illustration of the subject of which they both treated than 

 the other. The title was Ari Essay for the Reduction of the 

 Interest of the National Debt, &'c., in which the principle of the 

 Corn Laws and various other collateral subjects were dealt with. 

 The two works published in 1816, when the author was only 27 

 vears of age, shew extensive reading and a perfect acquaintance 

 with all the leading principles of economical science, as well as 

 great powers of illustration. These essays held out high promise 

 of future eminence. I have omitted to state that about this time, 

 I think in the same year, he published a small separate treatise on 

 the Corn Laws : this is the only thing he ever printed that I have 

 not seen. 



The Scotsman newspaper was started in January, 1817, 

 its projectors and proprietors being William Ritchie, Charles 

 Maclaren, and others; Ritchie being, I think, the chief. Of this 

 print Mr M'Culloch was the editor for three years, namely, till 

 the 1st of January, 1820, when he was su.cceeded by Mr Maclaren. 

 I have never heard him say that he had been used ill in this 

 matter, but his mother says very unequivocally that he was. He 



