Mr Wilson first visited the Continent in 1816, takino- 

 advantage of that season which confined Napoleon to St 

 Helena, and let Europe all abroad. 



Of this tour he has preserved an ample record, filling a 

 large quarto volume, and written in a style of neatly fluent 

 penmanship, the index of a mind freely moving in its own 

 gracefulness. This document he often threatened to destroy, 

 and we have now to thank the affectionate care which 

 rescued it from the author's fastidiousness. Considering 

 that it is the work of a young man who had not reached 

 the years of legal majority, we are sure the reader will 

 agree with us in deeming both the language and the 

 range of thought remarkable. 



In the voyage from Leith to Eotterdam he had for his 

 companions three of his fellow-citizens, one of whom, Mi- 

 David Laing, still finds appropriate scope for his anti- 

 quarian lore among the faded archives of the Signet 

 Librae, and another, Mr Black, M.P., ably represents in 

 Parliament his native city. And on his homeward way he 

 was joined by friends. But most of the journey was in 



