PREFACE. 



Although scarcely claiming - to be a contribution to what 

 is commonly called religious biography, it is hoped that 

 there is room for a volume which tries to delineate, how- 

 ever imperfectly, a Christian gentleman, and which shews 

 how honourably and usefully an accomplished mind may 

 fill up a life of leisure. It may possibly strike some 

 readers that the style is neither so solemn nor so stately 

 as befits a tribute to departed worth. If so. our apology 

 must be, that the book is neither an elegy nor a funeral 

 oration. It is an attempt to reproduce, as nearly as pos- 

 sible in its own tone, a life which is now continued and 

 ennobled elsewhere, and of which the aspect, as it met 

 our eye, was very bright and cheerful and beneficent. 



Many of Mr. Wilson's friends have helped us in this 

 effort, and for valuable information we tender our best 

 acknowledgments to His Grace the Duke of Argyll, and 

 the Lady Emma Campbell ; to the Hon. B. F. Primrose ; 

 to Sir John M'Neill ; to P. S. Selby, Esq., Dr R. K. Gre- 

 ville, Professor Balfour, Adam White, Esq., and D. Crole, 

 Esq. ; to John Russell, Esq., Treasurer of the Royal So- 

 ciety of Edinburgh ; to Adam Black, Esq., M. P., to John 



