206 



APPENDIX. 



attributes), who are entitled to pro- 

 mulgate their opinions, and be fairly 

 treated or " let alone," have been lit- 

 tle better than systematically perse- 

 cutedfrequently almost roasted or 

 blistered or attempted to be made 

 odious by the " Scottish Thunderer," 

 as his admirers style him, apparently 

 with the object of giving pleasure 

 to himself and friends, and pain to 

 those so treated. Pious and peace- 

 able people, possessing a fine sense 

 of self-respect, deeming it unbecom- 

 ing, at least unprofitable, to bandy 

 words with him, or lay themselves 

 open to his animadversions, to a 

 great extent disregard him, especi- 

 ally when the fit of " fractious con- 

 trariness " is upon him, for the 

 reason that they consider " his 

 tongue no scandal ; " and so far as 

 I know or can conceive, they will 

 not even pray for him, that he may 

 be converted or rebuked, believing 

 that, in " the present state of his 

 soul," any good person or cause that 

 he abuses is greatly honoured and 

 ultimately benefited by his hostility, 

 however influential he may be, in the 

 estimation of himself and friends, in 

 the affairs of the city, the nation, and 

 the world at large although gener- 

 ally, passively or actively, opposed, 

 even faetiously so, to almost every 

 movement, whatever its nature, that 

 does not originate with him, his 

 friends, or his party, or that does not 

 seek or care for, and particularly that 

 scorns their patronage or sympathy. 

 A book like the present one, 

 finding its way to Edinburgh from 

 America, under the peculiar circum- 

 stances of this one a thing of rare 

 occurrence in Scotland was entitled 

 to some little consideration from 

 even such a journal as the Scotsman. 

 It does not seem to have come be- 

 fore the celebrated Jeffrey, who, 

 when acting under a high sense of 

 responsibility, would doubtless have 

 approached it as a careful, cautious 

 man would have acted when pick- 

 ing his steps in dim twilight, among 

 broken glass and rusty nails, bare- 



footed, with the consciousness of 

 having a ruffian waiting to throttle 

 him as he got through. It rather 

 had the misfortune of " coming un- 

 der the eye " of the notorious Jef- 

 freys, alluded to by Macaulay m his 

 History of England, as follows : 



" Early in June the Fellows [of Mag- 

 dalene College] were cited to appear be- 

 fore the High Commission at -Whitehall. 

 Five of them, deputed by the rest, obeyed 

 the summons. Jeffreys treated them after 

 the usual fashion. When one of them, 

 a grave doctor, named Fairfax, hinted 

 some doubt as to the validity of the com- 

 mission, the Chancellor began to roar 

 like a wild beast. ' Who is this man ? 

 What commission has he to be impu- 

 dent here ? Seize him. Put him into a 

 dark room. What does he do without a 

 keeper ? He is under my care as a luna- 

 tic. I wonder that nobody has applied 

 to me for the custody of him.' " 



With what I have said, illustrative 

 of the "habit and repute" character 

 of the critic, or rather of the jour- 

 nal which he represents, I will now 

 " let the man speak for himself," re- 

 marking that I would much rather 

 swaddle a person in swan's-down 

 and cover him with gossamer, or fan 

 him to keep the life in him, than put 

 him into a vise and rasp him, but 

 for the principle propounded or ad- 

 mitted even, I believe, by a Quaker, 

 that " We must not allow silly pity 

 to rob justice of her due and the 

 people of a proper example," especi- 

 ally with such an "old offender " as 

 the Scotsman, the Great Liberal ! of 

 whom it could or could not be said 

 that "aiblins he'll mend." 



" What may be the ordinary calling 

 of Mr. James Simson, of New York, is 

 not known to us ; but to judge from 

 this volume of Contributions to Natural 

 History, etc., his mission is to set every- 

 body else right with respect to the hab- 

 its of snakes, the abilities as a natural- 

 ist of the late Charles Waterton, the 

 errors of Romanism, the real character 

 of John Stuart Mill and his father, James 

 Mill, and the manners and customs of 

 the Gipsies. The papers included in the 

 volume are in part reprinted from Land 



