LITERATURE. BLACKWOOD^ MAGAZINE. 161 



almost " doited " publication. Messrs. Cleghorn and Pringle had 

 secured the co-operation of several clever writers — among others, 

 Mr. R. P. Gillies and James Hogg — and Mr. Blackwood's saga- 

 cious eye at once discerned the elements of success in the project. 

 The arrangements were accordingly proceeded with, on the footing 

 that the publisher and the editors were to be joint proprietors, and 

 share the profits, if any. The first number appeared in April, 

 1817, under the title of The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The 

 contents were varied and agreeable, but no way remarkable ; and a 

 prefatory note to the next number, in which the editors spoke of 

 " Our humble Miscellany," indicates a certain mediocrity of aim 

 which must have been distasteful to the aspiring energy of the pub- 

 lisher, who had very different views of what the Magazine ought 

 to be made. There was no definite arrangement for the payment 

 of contributors. In fact it seems to have been taken for granted 

 that contributions were to be supplied on the most moderate terms, 

 if not altogether gratuitously. I find Mr. Blackwood stating in 

 his subsequent vindication of himself, in reply to the charge of hav- 

 ing supplied no money to the editors, that during the six months 

 of their connection, he " had paid them different sums, amounting 

 to £50." He adds, " They will tell you I never refused them any 

 money they applied for. They may perhaps say the money was for 

 contributors ; but to this moment I am utterly ignorant of any con- 

 tributors to whom they either have or were called upon to pay 

 money, excepting some very trifling sums to two individuals."* 

 Perhaps this fact may have something to do with the crisis that 

 soon occurred in the management of the Magazine ; at all events, 

 it had not gone beyond two numbers, when editors and publisher 

 found they could not work together. Mr. Pringle was a very 

 amiable man, but his brother editor was a less agreeable person, 

 and with an estimate of his own literary powers considerably 

 higher than that entertained by his sagacious publisher. On the 

 19th of May the co-editors formally wrote to Mr. Blackwood, let- 

 ting him know that his interference with their editorial functions 

 could no longer be endured. Mr. Blackwood was probably nothing 

 loath to receive such an intimation, and in the exercise of his rights 



* This economical style of work contrasts curiously with the muniflcen.ce subsequently prac- 

 tised in connection with the Magazine. A few years after this, I find Wilson informing a con- 

 tributor, "Our pay is ten guineas a sheet," a rate since that time marly doubled. 



