LITERATURE. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. 171 



hand, and was surrounded with a cloud of secrecy even from his 

 fellows, it will appear that he had simply the alternative of ceasing 

 to contribute further to the Magazine, or of continuing to do so 

 under the disadvantage of seeming to approve what he really con- 

 demned.* That he adopted the latter course is, I think, no stigma 

 on his character; and in after days, when his influence in the 

 Magazine had become paramount, he made noble amends for its 

 former sins. 



The staff of contributors whom Mr. Blackwood had contrived to 

 rally round his standard contained many distinguished men. "The 

 Great Unknown," and the venerable " Man of Feeling," were en- 

 listed on his side, and gave some occasional help. Dr. M'Crie, the 

 biographer of Knox, and Dr. Andrew Thomson, were solemnly 

 and at much length reproved by an orthodox pamphleteer, styling 

 himself Calvinus, for their supposed association with the wicked 

 authors of the Chaldee Manuscript. Sir David Brewster contri- 

 buted scientific articles, as did also Robert Jameson and James 

 Wilson. Among the other contributors, actual or presumed, were 

 De Quincey, Hogg, Gillies, Fraser Tytler, Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Sir 

 William Hamilton, and his brother, f the author of Cyril Thornton. 

 But though all these and more figured in the list of Blackwood's 

 supporters, there were but two on whom he placed his main reli- 

 ance, the most prolific aud versatile of all the band, who between 

 them were capable at any time of providing the whole contents of a 

 Number. These were John Wilson and John Gibson Lockhart. 

 Those whose only knowledge of that pair of briefless young advo- 

 cates was derived from seeing them pacing the Parliament House, 

 or lounging carelessly into Blackwood's saloon to read the news- 

 papers,^; and pass their jokes on everybody, including themselves, 



* Thus it is possible his desire to review Coleridge favorably in the Edinburgh, may have 

 arisen from a wish to do justice to that great man, the opportunity for which he was denied in 

 the pages of Blackwood. 



+ Thomus Hamilton wrote several works besides Cyril Thornton; among others, Annate of 

 the Penimular Campaign, and Men and Manners in America. He died in 1S42, at the age of 

 fifty-three. 



X That saloon and its proprietor are thus described by Dr. Peter Morris : — " Then you have an 

 elegant oval saloon lighted from the roof, where various groups of lonngers and literary dilettanti 

 are engaged in looking at, or criticising among themselves, the publications just arrived by that 

 day's coach from town. In such critical colloquies, the voice of the bookseller may ever aud anon 

 be heard mingling the broad and unadulterated notes of its Auld Reekie music; for unless occu- 

 pied in the recesses of the premises with some other business, it is here that he has his usual 

 station. He is a nimble, active-looking man of middle age, and moves about from one corner to 



