192 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



When Mr. Lockhart found that the author would not reveal 

 himself, he appears to have concerned himself no more about the 

 matter, but to have relieved his feelings by caricaturing all the 

 parties concerned in his friend's literary " Ledger" " The Leop- 

 ard " and " The Scorpion," as drawn in the " Ledger" will be found 

 on pages 165, 169. 



The following admirable letter, addressed at this time to my 

 father, by his friend the Rev. Robert Morehead,* seems, in spite of 

 its length, to be worthy of insertion here. I have no doubt it pro- 

 duced a considerable impression on his mind, though at the time his 

 indignation at the charges of the pamphleteer made him rather im- 

 patient of remonstrance : — 



to you, in that case you have lost every claim to the character of a gentleman, and have no right 

 whatsoever to demand that satisfaction which is due only to one who has been unjustly ac- 

 cused. 



"The cause, besides, in which I have engaged is a public one; it is that of right feeling against 

 all that is vile, treacherous, and malignant. My vocation is not ended ; I have pledged myself to 

 the public to watch your proceedings, and, if occasion shall require, to give a more ample exposi- 

 tion of your conduct and character — to inflict a more signal chastisement on your crimes. This 

 pledge shall be redeemed. 



"Do not think that I shall be deterred, by any threat, from discharging the duty I have thus 

 imposed on myself, or that I shall be so weak as, by a premature avowal of my name, to deprive 

 myself of the means. 



" Prove to the satisfaction of the public that the charges which I have made are unfounded, or 

 that they do not apply to you ; or, as you yourself ask of Mr. Hunt : — ' Confess that ycu have done 

 wrong,— make a clean breast of it, — beg pardon of your God and of your country for the iniquity 

 of your polluted pen, — and the last to add one pang to the secret throbbings of a contrite spirit.' 

 the first to meet your challenge, if then renewed, shall be, sir, your, etc., 



"Tiie Author op 'Hypocrisy Unveiled.' 



" P. S. — As Mr. Lockhart obviously acts in concert with yourself, I have made the same answer 

 to him which I now make to you." 



* This estimable man was for many years an Episcopalian clergyman in Edinburgh. He was 

 presented to the rectory of Easington, Yorkshire, in 1S32, and died there in December, 1842. 



Mr. Morehead, as may be gathered from the above letter, was a dear friend of my father's, but 

 shortly after this date he became editor of Constable's Magazine ; and it is to be regretted that, 

 "in that lamentable madness of the time which drove high-minded and honorable men from their 

 propriety," my father, by the unscrupulous liberty of his pen in Blackwood's Magazine, gave 

 offence to Mr. Morehead, who, justly displeased, wrote an indignant letter to him. begging that 

 personal allusions should cease as far as he was concerned, and promising that, on his part, he 

 should abstain from any allusion to the Professor in his Magazine. I am happy to be able to say 

 the terms of peace were observed, as their friendship remained unbroken. A notice of Mr. More- 

 head is made a dozen years later in a Nodes, which exhibits my father's real estimate of the author 

 of Dialogues on Natural and Revealed Religion. 



" Shepherd. — I love that man." 



" North. — So do I, James, and so do all that know him personally — his talents, his genius, and, 

 better than both, his truly Christian character, mild and pure." 



" Shepherd. — And also bricht." 



" North. — Yes, bright : 



' In wit a man — simplicity a child.' " 

 — Nodes, May, 1S30. 





