206 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



get such an honorable situation, it would indeed be truly gratifying 

 to me ; and I think he is well calculated to fill, with respectability 

 and credit, such a Chair. All the principal men here on the Gov- 

 ernment side are most anxious for his success ; and even if he should 

 be disappointed, the handsome manner in which they have come 

 forward, may be as useful to him at some future time as it is satis- 

 factory at the present. The emolument of the situation in itself is 

 nothing, but depends on the number of students who may attend 

 the class. Dr. Brown had about a thousand a year from it. He 

 was brother of the Miss Brown whom you may remember seeing 

 here, and the authoress of Lays of Affection. 



" If I have any thing to say with regard to Mr. Wilson's affairs, I 

 will let you know soon, but the matter will not be ultimately decided 

 for some time ; his opponents at present are few, and the most formid- 

 able is Sir William Hamilton, who is not a Government man, but 

 others may start more appalling. Malthus is one talked of, and Sir 

 James Mackintosh. The latter is an elderly man, who ranks very 

 high in the literary world, and a Whig" 



This letter is dated 29th April, 1820. She writes again in July : 

 " I know that you take an interest in all our concerns, or I should 

 not again bore you with the old story of the election, which, when 

 I last wrote to you, I thought w r as concluded ; indeed, the report 

 that Dugald Stewart meant to resume his lectures, came from such 

 good authority that Mr. Wilson set off immediately to Peebles to 

 recover his fatigue. He was no sooner gone than he was sent for 

 back again ; for the very next day Dugald Stewart sent in his resig- 

 nation, and the canvass began instantly in the most determined 

 manner. You can form no idea with what warmth it is still eoin<x 

 on, and the Whigs are perfectly mad. The matter is to be decided 

 next Wednesday, and as yet Mr. Wilson has greatly the majority 

 of votes, and I trust will continue to have them, and that his friends 

 will -prove stanch. They have been uncommonly active indeed in 

 his behalf, Sir Walter Scott in particular, who says there are greater 

 exertions making by the Whigs now, than they ever made in any 

 political contest in Scotland. The abuse lavished upon Mr. Wilson 

 by them is most intemperate ; his greatest crime is that he is a con- 

 tiibutor to Blackwood 's Magazine, that notoriously Tory journal. 

 But I trust all will end well. I shall not write again till the 19th, 

 when our suspense will be at an end." 



