THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIK. 213 



"Ann Street, July 27, 1820. 



" My dear Mary : — The want of a decent sheet of paper shall 

 not deter me from immediately thanking you for your and James's 

 kind congratulations on our success in the late canvass, which, 

 thank Heaven, is at last at an end, after a most severe struggle, in 

 which I flatter myself Mr. Wilson has conducted himself with a 

 forbearance and a magnanimity worthy a saint, and which, had 

 he been a Catholic, he would have been canonized for. The perti- 

 nacity of his enemies was unprecedented, and I suppose they have 

 not done with him yet ; but the Tories have been triumphant, ami 

 I care not a straw for the impotent attempts of the scum of the 

 defeated Whigs. I must say I chuckle at the downfall of the 

 Whigs, whose meanness and wickedness I could not give you any 

 idea of were I to write a ream of paper in the cause. In the num- 

 ber of Blackwood's Magazine last published they got a rap on the 

 knuckles, just as hints as to what they may expect in future if they 

 persevere in their abuse.* .... 



" Mr. W. is very well, but as thin as a rat, and no wonder ; for 

 the last four months he has had no rest for the sole of his foot. He 

 is now as busy as possible studying. His enemies have given him 

 little time to prepare his lectures — one hundred and twenty in num- 

 ber. The class meets the beginning of November, and he has to 

 lecture an hour every day till April. But for the detestable Whigs 

 the thing might have been settled four months ago, and he would 

 have had ample time for his preparations." 



The proceedings at the election need not further be dwelt on. 

 An attempt to rescind the vote at a subsequent meeting of Council 

 was ignominiously defeated. The principal figure in that scene is 

 a certain Deacon Paterson, who appears for once on the stage of 

 history, armed with a " green bag," the contents of which were to 

 annihilate the new Professor's reputation and quash the election. 

 But the Deacon and his bag were very speedily disposed of, and 



* Here follow sketches of some of Mr. Wilson's enemies and friends, alluded to in the Maga 

 zine, drawn in lively colors, from which we can only find room for that of "The Odontist : ' — 

 "The reputed author of the ' Testimonium' 1 is a good-natured dentist, who lives in Glasgow, 

 whose name is James Scott, and who is the only Scotchman I know, with a very few exceptions, 

 that can understand or relish a joke, and all the jmtx <p esprit in Blackwood's Magazine he enjoys 

 exceedingly, though, poor man, he could not write a, line if his salvation depended upon it. . . . 

 'Tho Jurist,' who coined the rhymes in praise of Blackwood, is ono of the great lawyers here, 

 a Mr. Cranstoun." 



