266 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



There was no time for me to write you with a slip, and I sent it to 



Mr. , begging him to consider it, and write me if he thought 



he could venture to make any alterations. I did not get his packet 

 till Wednesday, and he then wrote that he could not be art or part 

 in the murder of his own dedicator. In these circumstances, I 

 thought it safest to let the article be for next number, that you 

 might correct it yourself. I hope you will think I have done right, 

 and I would anxiously entreat of you to read the article as if it were 

 written by some other person. Few of the readers of ' Maga' know 



and weak minds would be startled by some of your strong 



expressions.* It was chiefly on account of the length of the ex- 

 tracts that I delayed the ' Murderers,' as the extracts from Bon 

 Juan and Gohbett are so very long. The extracts in your article 

 will make eight or nine pages. They are not set up, but I have got 

 them all correctly copied out, and I return you the book. I am 

 not very sure, however, if these horrid details are the kind of read- 

 ing that the general readers of 'Maga' would like to have. Curious 

 and singular they certainly are; but then the number lies on the 

 drawing-room table, and goes into the hands of females and young- 

 people, who might be shocked by such terrible atrocities, but you 

 will judge of this yourself.f Before I received Mr. L.'s MS,, I had 

 also made up a very singular story of a suicide, which I received 

 from London, from a person who merely signs himself 'Titus.' 

 O'Doherty's note is by Mr. L. I also wished him to try to make 

 some little alterations in the article, and perhaps add a C. N. note. 

 He had not time, however, to do either the one or the other. Write 

 me what you think of the article, as I fear it will be apt to startle 

 weak minds. However, there is so much talent in it, that I think 

 it will be liked, but not having more I delayed it. ' London Oddi- 

 ties' is by Mr. Croly. ' Timothy, No. IX.' by Dr. Maginn. « No. X,' 

 by Mr. L. ' Andrew Ardent,' by Stark, and the Answer by Mr. 

 C. Never was any thing better than your ' General Question,' 

 though there are some strong things in it, which you had written 

 in a real savage humor, and which will make certain good folks 

 stare. The 'Director-General' and the 'Prize Dissertation' are 

 capital bits. ' Heaven and Hell' no one could have done but your- 

 self. After getting all these made up, I found I had got ten pages 



* These good advices were not lost on the writer, 

 t The "Murderers" did not appear. 



