272 MEMOIK OF JOHN WILSON. 



was in Switzerland.* Wordsworth is in town at present, but con- 

 fined with his eyes. I thought it might appear obtrusive if I called, 

 and have stayed away. John Murray seems the old man ; the 

 Quarterly alone sustains him. Maginn says he makes £4,000 per 

 annum of it, after all expenses, and as they really sell 14,000, I can 

 easily credit it. Colburn is making a great fortune by his Library 

 and altogether. I meet no one who ever mentions his magazine but 

 to laugh at it. The No. of Ebony is fair, but not first-rate. Your 

 talk of Murders is exquisite, but otherwise the Nodes too local by 

 far. Maginn on Ritter Bann not so good as might be. The article 

 on Matthews (I don't know whose) is just, and excellent criticism. 

 This wedding of James's came on me rather suddenly. Perhaps 

 you will be delayed in Auld Reekie for the sake of witnessing that 

 day's celebration. My own motions are still unfixed, but I suspect 

 I shall linger here too long to think of a land journey or the lakes. 

 More likely to make a run in September, and see you in your glory. 

 De Quincey is not here, but expected. Yours, 



"J. G. L. 

 " I don't hear any thing of Matthew Wald here, but I would fain 

 hope it may be doing in spite of that. Ask Blackwood to let me 

 hear any thing. Can I do any thing for him here ? I am picking 

 up materials for the Baron Lauerwinkel's or some other body's let- 

 ters to his kinsfolk, 3 vols, post Svo. Pray write a first-rate 

 but brief puff of Matthew for next number Blackwood, or if not, 

 say so, that I may do it myself, or make the Doctor.f I shall write 



B one of these days if any thing occurs, and at any rate he 



shall have a letter to C. N. speedily, from Timothy, on the Quar- 

 terly or Westminster Reviews. A Nodes from me positively." 



Passing over the various other topics touched on in this letter, 

 how strangely do these words about " Frederick I." now sound 

 upon the ear ! How little did the sagacious foresight of politicians 

 calculate that every day an invisible hand was preparing the crown 

 for a little child of five years of age, and that in the short space of 

 eighteen years, no fewer than five heirs of the royal line should 



* From Mr. Innes's Memoir of TJiomas Thomson, I see that the editorship of the Edinburgh 

 Review was left in his hands more than once. "This foremost of Eecord scholars, the learned 

 legal antiquarian, and constitutional lawyer," died in 1S52, aged eighty-four. 



t The History of Matthew Wald, a novel by Mr. Lockhart. It was reviewed in the May num- 

 ber of Blackwood. 



