278 MEMOIK OF JOHN WILSON.' 



looks well, but is not so, and many a wretched and sleepless hour 

 do I pass on her account. 



" It is so long since the meeting of the good old Professor's* 

 friends, that I need now say no more than that all the arrangements 

 met with my most complete approbation, that I read the account 

 with peculiar pleasure, and especially your speech and Dr. Macgill's. 

 Whatever was in your hands could not be otherwise than proper 



and right. I have been much worried with my own affairs, 



havina: entangled me in much mischief, even after he had ruined 

 me, but I am perfectly reconciled to such things, and while my wife 

 and family are well and happy, so will I be. Could I see Jane per- 

 fectly restored, I should dismiss all other anxieties from my mind 

 entirely. 



" I should like much indeed to see you at Easter Hill for a day or 

 two ; my plans are yet all unfixed. Perhaps I may take a walk as 

 far early in May. 



" I am building a house in Gloucester Place, a small street lead- 

 ing from the Circus into Lord Moray's grounds. This I am doing 

 because I am poor, and money yielding no interest. If Jane is bet- 

 ter next winter, I intend to carry my plan into effect of taking into 

 my house two or three young gentlemen. Mention this in any 

 quarter. Remember me kindly to your excellent wife. Your 

 family is now most anti-Malthusian. Believe me ever, my dearest 

 Robert, your most affectionate friend, John Wilson." 



The house in Gloucester Place was completed and ready for habi- 

 tation in 1826, and thenceforth was his home during the remainder 

 of his life. The plan of receiving young gentlemen into his house 

 was never put into execution. 



About this time a proposal was made that a separate Chair of 

 Political Economy should be instituted in the University of Edin- 

 burgh, and that the appointment should be conferred upon Mr. J. 

 R. M'Culloch, then editor of the Scotsman newspaper. Wilson's 

 professorship combined the two subjects of Moral Philosophy and 

 Political Economy, but up to this period he had not lectured on 

 the latter topic : he therefore resented the movement as an inter- 

 ference with his vested rights, and by appealing to Government 

 succeeded in crushing the project. After this controversy (which 



* Professor Jardine. 



