LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LDJE. 283 



leaving Edinburgh, without having seen again or heard from you, 

 I have no time to write at length, so take business in form. 



" 1st. I have seen Dr. Graham and David Ritchie to-day. They 

 both are in spirits about the affair of the P. E.* chair. Peel has writ- 

 ten to the Principal most favorably for you, and they both think 

 the matter is settled. However, it is still possible a Senatus Academ- 

 icus may be called, in which case you will of course come down. 



2d. I have seen Boyd. He is in high glee, and has got many 

 subscriptions already for Janus. I have settled that I shall, on 

 reaching Chiefs wood by the 12th of August, be in condition to 

 keep Janus at work regularly, and therefore you must let me have, 

 then and there, a quantity of your best MS. If you think of any 

 engravings, the sooner you communicate with Boyd as to that mat- 

 ter the better, as he will send to London for designs, and grudge 

 no expense ; but this is a thing which does require timely notice. 



" I confess I regard all that as a very secondary concern. In the 

 mean time I have plenty of things ready for Janus/ and the mo- 

 ment I have from you a fine poem or essay, or any thing to begin 

 with (for I absolutely demand that you should lead), I am ready to 

 see the work go to press. 



" I therefore expect, when I reach home, to find there lying for 

 me a copious packet from Elleray. 



" 3d. Constable is about to publish a Popidar Encyclopaedia, in 

 4 vols. 8vo, and he has been able to get Scott, Jeffrey, Macken- 

 zie to contribute. The articles are on an average one page and a 

 half each, but each contributor, having undertaken a number of ar- 

 ticles, is at liberty to divide the space among them as he pleases. I 

 have undertaken a few heraldic and biographical things, and he is 

 very anxious that you should do the same. 



"For example, Locke, Uobbes, Dr. Beid: Would you take in 

 hand to give him two or three pages each (double columns), con- 

 densing the most wanted popidar information as to these men? 

 If so, he would gladly jump, and I should certainly be much grati- 

 fied, because I perceive in him the most sincere desire to have con- 

 nection literary with your honor. 



" Pray address to me, care of Captain Scott, 15th Hussars, Dublin, 

 if you wish to write to me immediately ; if not, my motions are so 

 uncertain that you had much better write to Constable himself, or 



* Political Economy. 



