302 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



in the Magazine against free trade. Twenty-ninth stanza is neither 

 good nor bad perhaps, but it leans towards the latter. Thirty-third 

 is written, I fear, in the same vein with much of our enemies' abuse 

 against us. Thirty-fourth opens inefficiently with Eld on. He is a 

 fine old fellow, but in some things a bigot, and getting very old ; 

 yet I love and respect him, as you do. Still this, and stanzas thir- 

 ty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh are not glorious, and free, 

 and exulting, but the contrary, and the list of our friends is too 

 scanty. Thirty-sixth is unworthy of Sir Walter, and A, and C. N., 

 and J. W. Pardon me for saying so. In stanza fortieth I did not 

 expect any thing more about Time, and be damned to him ! All 

 the stanzas that follow to forty-sixth, inclusive, are excellent, and in 

 themselves worthy of A. But what if there be no snow and no 

 skating at Christmas ? No appearance of it at present. Besides, 

 in such an address, they are too numerous. Forty-seventh, forty- 

 eighth, and forty-ninth are feeble in the extreme ; and the recipe 

 for hot-pint, although correct, especially so. 



"Finally, the composition, as a whole, is of a very mediocre 

 character, in the opinion of your kind friend and most sincere 

 admirer, Professor "Wilson. 



" I have never, in the whole course of my life, given an opinion 

 in writing more than three lines long, of any composition of any 

 man, whom I did not know to be a man of genius and talents. 

 I have given you this long, scrawling, imperfectly expressed opinion 

 of your verses, because I had already let you know that it was 

 unfavorable, and therefore there is no impertinence in giving some 

 of the reasons of my belief. 



" That you should agree with me wholly is not to be expected ; 

 but that you will agree with me partly, I have no doubt, by and 

 by. I say so from experience, for I have often and often seen, all 

 at once, compositions of my own to be good for little or nothing, 

 which I had at the time of writing them thought well of, and even 

 admired. 



" One thing I know you are wrong in, and that is in your pre- 

 ferring this composition to all you ever wrote for ' Maga.' You 

 have written for 'Maga' many of the most delightful verses that are 

 in the English language, and as for ' Mansie Waugh,'* it is inimitable, 



* The Life of Mansie Waugh, Tailor in Dalkeith. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1828. A work full 

 of humor, and abounding in faithful sketches of Scottish life and manners. 



