LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 361 



"We are all terribly disgusted and annoyed at the result of the late 

 elections. I never look into a newspaper now ; and my only com- 

 fort is in reading the political papers in Blackwood, and remember- 

 ing that I have lived in the times of the Georges." Again she writes : 

 " What do you think of Church and State affairs ? We are in a 

 pretty way ; oh, for the good old times ! Thank Heaven, while Mr. 

 Wilson can hold a pen, it will be wielded in defence of the right 

 cause." His pen, indeed, was not allowed to lie idle at this time, 

 as the reader Avill find by referring to his contributions. During 

 1833-34 he wrote no fewer than fifty-four articles for Blackwood, 

 or upwards of 2,400 closely printed columns on politics and general 

 literature. Among these were reviews of Ebenezer EUiot* and 

 Audubon, the ornithologist, which called forth interesting and 

 characteristic replies. 



from: ebenezer elliot. 



"Sheffield, 8th May, 1834. 

 " Mr. Professor : — I do not write merely to thank you for your 

 almost fatherly criticism on my poetry, but to say, th^at when I sent 

 that unhappy letter, addressed, I suppose, to the Editor of Black- 

 tooocTs 3fagazine, I knew not that the Professor was the editor. I 

 had been told that the famous rural articles were yours, and the 

 ' Noctes.' This was all I knew of that terrible incarnation of the 

 Scotch Thistle, Christopher North. I had judged from his portrait 

 on the cover of the Magazine. I understand it is a true portrait of 

 Mr. Blackwood, whose name even now involuntarily brings before 

 my imagination a personage ready to flay poor Radicals alive. 

 When at length I understood you was the editor, I still thought 

 you was only the successor of C. North, the dreadful. The letter 

 must have been the result of despair. The Monthly Beview had 

 stricken me on the heart with a hand of ice, but I had failed to 

 attract the attention of the critics generally ; and perhaps I then 

 thought that even an unfavorable notice in Blackwood would be 

 better than none. But when I was told, a few days ago, that I was 

 reviewed in ' Maga,' I expected I was done for, never to hold up 

 my head again. Having no copy of the letter I know not what 

 vileness it may contain, besides the sad vulgarityf unlortunately 



* Ebenezer Elliot, the Corn-Law Rhymer, was born in 1781 ; he died in 1849. 

 t * Mr. Elliot was pleased, a good while ago, in a letter, the reverse of flattering, addressod to 

 15* 



