ROBERTSON. 307 



was ever made by the Principal's friends that he had 

 interfered, or indeed that the opinions and inclinations 

 of the magistrates, who are the patrons, rendered any 

 such interference necessary. But the disappointed 

 candidate had no doubt upon the subject, and he set no 

 bounds to his thirst of revenge. He repaired to Lon- 

 don, where he became a writer in reviews, and made 

 all the literary men of Edinburgh the subjects of his 

 envious and malignant attacks, from 1768 to 1773 ; 

 the editors of these journals, as is usual with persons 

 in their really responsible situation, but who think 

 they can throw the responsibility upon their unknown 

 contributors, never inquiring whether the criticisms 

 which they published proceeded from the honest judg- 

 ment or the personal spite of the writers. He returned 

 to Edinburgh, and set up a magazine and review, of 

 which the scurrility, dictated by private resentments, 

 was so unremitting that it brought the work to a close 

 in less than three years, when he returned to London, 

 and recommenced his anonymous vituperation of Scot- 

 tish authors through the periodical press. He also 

 published in 1779, 1780, and 1782, three works : one 

 on the * Constitutional History of Scotland/ being an 

 attack on Dr. Robertson's first book ; another on 

 the ' History of the Reformation in Scotland ;' and the 

 third on the 'History of Queen Mary,' being also an 

 elaborate attack upon the Principal. The ability and 

 the learning of these works, and their lively and even 

 engaging style, has not saved them from the oblivion 

 to which they were justly consigned by the manifest 

 indications prevailing throughout them all, of splenetic 

 temper, of personal violence, and of a constant disturb- 



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