C U R R I E. 



519 



Currie. the most striking evidence of the qualities we have 

 ■^"V"™'' attributed to him, is the " Letter Commercial and Po- 

 litical, addressed to the Right Hon. William Pitt" 

 which he published under the signature of Jasper Wil- 

 son. This pamphlet was never indeed publicly ac- 

 knowledged by him, but to his intimate friends he did 

 not scruple to avow it, * and it was universally under- 

 stood to proceed from his pen. The history of the 

 publication, so far as we have been able to trace it, 

 was shortly this : The commencement of hostilities 

 having been followed by many failures in the mercan- 

 tile world, it became a matter of great public impor- 

 tance to discover how far these failures were imputable 

 to the Avar. In order to ascertain this point, a gentle- 

 man who took an active part in the political struggles 

 of the day, addressed a private letter to Dr Currie, 

 with whom he was in habits of friendship, and whose 

 talents he admired, containing some queries regarding 

 the embarrassment of commercial affairs in Liverpool, 

 as connected with political events. Dr Currie entered 

 into the views of his friend with his characteristic zeal 

 and perseverance, and he soon found the result of his 

 enquiries to be so important, and to involve conse- 

 quences of such magnitude and extent, that he could 

 not, consistently with the duty he owed to the public, 

 confine his discoveries wholly to the bosom of private 

 friendship. He determined, therefore, to give them 

 to the world as a free-will offering, rejecting all regard 

 to personal fame, which, on such a subject, he knew 

 might be detrimental to his professional interests, and 

 concealing his real character under the shelter of a 

 feigned name. 



Jasper Wilson's letter made its appearance in 1 793, 

 a most critical and interesting period, when the coun- 

 try had been newly precipitated into the war with 

 France, and when the ferment of the public mind was 

 at its height. We do not stop to enquire into the wis- 

 dom or folly of our government on this momentous oc- 

 casion, but shall merely observe, that, independently of 

 the elegance and energy of its language, the extent of 

 its information, and the profundity and enlargement of 

 its views, the work owed its uncommon success prin- 

 cipally to the seasonableness of the argument against 

 the war which it maintained. All the original declared 

 objects of the first coalition against the French repub- 

 lic had been gained, and the Brissotine faction were at 

 that moment actually suing for peace. The pamphlet 

 went quickly through three editions ; and whilst it ac- 

 quired for its author the warmest admiration amongst 

 the partizans of one party, raised against him a host 

 of enemies in the other. Several answers were attempt- 

 ed, and one of the respondents even used the unpar- 

 donable liberty of publishing a personal attack on Dr 

 Currie, proclaiming him to the world by name as the 

 reputed author. The violence and illiberality of his 

 opponents did not provoke from him any answer, but 

 it may be interesting to know in what temper he pri- 

 vately listened to their invectives. With this view, we 

 quote the following passage from a letter now before 

 us, written by him in March 1794 to his uncle and 

 confidential friend, Mr Duncan of Lochrutton, a Scot- 

 tish clergyman, whose unaspiring nftdesty, confined to 

 the useful but obscure duties of a country parish, 

 virtues, and accomplishments, would have adorned 

 the most exalted station. " The reputation of this 



work," says he, " has procured, not to Jasper Wilson, 

 but to your nephew, many false and foul imputations. 

 The ministerialists and war-mongers are a most irri- 

 table set, and cannot bear to be reasoned with. Though 

 they are strong in numbers, they have all the peevish- 

 ness of conscious weakness ; and when they cannot 

 confute, they calumniate and misrepresent. Jasper 

 Wilson has had tiie honour to be answered four or five 

 times ; and at last Dr Currie is publicly addressed by 

 a clerk t in Lord Hawkesbury's office as ' the reputed 

 author of Jasper Wilson's letter,' in a strain of unpa- 

 ralleled insolence, falsehood, and malignity. Mr Van- 

 sittart, whose pamphlet you have read, is the most 

 gentlemanlike, and the most able of his answerers **** 

 The statement of Vansittart respecting the treaty of 

 Pilnitz, is a poor sophistry. There were two treaties- 

 one secret, one divulged. The secret treaty he denies, 

 or rather gives reasons for disbelieving ; but you -will 

 see in the debates of the present session, that it is ad- 

 mitted on all sides. Respecting the finances of our al- 

 lies, time has decided in favour of Jasper Wilson's spe- 

 culations. *''*■'*'* * * It is seldom that calumnies 

 injure an honest man, unless he makes a grand stir 

 about them. I do not open my lips cither about Mr 

 Wilson or his antagonists, and I beg the same favour 

 of my friends. * * * * " 



The interest which Dr Currie's benevolent mind led 

 him to take in the general welfare, he did not suffer to 

 interfere with his professional avocation? ; and it was 

 on his medical skill and acquirements that he chiefly 

 rested his title to celebrity. His affectionate attention 

 to his patients, and the success which attended his pre- 

 scriptions, would have insured to him a high reputa- 

 tion as a physician, even though his labours in the sci- 

 ence to which his chief attention was clue had extend- 

 ed no farther. But he had earned for himself no in- 

 considerable share of respect by the medical papers he 

 had already published; and in October 1797, he gave 

 to the world a professional work of the highest merit, 

 under the title of " Medical Reports on the effects of 

 Water, cold and warm, as a remedy in Fever and Fe- 

 brile Diseases, whether applied to the Surface of the 

 Body, or used internally." 



It was chiefly by this publication that Dr Currie ob- 

 tained that very distinguished rank in the medical 

 world which has associated .his name with those of the 

 great benefactors of our species. 



It is curious to observe, to what apparently trivial 

 occurrences we are indebted for some of the most im- 

 portant discoveries in science and in art. The follow- 

 ing is the history of that which is communicated in the 

 work before us. In the month of September 1778, 

 young Currie, in company with a fellow-student, left 

 Edinburgh on a pedestrian excursion to Annandale. 

 After a walk of somewhat more than sixteen miles, the 

 travellers arrived on the banks of the Tweed, near Pee- 

 bles, and, being heated by their exercise, eagerly plun- 

 ged into the stream. The delightful coolness of the 

 water renewed their vigour, and enabled them to pro- 

 ceed on their journey with alacrity. They had, how- 

 ever, to advance sixteen miles further, towards the 

 source of the river, before a resting-place occurred ; 

 and towards the end of this long stage, they were ex- 

 hausted with fatigue, and in a state of profuse perspi- 

 ration. Here Currie again descended into the water, 



Currie. 



* In one of the London prints there appeared a formal disavowal of the publication inserted in Dr Currie's name j 

 ter of this article knows that the disavowal was not dictated by Dr Currie, and gave him serious uneasiness. 

 f Mr Chalmers, author of the " Comparative Estimate," &c. 



but the wri- 



