Deliberate, but prompt, he was never wanting in decision and energy, when duty and principle demanded the exertion of these qualities; and his administration of the naval affairs of this country received the commendation even of his political opponents."

Though he took a decided line in politics, differed from many of his friends, and accepted office with his former opponents, yet such were his high character and stainless honour that the probity of his motives was never questioned by those who condemned his decision. In person Lord Spencer was tall; in his deportment eminently courteous, affable, and kind. His countenance was thoughtful, and could be severe; but in the circle of his family and friends it was lighted up with a benignity of expression which truly bespoke the benevolence of his heart. His habitual temper was in the highest degree cheerful, enjoying every thing — eager in all his pursuits, and delighted with witnessing the happiness of others.

He lived honoured and respected by all men, even in a country where the violence of party too often embitters the intercourse of private life. His memory will be revered by those who value the union of public principle and private worth; and the poor, the lowly, and the unfortunate will mourn the loss of a kind and generous benefactor.

From "The Atlas,"

308

No. XXV.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, Esq.

As the projector of the periodical work which bore, and which still bears, his name, Mr. Blackwood may well be considered a distinguished public character, under whose auspices the fame of Scottish genius has been carried to the remotest corners of the earth: as a man and a Christian, the memory of his many virtues will ever be cherished by all who enjoyed his private friendship.

William Blackwood was born in Edinburgh, on the 20th of November, 1776. Although his respectable parents were in a much humbler station of life than that which he himself ultimately occupied, he received an excellent early education; and it was his boyish devotion to literature which determined the choice of his calling. In 1790, when he was fourteen years of age, he entered on his apprenticeship with the wellknown house of Bell and Bradfute; and, before quitting their roof, largely stored his mind with reading of all sorts, but especially Scottish history and antiquities.

When he had been six years with Messrs. Bell and Bradfute he went to Glasgow to be manager for Mr. Mundell, then in extensive business as a bookseller and university printer. Mr. Blackwood had the sole superintendence of the bookselling department; and he always spoke of the time he spent in Glasgow as having been of the greatest service to him in after-life. Being thrown entirely on his own resources, he then formed those habits of decision and promptitude for which he was subsequently so remarkable. He also corresponded regularly with Mr. Mundell and his friends at home, —a usage from which he derived great benefit in the form

ation of that style of letter-writing, which, in the opinion of many competent judges, has seldom been surpassed.

Mr. Mundell, however, gave up business in Glasgow; and, at the expiration of a year, Mr. Blackwood returned to Messrs. Bell and Bradfute. In 1799 he entered into partnership with a Mr. Ross, which connection was, however, dissolved in a few years. He then went to London; and, in the shop of Mr. Cuthell, perfected himself in the knowledge of old books.

In 1804 Mr. Blackwood returned to Edinburgh, and commenced business on his own account, on the South Bridge, as a dealer in old books, in the knowledge of which he had by that time few equals. He soon after became agent for Murray, Baldwin, and Cadell, and also published on his own account; among other works "Grahame's Sabbath," "Kerr's Voyages," the "Edinburgh Encyclopædia," &c. In 1812 appeared his famous catalogue, consisting of upwards of fifteen thousand books in various languages, all classified.

For many years Mr. Blackwood confined his attention principally to the classical and antiquarian branches of his trade, and was regarded as one of the best-informed booksellers of that class in the kingdom; but on removing to the New Town of Edinburgh, in 1816, he disposed of his stock, and thenceforth applied himself, with characteristic ardour, to general literature, and the business of a popular publisher.

In April, 1817, he put forth the first number of "Blackwood's Magazine," the most important feature of his professional career. He had long before contemplated the possibility of once more raising magazine literature to a rank not altogether unworthy of the great names which had been enlisted in its service in a preceding age: it was no sudden or fortuitous suggestion which prompted him to take up the enterprise in which he was afterwards so pre-eminently successful as to command many honourable imitators. From an early period of its progress, his magazine engrossed a very large share of his time; and though he scarcely ever wrote for its pages himself, the general management and arrange

ment of it, with the very extensive literary correspondence which that involved, and the constant superintendence of the press, would have been more than enough to occupy entirely any man but one of first-rate energies.

No man ever conducted business of all sorts in a more direct and manly manner. His opinion was on all occasions distinctly expressed; his questions were ever explicit; his answers conclusive. His sincerity might sometimes be considered rough: but no human being ever accused him either of flattering or of shuffling; and those men of letters who were in frequent communication with him soon conceived a respect for and confidence in him, which, save in a very few instances, ripened into cordial regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness and imperturbable resolution of his character were impressed on all his proceedings; and it will be allowed by those who watched him through his career, as the publisher of a literary and political miscellany, that those qualities were more than once very severely tested. He dealt by parties exactly as he did by individuals. Whether his principles were right or wrong, they were his, and he never compromised or complimented away one tittle of them. No changes, either of men or of measures, ever dimmed his eye, or checked his courage.

To youthful merit he was a ready and a generous friend; and to literary persons of good moral character, when involved in pecuniary distress, he delighted to extend a bountiful hand. He was in all respects a man of large and liberal heart and temper.

During some of the best years of his life he found time, in the midst of his own pressing business, to take rather a prominent part in the affairs of the city of Edinburgh, as a magistrate; and it must be admitted by those who most closely observed, and even by those who most constantly opposed, him in that capacity, that he exhibited, on all occasions, perfect fairness of purpose, and often, in the conduct of debate, and the management of less vigorous minds, a very rare degree of tact and sagacity. His complete personal

exemption from the slightest suspicion of jobbing or manoeuvring was acknowledged on all hands; and, as the civic records can show, the most determined enemy of what was called reform was, in his sphere, the unwearied, though not always the triumphant, assailant of practical mischiefs. Already the impression is strong and general among the citizens of Edinburgh, of all shades of political sentiment, that in William Blackwood they have lost a great light and ornament of their order; a man of high honour and principle, pure and patriotic motives, and a very extraordinary capacity.

In the private relations, as in the public conduct, of his life, he may safely be recommended as a model to those who come after him. He has left a widow, exemplary in all the domestic virtues, and a family of seven sons and two daughters, — all of whom are at home, excepting the third son, who is in the service of the Hon. East India Company, as Lieutenant of the 59th regiment, Bengal N. I. His two eldest sons have announced that they will carry on the business in which from boyhood they were associated with their honoured parent; and as they were generally esteemed for their amiable dispositions, their talents, and their integrity, it cannot be doubted that, if they continue to tread in his footsteps, they will not want to aid and sustain them, under the load of duty which has untimely devolved on them, the assistance of their father's friends, and the favour of that great party which, through evil report and through good report, he most strenuously and efficiently served.

Mr. Blackwood died at his house in Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the 16th of September, 1834, at six o'clock A. M., in the fifty-eighth year of his age. His disease had been from the first pronounced incurable by his physicians. Four months of suffering, in part intense, exhausted by slow degrees all his physical energies, but left his temper calm and unruffled, and his intellect entire and vigorous even to the last. He had thus what no good man will consider a slight privilege -that of contemplating the approach of death with the clearness and full strength of his mind and faculties; and of instruct