tion. He was disappointed. This Chair had on all former occasions been filled by one of the faculty of advocates; and the Town Council, in whose power the appointment resides, did not consider themselves at liberty to deviate from the ancient custom; though nothing but custom can be pleaded for a restriction so unjust in itself, and it may be in its consequences no less injurious. The office was given to A. F. Tytler, Esq of Woodhouselee. Logan felt the disappointment. It was augmented too by the want of encouragement that attended the proposal of a third course of Lectures; an analysis of which, in so far as they relate to ancient history, he afterwards sent to the press. This was followed in the succeeding year by one of his Lectures on the manners and governments of Asia. In the same year (1782) Logan's poems were first published, the sale of which was so rapid, that a second edition was printed in the course of a few months. The approbation of the public and of all men of taste, which his talents as a poet naturally called forth, might have wrought as a soothing counterpoise to that irritation of mind so natural to the consciousness of neglected merit, and would undoubtedly have had a kind effect upon his temperament, as well as his future fate, if his next production, to which he fondly trusted the establishment of his fame, had been attended with a coincidence of circumstances and fortune equal to its merit. There is probably no literary effort to which abilities of the highest order are so necessary, or on which an author's fame can be more firmly erected than that of dramatic composition. Shakespeare is more celebrated than Chaucer, and the author of Every Man in his liumour more regarded than the authors of the Fairy Queen or the Palace of Honour. Though Logan's name had already been established, he was chiefly regarded as a tender and pathetic writer. Beautiful, but not sublime, with more of the poet's fancy than his fire, he had not discovered either the energy or grandeur of the tragic muse. To attempt that in which so few have succeeded was hazarding too far his future fame, in an effort, which, if unsuccessful, should blight the favourable expectations he had already given reason to indulge. Mr. Logan had besides to encounter with an obstacle of a different nature, in Scotland equally powerful, and which in England too has its weight,-the general prejudice which, ever since the introduction of the drama into Britain, has looked with aversion to the interference of the clergy with the amusements of the stage. So sacred is this sentiment among the sober Presbyterians of Scotland, that it sanctions the conjecture of Logan's haviug anticipated the line of life he was afterwards compelled to adopt; for, at a time when the obloquy had not yet subsided which drove the author of Douglas from his pulpit, to no other prudential motive can we ascribe the production of the Tragedy of Runnamede. It was the author's intention that this play should be performed at Covent-Garden in 1783. He accordingly gave it to Mr. Harris, the manager, who put it immediately upon rehearsal: but the representation was prevented, by an order from the Chamberlain, occasioned by the unfavourable allusion that some passages were supposed to bear to the Court politics of the time, which for ten years had been hostile to the spirit of independence that wrested from Great Britain her American Colonies-the same spirit, Logan undoubtedly conceived, which had wrested the Charter of liberty from King John. Thus baffled before his performance could be either applauded or condemned, he resolved to commit it to the public judgment through a different channel. It was accordingly printed. It was performed some time thereafter at the Edinburgh Theatre. The applause, b however, which it received, was either too feeble or too momentary to perpetuate its name upon the stage. We cannot wonder that the severe disappointments to which Mr. Logan was doomed, should prey with more than common keenness upon a mind uncommonly susceptible; or, that the melancholy, more or less congenial to the poet's temperament, should assume a darker and more gloomy cast in a breast constitutionally subject to languour and depression, when blasted in its fondest hopes. To augment and perpetuate his troubles, he was now involved in disputes with his parish, originating probably in religious antipathies, awakened by the appearance of his play, and to which some irregularities the depression of his spirits had induced, gave additional weight, while they afforded a more feasible plea for separation. From this period his life began gradually to decline. To avoid a tedious litigation with his parishioners, Mr. Logan preferred the only alternative, by entering into an agresment with the Kirk Session to retire from his office on a moderate annuity: this was concluded in 1786. He had, in the month of October the year preceding, retired to London, and was for some time engaged in the English Review.-It is generally understood, that the View of Ancient History, which passes under the name of Dr. Rutherford, was written by Logan. The last of his literary labours was an anonymous pamphlet, which excited a considerable sensation in the metropolis; it is intituled, "A Review of the Principal Charges against Mr. Hastings." It contains some severe animadversions on the mode in which the prosecution was conducted: which the House of Commons construing into a breach of their privileges, they ordered the Attorney General to prosecute the publisher, Mr. Stockdale. He was accordingly tried in December 1789, and acquitted. Mr. Logan died on the 28th of December 1788, in the 40th year of his age. His books and manuscripts were given by his testament to Dr. Robertson and Dr. Donald Grant, from the produce of which the sum of £600, bequeathed to his friends and relations, was to be paid. In 1790, the first volume of Logan's SERMONS was published, under the eye of Drs. Robertson, Hardy and Blair. The second volume appeared the following year; and before the end of 1793, both volumes had undergone a third impression. The sermons published were selections only from the manuscripts. There were materials for another volume; but whether want of leisure or the judgment of the editors prevented the publication of them, is unknown. The following notice respecting Mr. Logan's papers was given by Dr. Robertson.* "Those in verse consist of Electra, a tragedy; the Wedding-day, a tragedy, being a translation into blank verse of the Deserteur of Mercier; the Carthaginian Heroine, a tragedy, but of which there is only the first act finished; and about half-a-dozen short lyric poems. Those in prose consist of about eight numbers of an intended periodical paper, called the Guardian: the subject of one of the numbers is a capital essay on the genius and writings of Addison. Besides these, I have also in my possession Mr. Logan's MS. Lectures on the Roman History. His Lectures on Roman History begin with Romulus, and come down to the fall of the empire, and the establishment of the feudal system. In the small volume of poems published under the title of Poems by Michael Bruce, the following were composed by Logan Damon, Menalcas, and Meliboeus; Pastoral *To Dr. Robert Anderson, the author of the Life prefixed to Logan's Poems in his edition of the Works of the British Poets. |