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1821.

On the ate Rumour of a Change of Administration.

his eyes and seeing himself surround-
ed by his best friends, gave one long
deep groan at the sight of the vast
quantity of blood that had been taken
from him, and then resumed his wont-
ed benignity and composure.

It was at this interesting moment
that we entered the Sanctum Sancto-
rum ; and never shall we forget our
Publisher's upbraiding, yet forgiving
smile. He stretched out his unbanda-
ged arm; and when we felt that hand
so cold and trembling, our heart smote
us, and gladly would we have exchan-
ged places with the pale man, whom
we had thus brought to the brink of
the grave. Then rose a great thought
in our heart-never, but with life,
to relinquish the editorship. We ap-
proached the patient, and whispered
this into his ringing ear; and now had
sudden joy proved almost as dangerous
as that sudden grief. Mr Blackwood
asked faintly for a glass of water. We
say faintly-and thinking that cold
water might not agree well with that
state of his stomach, we opened, with
our own hand, the little aumry, and
bringing forth a bottle of our very
best Madeira, which had twice seen
India in wood, and once in crystal, we
handed it to the kindly officious Adju-
tant, who, first turning up his little
finger to ascertain if the fluid was of
a proper temperature, administered
about a quarter of a pint to the revi-
ving bibliopole, chaunting, at the same
time, that well-known hymn,

"Here's a health to jolly Bacchus,
Bacchus, Bacchus,
Here's a health to jolly Bacchus,

Ye ho! ye ho! ye ho!"
In the chorus of which we all joined
with faultering voices, that of the
Odontist being choked with sobs-
"See how it runs down his gizzard,
His gizzard, his gizzard,
See how it runs down his gizzard,

Ye ho! ye ho! ye ho!" Meanwhile the Rumour of our Publisher's death had spread over the whole city. The flag was hoisted halfpole high on the Castle, and minuteguns gave solemnity to the expression of a people's grief. But there is no occasion to describe the effect of the proprietor's supposed death in as detailed a manner as we shall do when that event does actually occur. Odoherty and the Odontist left our

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friend under our care in the Sanctum, with orders to keep him quiet-and shewing themselves on the steps in front of No. 17, the Standard-bearer, in a short and pithy speech of about a titude assembled an assurance, dozen words, conveyed to the vast mulEbony, though as white as ivory, was "that of the shout that then arose may be out of pearl." Some little conception formed from this simple fact that the repercussion of sound tumbled down several stones, each weighing about two tons, from Lord Melville's Mothere were no lives lost, as all the nument in St Andrew's Square; but workmen had, of course, joined the other inhabitants assembled before

THE SHOP.

retired to their respective places of In a few hours the inhabitants had abode; then the Publisher was put into his carriage, and accompanied by ourselves, Odoherty, the Odontist, ▲ and Wastle alone, (who were apprehensive mode the Patriot,) reached Newington that a greater number might incomjust as the family were sitting down to tea. The Adjutant, with that self-recollection, and consideration for others, character, had taken means to keep the which so delightfully distinguish his family in ignorance of all that was passing; and in opposition to the evidence of butter toast and muffins disappearing with an alacrity on the part of our bibliopole, with which Hebe in vain tried to keep pace, the story of his illness could not be expected to gain much credit from those who were now witnessing its miraculous cure, their own feelings, considered the and who, therefore, fortunately for whole as an ingenious fable or fiction of the Odontist.

So great had been our agitation at No. 17, that not one of us all ever thought of burning our letter, which How it's contents got wind has never had so nearly proved fatal to the Trade. been ascertained, and probably never will, for the imprudent and thoughtless man on whom suspicion fell of having perused our letter, during the crisis, has since been found dead near the Figgate Whins, under very suspithe grand secret of our resignation escious circumstances. Be that as it may, caped, and reached the ears of the guard of the London Mail, just as the

* Vide Jamieson.

leaders were prancing to get free, and he carried the appalling Rumour southward at the lately increased rate of nine miles per hour, stoppages included. The mail coach arrived at the usual hour on the morning of November the 27th, at the White Horse, FetterLane, London, and though at that hour" the very houses seemed asleep," yet before nine o'clock they were all not only broad awake, but up and dressed and receiving visitors.

The effect produced by the rumour of our resignation on the inhabitants of London, is, we understand, but faintly described in the following short and hurried letter, written on the evening of the day on which the fatal intelligence reached town.

LONDON, Nov. 27, 1821.

I write to you, my dear friend, in a state of the greatest agitation. The most alarming news reached town this morning by the Edinburgh mail. Just as the coach was setting off, a universal wail was heard to ascend from the one end of Princes' Street to the other. The guard inquired what had happened, and was told, that Christopher North was dead. Some said, he had resigned the editorship of Blackwood's Magazine. The journey being timed, he could not stop the coach to ascertain the fact; but no doubt is entertained that the greatest possible calamity has happened in the literary world. In every town through which the coach passed, the distressing intelligence produced the most mournful sensations; and sighs and sobs were the echoes of all places to the direful news.

By some extraordinary reverberation, the woeful tidings, it is said, even outran the mail, notwithstanding the recent improved rate of going; and it is reported, that before the coach reached Newcastle, all the Radical coal-miners had struck work, and were above ground, with clean faces, and bearing green boughs of triumph in their hats. They offered to take the horses out of the coach, and drag it to the inn. Some accidental strangers, who were then in the town, on hearing their joyful tumults, ran to the windows, and supposed that nothing less than Sir Robert Wilson returning from Mr Lambton's, could have caused such exultation. But I cannot dwell on these particulars, which I have learnt from an outside passenger, who came with the I hasten to describe the sensation

coach.

produced here.

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like a sow playing on a trump. Not a Bull but himself was visible; he alone, the atlas of the Stock Exchange, braved the impending calamity. The Bears were all cock-a-hoop. Never was such gladness seen, Nore. I need not tell you, that the Bears no, not even in the time of the mutiny at the are all to a man Whigs, and of the most inveterate kind; many of them are indeed Radicals. You may therefore picture to yourself their joy at hearing of such an event, as that Mr Christopher North was

dead.

At the opening, the three per cents were at ten less than the close of the preceding day; but it was soon after reported, that an express had reached the Home Department with the important intelligence, that Mr North was not actually dead,—that he had but resigned, although it was feared Mr Blackwood had fallen a victim to the event; and upon this rumour, stocks rose oneeight per cent, with a tendency to look upward.

In would be in vain to describe the effects of this calamity in other directions. Richardson's shop was in a state of anarchy. He himself was speechless; and two political doctors were seen at his side, using their best art to recover him. Westward, all things wore the most mournful appearance. The new ball and cross, which was to have been placed to-day on St Paul's, was supended. But Waithman's shop was adorned with white ribbons, and boughs of holly, and every thing there indicated jubilee and triumph. Dr Stoddart, of the New Times, closed his shutters, in token of his sorrow, but declared that the event was only a new incitement to perseverance. I speak not of the Old Times. Every member in the great establishment of the first journal in the solar system was decorated with a cap made of foolscap; and the very devils themselves were allowed a pot of porter a-piece, the better to qualify them to cause an illumination as general as when her late Majesty arrived. The Editor of the Courier was seen shedding tears at his window, when he beheld his opposite neighbour, the Morning Chronicle, stringing lamps for the evening-for thew ord "personalities" was the splendid device. But it was in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross that the wound struck deepest and deadliest ;-all the public offices were ordered to be washed with Day and Martin's blacking. The Telegraph on the Admiralty was seen most active all day, conveying the most cheering exhortations to the outports, assuring them from time to time, that the news were not true. The Levee at Carlton-palace was put off; a vast crowd assembled in front of Lord Londonderry's house in St James'ssquare. But the generosity of Englishmen sympathizing with his Lordship's feelings,

did not on this occasion break his windows. Lord Roslyn and the Duke of Bedford's servants in the corner, were busily in the meantime preparing for an illumination, and Mr Byng's, on the other side of the square, were no less active. Blessington adorned his balconies with evergreens.

The mob in front of the Club-houses was

so great, that I did not venture into St James's-street, but stepped into Ridgeway's, where I heard that Lord **** was haranguing the people from Brookes's, and that Mr Cam, mounted upon a lamp post, gave the signal to applaud. Mr ****, that brilliant saveall of oratory, stood with his new silver cider tankard, and as often got warm in his effusions,

as Mr ******

and was like to lose his temper, supplied

him with a cool sip.

After listening to the gratulations of the Whigs at Ridgeway's, I went over to Albemarle-street-never shall I forget the impression up stairs-Hugo Foscolo was endeavouring to look sentimental, exclaiming, "che cosa che cosa!" The great publisher himself was sitting writing notes at his table, unable to join in the conversation. Mr Milman was more afflicted than with the fall of Jerusalem. Gifford sat by the bust of Byron, which some wag, whom we do not know, was slyly crowning with laurel. D'Israeli, in the meantime, had appropriately veiled Sir Walter's with crape. But it is in vain for me to depict the several varied expressions of sorrow which darkened the visages of all those sons of light. But the most extraordinary occurrence of the day was the conduct of the Cockney poets. They all ran fluttering like so many lewdish sparrows, to the Examiner's office, where it was agreed they should commemorate the event. About half past five in the evening, they began to assemble at White-Conduit House; and being resolved to evince a philosophic temperance in their good fortune, agreed to indulge only in tea and muffins, while the organ played, "Taste life's glad mo ments." But, after tea, some of the more jovial spirits among them proposed, that, according to the good old times of England, before port and punishment came into fashion, they should indulge in a crown bowl of punch, with which, as their heads are rather weakly, they soon became so disguised, that, forgetting their philosophic resolutions, they became so mad with mirth, that the landlord was

obliged to send them all to the watchhouse. The moment I learn farther particulars, you shall hear from me again.Yours, &c.

Our first impression on perusing the above letter, was, that it contained an exaggerated picture of the state of the public mind in London. But a mo

ment's reflection shewed us the folly of any such suspicion. For we had only to compare the account therein given, with the reality before our eyes syllable of it was true, human nature in Edinburgh, to be assured that every being the same in Edinburgh and London, and, indeed, all the world over, except in Caffraria and Cockaigne. Edinburgh was drowned in tears. The windy suspiration of forced breath swept along the bridges—and the ankles of the young ladies were displayed in all their native and massive beauty, by gales swollen by the congregated sighs of the loveliest of their sex. The first day of the Rumour was like a general Fast-not a soul to be

seen from Nicholson Street to Coates Crescent. Every window was shuttered, and many families, needlessly afraid of being disturbed by visits from others, at that time domesticated like themselves by the common affliction, had used the idle precaution of tying up the beil at the front door, as in cases of lyings-in. At the corner of a cross street would some solitary look-out, and then taking a caddie appear for an instant on the "sneesh out of his mull," dive down in despair into an area, and evanish among a heap of oyster shells. When the Glasgow mail drove along Prince's Street, it looked as if it had been bringing letters from the living to the dead; and the faces of four insides from the West Country, beaming of boiled beef, and redolent of the punchbowl, seemed a strange mockery of human suffering. Had all the people been dead or dying, it would have been nothing. What made it so shocking, was to know that they were all in excellent health, but that in the hey-day of their happiness, a cloud had come across them, and that they knew and felt that the gaiety of nations was eclipsed for ever. In the midst of all this stillness of sorrow, as if to render that sorrow more ghastly, the old pensioner whose business it is to play on the music bells in St Giles

Steeple, at the stated hour of One, plaything be more thrilling than when, at ed up Maggy Lauder; nor could any the close of that idle air, was heard executed, with tolerable skill and spirit, "The Devil among the Tailors." On that day we understand the Court of Session did not sit-neither judge, advocate, agent, nor client having ap

any

peared, and the door-keepers being all invisible. The Banks were not opened, nor, if they had been, would business have been transacted. No newspaper was published by day, no lamps were lighted by night, gas or oil. The watchman's rattle was hushed, the very Commissioners of Police were subdued to sorrow-and the Scotsman, it is said, shed tears, and, not forgetting his gentlemanly manners in his sorrow, with trembling fingers, blew his nose, and then wiped it on his sleeve. By the Almanack it was moonlight, but no moon appeared. Jupiter and Venus had been seen only the night before in high health and beauty, but now they were off, nobody knew where and, on putting our head out into the palpable darkness of the night, we felt the force of that passage in Shakespeare, which till then had always seemed fantastical, but which now sounded in our ears like the wild words of a neglected prophecy at last fatally fulfilled.

"Hung be the heavens with black, yield

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What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech:

He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquer'd." Several days passed by; and, as it is not easy for any national calamity to put a final stop to the movements of a considerable metropolis like Edinburgh, after it has been set a-going for some centuries, things got again upon their usual footing, and the inhabitants, though sad, seemed resigned. We watched them sedulously

through a telescope, and the calm, deep, solemn expression of their after sorrow, to speak the truth, was more gratifying, we will not say flattering, to our feelings, than their first burst of outrageous grief. Many wore mournings. Not a few had crape on their hats; and some sported weepers. The general rate of walking was reduced, by an unpremeditated social compact, about one mile an hour; and the arms of the young ladies, which, when they are in ordinary spirits, keep swinging like flails, now depended languidly, and with a graceful fecklessness,* by their sides. The Theatre, which, with a proper regard to public feeling, had been closed during the week, re-opened with the sentimental comedy of Mirandola; and the churches began again to fill. The price of butcher meat, which, during this fast of sorrow, had fallen to twopence a-pound, began to look up-so did cod's head and shoulders; while the intention of the Magistrates and Town Council to reduce the price of the quartern loaf, was relinquished. Nay, such is the inconsistency of human nature, that many, who at first were stricken deaf and dumb with contrition, now seemed entirely to have forgotten the blow they had sustained, and were abroad, going about their usual avocations, with the same air of stupidity and vulgar indifference, as if Blackwood's Magazine, instead of being about to cease, had never began to exist.

The public feeling, however, in Scotland soon began to express itself in a manner more becoming, and more natural to the genius of the people, than idle lamentation and querulous regret. The PEOPLE OF SCOTLAND were determined that we should not retire from the EDITORSHIP, which, in their minds, was equivalent to the death of the WORK itself, if it was in their power to prevent it.

Accordingly, a general meeting of freeholders and inhabitants of the city was called on the Calton Hill, "to consider of the best means to be adopted of inducing Christopher North, Esq. to continue Prime Editor of Great Britain," HIS GRACE in the Chair. It is calculated that upwards of twenty thousand persons were present; and, after several most eloquent speeches

* Vide Jamieson.

from some of the most distinguished members of the Scottish Bar, and some of the clergymen of the city, the following resolutions were put and carried. I. Resolved unanimously, That Blackwood's Magazine is the best publication

extant.

II. Resolved unanimously, That, in the present alarming crisis, it is expedient that Blackwood's Magazine should be continued.

III. Resolved unanimously, That Christopher North, Esq. is the best of all pos

sible Editors.

IV. Resolved unanimously, That Mr Christopher North's Resignation of the Editorship of Blackwood's Magazine is premature, and must not be accepted.

V. Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to represent the feelings of the Meeting to Christopher North, Esq.

Two days afterwards, deputations from Committees of the landed and commercial interest, and also of the naval and military service, waited upon us, and earnestly, but respectfully, requested us to continue in office. Overpowered by these expressions of national gratitude and regret, we at last were prevailed upon to relinquish our intention, which, perhaps, we had never seriously entertained;-and so, not to endanger the safety of the country, we permitted an advertisement to be inserted in all the Edinburgh newspapers, and several provincial ones, that our resignation had been returned, and graciously by us committed to the flames;-so that the danger was past as soon as we had burned that letter.

Orders were immediately issued by the proper authorities for a general illumination of the city, on Monday, the 2d of December, and, though there was little time to prepare, several of the devices were at once ingenious and beautiful. No. 17, Prince's Street, was a perfect star. Under the silver cross of Scotland appeared a transparency of ourselves, seated in our armchair, with our foot on the beautiful soft padded stool, presented to us some years ago by Lady Morgan, while a bright circle enveloped us, composed

of the letters

CHRISTOPHORUS REDIVIVUS.

Early in the evening the whole city was attracted to the North Bridge, by the most splendid preparations at Ballantyne's Printing Office. Every VOL. X.

window, almost as soon as the sun himself disappeared, poured forth a stream of triumphal glory, that produced the finest effects of mass and profile on every object within the scope of their radiance. The upward shadow of the castle spread into the abyss of night like that of the earth, which causes the lunar eclipses; but, in a moment, every turret and battlement was lighted up with blue fires, and Roman candles, Majesty visits Edinburgh; and a magexactly in the style intended when his nificent display of fire-works, as bright and roaring as a volcano, bade all the hills, from the Pentlands to the Ochils and the Grampians, lift up their heads in the splendour, and rejoice.

The office of the Scotsman had a farthing rush-light in its one single window, to save its panes from popular indignation.

Manners and Miller's shop was highly creditable to their loyalty and patriotism, having a very tasteful display of Gas, with the appropriate motto, "For a' that and a' that, and twice as muckle's a' that."

The demonstration on the opposite side of the street was rather hazy. The Blue and Yellow lamps seemed to lack oil, and to want trimming; and Mercury appeared duller than usual.

The Writers' Library was late of lighting up; but towards midnight it shone out in a manner worthy of the fraternity of the Signet. The Advocates' did not light at all; and it was only by the utmost address on the part of Captain Brown, that a riot was prevented.

Large placards were exhibited by three hundred and sixty-five constables, to inform the mob, that the Faculty were deliberating on the best means of testifying their joy; and that no doubt their decision would be satisfactory to the people. This would, doubtless, have been the case, but certain Whig orators, by one of these tricks peculiar to the party, made such long speeches, that the whole night was consumed in debate.

At Ambrose's the contributors supped; and that respectable broiler of steaks exhibited his literature and loyalty, by a beautiful star surmounting C. N. surrounded by a wreath of Thistles, Roses, and Shamrocks, of coloured lamps, in the most tasteful manner. The Register Office exhibit

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