Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

130 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
I saw a word of it in print. It was one of the old
brilliant things " such as you never hear of nowadays "
of her youth ; and I am afraid the trials for libel, the
tremendous wounds thus lightly inflicted, the outcries
and complaints, were to the temper of her generation
only a charm the more. Edinburgh woke up next
morning with a roar of laughter, with a shout of
delight, with convulsions of rage and offence. There
seems to have been nothing particularly noted in the
Magazine—though the number was full of good and
bad things—but this. It ran through every group
of men and into every company like wildfire. The
dinner-parties on that evening would no doubt be
most successful parties—no want of subjects for con-
versation, whether it was in fury, whether in fun,
sometimes the two combined.
Blackwood's first number was immediately bought up [says
Mr K. P. Gillies in his ' EecoUections of a Literary Veteran],
and a new edition issued, from which, however, the firebrand
Chaldee was prudently excluded. But by this concession to
the prevalent taste our amiable public was put to the test.
Every purchaser expected to have his copy of the far-famed
satire, and every one growled at its absence. Copies of the
original number were handed about, with manuscript notes
identifying the principal characters, and high prices were
offered for a copy which the fortunate possessor had read and
could dispense with. It was truly a most laughable jeu d'esprit,
while the portraits were nevertheless so grotesque and shadowy,
and the whole so evidently intended for a harmless joke, that
the worthies indicated, had they been wise, might either have
joined in the laugh or treated the matter with silent contempt.
But, on the contrary, all without exception took offence, and
some commenced actions in the Court of Session, and got
judgments in their favour for injuries done to their reputation.
One of the first of these ill-advised persons was a